OPNsense vs pfSense

[Panja]

I don't want to start a (flame) war just looking for opinions about the two products.

What are the main differences between the two?
What are the advantages/disavantages of OPNsense agains pfSense and visa versa?
Why would I choose one or the other?

Again I'm not trying to be a smartass and open a war just trying to get some answers so I know what suits my needs best: OPNsense or pfSense.

[phoenix]

Again I'm not trying to be a smartass and open a war just trying to get some answers so I know what suits my needs best: OPNsense or pfSense.

The problem with trying to giving you an answer is that you've not actually stated what your requirements are. Most people here, I guess, would recommend OPNsense (I certainly would) and most people on the other firewall site (pick any firewall you like) would recommend their product and at the end of the day it's really your decision.

How about expanding on what hardware you have for your firewall and what are your exact needs/requirements?

[weust]

This should cover it: https://opnsense.org/about/about-opnsense/#so-why-did-we-fork-pfsense

[Panja]

Thanks for the replies!

I have an APU1D4 with a Compex WLE200NX wifi card.
I do have another wireless router which will be "installed" as external wifi AP.

I would like a firewall, probably some filtering (porn etc) and maybe IDS.
QoS for VOIP. OpenVPN.
It will run in a home environment.

Are the hardware requirements the same or does one need more resources?

I'll give the link a go as well.

[franco]

The point is: we are driven by evolution and incremental changes week after week. If FreeBSD does it we are likely to adopt it. If we do it, pfSense is likely to adopt it: FreeBSD package manager support, a MVC framework, the GUI bootstrap conversion, coding standards and cleanups, giving patches back to FreeBSD. We offer weekly security updates and a very painless upgrade path that doesn't even need reboots unless the FreeBSD base system changed. We do have amazing translations for Japanese, Chinese, German and French that work.

The myth of "just a fancy GUI on top of pfSense" is long over.

[Panja]

That sounds nice!

Does OPNsense offer IDS and filtering?

Are the hardware requirements the same or does one need more resources?

[franco]

You can find the requirements here: https://opnsense.org/users/get-started/#hardware-requirements

Most hardware from the last 10 years is pretty safe, although I would recommend at least 1GB of RAM (the installer requires it unless you use the embedded Nano image). VM deployments of all types are great, too.

We do have IDS (suricata) and a proxy server (squid) built into the default installation, yes.

[Panja]

Sound nice mate!
I'll give it a go than.

I'm running an APU1D4 from PC Engines.
1 GHz dual Bobcat core with 64 bit support with 4GB ram and a mSata 16GB drive.
Should be pretty much ok for home use I guess.

[franco]

Yeah, more than enough horse power. Enjoy the ride.