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IPFire vs pfSense: catalog facts
IPFire	pfSense
Free Free and open source.	Free pfSense Community Edition is free. Netgate sells appliances and support subscriptions.
Self-hosted	Self-hosted
WireGuard, OpenVPN and IPsec supported out of the box Network segmentation into DMZ, guest and trusted zones	Firewall, router, VPN server and traffic shaping in one web interface Package system adds intrusion detection and DNS blocking
Needs a dedicated machine or virtual machine Configuring zones and VPNs assumes networking knowledge	Community Edition trails the Netgate appliance builds in release timing FreeBSD hardware support is narrower than Linux for very new network cards
Operating system	Operating system, Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License not stated	License: Apache-2.0
No account needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.