Best free Linux router and firewall distributions of 2023

1

IPCop

IPFire is a Linux-based distribution intended for Firewalls and Routers. IPfire is a continuation of IPCop (mentioned above) but has been rewritten from scratch. The system is regularly updated and maintained, but it doesn't have many features found in pfSense or OPNSense. It passes all our requirements but barely makes this list of recommendations because it has no advantages over the other three systems listed. We recommend trying it only if the other three systems don't satisfy your needs.

#Operating Systems #Perimeter Security And Firewalls #Linux

2

SmoothWall

Smoothwall got a good reputation in the early days when it was competing with IPCop. It went silent in 2014. Smoothwall OS has been abandoned and is no longer relevant or secure. You should avoid it. The website is still up and running but hasn't been updated in many years.

#Cyber Security #Firewall #Perimeter Security And Firewalls

3

DD-WRT

This is a controversial recommendation because many users still feel that DD-WRT is good. It certainly was back in the day. Today DD-WRT is still functional and works, but it's not great or innovative. It's mostly unchanged since 2014 and fell far behind other open-source competitors. Today there are many good alternatives, such as OpenWRT.

#Operating Systems #Linux #Routers

4

M0n0wall

M0n0wall is the godfather of the most successful operating systems we have today. It's been one of the most innovative projects of its day, but it's now retired. The system hasn't received any updates since early 2014 and is officially abandoned. Manuel Kasper, the author of M0n0wall, recommends OPNSense as its successor.

#Firewall #Monitoring Tools #Cyber Security 1 social mentions

5

Tomato

Tomato is cool, and we love it, but it's minimal firmware designed for flashing off-the-shelf routers such as D-Link and Asus. The system is still relevant if you want to resurrect your old hardware and make it functional again, but if you are building a new router, you probably don't want to use tomato on it. We are building powerful routers from scratch, so we generally don't use this system (we still love it).

#Operating Systems #Routers #Linux

6

ZeroShell

Although Zeroshell never reached the point of being good enough to be recommended, we had high hopes for it in 2019 when we started maintaining this list of recommendations because it was developed from scratch rather than based on another system and had some innovative features. Unfortunately, the system got officially abandoned in September 2021. No longer maintained and secure.

#Cyber Security #Operating Systems #Firewall

7

VyOS

VyOS must be managed from the command line, and it requires a high level of expertise to maintain and use. If you are a Linux expert, have some time on your hands, and love the command line interface, you can give it a shot - some of our customers use it successfully. However, it's not a good choice if you are a home user who just wants to get things done. There are two release variants of the system. The "stable" release and the "rolling" release. Most users likely want to use the stable release; however, this release is only free if you compile it from the source code yourself. This hurdle discourages many users. The rolling release is free but not guaranteed to be stable - and we can attest to this as several times we hit a bug when installing it. The rolling release also isn't covered by the official documentation.

#Operating Systems #Linux #Network & Admin 30 social mentions

8

OpenBSD

These systems are not intended for routers. They are general-purpose operating systems and should not really be used as routers. Similar to OpenBSD and VyOS, you will have to configure everything by hand without a Web Interface. It's easy to make a mistake and leave a hole that exposes internal systems to attackers.

#Security & Privacy #Linux #Monitoring Tools 13 social mentions

9

FreeBSD

OpenBSD and FreeBSD are actively developed and are very capable, but these systems require a high level of understanding of operating system internals and low-level networking to be used as routers.

#Linux #Operating Systems #Linux Distribution 21 social mentions

10

Debian

#Linux #Operating Systems #Linux Distribution 66 social mentions

11

Ubuntu

#Linux #Operating Systems #Linux Distribution 229 social mentions

12

Untangle

Untangle NG Firewall is truly great software with many happy users. However, we don't recommend it because the free version is very limited, and the operating system constantly incentivizes the users to upgrade to a paid subscription to unlock the cool functionality. The cheapest license is $50 USD/year.

#Operating Systems #Perimeter Security And Firewalls #Linux 4 social mentions

13

Sophos

Sophos "XG Firewall" distribution has a very friendly user interface and is free for home use. However, we generally don't recommend it because it's not a system that Sophos itself promotes. Sophos' website seems to make it purposefully hard to find, and the community is very small. Sophos, in general, is an enterprise software company with one community product. It's not an Open Source system - it's a free product from an enterprise.

#Security & Privacy #Testing #Monitoring Tools 4 social mentions

14

Endian

Endian is actually pretty cool and has a free version. We don't recommend it because features like WiFi are available only in paid subscriptions. Similar to Untangle, it's good software, but you have to pay for it - this disqualifies it from our consideration.

#Online Services #Security & Privacy #Tool

15

OPNsense

OPNsense makes the top of the list in 2023 because, for the last four years of maintaining this list, it has proved to be one of the most quickly developing operating systems on the market. It's an easy to use, mature system with a slick UI. OPNSense includes most, if not all, features found in expensive enterprise commercial firewalls. It has the quality of a commercial product while being completely free and open source. The community forum is particularly friendly and helpful.

#Operating Systems #Linux #Perimeter Security And Firewalls 94 social mentions

16

OpenWrt

Unlike IPFire, OpenWRT has a large number of optional packages in its repository. As a result, you can configure this OS in countless different ways. Most importantly, OpenWRT has drivers for all hardware supported by Linux. This means that almost all Wireless hardware is supported, making it the most versatile OS for creating Access Points.

#Operating Systems #Routers #Firmware 103 social mentions

17

pfSense

pfSense is one of the most popular operating systems today. It's a BSD-based system, similar to OPNSense, but with a longer history. pfSense started in 2004, and since then, it has grown to be the most well-known open-source platform in the industry. Although it gradually loses users to OPNsense, it's still an excellent system for new users because it has the most extensive documentation and the biggest community. In addition, there are thousands of tutorials, forums, blogs, and youtube videos all over the internet that will be helpful if you get stuck on something.

#Perimeter Security And Firewalls #Cyber Security #Network Security 10 social mentions

18

IPFire

IPFire is a Linux-based distribution intended for Firewalls and Routers. IPfire is a continuation of IPCop (mentioned above) but has been rewritten from scratch. The system is regularly updated and maintained, but it doesn't have many features found in pfSense or OPNSense. It passes all our requirements but barely makes this list of recommendations because it has no advantages over the other three systems listed. We recommend trying it only if the other three systems don't satisfy your needs.

#Operating Systems #Linux #Perimeter Security And Firewalls 2 social mentions