Software Alternatives & Reviews

Nmap VS pfSense

Compare Nmap VS pfSense and see what are their differences

Nmap logo Nmap

Nmap Free Security Scanner, Port Scanner, & Network Exploration Tool. Download open source software for Linux, Windows, UNIX, FreeBSD, etc.

pfSense logo pfSense

pfSense is a free and open source firewall and router that also features unified threat management, load balancing, multi WAN, and more
  • Nmap Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-06-15
  • pfSense Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-20

Nmap videos

Nmap Tutorial For Beginners - 1 - What is Nmap?

More videos:

  • Review - Nmap - Review of Scan Types
  • Review - LABS 50 Bypassing Windows Firewall Using Nmap Evasion Techniques REVIEW

pfSense videos

pfsense Firewall Setup and Features in Depth Version 2.4

More videos:

  • Review - Pfsense: 5 Reasons to Use It
  • Review - Netgate SG-3100 Teardown / Speedtest / Review of this powerful pfsense packet pusher!

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Nmap and pfSense)
Monitoring Tools
67 67%
33% 33
Cyber Security
0 0%
100% 100
Security
100 100%
0% 0
Network Scanning
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Nmap and pfSense

Nmap Reviews

The Top 5 Open Source Vulnerability Scanners
Nmap is a tool that scans ports, does service fingerprinting, and identifies versions of operating systems. Nmap also comes with a scripting engine that detects security vulnerabilities. Once these are detected, Vulcan’s platform can help you to prioritize and fix vulnerabilities.
Source: vulcan.io
9 Best Angry IP Scanner Alternatives Reviewed 2021 (Free & Paid)
If you’re a network administrator looking for more depth and raw power from a port scanner, look no further than Nmap. What Nmap lacks in frills and functional GUI it makes up for with sheer command-line based power. If you’re not a fan of strictly just a command-line interface, you can always use Zenmap, which is the exact same software just with a graphical interface. Both...
15 Best Nmap Alternatives Network Security Scanner
Nmap is an open-source tool that lots of IT professionals find useful in their careers. It is a tool that can locate available hosts and other services that they offer within a network. The Nmap program makes use of raw IP packets to find the hosts and services that are available.
10 Best WireShark Alternatives for Android Devices in 2021
Nmap is a popular open-source network scanning app for Android and desktop. While it works on both rooted and non-rooted Android, you get more functionality during a rooted Android smartphone. Like some apps, Nmap is not available on Google play store or their website.
Source: techreen.com
Alternatives to Nmap: from simple to advanced network scanning
This month marks the 20th anniversary of Nmap, the open-source network mapping tool that became the standard used by many IT professionals, but that can be a bit much if you only need to do general network maintenance and are intimidated by its command-line interface.

pfSense Reviews

Best pfSense Software Alternatives and Competitors
pfSense Software firewall is a robust, open-source security solution that is compatible with any hardware and can be tailored to meet your specific needs. It is a widely used technology, and many individuals seek dependable, popular software solutions with multi-device support, multiple concurrent connections, and protocol selections. Despite its usefulness, pfSense has...
The Best Open Source Router OS Software for Large or Small Networks
pfSense is a free and open-source router and firewall operating system based on the FreeBSD operating system. It is designed to be used on standard x86 hardware and can be deployed as a virtual machine or on dedicated hardware. pfSense offers advanced features and capabilities that are typically found in commercial routers and firewalls, making it an ideal solution for small...
Best free Linux router and firewall distributions of 2023
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...
Source: teklager.se
11 Best pfsense Alternatives To Secure Your Network
Unlike those of other available pfSense competitors, its capabilities allow it to be compared to commercial firewalls. You can also customize the pfSense firewall to match your needs based on the level of security and protection you want, as well as your specialist knowledge.
Top 7 pfSense Alternatives
Wait, I said alternatives to pfSense so what is this doing on the list? pfSense Plus recently forked away from pfSense community edition (CE). Over time pfSense Plus and pfSense CE will continue to diverge. pfSense Plus is expected to have more features.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Nmap seems to be a lot more popular than pfSense. While we know about 187 links to Nmap, we've tracked only 10 mentions of pfSense. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Nmap mentions (187)

  • Show HN: DN$ – an innovative, ad-supported DNS resolver
    Following fingerprint at https://nmap.org/cgi-bin/submit.cgi?new-service :. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • Writing a Network Scanner using Python
    A network scanner is a software tool that scans the network for connected devices. It is also used for diagnostic and investigative purposes to find and categorize what devices are running on a network. This tool takes an IP address or a range of IP addresses as input and then scans each IP Addresses sequentially and determines whether a device is present on that particular IP address or not. It scans the network... - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • NAS up but DSM seems to be unavailable
    ➜ ~ nmap 192.168.1.201 Starting Nmap 7.94 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2023-12-07 22:02 CET Nmap scan report for 192.168.1.201 Host is up (0.0061s latency). Not shown: 994 closed tcp ports (conn-refused) PORT STATE SERVICE 7000/tcp open afs3-fileserver 8008/tcp open http 8009/tcp open ajp13 8443/tcp open https-alt 9000/tcp open cslistener 9080/tcp open glrpc Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in... Source: 5 months ago
  • Scanning ports and finding network vulnerabilities using nmap
    ┌──(figaro㉿kali)-[~/Desktop] └─$ sudo nmap -O 142.250.203.131 1 ⨯ Starting Nmap 7.91 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2021-11-10 12:36 EST Nmap scan report for waw07s06-in-f3.1e100.net (142.250.203.131) Host is up (0.0034s latency). Not shown: 998 filtered ports PORT STATE SERVICE 80/tcp open http 443/tcp open https Warning: OSScan results may be... - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Day 17 - Build from the source
    Now let’s go to the "Project Page" for the developers http://nmap.org/ and grab the very latest cutting-edge version. Look for the download page, then the section “Source Code Distribution” and the link for the "Latest development nmap release tarball" and note the URL for it - something like:. Source: 7 months ago
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pfSense mentions (10)

  • Need some help on setting up home network
    Https://pfsense.org (netgate hardware is used in businesses). Source: about 1 year ago
  • Is pfsense.org down, or is it just me?
    I am having trouble seeing available packages, updating pkg, or getting a response from pfsense.org. Is anyone else seeing this or am I going to spend the rest of my day chasing bugs? Source: over 1 year ago
  • Help with VLAN
    From the PIA Client to pfsense.org PING pfsense.org (208.123.73.69) from 10.6.112.128: 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=0 ttl=49 time=49.455 ms 64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=1 ttl=49 time=51.927 ms 64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=2 ttl=49 time=49.333 ms 64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=3 ttl=49 time=49.133 ms 64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=4 ttl=49 time=49.027 ms ... Source: over 1 year ago
  • Can Surveillance Station record offsite cameras ?
    The above setup is critical to a reliable system. I'd use enterprise quality routers for a store and home connection. I personally use https://pfsense.org but there are many to choose from and several open source. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Exposing Synology to web: best/practical practices?
    What I would do is put that thing in DMZ and install a good router behind it like https://www.pfsense.org. No affiliation, just been my router for many years. There's also it's sibling https://opnsense.org. There are many, just get a enterprise quality router. Source: over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Nmap and pfSense, you can also consider the following products

Angry IP Scanner - Open-source and cross-platform network scanner designed to be fast and simple to use

MikroTik RouterOS - The main product of MikroTik is a Linux-based operating system known as MikroTik RouterOS.

Zenmap - Zenmap is the official cross-platform GUI for the Nmap Security Scanner.

OPNsense - OPNsense® you next open source firewall. Free Download. High-end Security Made Easy™. Offers Intrusion Prevention, Captive Portal, Traffic Shaping and more.

Fing - Discover which devices are connected to any Wi-Fi network, map devices, detect intruders, assess...

OpenWrt - OpenWrt is an open-source firmware based on Linux for wireless routers