Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

OPNsense VS Arduino

Compare OPNsense VS Arduino and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

OPNsense logo OPNsense

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

Arduino logo Arduino

Build your own electronics
  • OPNsense Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-12-26
  • Arduino Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-08-01

OPNsense features and specs

  • Open Source
    OPNsense is open-source, which means it is free to use, modify, and distribute. This allows for community contributions and transparency in code.
  • Regular Updates
    The project provides regular updates and patches, ensuring the software is up-to-date with the latest features and security fixes.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The user interface is clean and intuitive, making it easier for both beginners and advanced users to configure and manage the firewall and other network settings.
  • Comprehensive Feature Set
    Includes a wide range of features such as VPN capabilities, IDS/IPS, Web Proxy, and more, making it a versatile solution for various networking needs.
  • Strong Community Support
    The active community and forums provide robust support, tutorials, and shared knowledge, which can be very helpful in troubleshooting and optimizing the system.

Possible disadvantages of OPNsense

  • Hardware Requirements
    To run efficiently, OPNsense can require relatively high hardware specifications, which might be an issue for some users with older or less powerful equipment.
  • Steeper Learning Curve
    While the interface is user-friendly, the complexity of the features and settings can be overwhelming for users who are not already familiar with network security or firewall concepts.
  • Limited Commercial Support
    Being an open-source project, it lacks the extensive professional support structures that come with paid enterprise solutions, although commercial support is available through third parties.
  • Documentation Gaps
    Although there is a good amount of documentation available, some users find it lacking in detail, especially for more advanced configurations and troubleshooting scenarios.
  • Compatibility Issues
    There might be compatibility issues with certain hardware or software components, requiring users to invest additional time in ensuring everything works correctly.

Arduino features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Arduino provides a user-friendly platform, especially for beginners, with an intuitive IDE and a wide range of libraries that simplify coding and hardware control.
  • Large Community
    A vast, active community of users and developers who share knowledge, projects, and provide support through forums, tutorials, and documentation.
  • Open Source
    Both the hardware and software are open source, allowing users to modify, enhance, and create custom projects with the freedom provided by open standards.
  • Diverse Range of Boards
    Arduino offers a wide variety of boards and shields with different capabilities, allowing users to choose the right platform for their specific needs.
  • Cost-Effective
    Arduino boards are generally affordable, making it accessible for hobbyists, students, and educators to experiment and prototype without significant investment.

Possible disadvantages of Arduino

  • Limited Processing Power
    Compared to other microcontrollers and development platforms, Arduino boards typically have lower processing power, which might not be suitable for projects requiring heavy computation.
  • Limited Memory
    Most Arduino boards have limited RAM and storage, which can restrict the complexity of the programs and projects they can handle.
  • Less Suitable for Advanced Projects
    For complex projects requiring more power or advanced features, professional developers might find Arduino's capabilities to be limiting.
  • Dependency on an External Computer
    Arduino's development process often requires a computer for programming and debugging, which might not be ideal in some standalone or embedded applications.
  • Limited Support for Multitasking
    Arduino’s architecture isn't inherently designed for multitasking, which can pose challenges when trying to run multiple processes simultaneously.

OPNsense videos

Introduction to OPNSense firewall the PFsense fork. Overview

More videos:

  • Review - pfSense vs OPNsense
  • Review - ✅ OPNsense Install - not what i was expecting!

Arduino videos

Arduino Starter Kit REVIEW

More videos:

  • Review - 🔴 Arduino Unboxing: Arduino vs Elegoo Uno R3 Starter Kit: best kits for your projects
  • Review - The 5 Best Arduino Starter Kits for 2021

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to OPNsense and Arduino)
Operating Systems
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Perimeter Security And Firewalls
IoT Platform
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using OPNsense and Arduino. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

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

OPNsense Reviews

Best pfSense Software Alternatives and Competitors
OPNsense is the best open-source and free firewall alternative to pfSense Software. OPNsense is a user-friendly, open-source, FreeBSD firewall and router. Most of the same capabilities are available in this fork of pfSense Software. It distinguishes itself from other firewalls by combining highly sophisticated features with an open-source system. First, the OPNsense firewall...
The Best Open Source Router OS Software for Large or Small Networks
OPNsense is an open-source router OS software that is based on FreeBSD. It is designed to be used as a firewall, router, and VPN gateway, and it includes a range of advanced networking features. OPNsense is a fork of the pfSense project, and it is actively maintained by the OPNsense community.
Best free Linux router and firewall distributions of 2023
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...
Source: teklager.se
11 Best pfsense Alternatives To Secure Your Network
By screening out unnecessary network traffic and malicious apps, firewall software protects networks and computers from attacks. For safeguarding your secure network from malware attacks and unauthorized access, OPNsenseis arguably top on our list of pfSense alternatives.
Top 7 pfSense Alternatives
OPNSense is a rising star in the router software arena. It is powered by HardenedBSD, which is a security-oriented fork of FreeBSD. Its current development pace is rapid, and it’s packed with features. It also has one of the best user interfaces of all of these options. Like a lot of these options, its primary weakness is its Wi-Fi support. A lot of OPNSense users started...

Arduino Reviews

We have no reviews of Arduino yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, OPNsense should be more popular than Arduino. It has been mentiond 95 times since March 2021. 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.

OPNsense mentions (95)

  • US Weighs Banning TP-Link Routers
    >I'm currently upgrading my home network, trying various options, and one of the headaches is provenance of the equipment. If you're concerned about provenance (or even if you're not), I suggest using a general purpose device and rolling your own ala pfSense[0]/OPNSense[1], etc, or just use one of the BSDs or Linux and use native tools or one of the many router/firewall distros[2] [0] https://www.pfsense.org/ [1]... - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • How to bypass public IP and NAT
    Firmware's like Asuswrt-Merlin or OpenWRT can support dynamic-dns, or you can do like I do and run something like OPNsense in an x86 VM with a NIC passed through, or buy an inexpensive firewall appliance (up to 500mbps/1gbps/10gbps). Source: over 1 year ago
  • Stop ISP from getting into my Router
    The easiest solution is to buy your own router, set it up, disable the router functionality on the Fritzbox 7590 and plug your router into it. It'll be cheaper and easier than a Cisco Firewall, but if you want to go the dedicated firewall route then I would recommenced OPNsense. Source: over 1 year ago
  • OpenBSD Innovations
    BSDs may not have a significant presence on desktops, but they're well known in the networking world for their reliability. They also were the foundation used to build OSes for specific applications. OpnSense and XigmaNAS, for example, are two excellent FreeBSD based applications aimed at firewalling/security and NAS/services. https://opnsense.org/ https://xigmanas.com/xnaswp/. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Switches That You Actually Own
    For switches? OpenWrt supports a few models toward the lower end, and SONiC support a bunch at the higher-end datacenter ToR market, but none of these options are SME production-ready like Linux servers or OPNsense firewalls. Source: almost 2 years ago
View more

Arduino mentions (63)

  • Tips
    I was gonna say the arduino.cc site but that works too. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Help? DFR Nano Unresponsive
    When you write your code and compile it, what environment are you doing it in? Are you using an online cloud service like arduino.cc's IoT cloud? Or have you downloaded and installed the Arduino IDE application from arduino.cc's software download page? Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Need help with a sound module
    There are tons of libraries for the Arduino platform that people have written and there are many available for use with this module, so you don't have to do any super heavy lifting programming-wise. In the Arduino IDE you can download from arduino.cc I installed a couple of libraries just now as a test. The reason I installed them is because almost every library comes with several short example programs showing... Source: almost 2 years ago
  • What to do after Paul McWhorter's New Arduino Tutorials?
    Did all of it make sense? Could you do the projects he shows by yourself without starting and stopping the video? That might show areas that you would want to brush up on. Another great idea is to go through all of the commands on the arduino.cc language reference page. Make sure you instinctively understand what each function listed does and experiment with any that you aren't familiar with. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • LCD on pc
    There are also IoT cloud style dashboards at places like arduino.cc that let you add various widgets for dials and controls to represent the data you have locally with your Arduino. Source: almost 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing OPNsense and Arduino, you can also consider the following products

pfSense - pfSense is a free and open source firewall and router that also features unified threat management, load balancing, multi WAN, and more

Iotellect - Iotellect helps businesses on all continents to develop, deliver and operate IoT/IIoT solutions, services and products.

VyOS - VyOS in an open source Linux-based operating system sold and distributed by Sentrium corporations. It is geared toward IT specialists and network administrators for the purpose of securing network and company data... read more.

Ubidots - A cloud service to capture and make sense of sensor data

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

Amazon AWS - Amazon Web Services offers reliable, scalable, and inexpensive cloud computing services. Free to join, pay only for what you use.