Software Alternatives & Reviews

OPNsense VS MikroTik RouterOS

Compare OPNsense VS MikroTik RouterOS and see what are their differences

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.

MikroTik RouterOS logo MikroTik RouterOS

The main product of MikroTik is a Linux-based operating system known as MikroTik RouterOS.
  • OPNsense Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-12-26
  • MikroTik RouterOS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-25

OPNsense videos

Introduction to OPNSense firewall the PFsense fork. Overview

More videos:

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

MikroTik RouterOS videos

MikroTik RouterOS security review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to OPNsense and MikroTik RouterOS)
Operating Systems
52 52%
48% 48
Perimeter Security And Firewalls
Linux
49 49%
51% 51
Cyber Security
53 53%
47% 47

User comments

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Reviews

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

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...

MikroTik RouterOS Reviews

  1. many bugs that block connections

    since 2 years they didn't fix bugs that block the router from the internet


The Best Open Source Router OS Software for Large or Small Networks
MikroTik RouterOS is an open-source router OS software that is designed to provide a powerful, customizable, and secure networking experience. It is based on the Linux kernel and offers a range of features and capabilities that make it a popular choice among network enthusiasts, developers, and IT professionals. The open-source nature of MikroTik RouterOS means that users...
11 Best pfsense Alternatives To Secure Your Network
Before acquiring licensed software, MikroTik enables you to test the MikroTik RouterOS technology. This is referred to as Trial Mode by MikroTik, and it allows you to try the whole MikroTik RouterOS features and functionality set for up to 24 hours.
10 Best pfSense Alternatives and Similar Firewalls
RouterOS has a stateful firewall, which conducts stateful inspection and maintains track of the state of network connections traversing it. It also includes Source and Destination Network Address Translation, NAT assistance for common applications, and UPnP compatibility.
5 Router OS Turns Old PC Into High Performance Router And Enterprise Network Switch
RouterOS is the operating system of RouterBOARD. It can also be installed on a PC and will turn it into a router with all the necessary features – routing, firewall, bandwidth management, wireless access point, backhaul link, hotspot gateway, VPN server and more.
A Feast of Linux-Based Routers
Though the code is not open and it is more of a commercial offering, RouterOS from MikroTik is Linux-based. It installs onto and turns regular PCs into a enterprise-level router. It gives you all the necessary features, including routing, firewall, bandwidth management, wireless access point, backhaul link, hotspot gateway, VPN server, and more.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, OPNsense should be more popular than MikroTik RouterOS. It has been mentiond 94 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 (94)

  • 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: 5 months 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: 5 months 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 / 9 months 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: 10 months ago
  • Having to pay postage to ship back a DoA product sucks from a customer perspective
    That’s a stupid policy, and it looks like one of my UDMs is defective. I’m an idiot for not just buying good quality open boxes and putting https://opnsense.org/ on them. 🤦🏻‍♂️. Source: 11 months ago
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MikroTik RouterOS mentions (23)

  • Ubiquiti showing other users' consoles
    Anyone using Mikrotik these days? Been Mikro-curious for awhile and always see them thrown around as a Unifi alternative. Yet to hear of any firsthand implementations though. [0] https://mikrotik.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Free - Self-hosted - WebRTC - alternative to Zoom, Teams, Google Meet - Real time video calls, chat, screen sharing, file sharing, collaborative whiteboard, dashboard, rooms scheduler and more!
    I keep reading it as the networking hardware company Mikrotik. Source: about 1 year ago
  • hap ax2 or ax3
    The "Buy" link at the top of mikrotik.com - this is how most hardware vendors with a distribution network have their site set up. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Germany ups reliance on Huawei for 5G despite security fears
    Or Mikrotik from Latvia, for switching/routing: Https://mikrotik.com/. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Management VLAN vs Native.
    There is way to get default to do whatewer you want (including preseted VLAN on some port): Get some config, which you'd like to use as default Login to mikrotik.com Use branding section to get packet, which can be installed on any RoS to change default config and some other things. Source: over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing OPNsense and MikroTik RouterOS, 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

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

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.

IPFire - IPFire is a server distribution with intended to use as a firewall.

FRRouting - FRRouting (FRR) is an IP routing protocol suite for Linux and Unix platforms which

Gargoyle - Gargoyle Router Firmware home page