Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

OPNsense VS Raspberry Pi OS

Compare OPNsense VS Raspberry Pi OS 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.

Raspberry Pi OS logo Raspberry Pi OS

A step-by-step guide how to create a simple OS from scratch.
  • OPNsense Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-12-26
  • Raspberry Pi OS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-02

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.

Raspberry Pi OS features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Raspberry Pi OS is streamlined for Raspberry Pi hardware, ensuring efficient use of resources and better performance than more complex operating systems.
  • Educational Value
    It is designed to teach users, especially beginners, about how operating systems work by providing a minimal base for building and experimenting.
  • Community Support
    There is a strong community around Raspberry Pi and its projects, making it easier to find tutorials, forums, and resources.
  • Customization
    Users have the flexibility to customize the OS according to their needs, focusing only on the components relevant to their projects.

Possible disadvantages of Raspberry Pi OS

  • Limited Features
    Being minimal and educational, the OS might lack some advanced features found in more complete operating systems.
  • Not User-Friendly
    It might not be suitable for users looking for an out-of-the-box solution, as it requires technical knowledge and manual setup.
  • Hardware Limitations
    The performance is restricted by the Raspberry Pi hardware, which might not suit high-intensity applications.
  • Niche Use Case
    The OS is specifically tailored for Raspberry Pi and is not suitable for use on other types of hardware without significant modification.

OPNsense videos

Introduction to OPNSense firewall the PFsense fork. Overview

More videos:

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

Raspberry Pi OS videos

Tour of Raspberry pi OS

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to OPNsense and Raspberry Pi OS)
Operating Systems
91 91%
9% 9
Linux
84 84%
16% 16
Perimeter Security And Firewalls
Linux Distribution
0 0%
100% 100

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 Raspberry Pi OS

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...

Raspberry Pi OS Reviews

Best Linux distros of 2021 for beginners, mainstream and advanced users
There are several distros for the Raspberry Pi, however the best starting point has to be the Raspberry Pi OS, which is the official distro of the Raspberry Pi and for good reason.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, OPNsense seems to be a lot more popular than Raspberry Pi OS. While we know about 95 links to OPNsense, we've tracked only 2 mentions of Raspberry Pi OS. 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

Raspberry Pi OS mentions (2)

  • I want to learn about kernel development
    Last but not the least, learning by doing is fun so you can check out - raspberry-pi-os (writing an os from scratch) - https://github.com/s-matyukevich/raspberry-pi-os. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Show HN: CheesecakeOS for Raspberry Pi Volume 0: Booting, Processes, and VM
    CheesecakeOS for Raspberry Pi Volume 0: Booting, Processes, and Virtual Memory is the first in what I hope is a series of github markdown tutorials or volumes on bare-metal from-scratch operating system development. I have dreamed of contributing to the Linux Kernel, but have yet to find the courage to jump in and do so. I started by attempting to read Understanding the Linux Kernel by Daniel Bovet and... - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing OPNsense and Raspberry Pi OS, 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

Raspberry Pi - The Raspberry Pi is a tiny and affordable computer that you can use to learn programming through fun, practical projects. Join the global Raspberry Pi community.

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

Linux Kodachi - Kodachi is a Debian-based distro which can be run from a DVD or USB thumb drive.

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.

Nitrux OS - Nitrux is an operating system based on Linux.