Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Orange Pi VS OPNsense

Compare Orange Pi VS OPNsense and see what are their differences

Orange Pi logo Orange Pi

Itโ€™s an open-source single-board computer. It can run Android 4.

OPNsense logo OPNsense

OPNsenseยฎ you next open source firewall. Free Download. High-end Security Made Easyโ„ข. Offers Intrusion Prevention, Captive Portal, Traffic Shaping and more.
  • Orange Pi Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-09-15
  • OPNsense Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-12-26

Orange Pi features and specs

  • Affordability
    Orange Pi boards are generally less expensive than many other single-board computers, making them an economical choice for budget-conscious projects.
  • Variety of Models
    Orange Pi offers a wide range of models with various specifications and features, allowing users to choose a board that best suits their specific needs and performance requirements.
  • Open Source
    The Orange Pi platform embraces open-source principles, providing access to source code and schematics, which benefits developers looking to customize or understand their hardware deeply.
  • Decent Performance
    Many Orange Pi models come equipped with robust processors and adequate memory, offering reasonable computational power for different applications, such as media centers and home automation projects.
  • Connectivity Options
    Orange Pi boards often include a variety of I/O options, such as USB, HDMI, Ethernet, and GPIO pins, enabling versatile connectivity for peripherals and external components.

Possible disadvantages of Orange Pi

  • Limited Community Support
    Compared to Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi has a smaller user community, which can result in less communal support, fewer tutorials, and limited third-party resources.
  • Software Compatibility
    Orange Pi boards may face issues with software compatibility, including less polished operating systems and drivers, which can lead to challenges in running some applications smoothly.
  • Inconsistent Documentation
    The documentation for Orange Pi can sometimes be incomplete or not well-maintained, making it difficult for users to find answers or troubleshoot problems effectively.
  • Overheating Concerns
    Certain Orange Pi models are prone to overheating under heavy load, necessitating additional cooling solutions to maintain optimal performance and prevent damage.
  • Build Quality Variability
    There can be variations in the build quality of Orange Pi boards compared to more established brands, which might affect the longevity and reliability of the hardware.

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.

Orange Pi videos

Orange Pi 3

More videos:

  • Review - #080 Orange Pi Zero: Better than the Raspberry Pi Zero? // Review
  • Review - Raspberry Pi 2 VS Orange Pi 2 VS BPi-M2

OPNsense videos

Introduction to OPNSense firewall the PFsense fork. Overview

More videos:

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Orange Pi and OPNsense)
Operating Systems
14 14%
86% 86
Electronics
100 100%
0% 0
Perimeter Security And Firewalls
Linux
13 13%
87% 87

User comments

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Reviews

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

Orange Pi Reviews

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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 Linuxย 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 Alternativesย 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 itโ€™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...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, OPNsense seems to be a lot more popular than Orange Pi. While we know about 96 links to OPNsense, we've tracked only 7 mentions of Orange Pi. 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.

Orange Pi mentions (7)

  • Official Opi 5+ Ubuntu Jammy does bootloops on my desktop.
    Install a fresh copy of Ubuntu Jammy 1.0.8 from the official listing of downloads on the orangepi.org website. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • thoughts on Orangepi 3B as a music player (feeding a dac)
    - how's the quality of the debian images offered by orangepi.org? Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Orange Pi Zero 2 doesn't boot from SD card anymore.
    Is there a way to force the OPi Zero 2 to boot from a SD? Now it is only booting to the emmc:s crappy android that is worthless. I used to have Armbian for Octoprint on this board on a SD card but it kept shutting down without logging any reason and destroying the prints so I just put it in a drawer. Now after half a year I decided to see if I could run it with a Linux like Armbian, Ubuntu or Debian (tried them... Source: over 2 years ago
  • Request for "Orange Pi OS (Droid) Beta" (Chinese) Img File for NVMe on OP5
    I am asking that a kind soul who has a copy of the referenced file to please upload it (or multiple different revisions) and provide a link for me. The current version of the (English) beta img file for NVMe located on GDrive from orangepi.org is corrupted and I have tried 3 or 4 different methods to flash the img file onto an NVMe SSD, in either Ubuntu or Windows, but to no avail. I would greatly appreciate the... Source: over 2 years ago
  • OrangePi4 LTS in text only mode
    - Download boot image from orangepi.org. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

OPNsense mentions (96)

  • Set up country blocking with OPNsense GeoIP aliases
    OPNsense is an open source, feature rich firewall and routing platform used by home users, small businesses, and enterprises around the world. OPNsense features โ€œGeoIPโ€ support, which allows you to block or allow traffic from specific countries using a geolocation database. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • 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 / 10 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: almost 2 years 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: almost 2 years 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 / about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Banana Pi - Banana Pi is a single-board computer made in China. It can run Android, Ubuntu and Debian.