Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

pfSense VS The Dude

Compare pfSense VS The Dude and see what are their differences

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

The Dude logo The Dude

MikroTik is a Latvian company which was founded in 1996 to develop routers and wireless ISP systems. MikroTik now provides hardware and software for Internet connectivity in most of the countries around the world.
  • pfSense Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-20
  • The Dude Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-25

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!

The Dude videos

Who's the Dude? Review - with Tom Vasel

More videos:

  • Demo - J. Rockett "The Dude" overdrive, demo by Pete Thorn
  • Demo - J. Rockett Audio Designs The Dude V2 - Sound Demo (no talking)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to pfSense and The Dude)
Cyber Security
100 100%
0% 0
Monitoring Tools
59 59%
41% 41
Perimeter Security And Firewalls
Network & Admin
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 pfSense and The Dude

pfSense Reviews

The top 10 alternatives to OpenVPN
Netgate offers secure networking solutions, including pfSense Plus and TNSR software, which provide firewall, router, and VPN functionalities. These solutions cater to personal users, professional users, and organizations seeking secure and reliable internet connectivity.
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.

The Dude Reviews

We have no reviews of The Dude yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, pfSense should be more popular than The Dude. It has been mentiond 10 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.

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: almost 2 years ago
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The Dude mentions (6)

  • Network Scanning Software Suggestions
    An incredibly powerful free tool that has been around a long time is Mikrotik's 'The Dude'. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Question about central or cloud management
    If you have a powerful enough router in the network, one of your options is to use The DUDE (Documentation). Note that DUDE requires IP access to WinBox from the management network. For some more features, you should also enable SNMP on your routers. DUDE server can also host a syslog server, so you can have centralized log ingestion. The downside of this solution is that it's unfortunately not a fully-featured... Source: over 1 year ago
  • Share your greatest free tools
    The Dude” is what the tool is called (yeah I don’t know why they called it that either). It’s a client-server application and the server nowadays only runs on a Mikrotik router as a separate package. You could use any Mikrotik router but since it’s heavy on logging I use a Mikrotik CHR as a VM just to host the dude. The free CHR license gives you 1Mbps throughput which for SNMP monitoring is plenty. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Hi, i have a question
    MikroTik has a software called The Dude, that runs on some sort of computer acting as a server (an always on computer to receive, monitor, and store the data collected from the statistics). This would be the best way to achieve what you want to do (collecting user usage statistics and storing it in one place). Source: about 2 years ago
  • MikroTik - The Dude - No more active development, resume unknown
    Https://mikrotik.com/thedude Supports SNMP, ICMP, DNS and TCP monitoring for devices that support it. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

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

Pandora FMS - Pandora FMS: Opensource monitoring software

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

OpenNMS - Project home page of OpenNMS - a java based network managememnt platform developed under the Open Source model

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

cStatus - Monitor and scan a network.