# pfSense 26 Hacker News commenters recommended pfSense and 17 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Mature, free firewall and router OS that people run for years with few issues. Common caveats: a steep learning curve and friction with Netgate, its commercial maker. ## Why people recommend it - Rich features and packages (6 comments): "there's pfSense or OPNsense with packages like pfBlockerNG-devel for domain blocking and traffic shaping" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46245692)) "Pfsense and maybe openwrt allow split horizon DNS that allows Wireguard tunnels to work seamlessly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50113300)) "Maybe PFsense is the closest competitor with strong feature set" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47902829)) - Stable and reliable over years (5 comments): "I've been with pfSense since 1.2 - before I was with monowall and IPFire. Although I'm always happy with pfSense" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50312418)) "pfSense/FreeBSD is fairly robust, and a mature project" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47636396)) "I used them for years and I was quite happy with them" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46075776)) - Long-time choice over alternatives (5 comments): "I've been with pfSense since 1.2 - before I was with monowall and IPFire. Although I'm always happy with pfSense" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50312418)) "I've been using pfSense ever since, commercialisation / Netgate aside, force of habit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46104093)) "I’ve been using OpnSense/pfsense [0] for years and would highly recommend it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47574625)) - Easy setup with few surprises (3 comments): "would be better for the average user than setting up all the software manually" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47574610)) "They're super easy to set up and don't have many surprises." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47575521)) "They all work fine, and they're not too hard to set up." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47506775)) ## What people warn about - Netgate commercial moves and data demands (3 comments): "I've been using pfSense ever since, commercialisation / Netgate aside, force of habit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46104093)) "I loved pfSense, but I hated netgate" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47654524)) "I can't upgrade to 2.8 without giving Netgate my personal data" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46154622)) - Leaks public IP as DNS (3 comments): "It just wasn't possible to stop it giving my devices its public IP as DNS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46470104)) "But pfsense's behaviour is a bit iffy too, unless when you say 'public IP'" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47687692)) "published its public IP as the DNS server for internal clients" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47686756)) - Steep learning curve (2 comments): "There is a week long learning curve and it's best to put it on dedicated hardware." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46322353)) "If you think most non tech people can just casually find an old pc, install and setup pfsense, then you are out of touch with reality." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49607901)) - Lacks IPv6 prefix changes (2 comments): "It was not supported when I migrated away from it less than five years ago." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46470467)) "It did not support changing IPv6 prefixes. It still barely does." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46472348)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [OpenWrt](https://hackerapproved.com/p/openwrt.md): 170 recommend - [OPNsense](https://hackerapproved.com/p/opnsense.md): 71 recommend - [DD-WRT](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dd-wrt.md): 17 recommend - [MikroTik RouterOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mikrotik-routeros.md): 17 recommend - [VyOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vyos.md): 13 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "pfSense", https://hackerapproved.com/p/pfsense/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).