About Firewall Compare

Firewall Compare is the comparison hub for homelab and SMB firewall platforms. We test OPNsense, pfSense, UniFi, MikroTik RouterOS, and the broader prosumer firewall market side by side — features, hardware, performance, and security effectiveness — so you can pick the right platform for your network instead of guessing.

We are the cross-platform hub of a network of dedicated platform sites:

opnsenselab.com ↗ — OPNsense tutorials, configs, and hardware guides
pfsenselab.com — pfSense tutorials and migration playbooks (launching soon)
unifiguide.com — UniFi Dream Machine, USG, and controller deep dives (launching soon)
dockerhomelab.com ↗ — Self-hosted services that sit behind your firewall
selfhostrealm.com ↗ — Wider self-hosting and homelab coverage

Our Mission

Cut through vendor marketing and forum folklore. Most “which firewall should I run?” advice online is outdated, biased, or based on a single deployment. We test in real lab environments, source claims to documentation and published research, and revisit verdicts when versions or threat landscapes change.

What We Cover

Platform head-to-heads: OPNsense vs pfSense, UniFi Dream Machine vs Netgate, MikroTik vs everyone — feature, performance, and ergonomics matrices.
Hardware picks: Protectli, Netgate appliances, mini-PCs, NICs, and SFP+ modules — sourced and bench-tested.
Feature deep dives: IDS/IPS (Suricata, Snort, Zenarmor), VPN (WireGuard, OpenVPN, IPsec), VLAN/segmentation, HA/failover, DPI.
Migration playbooks: Moving between platforms without breaking your network — config exports, gotchas, downtime estimates.
Buyer’s guides: Best firewall for a 1 Gbps fiber connection, best appliance for under $300, best platform for a non-technical household admin.

Our Approach

Each comparison is:

Tested: We don’t rely on vendor datasheets. We build the same network on each platform in lab.
Sourced: Claims are backed by published security research, CVE databases, vendor docs, and reproducible benchmarks.
Transparent: We disclose limitations, trade-offs, and when data may be incomplete or version-dependent.
Updated: Firewalls evolve fast. We revisit comparisons as major versions release.

Affiliate Disclosure

Some links on this site are affiliate links. When you purchase through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This helps us maintain the site and fund continued testing infrastructure. Our recommendations are based on technical evaluation, not affiliate relationships.

Contact

For questions, corrections, or featured product reviews, reach out to editor@firewallcompare.com.