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Networking · head to head

pfSense vs Syft

pfSense logo

pfSense

Networking

Open source firewall software with a free Community Edition and a separate commercial Plus edition sold by Netgate

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Syft logo

Syft

Cybersecurity

Generates a software bill of materials from images, filesystems and archives

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: pfSense pfSense CE and pfSense Plus are not simply the same software with a support contract layered on top; Plus is a separately developed edition with its own feature set, and moving between them is a migration, not a toggle; Syft lockfile parsing can drop packages silently. An open issue filed in August 2026 reports the yarn v1 cataloguer returning 118 of 745 packages with no error raised, which means a complete bill of materials and an 84 percent incomplete one look identical to the caller.
  • They diverge on capability: pfSense covers Stateful firewall and NAT, Syft covers Multi-format output.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which pfSense and Syft actually diverge.

Attributes where pfSense and Syft differ
AttributepfSenseSyft
Pricing modelOpen source Community Edition, free; commercial Plus edition sold separately by NetgateOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsLinuxmacOS, Linux, Windows, Docker
CategoryNetworkingCybersecurity

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in pfSense

  • Stateful firewall and NAT
  • VPN support
  • Traffic shaping and QoS
  • Package ecosystem
  • CE and Plus editions

Only in Syft

  • Multi-format output
  • Broad ecosystem coverage
  • Binary classifiers
  • In-toto attestations
  • Library and CLI
  • Pairs with Grype

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

pfSense

  • A home user or small business wanting a free, fully-featured firewall on commodity hardware with no licence costnot Syft
  • A business wanting an integrated firewall appliance with vendor support, typically buying a Netgate appliance bundled with pfSense Plusnot Syft
  • A team wanting to evaluate advanced features like real-time threat intelligence before committing to Netgate hardware or a Plus migrationnot Syft
  • An organisation replacing an expensive commercial firewall with an open source alternative while retaining the option to add commercial support laternot Syft

Syft

  • Producing a bill of materials for a customer or regulator that requires onenot pfSense
  • Feeding an inventory into a vulnerability scanner rather than scanning images directlynot pfSense
  • Recording what shipped in a build so a future disclosure can be answered quicklynot pfSense
  • Public sector work where an SBOM is a contractual deliverablenot pfSense

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

pfSense

  • pfSense CE and pfSense Plus are not simply the same software with a support contract layered on top; Plus is a separately developed edition with its own feature set, and moving between them is a migration, not a toggle
  • Running Plus on non-Netgate hardware depends on Netgate's current migration terms, which have changed over time, so a buyer planning to use white-box hardware with Plus should verify current eligibility rather than assume it works as it did previously
  • CE has no official vendor support channel; a business relying on it for production firewalling without a support contract is self-supporting on community forums
  • Some newer features and threat intelligence integrations are Plus-only, so CE users do not get feature parity going forward even though both editions remain under active development
  • Netgate's own appliance pricing and the terms of the CE-to-Plus migration path are not always clearly presented in one place, requiring some digging to understand the real total cost of a Plus deployment on non-Netgate hardware
  • As with any self-managed firewall, security depends on the operator applying updates and correctly configuring rules; there is no managed security operations layer included even in Plus

Syft

  • Lockfile parsing can drop packages silently. An open issue filed in August 2026 reports the yarn v1 cataloguer returning 118 of 745 packages with no error raised, which means a complete bill of materials and an 84 percent incomplete one look identical to the caller.
  • Fidelity varies sharply by ecosystem. Conan for C and C++, Haskell and Terraform get cataloguer support with no licence data, no dependency relationships and no file ownership, so a C and C++ shop gets the least from it.
  • Binary classification yields no licence or dependency metadata, and vendored or statically linked code is exactly where supply chain risk hides, so the blind spot and the risk overlap.
  • Incorrect CPE values and CPE collisions are recorded as open issues, and since Grype matches on CPE and PURL, an inventory error becomes a false negative in the security report downstream.
  • An inventory is not a risk assessment. Even a perfect bill of materials says a vulnerable version is present, never that the vulnerable function is called, and the triage burden lands entirely on the reader.

Pricing, plan by plan

pfSense

Free
  • pfSense CEFree
    • Full firewall and routing functionality
    • No vendor lock-in to hardware
    • Community support
  • pfSense Plus (via Netgate appliance)$undefined/one-time
    • Bundled with Netgate hardware appliances from around $189
    • Threat intelligence feeds
    • Certified support tiers

Syft

Free
  • SyftFree
    • Apache-2.0
    • No usage limits
    • Community support
  • Anchore Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Policy enforcement and reporting
    • Federal and commercial tiers
    • Pricing not published, quoted on request

Which should you pick?

Choose pfSense if

  • You need stateful firewall and nat.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux.
  • You also want vpn support.
pfSense review

Choose Syft if

  • You need multi-format output.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker.
  • You also want broad ecosystem coverage.
Syft review

Questions people ask

Is pfSense or Syft better?
Neither clearly leads. pfSense starts at Free and Syft at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, pfSense or Syft?
pfSense starts at Free and Syft at Free.
Does pfSense or Syft run on more platforms?
pfSense runs on Linux. Syft runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker.
Can I use pfSense for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is pfSense best used for?
pfSense is most often used for a home user or small business wanting a free, fully-featured firewall on commodity hardware with no licence cost, a business wanting an integrated firewall appliance with vendor support, typically buying a netgate appliance bundled with pfsense plus, a team wanting to evaluate advanced features like real-time threat intelligence before committing to netgate hardware or a plus migration, an organisation replacing an expensive commercial firewall with an open source alternative while retaining the option to add commercial support later. Of those, a home user or small business wanting a free, fully-featured firewall on commodity hardware with no licence cost and a business wanting an integrated firewall appliance with vendor support, typically buying a netgate appliance bundled with pfsense plus are not what Syft is typically brought in for.
What can pfSense do that Syft cannot?
pfSense covers Stateful firewall and NAT, VPN support, Traffic shaping and QoS, Package ecosystem. Syft covers Multi-format output, Broad ecosystem coverage, Binary classifiers, In-toto attestations.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

pfSense: What is the difference between pfSense CE and pfSense Plus?

CE is the free, open source edition installable on any compatible hardware; Plus is a commercial edition from Netgate with additional features and support, typically bundled with Netgate appliances.

Syft: Does Syft find vulnerabilities?

No. It produces an inventory. Grype, from the same company, matches that inventory against vulnerability feeds. They are separate tools and the distinction is frequently lost.

pfSense: Can I run pfSense Plus on my own hardware?

It is possible through a migration from a CE installation via Netgate's official channel, but the terms and availability of that path have changed over time and should be confirmed directly with Netgate.

Syft: Does anything in the Anchore stack do reachability analysis?

No. Neither Syft, Grype nor the commercial Anchore platform performs call graph or reachability analysis, so none of them tells you whether a vulnerable code path is actually invoked.

pfSense: Is pfSense CE really free with no catch?

Yes, CE has no licence fee and no hardware lock-in, though it comes with community rather than vendor support.

Syft: Is it a CNCF or OpenSSF project?

No. It is single-vendor open source owned by Anchore, with no foundation governance. That is a different licence risk profile from Sigstore.

Syft: What does Anchore Enterprise cost?

Not published. The pricing page is contact-sales only, with named but unpriced commercial and federal tiers.

Syft: How do I know my SBOM is complete?

You largely cannot, which is the honest answer. Silent partial parsing is a known open defect, so a bill of materials used for compliance should be spot-checked against a known dependency list.

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