Is pfSense or Trivy better?

Neither clearly leads. pfSense starts at Free and Trivy at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, pfSense or Trivy?

pfSense starts at Free and Trivy at Free.

Does pfSense or Trivy run on more platforms?

pfSense runs on Linux. Trivy runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes.

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 Trivy is typically brought in for.

What can pfSense do that Trivy cannot?

pfSense covers Stateful firewall and NAT, VPN support, Traffic shaping and QoS, Package ecosystem. Trivy covers Multi-target scanning, Vulnerability detection, Misconfiguration checks, Secret detection.

Networking · head to head

pfSense vs Trivy

pfSense

Networking

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

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Trivy

Cybersecurity

Open-source vulnerability and misconfiguration scanner

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

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; Trivy reports what public advisory databases know, so coverage varies by ecosystem and unfixed CVEs create noise
They diverge on capability: pfSense covers Stateful firewall and NAT, Trivy covers Multi-target scanning.
Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which pfSense and Trivy actually diverge.

Attributes where pfSense and Trivy differ
Attribute	pfSense	Trivy
Pricing model	Open source Community Edition, free; commercial Plus edition sold separately by Netgate	Open source, no licence fee
Platforms	Linux	Linux, macOS, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes
Category	Networking	Cybersecurity

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 Trivy

Multi-target scanning
Vulnerability detection
Misconfiguration checks
Secret detection

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 Trivy
A business wanting an integrated firewall appliance with vendor support, typically buying a Netgate appliance bundled with pfSense Plusnot Trivy
A team wanting to evaluate advanced features like real-time threat intelligence before committing to Netgate hardware or a Plus migrationnot Trivy
An organisation replacing an expensive commercial firewall with an open source alternative while retaining the option to add commercial support laternot Trivy

Trivy

Failing a pull request when a container image introduces a known CVEnot pfSense
Scanning Terraform and Kubernetes manifests for misconfiguration before applynot pfSense
Catching committed secrets as part of an existing CI stepnot 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

Trivy

Reports what public advisory databases know, so coverage varies by ecosystem and unfixed CVEs create noise
No built-in triage or exception workflow, so suppressing accepted risk is managed in config files
Findings are point-in-time from CI, with no continuous runtime monitoring unless you add the commercial platform

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

Trivy

Free

TrivyFree
- Full scanner
- Unlimited scans
- Community support

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 Trivy if

You need multi-target scanning.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Linux, macOS, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes.
You also want vulnerability detection.

Trivy review

Questions people ask

Is pfSense or Trivy better?: Neither clearly leads. pfSense starts at Free and Trivy at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, pfSense or Trivy?: pfSense starts at Free and Trivy at Free.
Does pfSense or Trivy run on more platforms?: pfSense runs on Linux. Trivy runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes.
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 Trivy is typically brought in for.
What can pfSense do that Trivy cannot?: pfSense covers Stateful firewall and NAT, VPN support, Traffic shaping and QoS, Package ecosystem. Trivy covers Multi-target scanning, Vulnerability detection, Misconfiguration checks, Secret detection.

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.

Trivy: Is Trivy free?

Yes, open source from Aqua Security with no licence fee. Aqua sells a commercial platform around it.

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.

Trivy: What can Trivy scan?

Container images, filesystems, Git repositories, Kubernetes clusters and infrastructure-as-code, for vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, secrets and licences.

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.

Trivy: Does Trivy need a server?

No. It is a single binary, which is a large part of why it became a default in CI.

pfSense vs Trivy

pfSense

Trivy

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in pfSense

Only in Trivy

What people use each for

pfSense

Trivy

Where each one falls short

pfSense

Trivy

Pricing, plan by plan

pfSense

Trivy

Which should you pick?

Choose pfSense if

Choose Trivy if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on pfSense

More on Trivy

Keep looking

Other head to heads