Networking · pricing
pfSense pricing
pfSense publishes 2 tiers. Below is each one, what it adds over the tier beneath it, and where the ladder stops being worth climbing for most people.
As of 1 September 2026, pfSense pricing is free across 2 published tiers. Figures are the vendor's list prices as recorded on this page's last check; the vendor's site is the final word.
- Entry price
- Free
- Model
- Open source Community Edition, free; commercial Plus edition sold separately by Netgate
- Tiers
- 2
- Free tier
- Yes
pfSense plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| pfSense CE | Free | 3 | Entry tier |
| pfSense Plus (via Netgate appliance) | On request | 3 | Priced on request |
What each tier adds
The set difference between each tier's feature list and the one beneath it. Where a tier lists nothing new, the vendor has either stopped repeating the inherited list or the tier raises limits rather than adding capability, the record does not distinguish the two, so this page does not either.
pfSense CE
FreeThe entry tier. It covers full firewall and routing functionality, no vendor lock-in to hardware, community support.
pfSense Plus (via Netgate appliance)
On requestOver pfSense CE, this tier adds:
- Bundled with Netgate hardware appliances from around $189
- Threat intelligence feeds
- Certified support tiers
Where pfSense stops being free
pfSense CE, Free
- Full firewall and routing functionality
- No vendor lock-in to hardware
- Community support
No paid tier on record
pfSense lists a free tier and no priced tier above it in the record we hold.
What the product covers
The full pfSense feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Other
- Stateful firewall and NAT
- VPN support
- Traffic shaping and QoS
- Package ecosystem
- CE and Plus editions
People bring pfSense in 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. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to pfSense are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Networking
Too few networking tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pfSense (this page) | Free | Open source Community Edition, free; commercial Plus edition sold separately by Netgate | - | |
| MikroTik RouterOS | On request | One-time purchase, per licence level | - | vs pfSense |
| Cisco Meraki | On request | quote, hardware plus mandatory recurring licence | - | vs pfSense |
| PRTG Network Monitor | On request | Per sensor tier, billed monthly on an annual contract | - | vs pfSense |
| OpenVPN | Free | Open source core is free; Access Server billed per simultaneous connection | - | vs pfSense |
| Icinga | Free | Open source core, with paid repository, module and support subscriptions sold separately | - | vs pfSense |
| Auvik | On request | quote, per managed device | - | vs pfSense |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the pfSense badges page.
Before you pay for pfSense
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: 2 tiers between Free and On request, with the jump itemised above. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.
pfSense runs on linux, and is published by Netgate (Electric Sheep Fencing, LLC) of Austin, Texas, United States. The full record is on the pfSense review, and the rest of the category is under best networking tools.
pfSense pricing questions
- How much does pfSense cost?
- pfSense publishes 2 tiers, from Free for pfSense CE up to On request for pfSense Plus (via Netgate appliance). The entry tier costs nothing.
- Does pfSense have a free plan?
- Yes. The pfSense CE tier costs nothing and covers full firewall and routing functionality, no vendor lock-in to hardware, community support.
- What is the difference between pfSense CE and pfSense Plus (via Netgate appliance) on pfSense?
- pfSense Plus (via Netgate appliance) costs On request against Free, and adds bundled with netgate hardware appliances from around $189, threat intelligence feeds, certified support tiers.
- Which networking tools can I use without paying?
- 3 of the 8 networking tools listed alongside pfSense have a free tier: OpenVPN, Icinga, ZeroTier.
- What am I actually paying for with pfSense?
- The record lists 5 features across 1 area: other. In practice it is brought in 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.
- Does pfSense charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 2 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these pfSense prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare pfSense against before paying?
- The closest networking tools in this directory are MikroTik RouterOS, Cisco Meraki, PRTG Network Monitor, OpenVPN. Each has a side-by-side comparison with pfSense covering price, platforms and features.