Differences in pfsense plus vs pfsense CE in July 2023

Networking & Firewalls
1

pfSense CE (Community Edition) : This is the free and open-source project of the pfSense firewall software maintained by Netgate
pfSense Plus : This version is a commercial product maintained by Netgate

While both share a common code base, pfsense plus has a few additional features as noted in the chart below:

pfsense CE 2.7.0 pfsense plus 23.05.1
OS Base FreeBSD 14 FreeBSD 14
PHP Version 8.2 8.2
ZFS Support :white_check_mark: :white_check_mark:
Cost Free Free for Home, Lab, & Free With Netgate Appliances
Support Community Can Purchase Netgate Support
Project Maintainer Netgate Netgate
Documentation Maintainer Netgate Netgate
Boot Environments :x: :white_check_mark:
QAT Crypto :x: :white_check_mark:
OpenVPN DCO :x: :white_check_mark:
OpenVPN Client Import :x: :white_check_mark:
AWS VPN Wizzard :x: :white_check_mark:
IPsec Export: Apple Profile :x: :white_check_mark:
IPsec Export: Windows Powershell :x: :white_check_mark:
Can Run on Your Own Hardware :white_check_mark: :white_check_mark:
Can Be Virtualized :white_check_mark: :white_check_mark:
High availability :white_check_mark: :white_check_mark:
BGP / OSPF :white_check_mark: :white_check_mark:
VLAN Support :white_check_mark: :white_check_mark:
OpenVPN :white_check_mark: :white_check_mark:
IPSec :white_check_mark: :white_check_mark:
WireGuard :white_check_mark: :white_check_mark:
L2TP VPN :white_check_mark: :white_check_mark:
Tailscale :white_check_mark: :white_check_mark:
IDS/IPS Suricata or Snort Suricata or Snort
Content filtering :white_check_mark: but complex :white_check_mark: but complex
DNS filtering :white_check_mark: (pfblocker) :white_check_mark: (pfblocker)
GeoIP filtering :white_check_mark: (pfblocker) :white_check_mark: (pfblocker)
Traffic shaping :white_check_mark: (advanced) :white_check_mark: (advanced)
Multi-WAN support :white_check_mark: :white_check_mark:
Active Directory Integration :white_check_mark: Radius or LDAP :white_check_mark: Radius or LDAP
Policy routing :white_check_mark: :white_check_mark:
Reverse proxy or WAF :white_check_mark: HAProxy :white_check_mark: HAProxy
Let’s Encrypt Certificates :white_check_mark: :white_check_mark:
Captive Portal :white_check_mark: :white_check_mark:
Traffic Monitoring & Reporting :white_check_mark: (NTOPNG) :white_check_mark: (NTOPNG)
3 Likes
2

If starting with a clean install on a non-netgate device must you install CE then upgrade to Plus+? Or is there another way?

Basically is there a way to create an iso type image for plus that could be re-installed via usb? With CE it’s handy to move between the releases, a similar solution for Plus would be equally handy.

3

You have to install CE first to move to plus unless you have a Netgate device as the have images for those.

4

Also the additional options for 802.1X Authentication Bridging and VLAN 0 Tagging for WAN connectivity built in to Plus. Previously with CE this has to be done with a 3rd party boot script.

5

Tom, busy upgrading 2.6 to 2.7, after that, do you have a video showing how to go from their to CE and then onwards to home usage of plus ?

G

6

It’s pretty straightforward, just get the token from Netgate shop.

I think from pfsense 2.6 there is a register option in the menu, paste in the key.

When you then look for the upgrade options there is one for PfSense Plus+.

Select it then let it do its stuff.

7

There is also a step by step guide in the Netgate docs:

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/install/migrate-to-plus.html