Is pfsense plus mandatory by now?

Networking & Firewalls
1

Hi there (:

so here is a little background story for those interested:

I am in due to change my personal home firewall from an old Zotac ZBOX Ci323 which i started my Journey on with IPFire due to it having fq_codel any my ISPs Box not being able to run openwrt.
For a while now i can connect my ISP more or less directly via Ethernet and PPPoE which i do on OPNsense.
Any since the CI323 has aged a little i got my next coreboot device and have an Protectli V1410 incoming.

So there is a hardware change imminent and also the in my opinion very valid point of CVE “fixup speed” made by tom here: Why I am not using OPNSense

But there is no “homelab license” anymore.
And i took a look at github and the latest release tag is from 2021.

Also in their Forum a Member told me he cant compile CE (Is CE really slower with (security) updates compared to plus ? | Netgate Forum)

so currently i am torn between a nice ui/ux wich is FOSS

or proprietary pfSense plus with a for me pretty expensive subscription fee.
(i would also love to use ZFS and the Boot environments like on Truenas )

tl;dr: is pfSense+ Mandatory compared to CE since i looks like its falling more and more behind?

with kind regards

2

The pfsense CE versions roll outs are slower but they are still secure as updates come out via package and patch updates.

2 Likes
3

thank you for your reply (:

while i agree that the patch package is a really great feature i find myself often checking the “auto update” box or setting cronjobs for regular updates & restarts.

so i guess getting plus is the way to go since there updates are the fastest if i read your opnsense examples correct?

4

Personally, I think the boot environments feature of pfSense Plus makes the cost worthwhile.

3 Likes
5

Both pfsense CE and pfsense plus use the same patch package.

6

Yep that’s a lifesaver when faffing around !