PFSense vs UniFi Dream Machine - Whats the BEST ROUTER

pfsense+ was the version that was for homelab, and they said from the get go was going to go under their tac lite license for $129, but was initially free. The main feature that people liked with it, was boot environments which is essentially zfs snapshots, so you can restore after breaking something really quickly.
pfsense CE, is still free, and it's 99% the same software.
You can just restore your pfsense+ config, to pfsense CE, and carry on

pfsense, cheaper to run, has a great built in reverse proxy, much easier to create firewall rules, and generally has lots of great features.
I even have a backup one setup in proxmox ready to go incase my main baremetal one craps out. Just move the cables, turn on the system, and I'm back up and running.

Firewalla is the best!

I am a home user and bought an SG-2100 from Netgate two years ago. I struggled with setup (RMA’d the first device they sent me), worked to troubleshoot smart home devices, and just felt like it was an uphill battle to get my network to play nice. After the 23.01 update rolled out and had to be halted because Netgate failed to recognize that it would brick some of their own devices, I gave up. I couldn’t support them anymore and needed something that didn’t cause so much downtime or frustration. I got the UDM Pro. I have since had no failures or unexpected downtime, and I can troubleshoot any of my smart home devices from anywhere using the app. That said, I have a working SG-2100 for sale to anyone who wants one.

but then what about opnsense?

We skipped over the fact that this video didn't start with "how's it going y'all?"

So how's it going! :D

You should also take a look at Synology's offerings. They are obviously most well known for their NAS lineup..but they have some really solid wifi and routing gear. I run a synology setup at my house and it works really well. As a professional network engineer/architect..my standards are pretty high and my need to tinker is always a priority..and the synology stuff definitely checks the boxes for me as a home user. I think it would be a very good fit for smaller businesses as well..though admittedly I wouldn't spec it out for anything larger than SOHO/doctor's office/similar applications unless the data flows were pretty limited in complexity to keep the ACLs/policies reasonable. Anyway...just a data point to consider. Have a good one!

<----sitting here, pathetically looking at my 7 year old Linksys, wishing I needed more! :(

After using opnsense, which is easy to configure with a little knowledge, since pfsense and opnsense have good documentation, I could never go to a UDM. Dnsmasq alone is a killer for me. xSense is just powerful if you need it or basic if you don't. I've seen to many videos complaining udm can't do this or that, but i understand Unifi has a target audience.

Great video
hope in future gaving mikrotik router's explaining i think they do decent work

Appreciate your works and videos

Unfortunately, ubiquiti routers are a bit expensive (comparatively) in Europe. The regular dream machine is about $320 (excl sales tax/VAT) and the pro is about $400 which is closer at least (although VAT/sales tax is 23-25% though so for prosumer use it’s a bit heft I think).

I’ve used both and I like both. I was using Pfsense+ when they decided to charge for it. I would have been happy to pay for its use, but their pricing was so high that I couldn’t justify it for a home lab. So…. I’m using a UDM Pro and I have no regrets.

Pfsense sucks. With all the changes they made to Pfsense+ and their trash with Opnsense in the past. I chose Opnsense. Latest FreeBSD and Driver support.

I’m just a simple home user but I find pfSense firewall way easier to configure than Unifi.


I used to have a Edreouter X and I just couldn’t get my firewall rules to work. Sure I got internet access but I had big problems to create a separate IoT VLAN that my main LAN could connect to but not the other way around.

Then I saw some videos about pfSense and suddenly everything made sense. I could understand what I was doing and make my own rules instead of just trying to copy some others work. And from what I've seen in videos, the Unifi firewall rules seem to be confusing as well.


The user interface plus pfBlocker was the main reason that I switched from a Edgerouter to a Netgate 3100 and I haven’t regreat that a single moment.

Great video. I had pfsense on own hardware and dumped it after they pulled the rug on pfsense+. Got a UDM-Pro on Black Friday sale and am excited. Can you do a follow up video on unbound+pihole the gets external DNS (ex cloud flare) over TLS or something secure?
Thanks @SpaceRexWill

I run away from everything that has subscriptions, I like to buy hardware not rent it.

I'm a network engineer working as consultant for government. You know what? I ordered a UDM SE. I'm dumping my opnsense (was fortigate before) for this UDM. I know it's not as powerful but it will do 99% of what I need for my network/lab. Network application 8 added a lot of stuff I needed.

I already have APs and switches from Unifi so it's nice to have the full stock. Would I install unifi stuff for companies bigger than SMB? Absolutely not. For SMB and home, yes

So you like Pf Sense 🤣

PFSense , is free ..

90m to set up High Availability?!? Seriously? Maybe 5m. Once you set up the Master configs are sync'd on each change.
90 minutes???

Once a UDM can do dynamic routing (OSPF,BGP) and clean up that mess of firewall rules creation...I am fully onboard and ditching my Netgate.

Watchguard only here, the t35cw is pretty nice, configuration is super easy to migrate whenever needed and NBD replacement plus good visualization of traffic