Side by side
Atomic OSSEC vs pfSense
Both stand on intrusion detection and prevention software. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.
Free trial LinuxMacSelf-hosted+2
Atomic OSSEC combines endpoint monitoring, cloud workload protection, compliance reporting, and centralized administration. It is aimed at organizations needing broad deployment and integration choices, with paid pricing and no free plan.
Visit Atomic OSSEC Free plan LinuxSelf-hostedWeb
pfSense offers firewall, routing, and VPN capabilities across hardware, virtual, and cloud deployments. Before using the USB installer, note that it overwrites the entire drive and cannot dual boot with another operating system.
Visit pfSenseThe facts
| Atomic OSSEC | pfSense | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | A free trial | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Not published |
| Runs on | Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Web, Windows | Linux, Self-hosted, Web |
| Lowest paid plan | See the plans | pfSense Plus on third-party hardware: $129 a year |
| Plans published | 1 | 5 |
| Maker | Not published | pfSense |
| Website | atomicorp.com | pfsense.org |
| On intrusion detection and prevention software | #12 of 39 | #8 of 39 |
Atomic OSSEC: what it does well
- Cloud workload protection for AWS, Azure, and GCP
- More than 5,000 preconfigured OSSEC rules
- Named integrations with four SIEM platforms
- Air-gapped and on-premises deployment options
- 14-day trial for up to 10 licenses
What to know first
- No free plan
- Listed plan costs $55 per agent
- Support is ticket-based from a small team
pfSense: what it does well
- Free, open-source Community Edition.
- Supports policy-based routing and static routes.
- Supports IPv4 and IPv6 concurrently.
- Includes IPsec, OpenVPN, and WireGuard.
- Can run on hardware, virtual machines, and cloud instances.
What to know first
- USB installer overwrites the entire hard drive.
- USB installer does not support dual booting.
- Third-party hardware option starts at $129 a year.
- Netgate appliance option starts at $189, paid once.
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