Company Drives Software Platform to Address Customers’ Advanced Edge and Cloud Secure Networking Needs

February 17, 2021 (AUSTIN, TX) Netgate, the leading provider of open-source secure networking solutions today announces the release of pfSense Plus software, its flagship secure networking solution targeted at businesses, educational institutions, and government agencies. These industries require features beyond legacy pfSense software, including advanced monitoring, more scalable and flexible manageability, and commercial business assurance.

For years, pfSense software has competed effectively against far more expensive edge / cloud networking solutions - as evidenced by well over a million active firewall, router, and VPN premises and cloud deployments. Netgate customers, however, increasingly demand advanced secure networking features, connectivity, and management automation. These requirements outstrip the capabilities of legacy pfSense software and its underlying software architecture. A modern software foundation is needed - one far better architected to meet evolving WAN edge and cloud computing needs.

The first release of pfSense Plus (Release 21.02), is made available starting today at no charge to all Netgate appliance customers. pfSense Plus is also available on Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure cloud marketplaces.

pfSense Plus Release 21.02 and pfSense Community Edition Release 2.5 are both based on FreeBSD 12-STABLE, and include support for our high-performance, kernel-resident WireGuard® VPN solution. Additionally, pfSense Plus 21.02 moves beyond legacy pfSense software by adding support for accelerated crypto offload for IPSec (EIP97 and QAT drivers), Netgate ARM appliance support, and Wizards for Windows IPSec, Apple IPSec, and AWS VPC.

“pfSense Plus software represents a major advance for securing Netgate customers’ networks.” said Jamie Thompson, Netgate CEO. “Our unceasing focus is to evolve firewall, router, and VPN solutions, as well as overall network security - while also increasing throughput - at a simple and affordable price point. Additionally, Netgate continues to materially contribute community engagement, code, and financial support to several open source projects critical to the success of the community, our customers, and our company.”

With a January, May, and September annual release cadence, pfSense Plus software will continue to diverge from legacy pfSense software in both software platform design and feature set. Later this year, Netgate plans to further extend pfSense Plus software availability with:


  • Paid subscriptions for non-Netgate platforms and select virtual machine deployments
  • No-charge subscription included with an active TAC support contract
  • No-charge subscription included with Netgate appliances

For more information on pfSense Plus software, please see our recent blog and release notes. To learn more about pfSense Plus software in general, visit netgate.com. For additional questions, contact Netgate at +1 (512) 646-4100, or sales@netgate.com.

About Netgate

Netgate is dedicated to developing and providing secure networking solutions to businesses, government and educational institutions around the world. Netgate is the only provider of Netgate products, which include pfSense software - the world’s leading open-source firewall, router, and VPN solution. TNSR extends the company’s open-source leadership and expertise into high-performance secure networking – capable of delivering compelling value at a fraction of the cost of proprietary solutions.

Netgate is a registered trademark of Rubicon Communications, LLC in the United States. TNSR is a registered trademark of Rubicon Communications, LLC in the United States and other countries. pfSense is a registered trademark of Electric Sheep Fencing, LLC in the United States and other countries.

All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders.