First, this isn’t an attempt at an unfair shit on Netgate post. I’ve been a pfSense user (and member of their sub) for many, many years. I’ve endured (along with everyone else) their…unique PR strategy. I always told myself the software is good regardless of the company and their penchant for public trouble. I even defended them a couple of years ago when they announced pfSense+.
But, last week’s abrupt announcement about the end of pfSense+'s Home+Lab edition and a requirement to pay $399/yr to continue using + was the final dramatic incident for me. I’m not decided on what I’m doing, but I don’t think it’s pfSense+.
Today, they announced a price reduction to $129/yr. But 35 cents a day to stay on + still seems like a lot to me. Considering the free alternatives (CE & OPNsense), not because it’s unattainable pricing.
I’m curious how the greater pfSense community feels, but I don’t feel confident this post won’t just get taken down in r/pfSense.
For the unfamiliar, here’s the context:
I voted that I will pursue a free option, but that’s not necessarily the gist of it. I don’t mind paying for a good product, but I will not buy into a subscription model, and will certainly not deal with a company willing to rugpull, or otherwise scheme, customers.
Never, there are to many solid and ‘free’ / low cost alternatives such as opnsense, sophos xg, etc. Between the alternatives and the bullshit from their idiot management / owner I’ll never touch their products / software and push everyone I can away from them.
I think they may have shot themselves in the foot on this one. One of my friends is the lead network engineer at a midsized MSP, and after this fiasco they’ve already committed to never buying another netgate box or pfsense license again, they’re evaluating opnsense and other appliances in the same cost range. They’ve also heard a few other MSP’s they sometimes compete with are exploring alternatives as well. Time will tell how this plays out.
no, they burned the briges with removing the home/lab licence (for no reason other than fuck you), plus the way they’ve been treating the community and the shitty excuse they gave in the first place is frankly, not good enough.
I’ll keep using CE and see what happens there, but hopefully someone can make a pfsense to opnsense converter and I can move over to opnsense if CE dies
Netgate is just the latest tech company to show that they’re run by short-sighted bean counters and MBAs that can’t think further than the next quarter and are perfectly happy to throw away years of good will and trust for no goddamn reason at all. The company’s dead to me.
I’m going to be moving to something else.
I decided to move to OPNsense over a year ago because I was afraid they would pull this shit. Now we get to watch netgates user base wither and die slowly. It will take time because of how popular it is, but you will likely see more and more people choosing the alternatives over the next few years.