Skip to content
SPECIFICTION
Get listed

NethSecurity

nethsecurity.org

From €12.50/mo Free plan Open source WebLinuxAPISelf-hosted
Visit nethsecurity.org
Spec score 8.8 #1 of 14 in Unified Threat Management

What it is

NethSecurity is an OpenWrt-based unified threat management solution for small and medium-sized businesses. It combines firewall, multi-WAN, content filtering, deep packet inspection, intrusion prevention, and VPN capabilities, including IPsec, OpenVPN, and WireGuard. Multi-WAN can balance connections, while traffic shaping applies minimum and maximum bandwidth settings. Threat Shield blocks known malicious IP addresses using named blocklists and confidence scores. NethSecurity is an open-source project and is currently available only for x86-64 systems; minimum requirements are 1 vCPU/core, 1 GB RAM, 1 GB disk, and two Ethernet cards. Its optional Controller runs on NethServer 8 and manages multiple installations remotely. Without a subscription, it can register up to three community firewalls; with a valid subscription, there is no unit limit, but only subscribed firewalls can be registered. Nightly automatic cloud backup is subscription-only. A 30-day trial activates the Business plan, but commercial support cannot be requested during the trial. Professional support response time is one business day during specified Italian business hours, excluding Italian holidays.

Spec sheet

What it does
NethSecurity is an OpenWrt-based unified threat-management Linux firewall aimed at small and medium-sized businesses.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.nethsecurity.org
Purpose
NethSecurity is an OpenWrt-based unified threat management solution designed for small and medium-sized businesses.Read 4 Oct 2026 · docs.nethsecurity.org
Free plan
YesRead 21 Sep 2026 · nethsecurity.org
API
A public API server exposes authenticated JSON endpoints, including UBUS calls and file upload, download and deletion methods.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com
Integrations
Netify Informatics is a third-party cloud service that uses NethSecurity DPI metadata to provide network intelligence and visibility.Read 4 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Support
The subscription page states that professional support response time is one business day during Monday-to-Friday business hours in the Italian time zone, excluding Italian holidays.Read 4 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Headquarters
Pesaro, ItalyRead 28 Sep 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Architecture
The project is primarily designed for x86_64 systems.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com
Backup
Automatic cloud backup runs nightly and is available only with a subscription.Read 4 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Build requirements
Local image builds require Linux, Podman 4.x, at least 2 GB RAM, 40 GB free disk and four or more CPU cores.Read 15 Oct 2026 · dev.nethsecurity.org
Central controller
The controller manages multiple installations, distributes VPN configuration, and gathers logs and metrics centrally.Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Cloud backup
Nightly encrypted automatic cloud backups are available only with a subscription.Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Company ownership
Il Resto del Carlino reported that the Ranocchi Group participated from 2005 to 2024 and the Zucchetti Group became involved afterward.Read 15 Oct 2026 · ilrestodelcarlino.it
Company scale in 2026
Il Resto del Carlino reported about 50 collaborators, 600 Italian resellers and €5.9 million 2025 revenue.Read 15 Oct 2026 · ilrestodelcarlino.it
Controller limit
An unsubscribed controller can register up to three community firewalls, while a subscribed controller has no unit limit but accepts only subscribed firewalls.Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Deep packet inspection
A modified nDPI component identifies applications and protocols in network packets for monitoring and control.Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Developer documentation
The documentation site links administrator, tutorial and developer manuals and a developer handbook.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.nethsecurity.org
Firewall
The product provides stateful firewall rules and groups rules by category.Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Firewall features
The product combines firewall, multi-WAN, content filtering, deep packet inspection, intrusion prevention and VPN.Read 4 Oct 2026 · docs.nethsecurity.org
Firewall objects
Reusable objects can group IP addresses, networks or domains for application in multiple rules.Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Hardware requirements
The official documentation search result states NethSecurity is currently available only for x86-64, with minimum requirements of 1 vCPU/core, 1 GB RAM, 1 GB disk and two Ethernet cards.Read 4 Oct 2026 · docs.nethsecurity.org
Independent company growth
LineaEDP reported revenue rising from €3.65 million in 2021 to €4.46 million in 2022.Read 15 Oct 2026 · lineaedp.it
Independent company size
LineaEDP reported in September 2023 that Nethesis had 40 employees and more than 35,000 customers.Read 15 Oct 2026 · lineaedp.it
Independent partner network
The same 2023 report described 530 Italian partners/resellers and 15 abroad.Read 15 Oct 2026 · lineaedp.it
Install targets
Documentation covers bare-metal disks, USB boot, virtual machines, Proxmox, VMware, Hyper-V and VirtualBox.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.nethsecurity.org
Limit: brute-force blocking
The same thread says private LAN addresses are not banned and that public SSH blocking may require at least nine failed logins before a ban appears.Read 15 Oct 2026 · community.nethserver.org
Limit: installation experience
An independent Russian review criticized the image-to-VM conversion workflow, unclear network setup instructions and a read-only network configuration during testing.Read 15 Oct 2026 · alekseycheremnykh.ru
Limit: IPS testing
A January 2026 community thread reports that Snort alerts were initially absent until testing rules and suitable traffic were used; another tester said events could take time to appear.Read 15 Oct 2026 · community.nethserver.org
Limit: support friction
That independent review said a GitHub issue was redirected to official support, where registration was perceived as difficult.Read 15 Oct 2026 · alekseycheremnykh.ru
Live installation
The firewall can run directly from bootable media without installation to local storage.Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Management
The optional NethSecurity Controller runs on NethServer 8 and remotely manages multiple NethSecurity installations.Read 4 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Minimum hardware
The quickstart lists two Ethernet cards, 1 GB RAM and 1 GB disk as minimum requirements.Read 15 Oct 2026 · dev.nethsecurity.org
Multi-WAN
Multi-WAN load-balances traffic across multiple connections to improve continuity.Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Notable news
NethSecurity 8.8.0 was released on 29 July 2026 according to the project release notes.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.nethsecurity.org
Open source
The maker describes NethSecurity as a 100% open source project made by Nethesis srl unipersonale.Read 4 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Open-source status
NethSecurity is described as 100% open source and as a downstream rebuild of OpenWrt.Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Security updates
Release 8.8.0 rebased the system on OpenWrt 25.12.5, moved package management from opkg to apk, added persistent metrics storage and web-interface alerts.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.nethsecurity.org
Support policy
Commercial support is unavailable during the 30-day trial; professional support is provided by email and has a stated one-business-day response target.Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Threat protection
Threat Shield blocks attacks from known malicious IP addresses using named blocklists with confidence scores.Read 4 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Threat Shield
Threat Shield blocks addresses listed as malicious in maintained blocklists.Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Traffic management
Multi-WAN can load balance across connections, and traffic shaping prioritizes traffic with minimum and maximum bandwidth settings.Read 4 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Traffic monitoring
Real-time views show applications by host, local-to-remote interactions, protocols and traffic volume.Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Traffic shaping
Quality-of-service controls can assign minimum and maximum bandwidth to traffic types.Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Trial support
Commercial support cannot be requested during the 30-day trial, which activates the Business plan and excludes services with additional fees.Read 4 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
UI licence
The NethSecurity user-interface repository is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com
VPN
Supported VPN technologies are IPsec, OpenVPN and WireGuard, including links between sites.Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
VPNs
It supports IPsec, OpenVPN and WireGuard VPNs.Read 4 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org

Plans and prices

Community Free Maximum 3 units without subscription · Community blocklists · Community forum Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Partner Free € 0,00 yearly plus partnership yearly fee More than 20 active subscriptions · Unlimited units · Professional email, SSH and phone support Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Personal €150 a year € 150,00 yearly For home users · Approximately 2,000 DPI applications/protocols · No support ticket · Professional email and SSH support Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Business €297 a year € 297,00 yearly For companies · Approximately 2,000 DPI applications/protocols · Two support tickets per year · Professional email and SSH support Read 15 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org
Partner +20 active subscriptions Priced on request Partnership yearly fee 20+ active subscriptions · unlimited support tickets · contact sales Read 4 Oct 2026 · nethsecurity.org

Every NethSecurity plan and price →

Strong points and limits

Strong points

  • Open-source firewall includes intrusion prevention and VPN.
  • Supports IPsec, OpenVPN, and WireGuard.
  • Multi-WAN balances connections and traffic shaping prioritizes traffic.
  • Threat Shield uses named blocklists and confidence scores.

Limits

  • Currently available only for x86-64.
  • Cloud backup requires a subscription.
  • Trial users cannot request commercial support.
  • Community Controller registration is limited to three firewalls.

Who it suits

NethSecurity is aimed at small and medium-sized businesses needing firewall, traffic management, threat protection, and VPN capabilities. It also suits teams managing multiple installations, subject to the Controller's subscription limits.

NethSecurity in depth

Read the full write-up

Overview

NethSecurity is an OpenWrt-based unified threat management product for small and medium-sized businesses. It suits administrators who want firewalling, VPN and traffic controls in a self-managed deployment. Its broad network toolkit is a strong fit for that job, but the x86-64 hardware requirement and subscription gates on central management and backups narrow its appeal.

Key features

NethSecurity brings firewall, multi-WAN, content filtering, deep packet inspection, intrusion prevention and VPN into one system. Multi-WAN can balance traffic across connections, while traffic shaping sets minimum and maximum bandwidth to prioritize traffic. Those controls make it useful where a business needs to manage both security and competing demands on its network, rather than just filter traffic at the perimeter.

VPN support includes IPsec, OpenVPN and WireGuard, including site-to-site VPN. Threat Shield blocks attacks from known malicious IP addresses using named blocklists and confidence scores. Netify Informatics can use DPI metadata to provide network intelligence and visibility, but it is a third-party cloud service—not a local capability of the firewall alone.

The optional NethSecurity Controller runs on NethServer 8 and remotely manages multiple installations. Without a subscription, it can register up to three community firewalls. A valid subscription removes the unit cap, but only subscribed firewalls can be registered. Nightly automatic cloud backups also require a subscription, so teams that need a central view across a larger fleet or managed backups should factor recurring subscription costs into their decision.

Pricing

NethSecurity uses a freemium model, with a free plan and a 30-day trial. The Community plan has no published price, allows three units without a subscription and covers approximately 400 detected DPI applications. It is the natural starting point for a small deployment, but the three-firewall Controller limit and narrower application detection make it less suited to larger or DPI-intensive networks.

Personal and Business cover approximately 2,000 detected DPI applications. Business also includes two support tickets per year, making it a better fit for organizations that want a defined route to professional help. The Partner plan is intended for more than 20 active subscriptions and offers unlimited units; the Partner +20 active subscriptions option is billed as a yearly partnership fee, includes unlimited support tickets and requires contacting sales. These plans have no published prices, so buyers should compare custom pricing with their support and fleet needs before committing.

The 30-day trial activates the Business plan, but excludes services with additional fees and does not allow commercial support requests. Subscription support response time is one business day during Monday-to-Friday business hours in the Italian time zone, excluding Italian holidays. That is a useful target for business-hours support, not round-the-clock coverage.

Platforms

NethSecurity is listed for Linux, self-hosted and web environments, with a hybrid deployment model. In practice, its hardware requirement is more specific: it currently runs only on x86-64, with at least 1 vCPU/core, 1 GB RAM, 1 GB disk and two Ethernet cards. That modest minimum may suit small deployments, but the architecture restriction rules out other hardware platforms.

Who it's for

NethSecurity is best for small and medium-sized businesses with administrators who can manage a self-hosted network appliance and want several security and traffic functions in one product. It is especially relevant to teams that need multiple VPN protocols, connection balancing or traffic prioritization. Organizations that need remote management across more than three firewalls or nightly cloud backups should plan for a subscription; those that need non-x86-64 hardware or support during the trial should look elsewhere.

Pros and cons

Pros: Firewall, intrusion prevention, content filtering, DPI, VPN and traffic management are combined in one product, reducing the need to assemble those controls separately.

Pros: IPsec, OpenVPN and WireGuard support gives administrators several options for remote and site-to-site VPNs.

Pros: The Community plan permits three units without a subscription, providing a way to start with a small Controller-managed deployment.

Cons: Controller registration above three firewalls and automatic cloud backup require a subscription, limiting the free option for larger deployments.

Cons: The x86-64-only requirement and two-Ethernet-card minimum constrain hardware choice.

Cons: Commercial support is unavailable during the trial, and the subscription support commitment applies only during Italian business hours on weekdays.

Alternatives

Network Firewall Software is a useful category starting point for comparing products in this space.

Choose pfSense if an open-source firewall and router software package with a free Community Edition is a better match; its Plus plan has no published price.

Sangfor EasyConnect is a paid alternative for readers seeking a product listed across mobile, desktop and web platforms.

WatchGuard FireCloud may suit buyers who prefer per-user annual licensing: its Internet Access plan is $97.75 a year for 1–50 licenses.

Zscaler Private Access is another paid option for readers looking for private-access plans, including a Standard tier limited to 5% of users.

Cato SASE Platform is worth considering if a sales-led, tailored pricing discussion is preferable.

Arista NG Firewall offers a free tier with basic security and connectivity capabilities, though its free plan is described as limited.

Endian Firewall Community may suit readers who want a free open-source Linux firewall and can do without professional support.

IPFire is a free, open-source firewall operating system for readers who prefer an option without feature tiers or licence renewals.

Verdict

Choose NethSecurity if you run a small or medium-sized business, have x86-64 hardware and want firewall, VPN, intrusion-prevention and traffic controls together in a self-managed product. Its strongest case is breadth: one deployment covers security and traffic management, with an optional Controller for multiple installations. Look elsewhere if your hardware is not x86-64, or if you need fleet management and cloud backups without a subscription.

Verdict

NethSecurity brings several network security and traffic controls into an OpenWrt-based product, with an optional remote-management Controller. Check the x86-64 hardware requirements and subscription limits for Controller registration and backups before choosing it.

Where Specifiction places it

Alternatives to NethSecurityAll alternatives →