Atomic OSSEC vs pfSense
Atomic OSSEC
atomicorp.compfSense
pfsense.orgSide by side
| Figure | Atomic OSSEC | pfSense |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 5 |
| Spec score · Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software | 8.2 (#8) | 8.1 (#9) |
| Deployment | Atomic OSSEC is available on premises or as cloud-based SaaS and can run in air-gapped environments. | The software can run on selected hardware, virtual machines, and cloud instances; the project says it is the software portion of the firewall. |
| Headquarters | Chantilly, Virginia, United States | Austin, Texas, USA |
| Integrations | The product page names Splunk, ArcSight, ELK, and QRadar as out-of-the-box SIEM integrations. | The feature page names Azure and name.com as dynamic DNS providers, and RADIUS/LDAP as VPN authentication sources. |
| Intended users | Atomicorp says it serves hundreds of customers worldwide with security and compliance requirements across cloud and datacenter environments. | Netgate identifies home and remote workers, businesses, government, education, and service providers as users of pfSense Plus. |
| Support | The maker describes ticket-based support from a small expert team and advertises expert support with its SaaS offering. | Netgate Global Support covers installation, deployment, and configuration issues, and is available for self-installed and virtual pfSense software. |
Plans
pfSense
- pfSense Plus SoftwarePrice not published
- pfSense Community EditionFree
- pfSense Plus CloudPriced on request
- pfSense Plus on third-party hardware$129 a year
- pfSense Plus on Netgate appliances$189, paid once
In their own words
Atomic OSSEC
Atomic OSSEC is an endpoint detection and response system that also protects cloud workloads and APIs. Its monitoring covers intrusion detection, file integrity, log management, active response, and vulnerability management. A GUI centralizes management of agents, servers, events, file integrity monitoring, rollbacks, and third-party integrations. The product lists more than 5,000 preconfigured OSSEC rules and out-of-the-box integrations for Splunk, ArcSight, ELK, and QRadar. It supports AWS, Azure, and GCP, and offers compliance reporting for frameworks including PCI DSS, HIPAA, NIST, GDPR, and CIS. Deployment can be on premises or cloud-based SaaS, including in air-gapped environments. The maker also describes support for legacy systems such as Windows, Linux, AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris, plus monitoring of operational technology without agents on sensitive equipment. A 14-day trial covers up to 10 licenses and does not require a credit card. The listed plan price is priced on request, pricing starts at $55 per agent, and bulk discounts are available; a separate pricing note says from $5/mo.
pfSense
pfSense is a free, open-source firewall and router distribution based on FreeBSD, managed through a web interface. Its firewall uses stateful packet inspection and can block traffic based on policy matches. Routing features include policy-based routing, static routes, and concurrent IPv4 and IPv6 support. Security options include IDS/IPS, Snort packet analysis, Suricata rules, IP block lists, and application detection. It supports IPsec, OpenVPN, and WireGuard for site-to-site and remote-access VPNs. The software can run on selected hardware, virtual machines, and cloud instances, and is available in the Azure and AWS Marketplaces, including their US GovCloud regions. The Community Edition is free and open source. pfSense Plus on third-party hardware starts at $129 a year; on Netgate appliances it starts at $189, paid once, with the software included at no charge with an appliance. The USB installer overwrites the entire hard drive and does not support dual booting.