For small businesses, choosing a firewall can be a painful experience.
On one end, you have expensive commercial firewalls with complicated licensing, vendor lock-in, and bloated features you’ll never use.
On the other end, you have pfSense—a free and open-source firewall that does everything a small business actually needs without the nonsense.
And now, thanks to Fusion’s SD-WAN, pfSense can be deployed as an NFV (Network Function Virtualization), allowing you to have a secure firewall and an advanced SD-WAN solution on the same hardware.
Let’s break down why pfSense is a great choice for small businesses and how it fits perfectly with Fusion’s SD-WAN.
1. Why Small Businesses Need a Firewall
If you run a small business, you’re constantly under attack—even if you don’t realise it.
🚨 Brute-force login attempts
🚨 Botnets scanning your network for weaknesses
🚨 Phishing attacks trying to steal your data
🚨 DDoS attacks aiming to disrupt your services
You need a firewall that can:
✅ Protect your business from cyber threats
✅ Control and prioritise network traffic
✅ Support remote work securely
✅ Be cost-effective and easy to manage
2. Why pfSense is the Best Firewall for Small Businesses
pfSense is a powerful open-source firewall built on FreeBSD that offers:
✅ Enterprise-Grade Security Without the Cost
Deep packet inspection (DPI) to block threats before they reach your network.
Stateful firewall rules to control who gets access to what.
VPN support (IPsec, OpenVPN, WireGuard) for secure remote work.
Intrusion Detection & Prevention (IDS/IPS) using Snort or Suricata.
All of this is free, compared to overpriced commercial firewalls that charge a fortune for the same features.
✅ No Vendor Lock-In
With commercial firewalls, you’re stuck paying licensing fees just to keep basic features running.
With pfSense, there are no ridiculous license fees—it’s yours to use and modify as needed.
✅ Better Customization & Flexibility
Need custom firewall rules? No problem.
Want to set up load balancing and failover? Done.
Need a site-to-site VPN? Easy.
Want to add DNS filtering, ad blocking, or bandwidth monitoring? Just install a package.
✅ Ideal for Small Business IT Teams
Web-based GUI for easy management.
No need to buy expensive support contracts—there’s a massive community and plenty of documentation.
Runs on standard x86 hardware, meaning you can use it on your own server, a mini-PC, or a virtual machine.
In contrast, commercial firewalls often come with:
❌ Confusing licensing schemes
❌ Hard limits on VPN users and firewall rules
❌ Expensive support fees
❌ Bloated features that slow performance
3. How pfSense Works with Fusion’s SD-WAN
Here’s where things get really interesting.
pfSense works seamlessly with Fusion’s SD-WAN, and thanks to NFV (Network Function Virtualization), you can deploy both on the same hardware.
🔹 What is NFV?
Instead of using separate physical appliances for firewalling, routing, and SD-WAN, you can run multiple virtualized functions on the same server.
Fusion’s SD-WAN supports pfSense as an NFV, meaning you don’t need to buy extra hardware to get enterprise-grade security and advanced SD-WAN in one box.
🔹 Why This is a Game-Changer for Small Businesses
✅ Saves Money – No need to buy a separate firewall and SD-WAN appliance.
✅ Simplifies Management – Everything runs on one system, making it easier to monitor.
✅ Better Security & Performance – pfSense provides firewall, VPN, and IDS/IPS, while Fusion’s SD-WAN ensures unbreakable internet connectivity with failover and traffic steering.
✅ Flexibility – You can tweak pfSense firewall rules however you want, unlike commercial SD-WAN vendors who lock you into their limited firewall options.
🔹 Perfect for Multi-Branch Businesses
Small businesses with multiple locations can use Fusion SD-WAN for seamless connectivity and pfSense for firewall security at each site.
Instead of using clumsy IPsec VPNs, Fusion’s SD-WAN ensures secure, fast, and resilient connections between offices, while pfSense protects internal network traffic.
4. The Best Setup | pfSense + Fusion’s SD-WAN
💡 The Best Approach for a Small Business Network:
✔ Fusion SD-WAN handles WAN optimisation, failover, and traffic steering.
✔ pfSense acts as the firewall and security layer.
✔ Everything runs as an NFV on the same hardware, saving costs and reducing complexity.
This beats any commercial firewall+SD-WAN solution because:
You don’t have to pay for a commercial firewall license.
You get full control over your firewall rules and security settings.
You have a proper SD-WAN that can bond multiple connections and failover instantly.
You can scale as needed, without vendor restrictions.
5. Wrapping Up | Commercial Firewalls are not for Small Business
If you’re a small business, you don’t need an overpriced firewall with a restrictive license.
✔ pfSense is free, powerful, and completely customizable.
✔ Fusion’s SD-WAN ensures your internet never drops and your traffic is optimized.
✔ By deploying pfSense as an NFV alongside Fusion SD-WAN, you get the best of both worlds without needing extra hardware.
Why pay for locked-down, overpriced commercial firewalls when pfSense does the job better—and Fusion’s SD-WAN makes it even stronger?
💡 Ditch the expensive commercial firewall. Use pfSense + Fusion SD-WAN. Get better security, better performance, and save money.
