pfSense® software includes the same features as most expensive commercial firewall
solutions.
In some cases, pfSense includes additional features that are not available in commercial
closed source solutions. In all cases, pfSense provides better value for your money.
Let us show you what pfSense can do, and get you started on the path to deploying pfSense
software in your environment.
Overview
The pfSense project is a free network firewall distribution, based on the FreeBSD operating
system with a custom kernel and including third party free software packages for additional
functionality. pfSense software, with the help of the package system, is able to provide
the same functionality or more of common commercial firewalls, without any of the artificial
limitations. It has successfully replaced every big name commercial firewall you can imagine
in numerous installations around the world, including Check Point, Cisco PIX, Cisco ASA,
Juniper, Sonicwall, Netgear, Watchguard, Astaro, and more.
pfSense software includes a web interface for the configuration of all included components.
There is no need for any UNIX knowledge, no need to use the command line for anything,
and no need to ever manually edit any rule sets. Users familiar with commercial firewalls
catch on to the web interface quickly, though there can be a learning curve for users not
familiar with commercial-grade firewalls.
Hardware Selection
Unlike most common commercial firewalls offerings, the pfSense project is just the software
portion of the firewall. This means you get to tailor the hardware you choose to meet your
environment's specific needs. You can use the live CD or memstick to test out your hardware
without installing to the hard drive, or install to a compact flash card for embedded systems.
With hardware you have the option of purchasing pre-installed systems from the the pfSense
Installation
Our Install Guide will guide you through your hardware selection, the initial pfSense
configuration, and installing the pfSense software to your hard drive. Installation is quick
and painless making it easy to setup your own personal demo in a virtual environment.
Configuration
How you configure the pfSense software is largely dependant on the needs you're trying to
meet. There are tutorials in our documentation wiki for various configuration scenarios.
For the best information we recommend that you become a Gold Member, this gives you
access to a digital version of the official pfSense book and monthly hangouts that cover a
variety of topics as well as our Auto Config Backup service which gives you a secure place
to store and retrieve backups off site.
If you need professional assistance configuring your deployment, you can use our
commercial support to help get you up and running.
from https://www.pfsense.org/getting-started/