pfSense is free. Protectli costs €300. Netgate can exceed €1,000. Which to choose to protect your Belgian SME network? The answer depends less on budget than on your real situation.
At NexK IT, we have deployed firewalls for Belgian SMEs for several years. What we observe: many leaders either under-invest (an ISP router as a firewall), or over-invest (enterprise equipment for 5 workstations). Both are mistakes.
Here is our field analysis, no fluff.
Why your internet box is not enough
The Proximus or Telenet box supplied by your operator is not an enterprise firewall. It offers basic NAT, without packet inspection, without advanced filtering rules, without exploitable logs, without site-to-site VPN, without intrusion detection. For home use, it is enough. For an SME with customer data, servers or VoIP — it is insufficient.
pfSense — the open source firewall reference
pfSense is an open source firewall operating system based on FreeBSD. It is free, powerful, and used in thousands of companies worldwide — including large organizations.
- Stateful firewall with packet inspection
- VPN IPsec, OpenVPN, WireGuard integrated
- DNS filtering and ad/malware blocking
- QoS to prioritize VoIP
- Captive portal for guest WiFi
- IDS/IPS with Snort or Suricata
- Dashboards and detailed logs
Le seul « problème » de pfSense : il faut du matériel pour le faire tourner. Et c’est là que Protectli et Netgate entrent en jeu.
The three hardware options to run pfSense
Recycled PC
- Minimal cost
- Good for testing
- High consumption
- Uncertain reliability
- No support
Protectli Vault
- Fanless — silent
- 2 to 6 network ports
- Low consumption
- Reliable and compact
- Compatible with pfSense/OPNsense
Netgate
- Official pfSense+ support
- Manufacturer warranty
- High performance
- High price
- Overkill for small SMEs
Full comparison
| Criterion | Recycled PC + pfSense | Protectli + pfSense | Netgate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Budget | 0 – 100 € | 250 – 600 € | 400 – 2000 €+ |
| Reliability | Average | Excellent | Excellent |
| Consumption | High | Very low | Low |
| Support | Community | Community | Official |
| Built-in VPN | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ideal for | Test/lab | SME 5-50 workstations | SME 50+ / multi-site |
Our recommendation for a Belgian SME
✅ For 90% of Belgian SMEs from 5 to 30 workstations
Un Protectli Vault FW4B or FW6B with pfSense CE (free) or OPNsense (open source). Hardware budget: €300 to €450. Configuration by a professional: 2 to 4 hours. Result: an enterprise-grade firewall, VPN included, that protects your network for the next 5 years.
That is exactly what we deploy at our IT management clients. With Zabbix for monitoring and automatic alerts in case of network anomalies.
🔒 Is your network really protected?
NexK IT audits your network infrastructure and deploys a firewall suited to your SME — full configuration, VPN, monitoring included.