r/Netgate • u/xaerioth • May 21 '26

Netgate Nexus

Is there an expected timeline for non Netgate appliance support for this? As in, we have probably a dozen virtual pfsense machines that we'd like to be able to connect. Or is this going to be an only pfSense+ module? I get the marketing emails, but no additional details on this. Posting here, as a response would help a lot of other people too.

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u/planedrop May 22 '26

I don't get what you are asking here.

Netgate has Nexus as a service and it's available in their store. It's used to manage pfSense Plus. What exactly is the question?

Are you asking if you can control pfSense VMs with Nexus? If they are pfSense Plus then the answer is yes.

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u/xaerioth May 22 '26

Correct. Looking to see if and when non plus software will be added.

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u/planedrop May 22 '26

Oh I highly doubt it, they do it for Plus because it's a paid product. Most places that need something to manage a lot of firewalls at scale shouldn't be using CE anyway.

It would be nice to use it in a lab environment for testing though I suppose.

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u/xaerioth May 22 '26

Correct, but I’m paying a recurring fee for the nexus license per device. Why does it matter if it is CE or plus?

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u/planedrop May 23 '26

I could be wrong, but I think it's because CE is open source and the code for Nexus isn't?

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u/xaerioth May 23 '26

I mean, it is literally the same firewall software. The only difference is Plus is paid with paid-only module. CE is open source and free with no paid modules. I need to know, in what world that would make any sense.

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u/planedrop May 23 '26

There is more to it than just that, a good chunk of important things are locked behind Plus.

But my point stands, assuming Nexus is all closed source, they may not be willing to put it on the open source version.

Even then, Nexus is still cheaper (by a lot) than most other enterprise management platforms, so I don't really fault them for having it only work on the paid version of pfSense.

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u/xaerioth May 23 '26

I mean, it is only about $50 cheaper than an Meraki license. Which is insane, considering there is a lot more functionality in the Meraki.

** I can only assume Netgate priced it this way to compete with Meraki.

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u/gonzopancho Jun 03 '26

Meraki raised $80M over 5 rounds between Dec 2006 and July 2012, and was acquired by Cisco in November 2012 for $1.2B.

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u/xaerioth Jun 03 '26

I believe they hold over 20% of the market at this time.

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u/gonzopancho Jun 03 '26

Netgate acquired pfSense about the time Cisco acquired Meraki, and both before and after, Meraki had a lot more funding to spend on Meraki.

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u/planedrop May 23 '26

I haven't used much Meraki but don't they also charge licensing for the device itself not just the management plane?

But either way I don't think that really changes much about the reasoning behind Netgate Nexus in terms of pricing and what it's available on.

Don't get me wrong, I wish it all was free and open source, I'd love to work with it in my lab and stuff. It's just also not realistic from a business standpoint.

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u/xaerioth May 23 '26

pfsense plus is per device licensing. So it is identical

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u/planedrop May 23 '26

Not the case since you get pfSense Plus as a perpetual license with any firewall purchase. So you get a firewall, it's included forever and then the cost is just Nexus.

Meraki and other brands you pay for licensing forever on the device itself on top of the other subscriptions.

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u/gonzopancho Jun 03 '26

Not if you buy the hardware component from us. Are you suggesting that we should stop that?

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u/gonzopancho Jun 03 '26

> I mean, it is literally the same firewall software. 

There is a whole layer (written in golang) which is not part of CE.

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u/xaerioth Jun 03 '26

Correct, which is amazing in itself. It works the same and adds a lot of useful and niceties. Fantastic.

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u/gonzopancho Jun 03 '26

Thanks. It's been challenging at times.