Primary Device
Netgate 4100
★ 3.8 Value Score
Technical Specifications
- Firewall Throughput: 4.09 Gbps (iPerf3, 10k ACLs, Netgate-published); 1.40 Gbps (IMIX)
- Threat Prevention Throughput: Not published by Netgate. IDS/IPS is available via optional Suricata or Snort packages, with no vendor throughput figure
- IPsec VPN Throughput: 960 Mbps (AES-GCM-128, iPerf3, QAT); 312 Mbps (IMIX)
- Max Sessions: 4,000,000 max active connections (vendor-stated)
- New Sessions/sec: Not published
- Interfaces: 2x 1GbE combo WAN (RJ45 or SFP); 4x 2.5GbE RJ45 LAN
- Form Factor: Desktop appliance
- Routing Throughput: 8.15 Gbps (iPerf3, Netgate-published)
- NAT Throughput: 3.42 Gbps (Netgate-published)
- CPU: Intel Atom C3338R with QAT, 2 cores @ 1.8 GHz
- RAM: 4 GB
- Software: pfSense Plus (included)
- Lifecycle Status: Discontinued (end of sale); Netgate positions the 4200 as the replacement
Curation Review
- ✔ Pros: Built-in Intel QAT acceleration for AES-GCM IPsec VPN; 4x 2.5GbE LAN ports provide multi-gigabit LAN capacity in a compact desktop form factor; Runs pfSense Plus with no separate software license; Supports optional Suricata or Snort IDS/IPS packages; Dual WAN combo ports (copper or SFP) give fiber or copper uplink flexibility; Large vendor-stated active connection capacity of 4 million
- ✘ Cons: Discontinued and at end of sale, with Netgate directing buyers to the 4200; No published IPS or Threat Prevention throughput, so security-service performance is unverified; IPsec VPN throughput of about 960 Mbps is modest for multi-gigabit sites; Limited 2-core CPU makes heavy IDS/IPS or strong-encryption workloads a bottleneck; Published figures come from older pfSense Plus 22.01 test runs and some third-party listings give conflicting numbers; New sessions per second is not published
- Est. Price: $599 - $699
Compare Against
Ubiquiti Cloud Gateway Max
★ 4.9 Value Score
Technical Specifications
- Firewall Throughput: 2.5 Gbps (routing, IDS/IPS off)
- Threat Prevention Throughput: 1.5 Gbps (IDS/IPS on)
- IPsec VPN Throughput: Not published by Ubiquiti; WireGuard/Site-Magic VPN up to 500 Mbps (third-party review, untested method)
- Max Sessions: Not published
- New Sessions/sec: Not published
- Interfaces: 5x 2.5GbE RJ45 (1 WAN + 4 LAN, one LAN port can be remapped to a second WAN)
- Form Factor: Compact desktop, 142 x 127 x 30 mm, USB-C 5V/5A power (max 16.1 W)
Curation Review
- ✔ Pros: 2.5GbE WAN and LAN ports on a compact, low-power chassis (max 16.1 W); 512GB built-in NVMe storage on the standard SKU for local UniFi data; Integrated UniFi controller with IDS/IPS and no license or subscription fees; Supports 300+ clients and 30+ UniFi devices; Multi-WAN capable through the remappable LAN port
- ✘ Cons: Only 1.5 Gbps with IDS/IPS enabled, well below the 2.5 Gbps routing figure; IPsec VPN throughput, session counts and new sessions per second are not published; No PoE output and no built-in Wi-Fi access point; No LAG/LACP support; 500 Mbps VPN throughput is limiting for high-volume site-to-site tunnels
- Est. Price: $240 - $279