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 UniFi Cloud Gateway Fiber
★ 5.0 Value Score
Technical Specifications
- Firewall Throughput: Not published by Ubiquiti; 5 Gbps IDS/IPS-secured routing throughput is the only headline figure (reviewer and retailer listings)
- Threat Prevention Throughput: 5 Gbps IDS/IPS
- IPsec VPN Throughput: Not published
- Max Sessions: Not published; 500+ simultaneous users and 4,000-entry MAC address table
- New Sessions/sec: Not published
- Interfaces: 2x 10G SFP+; 1x 10GbE RJ45 (10G/2.5G/1G); 4x 2.5GbE RJ45 (2.5G/1G/100M/10M); 2 of the 6 WAN-capable ports are default WAN (1x 10G SFP+ and 1x 10GbE RJ45), with the other ports selectable as WAN
- Form Factor: Compact desktop; 212.8 x 127.6 x 30 mm; 675 g without SSD
- CPU / RAM: Quad-core ARM Cortex-A73 at 2.2 GHz / 3 GB RAM
- Storage: Optional NVMe SSD up to 2 TB (NVR storage)
- PoE Budget: 30W total from one PoE+ port (port 4)
- Max Power Consumption: 29.4W excluding PoE output
Curation Review
- ✔ Pros: Lowest-cost Ubiquiti gateway with 5 Gbps IDS/IPS, rated above the UDM-SE's 3.5 Gbps at a lower launch price ($279 MSRP vs. $499); Multi-gig flexibility with 10GBASE-T, dual SFP+ and four 2.5GbE ports; Compact desktop design with optional NVMe storage for UniFi Protect/NVR use; Supports site-to-site VPN plus OpenVPN, WireGuard and L2TP server functions, with integrated PoE+ for one device; Managed through the UniFi Network controller with 500+ simultaneous user capacity
- ✘ Cons: No official routing, IPsec or WireGuard throughput figures published by Ubiquiti; community WireGuard numbers (around 400-500 Mbps) are unverified; Only one PoE+ output port (30W total) versus eight PoE ports on the UDM-SE; Lower device and user capacity and less storage expansion than the UDM-SE; No published IPsec tunnel or concurrent session limits; Reseller prices now often run above the launch MSRP (about $320-$346 USD at US resellers)
- Est. Price: $279 - $346