Starting with the upcoming release of pfSense® 2.4.4, all of the services previously offered under “pfSense Gold” will continue, but will be free to all pfSense users. Read on for more detail.

pfSense Gold is an annual subscription program that includes:

A living digital copy of The pfSense Book (700+ pages) in HTML, PDF and other formats, available for immediate viewing after purchasing

Monthly online Hangouts, a video conference hosted by core developers with occasional special guests. Previews of all Hangouts, as well as full recordings of pfSense Hangouts over 12 months old, can be found on our videos page

Access to our AutoConfigBackup (ACB) secure online backup service for up to 10 hosts. Additional ACB host extensions can be purchased for up to 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, and 200 hosts.

Access to the pfSense Virtual Security Gateway Appliance for VMware®

A one year subscription to pfSense Gold was included with all Netgate® pfSense appliances purchased after May 31, 2017.

Beginning with Release 2.4.4 (planned for early September 2018), the following changes will go into effect:

An online HTML version of The pfSense Book will be made available for free from netgate.com (a URL will be provided at the time of 2.4.4. availability)

All online pfSense Hangouts will be made available from our Netgate YouTube channel Currently, one year or older Hangouts have already been copied from Vimeo (the prior Gold Subscription video portal) to YouTube As of Release 2.4.4, pfSense Hangouts less than 1 year old will also be made freely available

ACB will be provided for free through a new integrated capability, as opposed to the prior “package” Current Gold subscribers running pfSense 2.4.3 or lower will still be able to use the existing AutoConfigBackup package The package will no longer be available for new installations 2.4.4 users will still have access to old backups, but new backups will only be created by the new integrated ACB The old backup system will no longer be available after 12 months from the release of 2.4.4

pfSense Virtual Security Gateway Appliance specifically certified for VMware will be discontinued

In preparation for 2.4.4, the ACB changes are going into effect this week. If you install a new development snapshot, you may see new functionality on the services menu.

You can view the new ACB documentation for details.

You may be wondering why we made this change, and why now?

The pfSense book and the monthly pfSense Hangouts have proven valuable to many over the years. We decided to open them up to all for free. This brings us to ACB.

We’ve always believed ACB is useful, and that everyone should have it. But, the resource usage required by the package design meant we had to pass some costs onto users. Earlier this year, the Netgate development team rewrote ACB - enabling us to make it available for free. Additionally, while the legacy package version relied on a username/password and a hostname, the new integrated ACB conforms to GDPR best practices. No private information at all is passed to ACB servers.

Finally, we’d like to thank all who believe in the pfSense project, and especially those who purchased a Gold subscription as a means of showing their support. That has helped us to continue to pay Netgate engineers to improve the book, create monthly hangouts, maintain and improve the project. For those who purchased a $99 Gold Subscription after January 1, 2018, you’ll still have everything you purchased, but we’d like to provide you with a $50 discount on any new Netgate appliance purchased before January 1, 2019. We’ll contact you directly to share more details.

If you have any questions, please contact Netgate Support.