router Should I use pfsense, opnsense, or just get a retail router

[JuliusW]

I know the customizability of opensense but I also think it might be ok to just use a regular router, but I’m doing home lab kinda things and just want a couple peoples opinion, my family likes to do tons of streaming videos and I like video editing/server hosting.

[WereCatf]

8 minutes ago, JuliusW said:

my family likes to do tons of streaming videos and I like video editing

None of that requires anything a budget router couldn't do.

8 minutes ago, JuliusW said:

server hosting

Depending on what you do, a more capable router-OS like e.g. pfSense or OpenWRT could be useful. It entirely depends on your needs, though.

[Dujith]

I would get an Edgerouter 3 lite for your usecase, it has many options to dive into if you want (beyond the basic port forwarding and such).

 

 

[Jarsky]

You can get a NetGate appliance that already has pfSense on it. 

you could get a Ubiquiti Edgerouter 3 Lite / Edgerouter 4

You could get a Microtik RB2011

You could get any number of high end consumer routers like a Nighthawk and run DDWRT

 

The list is pretty endless on what you could run, but at the end of the day running more than a standard consumer router isnt required for just a household streaming some videos. 

You really are looking more at higher end gear if you're doing VLAN's/Multiple Subnets, lots of NAT, Intrusion prevention, load balancing, etc....

 

[Sevilla]

If you don’t particularly care to work on learning anything on networking/VLANs/VPN/etc, then get a standard router you can buy on Amazon or at any box retail store.

If you actually want to get your feet wet then I recommend either getting a router you can flash to DD-WRT/Tomato or turn an old PC into a PFSense router (you’ll just need a spare NIC card to add to it.)
 

Pfsense makes more sense for the sake of learning because of all the functionality and plugins you can download and use.

[Kered124]

10 hours ago, Sevilla said:

If you actually want to get your feet wet then I recommend either getting a router you can flash to DD-WRT/Tomato or turn an old PC into a PFSense router (you’ll just need a spare NIC card to add to it.)

Yes; if you have an interest in learning some networking stuff, PFsense has been awesome to me. I have not seen stability out of a router better than the PFsense appliance and PFsense VM that I use for my projects.