VyOS Reviews & Product Details

I love VyOS for its enterprise-grade feature parity with proprietary tools and its unmatched flexibility. The config-as-code native design and small but impactful quality-of-life features really streamline network management for me. The platform isn't just a 'free open-source router/firewall'; it stands out with these strong capabilities. Also, the initial setup is surprisingly straightforward for basic use cases, making it easy to get started. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The documentation for VyOS is incomplete and disorganized. While the official docs cover the basic features well, they have gaps when it comes to advanced use cases like multi-WAN BGP load balancing or WireGuard site-to-site with VLANs. To set up advanced configurations, I often have to piece together information from various sources like forum posts or community blogs, since there's no single, curated 'enterprise playbook' like what you find with Cisco or Palo Alto. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It's open source. The fact that it can be installed on cheap, readily available hardware. In our case, coming from EdgeOS, the config structure was very familiar. It is very stable. We have been using it increasingly for ~2 years now on an eBGP network and have zero issues. 23 of our 50+ sites have transitioned to VyOS. Every VyOS router we have installed I have walked away from and never came back for a problem. They simply just do what they are supposed to and don't break. We now have 5, and soon a 6th site with multi-gig capacity using the MS-01 hardware. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I cannot honestly think of any downside or reason to not consider VyOS. But I would say that we do not ask a lot of our routers. Basic eBGP, DHCP, and now soon, IPV6. So we are not using a lot of the other features that may have issues that we are not aware of. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Open-Source Flexibility:

VyOS offers enterprise-grade routing, firewall, and VPN capabilities in a fully open-source platform. You can customize and automate almost everything using scripts or APIs, which makes it great for labs, ISPs, and advanced network setups.

Unified CLI & Consistent Configuration:

The command-line interface is very clean and consistent (inspired by JunOS/EdgeOS). It’s easy to learn and manage even complex network topologies once you get used to the syntax.

Wide Feature Set:

Supports dynamic routing (BGP, OSPF, RIP), VPNs (IPSec, OpenVPN, WireGuard), NAT, QoS, VLANs, and high-availability — all in one system without needing extra licensing.

Runs Anywhere:

VyOS works on bare metal, VMs, and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), making it very flexible for hybrid environments. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Steeper Learning Curve for Beginners:

While powerful, VyOS is less beginner-friendly compared to GUI-based routers or firewalls. Everything must be configured via CLI or scripts.

Limited Official Support in Free Version:

Enterprise-grade support and LTS builds are behind a subscription. The free rolling release can occasionally have bugs or unstable updates.

Documentation Gaps:

Some advanced features lack detailed or up-to-date documentation, so troubleshooting can take time or require digging through community forums.

No Native Web GUI:

There’s no built-in graphical interface, which might be a downside for teams that prefer visual management tools. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I appreciate that VyOS is open source, which is a crucial factor for us because it prevents vendor lock-in and allows us flexibility. Its open-source nature also ensures that we are not tied to expensive recurring software subscriptions that come with hardware solutions from major network hardware providers. This gives us the advantage of using commodity hardware that is cost-effective, allowing us to create high-performance routers without the high costs. Additionally, VyOS has a comprehensive set of features that suit our needs, making it a practical choice for our operations. I find VyOS easy to use, which facilitates a smooth transition and operations without the steep learning curve that might be expected with complex network solutions. This ease of use was evident when my colleague, previously accustomed to Cisco and Huawei routers, could get up to speed with VyOS in just two days. VyOS's design alleviates our concerns with hardware maintenance and scaling issues, allowing us to upgrade and extend our network capabilities efficiently without facing downtime or hefty costs of replacing physical routers. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I find the lack of a dedicated interface in VyOS a bit challenging. The documentation could be improved to be more comprehensive, even though support helps to resolve issues. Additionally, there's limited marketing and publicity around VyOS, which affects awareness. This lack of visibility means colleagues are often unfamiliar with it, making it difficult to hire people who already have the necessary knowledge. Recruitment becomes challenging because the talent pool familiar with VyOS is not plentiful. Also, VYOS being a niche product, makes it hard to explain to bank customers why we are using such a uncommon product. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

VyOS gives you a proper network OS without vendor drama. Solid routing (FRR under the hood), a clean declarative config system, easy automation, runs anywhere like bare metal, VM, cloud, containers. For labs, PoCs, branch routers, tunnels, it feels powerful and lightweight at the same time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It’s still a community-driven distro, so support isn’t like calling TAC at 3 a.m. Some features lag behind big vendors, and upgrades sometimes feel a bit “Linux-y” rather than appliance-smooth. GUI basically doesn’t exist; you live in CLI and API. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I like most about VyOS is how clean and easy the interface feels. It gives me all the advanced network features I need, but without feeling heavy or complicated. It’s reliable, flexible, and just makes networking tasks feel smoother. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

If I had to pick something, it would be the documentation. It’s good, but not always beginner-friendly. Sometimes I have to dig through forums or GitHub issues to understand how something works. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It’s stable, flexible, and provides the features I need without unnecessary complexity. I also like that it’s easy to manage and configure. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Some features can feel a bit limited or require extra setup, and there’s a learning curve for certain configurations. Occasional documentation gaps can also make troubleshooting slower. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

great value for money and able to perform everything we need it to. support is great. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

it's a little new for us so it's taking some time to figure it out. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Vyos is my go-to for router/firewall distributions. It's pretty much a swiss army knife of router/firewalls thanks to the extensive feature list.

Vyos is a highly versatile networking solution that can be deployed on a range of hardware, from low-powered mini PCs for basic home routing to high-performance enterprise servers and virtual machines. This flexibility allows it to cater to a wide variety of users, regardless of their environment or specific needs.

Vyos supports advanced routing topologies and a comprehensive range of routing protocols. It also offers robust VPN support, including protocols like WireGuard, IPSec, and OpenVPN.

Recent versions have integrated HAProxy, which has proven to be extremely useful. The firewall configuration is intuitive, easy to manage, and effective.

By far, the command-line interface is my favourite feature of Vyos. It makes setting up firewall rules, NAT rules, QoS rules, site-to-site, or roadwarrior VPNs extremely easy to implement. I haven't seen any other router/firewall distribution with such a versatile and easy-to-use command-line interface.

Vyos also has an API which can be used to configure Vyos using tools like Terraform or Ansible.

The documentation is generally excellent, featuring many examples. While some sections may occasionally be slightly out of date, it’s usually easy to adapt them to newer versions with minor command adjustments.

I haven't had to talk to customer support directly, but I have reported bugs via their bug tracker, all of which have been promptly resolved. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I can't really think of anything I dislike about VyOS. I've been able to do everything I've wanted to do in VyOS pretty easily.

If I had to be extremely picky the only thing I would say is, even though there is VyOS Stream coming soon, it would be nice if there were something like a lower cost home user/self-service/hobbyist license option to get access to the normal LTS release. Though with Stream coming soon, and with the nightly builds being pretty stable it's not a massive concern, just something that might be a good option as some users (including me!) would prefer to run LTS at home to match what we have in our "production" environments. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Works great with small applicances, as VM, with great performance. Its ability to have advanced routing, switching, multicast-routig, vpn with ipsec is outstanding. documentation is ok but in many points not complete

Update (20240818) - as I am testing version 1.4.0 I also see that the documentation is getting better and a lot of effort is put into scripts to automatically convert older configurations into compatible ones for the newer version. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I missed most the option to use eliptic curves in ipsec connections (rsa suported and with "bad hack" ecdsa is also possible) and that the documentation is not complete and leave a lot of questions open (when you dive into more advanced areas), i also would like to have IPv6 to be able to turn off (all option available do not work), and i do not like that they removed tshark from recent version - it was not perfect as it has display issued when debugging vpn interfaces (would be helpfull if the output would have stated which point in the precess queue the packet displayed is from - e.g. you see non encrypted packages on the tunnel interface - but measuring direct on an external device everything is ok). thats it for now - please do not get the impression there are more bad than good thing - i really love VyOS

Update (20240818) - I am in the evaluation phase of VyOS Version 1.4.0 and I have to say that version is a major step in the right direction. My beloved eliptic curves (ECDSA) are supported out of the box (no patch needed anymore) for public key materials, logging of IPsec is much better, and the new firewall implementation is now able to control any packet flow originating from VyOS (was not true for older versions). My IPv6 problem can be addressed now with the appropriate firewall rules.

I also found an IGMP handling bug in the version 1.3.6, which could be found and fixed with the superb help of the VyOS support. The time to fix was incredible fast compared to traditional support I used in the past for other network software/hardware like Cisco or HPE. I am really thankful for that. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.