Everything in one pane of glass
From device discovery to AI-powered diagnostics, FreeSDN brings open-source, self-hosted operations into one place: 10 modules, a typed plugin SDK with a signed marketplace, supported apps and hardware labeled by maturity, and multi-provider LLM integration. AGPL-3.0, zero per-device fees.
10
Modules
Network, Cameras, VoIP, Firewall (incl. orchestration), Access Control, Backup, Observability, Hypervisor, Storage, AI
API
OpenAPI Contract
Comprehensive REST API with generated OpenAPI docs and typed response envelopes
Self-hosted
Deployment
Docker-native stack with your credentials and data kept on your infrastructure
No fees
Per-device Pricing
AGPL-3.0 licensed platform with no per-device fees and no phone-home telemetry
RBAC
Access Control
Strict-lower role assignment, per-user site grants, and fail-closed tenant checks
SDK
Plugin System
Typed SDK, Pydantic manifest, permission-declared, namespaced plugins, and trusted-author loading
Works with the gear you already own
12 vendor adapters across networking, firewall, cameras, VoIP, compute, and storage, plus a typed plugin SDK to add your own.
A unified control plane for your infrastructure
FreeSDN is a self-hosted infrastructure controller for evaluation, testing, and homelab use while it moves toward production readiness. It uses a Pydantic-v2 contract layer throughout and is AGPL-3.0 licensed, with no per-device fees, no cloud lock-in, and no phone-home telemetry.
Unified Dashboard
One interface for switches, cameras, phones, firewalls, access control, and backups. Cross-module device correlation shows which switch port a camera connects to and which VLAN a phone uses.
Modular Architecture
10 loaded modules: Network Management, Video Surveillance, VoIP & Telephony, Firewall, Access Control (beta), Configuration Backup, Observability, Compute/Hypervisor, Storage, and AI Assistant (beta). Each has its own models, services, and adapters. Enable only what you need per organization.
Supported Apps & Hardware
Omada, OPNsense, pfSense, MikroTik, Proxmox, Hikvision, FreePBX, Grandstream, UniFi, OpenWrt, TrueNAS, and ONVIF-compatible cameras are labeled by maturity. The UI exposes the capabilities the selected adapter supports.
Layered Security
Argon2id password hashing, TOTP MFA, OIDC + LDAP SSO, strict-lower role assignment, per-user site grants, JWT + CSRF + jti revocation, Fernet credential encryption, central secret redaction on every adapter read, DNS-rebind / SSRF-safe HTTP, and an immutable audit log. Multi-tenancy is enforced at the application layer: organization scoping applied throughout the service layer (fail-closed), with per-user site grants enforced across the reviewed site-scoped modules.
Typed API Contract
A comprehensive REST API covers every managed device type, with OpenAPI generated from Pydantic v2 schemas. Consistent response envelope, cursor pagination, field filtering, sorting, and interactive Swagger UI are available on a running instance.
Multi-Tenant / MSP Ready
Organization-scoped isolation, per-tenant module enablement, per-user site grants, and fail-closed RBAC. Application-layer org-scoped queries run throughout the service layer for managed service providers handling client infrastructure.
Docker-Native Deployment
Core always-on stack: PostgreSQL, TimescaleDB, Valkey, FastAPI, Celery worker, Celery Beat scheduler, pg-backup, and Caddy edge with automatic HTTPS. Optional profiles cover IO workers, monitoring, camera restreaming, connection pooling, off-site DR, metrics, and edge proxying. Non-root execution, resource limits, and named volumes are built in.
Real-Time Events & Alerts
WebSocket push for device status changes, discovery events, and alerts. Celery Beat scheduled polling. Multi-provider notification system. Incident management. SLA-style availability tracking (early access: on-demand reports; FreeSDN itself offers no SLA). Alert rules engine.
Automation & Task Engine
Celery distributed task queue for device polling, discovery scans, configuration sync, firmware updates, scheduled backups, and metrics collection. Auto-retry with exponential backoff. Flower monitoring UI.
Plugin System & SDK
Extend FreeSDN with Python plugins using a typed SDK (DeviceSDK, AlertSDK, EventSDK, SSRF-locked HTTP client). Manifest-driven packaging, Ed25519-signed marketplace, and per-org enablement. Important: the plugin loader is load-time import hygiene: a cooperative trusted-author model, not a security sandbox. ZIP-slip/bomb guards, hash-pinned deps, and per-action permission caps apply.
AI / LLM Integration (Beta)
Multi-provider LLM support for OpenAI, Anthropic, and Ollama via direct httpx. Governance flows from the global kill-switch to per-org policy to PII redaction before any cloud call. Network-aware diagnostics, natural language queries, and full audit trails.
Webhook & Integration Layer
Outbound webhooks with templates, retry policies, and encrypted credentials. Integration adapters for Slack, Teams, PagerDuty, and custom HTTP endpoints. Event-driven delivery with tracking and failure alerts.
Where FreeSDN fits
Single-vendor controllers are excellent within their own ecosystems. FreeSDN's distinct angle is open, vendor-neutral unification: managing many brands across many domains from one pane.
| Feature | FreeSDN | Traditional NMS | UniFi | Omada | Meraki |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Multi-vendor control | |||||
Bidirectional API | |||||
Modular architecture | |||||
Open source | |||||
Self-hosted | |||||
Multi-tenant / MSP | |||||
Cameras & NVR | |||||
VoIP & PBX | |||||
Access control | |||||
Firewall management | |||||
No per-device fees | |||||
Plugin ecosystem | |||||
AI / LLM integration | |||||
Webhook integrations |
A fair note: UniFi, Omada, and Meraki are mature, polished, vendor-supported platforms that go deep within their own ecosystems, and FreeSDN can manage their gear. This isn't a claim that an open, pre-production project is "better," only a map of where open, cross-vendor unification fits.
Free as in freedom
FreeSDN is fully open-source under the AGPLv3 (AGPL-3.0-only) license. No artificial limitations, no "community edition" crippling, no surprise licensing changes.
AGPL-3.0 Licensed
No vendor lock-in, no per-device fees, no phone-home telemetry. Fork it, extend it, build services on top of it. The source is yours.
No Per-Device Fees
Monitor a small lab or a large fleet. FreeSDN charges nothing per device. Compare that to commercial per-device licensing.
Self-Hosted
By default, your credentials and data stay on your own infrastructure. No cloud dependency, no SaaS outage risk, fully air-gappable.
Community-Driven
Built by network engineers for network engineers. Feature requests, bug reports, and pull requests are all welcome.
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