Sold by: Cohesive Networks
Deployed on AWS
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VNS3 is a software-only controller that can run standalone, in a distributed transit mesh, in a single cloud or multicloud deployment. It provides a Firewall, Router, IPsec / OpenVPN / WireGuard® VPN, BGP, NAT Gateway, Transit Gateway, and more.
4.3
Overview
VNS3 in AWS allows customers to deliver improved security, connectivity, and compliance while minimizing complexity. Our multicoud network controller can be deployed as a router, switch, site-to-site IPsec VPN, People VPN, firewall, protocol re-distributor, or any combination of functions you want.
Fully Encrypt ALL Data-in-Motion and Own Your Security VNS3 supports a wide range of encryption algorithms and connection parameters to facilitate compliance with industry regulations (like HIPAA, PCI, FIPS, etc.), internal requirements, or the demands of connecting parties. VNS3 encrypts all data in motion to, from, and within the cloud allowing you to control your cryptographic keys. VNS3 extends the capabilities of your Azure deployment by ensuring that all traffic is encrypted between your virtual networks, regions, and other cloud providers.
Unparalleled Support for Advanced Networking Use-Cases VNS3 subnets can span virtual networks, regions and clouds, easily handling the headache of address overlap. VNS3 also offers the advantage of BGP active-active connections, preferred peer lists, and our high-availability, instance-based IPsec failover add-on.
Customize Your Network With a Plugin Platform in Your Edge VNS3 is flexible and extensible; add SSL termination, load balancing, content caching, intrusion detection, or other network services directly to your VNS3 instance using our ever-expanding list of partner plugins including popular Open Source projects like Suricata, Snort, Zeek, HAproxy, NGINX, Varnish, Squid, OWASP ZAP and more.
Easy Implementation and Management Implement and integrate VNS3 with existing network equipment without any new knowledge or training for your developers and cloud architects. Empower your team to do everything from connecting a secure & flexible VPN IPsec tunnel to managing complex cross-cloud networks. Dynamically launch and configure your overlay network in minutes using the REST API, web-based UI, or popular automation frameworks like Ansible, Azure Resource Manager templates, or Terraform.
Connect to your existing monitoring systems using SNMP or Netflow and integrate to SaaS monitoring systems like DataDog and SumoLogic with ease.
VNS3 supports connecting to most IPsec data center solutions, as well as to Cloud Service Providers: Cisco Systems, Juniper, Watchguard, Dell SONICWALL, Netgear, Fortinet, Barracuda Networks, Check Point, Zyxel USA, McAfee Retail, Citrix Systems, Hewlett Packard, D-Link, WatchGuard, Palo Alto Networks, LibreSwan, OpenSwan, pfSense, Vyatta, AWS VPN, Google VPN, Azure VPN, and more.
Highlights
- Next Generation Network Security Appliance: firewall, VPN concentrator (IPsec and TLS), router, switch, protocol redistributor, application delivery controller (layer 4 - layer 7 network services plugin system), and scriptable/dynamic SDN.
- End-to-End Encryption of all data in motion to/from/between clouds via the Overlay Network unique to Cohesive Networks VNS3. Create an encrypted and highly available network deployed across availability zones, regions and clouds.
- Easier, faster and more secure than the alternatives. VNS3 was first to cloud and is approaching 1 billion device hours in production deployments.
Details
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Delivery method
Delivery option
64-bit (x86) Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
Latest version
Operating system
OtherLinux 6.7.8
Deployed on AWS
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Pricing
Free trial
Try this product free for 29 days according to the free trial terms set by the vendor. Usage-based pricing is in effect for usage beyond the free trial terms. Your free trial gets automatically converted to a paid subscription when the trial ends, but may be canceled any time before that.
Pricing is based on actual usage, with charges varying according to how much you consume. Subscriptions have no end date and may be canceled any time. Alternatively, you can pay upfront for a contract, which typically covers your anticipated usage for the contract duration. Any usage beyond contract will incur additional usage-based costs.
Additional AWS infrastructure costs may apply. Use the AWS Pricing Calculator to estimate your infrastructure costs.
If you are an AWS Free Tier customer with a free plan, you are eligible to subscribe to this offer. You can use free credits to cover the cost of eligible AWS infrastructure. See AWS Free Tier for more details. If you created an AWS account before July 15th, 2025, and qualify for the Legacy AWS Free Tier, Amazon EC2 charges for Micro instances are free for up to 750 hours per month. See Legacy AWS Free Tier for more details.
Dimension | Cost/hour |
|---|---|
t3a.small Recommended | $0.20 |
t3.micro | $0.20 |
m4.4xlarge | $0.20 |
r5.24xlarge | $0.20 |
h1.2xlarge | $0.20 |
r5.large | $0.20 |
i2.2xlarge | $0.20 |
r5d.xlarge | $0.20 |
r3.xlarge | $0.20 |
p3.8xlarge | $0.20 |
Vendor refund policy
We do not currently support refunds, but you can cancel at any time.
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Delivery details
64-bit (x86) Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
An AMI is a virtual image that provides the information required to launch an instance. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instances are virtual servers on which you can run your applications and workloads, offering varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking resources. You can launch as many instances from as many different AMIs as you need.
Version release notes
Version 6.7.8 includes various bug fixes, enhancements, and optimizations. For more information, see the VNS3 Release Notes - https://docs.cohesive.net/docs/vns3/release-notes/ .
Cohesive Networks support staff is available to help with your deployment or upgrade. Create a ticket on our support system (http://support.cohesive.net ) for assistance.
Additional details
Usage instructions
Once the instance is running, access the UI via browser at https://<public_dns>:8000 with vnscubed as the username and the instance id as the password (See Configuration Document).
Note: The default 0.0.0.0/0 rule enables universal initial connectivity but should be restricted to the IP(s) used for VNS3 controller management post-deployment.
Resources
Support
Vendor support
Standard support included - support@cohesive.net
AWS infrastructure support
AWS Support is a one-on-one, fast-response support channel that is staffed 24x7x365 with experienced and technical support engineers. The service helps customers of all sizes and technical abilities to successfully utilize the products and features provided by Amazon Web Services.
Updated weekly
By Cohesive Networks
By Juniper Networks
By Check Point Software Technologies
Sentiment is AI generated from actual customer reviews on AWS and G2
Functionality
Ease of use
Customer service
Cost effectiveness
Positive reviews
Mixed reviews
Negative reviews
AI generated from product descriptions
VPN Protocol Support
Supports IPsec, OpenVPN, and WireGuard VPN protocols for secure site-to-site and remote access connectivity
Encryption and Key Management
Encrypts all data in motion across cloud deployments with support for multiple encryption algorithms and cryptographic key control
Advanced Routing Capabilities
Provides BGP active-active connections, NAT gateway functionality, transit gateway capabilities, and preferred peer list configuration
Plugin Architecture for Network Services
Extensible plugin platform supporting integration of third-party network services including Suricata, Snort, Zeek, HAproxy, NGINX, Varnish, and Squid
Multi-Cloud Network Deployment
Enables overlay network spanning virtual networks, regions, and multiple cloud providers with address overlap handling and cross-cloud connectivity
Intrusion Detection and Prevention
Intrusion detection and prevention (IPS) capabilities for threat detection and mitigation
Application Security and Visibility
Application visibility and control through AppSecure with L4-L7 security services
VPN and Secure Connectivity
IPsec and full mesh VPN termination services for secure connectivity across on-premises data centers, campuses, branches, and geographically dispersed VPCs
Cloud-Native Integration
Integration with AWS services including Elastic Load Balancer, Auto-Scaling Groups, CloudWatch, Security Hub, Key Management Service, and Gateway Load Balancer (GWLB) with L3 gateway and L4 load balancer capabilities
Advanced Routing and Network Services
Cloud-grade routing capabilities with NAT, firewall, and network address translation services
Advanced Threat Prevention Capabilities
Firewall, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), application control, IPsec VPN, URL filtering, antivirus, and anti-bot protection against known and unknown threats.
Network Traffic Inspection and Control
Inspects and secures encrypted data flows between on-premises networks and AWS VPCs, including North-South traffic entering and exiting private subnets and East-West traffic between VPCs.
Unified Security Management
Centralized management via Check Point CloudGuard Security Management Server enabling consistent policy, log, and report management across AWS, hybrid, and on-premises environments.
Infrastructure-as-Code Integration
Integrates with Terraform and Ansible for policy automation and cloud-native scaling with dynamic adaptation of security policies based on real-time cloud metadata.
AWS Service Integration
Supports Gateway Load Balancer, AWS Security Hub, VPC Ingress Routing, AWS Traffic Mirroring, AWS Transit Gateway, AWS Outposts, and Amazon Macie with deployment options including auto-scaling groups and multi-AZ redundancy.
Standard contract
No
No
No
Customer reviews
Shivam Dhang
Secure multi-cloud connectivity has simplified VPN deployment and unified firewall control
Reviewed on Feb 19, 2026
Review from a verified AWS customer
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for VNS3 is secure multi-cloud and hybrid connectivity, using VNS3 as an overlay VPN controller. I use it for IPsec site-to-site tunnels, encrypted mesh between cloud VPCs, and centralized firewall control without modifying native cloud networking.
For example, I have deployed VNS3 in AWS to build encrypted IPsec tunnels between multiple customer VPCs and on-premises data centers. Instead of going through complex native peering plus firewall changes, VNS3 provided an overall mesh plus policy-based routing, reducing deployment time by fifty percent and simplifying MSP multi-tenant isolation.
What is most valuable?
The top three features that VNS3 offers are encrypted overlay networking, centralized firewall plus routing policies across clouds, and multi-cloud connectivity without native peering complexity, along with VPN orchestration and key management via controller APIs.
Additional valuable features in VNS3 include containerized deployment capabilities, cloud infrastructure and DevOps tooling integration, and fine-grained traffic steering without route controls.
VNS3 improved secure connectivity across multi-cloud and on-premises environments without complex native peering. It reduced VPN setup time, standardized firewall and routing policies, and provided clear encrypted traffic paths for compliance and MSP tenant isolation. Using VNS3, I saw forty to sixty percent faster VPN deployment versus native cloud plus firewall configurations, a thirty percent reduction in network change tickets due to centralized policy control, and lower infrastructure costs by avoiding dedicated hardware VPN appliances per customer.
What needs improvement?
The areas where VNS3 could be improved include native integration with cloud providers such as SD-WAN or transit services, deeper telemetry and analytics, and simpler GUI workflows for large multi-tenant setups.
Additional improvement ideas for VNS3 would be template-based multi-tenant deployments for MSP scales and Zero Trust micro-segmentation policies tied to identity or context.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using VNS3 for three or more years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
VNS3 is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
VNS3 scales well horizontally. I can add controller instances per region or tenant and mesh via IPsec. Throughput and peer count depend on instance size, so planning capacity and automation matter for large or multi-tenant deployment.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support is great. The team is knowledgeable and provides faster responses.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used native cloud VPN plus hardware VPN appliances. I switched to VNS3 to get a software-defined overlay, centralized policy control, and easier multi-cloud hybrid networking without managing separate devices per customer.
Before choosing VNS3, I evaluated native cloud site-to-site VPN, which limited me for centralized control and complex multi-cloud orchestration. I also evaluated SD-WAN solutions, which are good for branch edges but are less flexible for cloud overlay. I chose VNS3 for its software-defined encrypted overlay and multi-cloud policy consistency.
How was the initial setup?
Setup cost is moderate; it requires network planning and key management, but deployment is straightforward with infrastructure as code.
What about the implementation team?
I am a customer with no other business relationship with this vendor.
What was our ROI?
Using VNS3 for the last three years, I saw measurable return on investment, including saving time on deploying VPN, which is forty to fifty percent versus native cloud plus firewall work. Operational efficiency improved because of the centralized control, and network change tickets have been reduced by thirty percent. I have also eliminated the need for dedicated hardware VPN appliances per customer.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing or licensing is predictable. It is instance-based plus bandwidth tiers but can rise with heavy throughput or many endpoints.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing VNS3, I evaluated native cloud site-to-site VPN, which limited me for centralized control and complex multi-cloud orchestration. I also evaluated SD-WAN solutions, which are good for branch edges but are less flexible for cloud overlay.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate VNS3 an eight overall. I chose an eight because it is strong for secure multi-cloud VPN overlay, policy control, and MSP tenant isolation. I cut two points because it could improve in advanced telemetry, native cloud integration, and large-scale automation.
If anyone is considering VNS3, I would recommend clearly designing the IP plan, routing model, and tenant isolation upfront. Validating throughput sizing and HA design earlier for multi-region MSP scale is important. My overall rating for this product is eight out of ten.
Xavier
A complete network security solution
Reviewed on Jul 17, 2017
Review from a verified AWS customer
I heard about VNS3 at the AWS Summit in london and I was immediately interested. Upon trying an evaluation copy of the software I was taken aback by the ease of use and the number of options possible to set up a secure network solution.
I am still exploring the various topographies and solutions possible with VNS3 and undoubtedly I will be using this product in the months to come.
Reza Lowsky
CohesiveFT
Reviewed on Jul 29, 2014
Review from a verified AWS customer
Yess this cool Software. Nothing Problem like RD Winserv2012.. Sure I Preffered this Software!! Nice! but i dont understand how to active VPN Service :D
Denes Magyar
It works as advertised, there are open source alternatives
Reviewed on Jul 25, 2014
Review from a verified AWS customer
The product works as advertised - I mainly used as a firewall in front of my lab. I personally prefer something immensely secure for my bastion firewalls like OpenBSD's PF but as a second layer this could serve well - also can provide VPN functionality.