Welcome to FreeBSD

FreeBSD is an operating system used to power modern servers, desktops, and embedded platforms. A large community has continually developed it for more than thirty years. Its advanced networking, security, and storage features have made FreeBSD the platform of choice for many of the busiest web sites and most pervasive embedded networking and storage devices.

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Get Started

We recommend the latest production release. See the Handbook for installation steps.

Release Date Download
14.2
production
 Dec '24 amd64 aarch64 others
13.5
legacy
 Mar '25 amd64 aarch64 others
13.4
legacy
 Sep '24 amd64 aarch64 others
14.3
upcoming
 Jun '25 schedule testing
15.0
upcoming
 Dec '25 schedule

Once installed, stay up-to-date. For more options, see releases and pre-release snapshots.

Why FreeBSD?

Explore key features and the project FAQ for many more insights.

Native ZFS

OpenZFS is a mature, sophisticated, and much-loved file system. FreeBSD is one of the only operating systems to offer it as a fully integrated feature and not as manual add-on. This means it's painless to choose ZFS from the installer, and you won't have to worry during system upgrades.

Virtualization

FreeBSD comes with bhyve, a feature-rich type 2 hypervisor. bhyve supports virtio hardware, PCI passthrough, and high-performance emulated NVMe. Run bhyve(8) directly, or leverage tools like vm-bhyve(8) to simplify management of virtual machines.

Jails

FreeBSD jails are isolated environments that allow you to partition your system's workload. Want to run a web server with its own isolated file system and networking? Put it in a jail. Use the built-in jail(8) command or leverage tools like Bastille to make jail management trivial.

Networking

FreeBSD has long been known for its execellent networking performance. Today companies like Netflix rely on the performance and stability of FreeBSD's network stack to handle some of the most demanding loads in the world.

Documentation

FreeBSD prides itself in having comprehensive, well-written documentation. You'll find it on the documentation page, and perhaps more importantly you'll find it as part of the FreeBSD OS itself. Tools like apropos(1) make finding docs simple.

Community

The FreeBSD community is vibrant and collaborative. Engage virtually on IRC, Discord, or the mailing lists; or attend a FreeBSD event. And be sure to checkout all the community engagement driven by the FreeBSD Foundation.

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