Best VMware Firewall/Router?

Personally, I have not worked with pfSense, hence I cannot put forth my opinions.
Vyatta is solid to be deployed in virtual environments, but the free edition might not be able to provide you all features.

cool thanks for links. does anyone have experience working with these companies after paying for security services. my plan is to use the free version of the router at first and then to upgrade and start using firewall subscriptions so I have it constantly updating to the latest threats. I'm sure all solutions can do what I need on the router side but would be great to hear from users who use fee based subscriptions for live network security updates. thanks.

I don't believe Monowall has a paid version. The situation I described with Monowall and Snort is for a small network I take care of. My main job has all Cisco for firewalls and IDS/IPS - good experience with that but it is all paid and physical devices.

So far Vyatta still seems like the best option for my needs--Untangle and MonoWall don't seem to handle vlans as is listed in my requirements. Smoothwall can do vlan but only with the Advanced version and I can't find pricing anywhere.

Guys I found this video; it's really good and shows how to setup up vlan using Vyatta on vmware. Really cool:
http://vimeo.com/10897479

I was also checking out Endian Firewall software and it looks really cool but still not the best for me. I'd like to make a list of all the best software firewalls and user's experiences for others visiting this page.

Also, has no one out there had experience with paid versions of any of these services?

Thank you

Actually Monowall does have VLAN support. From http://m0n0.ch/wall/features.php

m0n0wall already provides many of the features of expensive commercial firewalls, including:

web interface (supports SSL)
serial console interface for recovery
set LAN IP address
reset password
restore factory defaults
reboot system
wireless support (access point with PRISM-II/2.5/3 cards, BSS/IBSS with other cards including Cisco)
captive portal
802.1Q VLAN support
stateful packet filtering
block/pass rules
logging
NAT/PAT (including 1:1)
DHCP client, PPPoE, PPTP and Telstra BigPond Cable support on the WAN interface
IPsec VPN tunnels (IKE; with support for hardware crypto cards, mobile clients and certificates)
PPTP VPN (with RADIUS server support)
static routes
DHCP server and relay
caching DNS forwarder
DynDNS client and RFC 2136 DNS updater
SNMP agent
traffic shaper
SVG-based traffic grapher
firmware upgrade through the web browser
Wake on LAN client
configuration backup/restore
host/network aliases"

However there is no paid version nor IDS support in the same product - so likely you are right in that Vyatta would be best for you. Just wanted to set the record straight on the VLAN support :)

I'm hosting this firewall as a Virtual Appliance--I'm unsure if monowall supports vlans in a virtual appliance. I suppose it's possible but there aren't any articles on it that I can find so I was skeptical. But yes it does look as if it supports vlans on certain hardware (possibly vmware but undocumented?)

thanks guys