firewalld
Ranked 6 of 8 firewalls by recommenders
Recommended as a maintainable alternative to UFW that won't grow unwieldy, but critics find its interface and zone concepts complicated.
Recommended as a maintainable alternative to UFW that won't grow unwieldy, but critics find its interface and zone concepts complicated.
17 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 65%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Stays maintainable, unlike UFW rules
“firewalld is a much better pick in current year and will not grow unmaintainable the way UFW rules can.”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “I got hacked: My Hetzner server started mining Monero” “firewalld is a much better pick in current year and will not grow unmaintainable the way UFW rules can”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “I got hacked: My Hetzner server started mining Monero” “will not grow unmaintainable the way UFW rules can”
Comment from 17 Dec 2025 in “I got hacked: My Hetzner server started mining Monero” Better pick than UFW currently
“firewalld is a much better pick in current year”
Comment from 17 Dec 2025 in “I got hacked: My Hetzner server started mining Monero” “firewalld is a much better pick in current year and will not grow unmaintainable the way UFW rules can.”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “I got hacked: My Hetzner server started mining Monero” “firewalld is a much better pick in current year and will not grow unmaintainable the way UFW rules can”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “I got hacked: My Hetzner server started mining Monero”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Complicated UX and zone concepts
“Why should I bother learning about zones and abstract away ports, adresses, interfaces etc.”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “I got hacked: My Hetzner server started mining Monero” “The problem with firewalld is that it has the worst UX of any program I know.”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “I got hacked: My Hetzner server started mining Monero” “firewall-cmd is way too complicated”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “I got hacked: My Hetzner server started mining Monero”
Other firewalls people recommend
The four most recommended other firewalls, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pf (OpenBSD Packet Filter) | 53 | 7 | 88% | 11 | — | Approved |
| nftables | 29 | 10 | 74% | 8 | — | Approved |
| LuLu firewall | 27 | 3 | 90% | 9 | — | Approved |
| iptables | 15 | 22 | 41% | 7 | — | — |
| firewalldThis page | 11 | 6 | 65% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
13 of the 18 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Firewalld had a similar issue up until recently as well.”
“firewalld supports docker and handles all of its routing/changes.”
“firewalld couldn't do what I wanted”
“firewall-cmd is way too complicated”
“UFW and Firewall-CMD both just use iptables in that context though.”
“Why should I bother learning about zones and abstract away ports, adresses, interfaces etc.”
“firewalld is a much better pick in current year and will not grow unmaintainable the way UFW rules can.”
“The problem with firewalld is that it has the worst UX of any program I know.”
“Configuration is backed by xml files in /etc/firewalld and /usr/lib/firewalld”
“firewalld is a much better pick in current year and will not grow unmaintainable the way UFW rules can”
“since firewalld requires D-Bus”
“will not grow unmaintainable the way UFW rules can”
“firewalld is a much better pick in current year”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.