# Little Snitch 75 Hacker News commenters recommended Little Snitch and 39 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Shows every connection each app makes and lets you allow or block each one. Critics note it cannot stop trackers served from essential domains. ## Why people recommend it - Shows each app's connections clearly (4 comments): "it gives you much finer control over what's getting blocked and much better visibility into what connections your processes are trying to make" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47704995)) "LittleSnitch definitely has a better UI for showing which process is making which connections over time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47698071)) "it tells you every call that every app you use is making, and allows you to approve or deny each one" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47698218)) - Lets you allow or deny connections (4 comments): "it gives you much finer control over what's getting blocked and much better visibility into what connections your processes are trying to make" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47704995)) "it tells you every call that every app you use is making, and allows you to approve or deny each one" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47698218)) "Little snitch is the best solution for firewalling off applications from the network" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50081125)) - Alerts on suspicious outbound connections (5 comments): "if @op would have had Lulu or LittleSnitch installed, they would probably have noticed (and blocked) suspicious outbound connections" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47534477)) "why would any macOS user not use a network firewall like this, or similar, to block unwanted outgoing HTTP(s) requests" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46851824)) "it would have warned me when the compromised script would have called home to that endpoint on the non-standard port" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49171481)) - Blocks telemetry and update checks (4 comments): "used Little Snitch to make sure I'm never getting an update downloaded or nagged about ever again" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46714655)) "I've been using Little Snitch for the past few years and just block all the telemetry calls." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47233983)) "Thankfully I have Little Snitch to catch most of those kind of invasions of my privacy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47990441)) ## What people warn about - Can't stop trackers on essential domains (3 comments): "LittleSnitch or other application firewalls won't help when programs like package managers legitimately need to access the Internet" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48899899)) "Little Snitch only sees the domains so apps can just serve the trackers on the same domain as essential services" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48616915)) "LittleSnich or whatever is no help - oftentimes data is collected by the app/site directly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47432842)) - Linux version crashes or hogs resources (3 comments): "Same issue, in my case only eating up half of my cores but with 100% utilization, webUI not working." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47700561)) "It crashed my Fedora 43 installation (maxed out CPU and RAM) right after installing from .rpm." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47713109)) "Little Snitch version 1.0.0 does not currently work with the Btrfs file system!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47702482)) - Closed source raises trust concerns (2 comments): "Pointing out that a "privacy" tool has a closed-source brain isn't an attack on the dev, it's just a heads-up" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47710142)) "through automatic updates, a vendor can run any code, with any privileges, on your machine, at any time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47698640)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [OpenSnitch](https://hackerapproved.com/p/opensnitch.md): 27 recommend - [NetGuard](https://hackerapproved.com/p/netguard.md): 22 recommend - [Portmaster](https://hackerapproved.com/p/portmaster.md): 8 recommend - [Local Privacy Firewall](https://hackerapproved.com/p/local-privacy-firewall.md): 5 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Little Snitch", https://hackerapproved.com/p/little-snitch/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).