# OpenSnitch

27 Hacker News commenters recommended OpenSnitch and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a free, open source firewall that alerts on new outbound connections; critics find the UI lacking.

## Why people recommend it

- Free and open source code (4 comments): "OpenSnitch is open source. You don't need to trust it as you can see the code yourself." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47698003)) "It is free, no subscription at all and truly open source." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47698286)) "being a linux user I value openness of code" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47698363))
- Blocks unexpected outbound connections (4 comments): "use a application firewall (which you should anyways) like opensnitch to only allow connections to sites that make sense" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46323505)) "Much better defense against data exfil if you reject outbound connections to unexpected/unwanted hosts." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48191680)) "you can also use tools to restrict outbound connections by binary/ip/host/port such as OpenSnitch" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50167336))
- Works well for most software (3 comments): "i have been pretty happy with opensnitch" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47705189)) "OpenSnitch does a pretty good job here" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47698071)) "But for most software it works great." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47700621))
- Shows what software phones home (2 comments): "Run OpenSnitch for a while and you'll quickly realize how much of your system does phone home." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47701195)) "I use OpenSnitch, which alerts me about all new connections." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46004982))

## What people warn about

- Weak UI and few drill-down features (2 comments): "Opensnitch looks better but doesn't have the nice features to drill down connections" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47722231)) "OpenSnitch is great software in terms of functionality but I find the UI lacking" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47702040))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Little Snitch](https://hackerapproved.com/p/little-snitch.md): 75 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

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "OpenSnitch", https://hackerapproved.com/p/opensnitch/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).