OpenSnitch
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 5 application firewalls by recommenders
Recommended as a free, open source firewall that alerts on new outbound connections; critics find the UI lacking.
Recommended as a free, open source firewall that alerts on new outbound connections; critics find the UI lacking.
32 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 27
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 84%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 27 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, 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
Free and open source code
“OpenSnitch is open source. You don't need to trust it as you can see the code yourself.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “LittleSnitch for Linux” “It is free, no subscription at all and truly open source.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “LittleSnitch for Linux” “being a linux user I value openness of code”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “LittleSnitch for Linux” - Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “LittleSnitch for Linux”
Blocks unexpected outbound connections
“use a application firewall (which you should anyways) like opensnitch to only allow connections to sites that make sense”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?” “Much better defense against data exfil if you reject outbound connections to unexpected/unwanted hosts.”
Comment from 19 May 2026 in “Mini Shai-Hulud Strikes Again: 314 npm Packages Compromised” “you can also use tools to restrict outbound connections by binary/ip/host/port such as OpenSnitch”
Comment from 20 Oct 2026 in “Plex vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild to drop a cryptominer” - Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “I got hacked: My Hetzner server started mining Monero”
Works well for most software
“i have been pretty happy with opensnitch”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “LittleSnitch for Linux” “OpenSnitch does a pretty good job here”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “LittleSnitch for Linux” “But for most software it works great.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “LittleSnitch for Linux” Shows what software phones home
“Run OpenSnitch for a while and you'll quickly realize how much of your system does phone home.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “LittleSnitch for Linux” “I use OpenSnitch, which alerts me about all new connections.”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “Ask HN: Securing Pip and NPM package use?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Weak UI and few drill-down features
“Opensnitch looks better but doesn't have the nice features to drill down connections”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “LittleSnitch for Linux” “OpenSnitch is great software in terms of functionality but I find the UI lacking”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “LittleSnitch for Linux”
Other application firewalls people recommend
The four most recommended other application 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Little Snitch | 75 | 39 | 66% | 12 | — | — |
| OpenSnitchThis page | 27 | 5 | 84% | 10 | — | Approved |
| NetGuard | 22 | 4 | 85% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Portmaster | 8 | 2 | 80% | 6 | — | — |
| Local Privacy Firewall | 5 | 1 | 83% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
37 of the 43 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Fist program to be installed.”
“you can also use tools to restrict outbound connections by binary/ip/host/port such as OpenSnitch”
“Try running OpenSnitch for a demonstration.”
“opensnitch is useful for that”
“OpenSnitch, Little Snitch and PiHole can help you with all of these things.”
“There are also adaptive application firewalls that are user friendly.”
“use OpenSnitch (or Lulu, Glasswire, ZoneAlarm anyone?:D etc) to actually analyze”
“Still doesn’t negate the value of OpenSwitch, since the majority of malware won’t do that.”
“Sandboxing + OpenSnitch is good stuff.”
“Much better defense against data exfil if you reject outbound connections to unexpected/unwanted hosts.”
“Opensnitch looks better but doesn't have the nice features to drill down connections”
“How anyone could trust OpenSnitch is beyond me.”
“It is critical to have it installed.”
“i have been pretty happy with opensnitch”
“the people who actually want something like this have likely already been using Opensnitch for years”
“I probably got tired of it for whatever reason.”
“OpenSnitch is great software in terms of functionality but I find the UI lacking”
“Run OpenSnitch for a while and you'll quickly realize how much of your system does phone home.”
“But for most software it works great.”
“which is just better, fully open and has existed for longer”
“You can run daemons on several nodes (different machines) and view them all through a central ui, it is pretty cool.”
“I need to stick with opensnitch”
“just wish it was regularly updated in the distro repos”
“Would be worth contributing patches to OpenSnitch to bring it up to parity with Little Snitch.”
“being a linux user I value openness of code”
“It is free, no subscription at all and truly open source.”
“OpenSnitch does a pretty good job here”
“None of these gave me what I wanted”
“OpenSnitch is open source. You don't need to trust it as you can see the code yourself.”
“super intuitive. This is going to give me great peace of mind.”
“opensnitch-ui will popup and steal focus”
“OpenSnitch if you run random executables from the Internet.”
“use a application firewall (which you should anyways) like opensnitch to only allow connections to sites that make sense”
“restricting outbound connections by binary”
“Open Snitch on Linux have helped me a lot here”
“I use OpenSnitch, which alerts me about all new connections.”
“the only firewall for outgoing connections, OpenSnitch, hard-depends on it”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.