

FaceGate
Like
World's first face authentication enabled macOS app-locker. Unlock your Mac apps using face, TouchID or password. Completely local and encrypted - your data never leaves your Mac.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source (MIT)
Platforms
- Mac
- Homebrew
Features
Properties
- Privacy focused
Features
- Ad-free
- No registration required
- No Tracking
- Works Offline
- Dark Mode
- Facial Recognition
- Unlock with fingerprint
- Sits in the MenuBar
- Password protection
- Support for Hotkeys
- Global hotkey
- Touch ID for Mac
FaceGate information
No comments or reviews, maybe you want to be first?
What is FaceGate?
FaceGate is a native macOS utility that brings app-level locking with FaceUnlock to your Mac. Lock sensitive applications behind FaceUnlock, Touch ID, or a secure password — all processed entirely on-device with zero telemetry.
macOS natively lacks the ability to restrict individual applications. Although other App-lockers exist, none of them use face recognition and are not as feature rich as FaceGate.
All controls in your hands - 100% free & open source, 100% malware free, 100% local .
Features:
- App Locking — Lock any installed app. FaceGate intercepts launches in real-time and prevents access until authenticated.
- On-Device Face Recognition — Software-based face embedding pipeline running entirely on your Mac via the Apple Neural Engine. No cloud, no data leaving your device.
- Liveness Detection — Head-pose challenges (turn left, turn right, tilt) to prevent photo and video spoofing.
- Touch ID — Seamless integration with macOS Touch ID.
- Password — Encrypted PIN stored in the macOS Keychain.
- Per-App Session Timers — Customizable unlock duration per app, including "Keep Unlocked Indefinitely." and "Lock immediately"
- Lock-on-Sleep — Automatically lock all apps when your Mac sleeps or the screen locks.
- Uninstall Protection — Prevents casual deletion by making the app bundle immutable and requires Admin Privileges to uninstall.
- Scheduled App-Lock/Unlock — Time-based auto-lock and auto-unlock windows.
- FaceUnlock Schedule — Disable face recognition during specific hours (e.g., when dark or in public spaces) to automatically fallback to Touch ID/Password.
- Auto-Optimization — Automatically boost display brightness and trigger Center Stage to improve camera visibility and face detection accuracy.
- Customizable Sensitivity — Fine-tune face recognition similarity thresholds to balance convenience and security.
- Menu Bar Control — Monitor locked/unlocked apps and lock them directly from the menu bar popup.
- Secure Operations — Require authentication to quit the application or configure settings to prevent unauthorized tampering.
- Emergency Kill Hotkey — Global keyboard shortcut to instantly terminate.
- Menu Bar Agent — Runs silently in the menu bar — no Dock icon, no distractions.







