netcat Alternatives for Linux

There are many alternatives to netcat for Linux and since it's discontinued a lot of people are looking for a replacement. The best Linux alternative is Wireshark, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 10 alternatives to netcat and eight of them are available for Linux so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Linux alternatives to netcat are Ettercap, pwncat, socat and Packet Sender.

netcat alternatives are mainly Network Analyzers but may also be Network Monitors or HTTP(S) Debuggers. Filter by these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of netcat.

netcat

Free • Open Source
Network Monitor

Netcat is a featured networking utility which reads and writes data across network connections, using the TCP/IP protocol. ...

More about netcat

netcat alternatives page was last updated

Wireshark
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Network Analyzer
Network Monitor
Mac
Windows
Linux
BSD
Snapcraft
Flathub
Homebrew
Chocolatey
52 Wireshark alternatives
Wireshark is the world's foremost network protocol analyzer. It lets you capture and interactively browse the traffic running on a computer network. It is the de facto (and often de jure) standard across many industries and educational institutions.
- - Wireshark is the most popular Windows, Mac & Linux alternative to netcat.
- - Wireshark is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to netcat.
Suggest and vote on features
Wireshark Features
Detailed packet analysis
Network Usage History
Support for Android Things
Work Item Tracking
Comments about Wireshark as a Alternative to netcat
pros, cons and recent comments
SuperS06
Wireshark is a tool for monitoring network traffic. Netcat is a tool for generating traffic.
Negative comment •
0
Ettercap
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Network Analyzer
Mac
Windows
Linux
17 Ettercap alternatives
Ettercap is a suite for man in the middle attacks on LAN. It features sniffing of live connections, content filtering on the fly and many other interesting tricks.
Suggest and vote on features
Ettercap Features
Network Tools
Based on Ubuntu
pwncat
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
Chrome OS
BSD
3 pwncat alternatives
pwncat - netcat on steroids with Firewall, IDS/IPS evasion, bind and reverse shell, self-injecting shell and port forwarding magic - and its fully scriptable with Python (PSE).
Suggest and vote on features
pwncat Features
Port Forwarding
Add a screenshot
socat
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Linux
5 socat alternatives
socat, SOcket CAT, is a relay for bidirectional data transfer between two independent data channels. Each of these data channels may be a file, pipe, device (serial line etc. or a pseudo terminal), a socket (UNIX, IP4, IP6 - raw, UDP, TCP), an SSL socket, proxy CONNECT...
Suggest and vote on features
socat Features
1. Portablesocat can be used from a USB stick or similar with no prior installation.
2. Command line interfacesocat either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
Data transfer
Port Forwarding
Packet Sender
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Freemium • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
Android
iPhone
Android Tablet
iPad
3 Packet Sender alternatives
Packet Sender can send and receive UDP, TCP, and SSL on the ports of your choosing. All servers and clients may run simultaneously.
- - Packet Sender is the most popular iPhone, iPad & Android Tablet alternative to netcat.
Suggest and vote on features
Packet Sender Features
SSL
Network Tools
tcpflow
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
14 tcpflow alternatives
tcpflow, a TCP Flow Recorder, is a program that captures data transmitted as part of TCP connections (flows), and stores the data in a way that is convenient for protocol analysis or debugging. A program like 'tcpdump' shows a summary of packets seen on the wire, but...
tcpflow has no features, suggest some!
NetCrypt
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Proprietary
Linux
4 NetCrypt alternatives
NetCrypt is a small Open Source command line file-transfer utility providing authentication, confidentiality and integrity validation while still maintaining top-notch performance and transfer speed between machines.
Suggest and vote on features
NetCrypt Features
Peer-To-Peer
Add a screenshot
httpry
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Network Monitor
Linux
16 httpry alternatives
httpry is a tool designed for displaying and logging HTTP traffic. It is not intended to perform analysis itself, but instead to capture, parse and/or log the traffic for later analysis. It can be run in real-time displaying the live traffic on the wire, or as a daemon process...
Suggest and vote on features
httpry Features
Logging
HTTP Monitoring
Add a screenshot