Portmaster
Portmaster is a free and open-source privacy suite that puts you back in charge of your computer.
Cost / License
- Freemium (Subscription)
- Open Source
Application types
EUPlatforms
- Windows
- Linux
Features
Properties
- Privacy focused
- Lightweight
Features
- Firewall
- Network Tools
- Application Firewall
- Block Trackers
- DNS Resolver
- Ad-free
- No Tracking
- No registration required
- Dark Mode
- DNS over HTTPS
- Spam Filter
- Built-in VPN
- Website Monitoring
- End-to-End Encryption
- No Coding Required
- Dns
- Malware Analysis
- WireGuard
- Works Offline
- Anonymous Proxy
- Decentralized
- AES-256 Encryption
- No Logs
- Portable
- Two-factor Authentication
- Split Tunneling
Tags
- Privacy Protection
- force-tls
- network-management
- Network Security
Portmaster News & Activities
Recent News
Recent activities
- cesspool8571 liked Portmaster
nektony1 added Portmaster as alternative to FireWally
TheEmperorArt added Portmaster as alternative to EasyFirewall- manduhcalderon liked Portmaster
Featured in Lists
The ultimate list of apps/services for better Security, Privacy & Anonymity; Defense against Surveillance. What …
Clean, small, use! For activation use: [https://massgrave.dev/](https://massgrave.dev/) or …
All your FOSS cravings, mainly for Windows.
What is Portmaster?
Portmaster is a free and open-source privacy suite that puts you back in charge of your computer.
Features:
Monitor All Network Activity Discover everything that is happening on your computer. Expose every connection your applications make and detect evil ones. Finally get the power to act accordingly.
Block Unwanted Connections Many programs connect to the Internet without your knowledge. When you find unwanted connections, you can now simply block them.
Auto-Block via Selected Filter Lists Automatically block ads, trackers and malware hosts via trusted domain-lists, which are also used by Ad-Blockers, etc. Easily change the defaults to fit your needs.
Enforce DNS-over-TLS Even with invasive connections gone, you might not want to share your dns requests out in the open. With the Portmaster, you can easily re-route all your dns queries to a DNS-over-TLS provider of your choice.
Set Global & per-App Settings Make your own rules. Completely cut off applications from the Internet. Or block all p2p connections except for certain apps. Or never connect to specific countries. The Portmaster has you covered.
Portmaster Videos
Portmaster information
Developed by
Safing ICS Technologies GmbH Licensing
Open Source (GPL-3.0) and Freemium product.Pricing
Subscription ranging between $5 and $11 per month + free version with limited functionality.Written in
Rating
Average rating of 4.2Alternatives
35 alternatives listedSupported Languages
- English
AlternativeTo Categories
Security & Privacy, Network & Admin, Web BrowsersGitHub repository
- 11,538 Stars
- 413 Forks
- 92 Open Issues
- Updated
Comments and Reviews
It's not a bad app, but it is quite bloated, and lacks useful features like anonymized DNS through DNSCrypt currently. It would actually use less system resources to have Simple Wall + a dns service like YogaDNS, unbound, pi-hole. And you can have better ad-blocking with a client adblocker like Zen ad-blocker (and of course browser ad-blockers are even better, being able to block scripts and content filters).
It does have pretty granular control over connection, so that's good. But not as easy or intuitive as Simple Wall.
The paid SPN is a cool idea, so this could be an all-in-one thing. If they were to implement anonymized DNS, this would definitely be my choice.
Portmaster also, by default, adds a bunch of filter lists that are redundant, which will slow down your connections by a bit.
Finally, and perhaps most damaging, with Windows firewall or Simple Wall, you already have a robust firewall. Someone can reply to this comment if they have a good answer, but I don't see how adding to the kernel improves upon it. If anything it makes it more difficult to secure.
Bloated, Confusing and Annoying. These are my first impressions of this software, unless you're a control freak I don't think you would find this software good for daily drive, I would recommend Fort (by tnodir & Contributors) or SimpleWall (By Henrypp & Contributors)
Easy to use and set, awesome controls, excellent on free-tier already, but great premium features.
It works like a charm. Great app!
I like the concept of Portmaster mixing firewall with adblocking rules, however Portmaster is not ready to be used on a productivity PC. For starters Portmaster crashes the host computer, a lot. The GUI process also tends to become unresponsive and will have to restart for it to be operative again, which is a minor pain. The learning curve is somewhat steep but is manageable. The features shown to you in the UI are a mishmash of things that should be free by default (network activity history) but are not and things that want to upsell you. In short, feels like a classic "free" antivirus. If you don't mind your computer crashing from time to time and would like to use it, go for it.
Edit: Safing has been acquired recently by a VPN company called IVPN but their own page about Ownership does not reflect this acquisition
I could not install the Portmaster free. After it shows that it is downloading some 300 Mb file, the installation process stops. Windows 8.1 x64.
This well-configured software can even block Microsoft telemetry and other garbage that collects user data in Windows. It is currently the best firewall for Windows and has many configuration options. Those who make negative comments probably don't know how to use it and are too lazy to learn new technologies. A positive point is that it is open source and available for Linux too. For those who are unfamiliar with it... I recommend watching videos on YouTube teaching you how to use and configure it. It's excellent and I've installed it on my clients' computers and they all like it. If you can, it's worth subscribing to their VPN plan, which is very good and affordable. It would be perfect if it had the possibility of using DNSCrypt encrypted DNS, but with DoT it's already very good.