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)

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.

Brilliant details given. Easy to use. So glad I found this!