Little Snitch is a popular Mac app that detects outbound connections and lets you set up rules to block those connections. Once installed, Little Snitch monitors your internet traffic and every time it detects an outbound connection, for example, Adobe Reader trying to access the internet, it pops up a window and ask you if you want to allow the connection one time, or make a rule to allow Adobe Reader to access the Internet but just not go to adobe.com

On your Mac: Choose Apple menu System Preferences, click General, then select “Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices” (below “Recent items”). To turn it off, deselect the option. Open General preferences for me. On iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch: Go to Settings General Handoff, then tap to turn on Handoff.To turn it off, tap the option. Is an application to monitor and control the access of applications to your network and disks. Being able to monitor the normally unnoticeable activities enables you to make informed decisions regarding the transfer of your private information, hence avoiding confidential information leakage.

In short, Little Snitch is one of the best apps, to keep an eye on your Mac’s Internet connections. But, do we really need an alternative? Well, for starters, it costs you over $40 and upgrades are extra. This alone can be a reason to look for alternatives that cost nothing or at least relatively cheaper than Little Snitch.

So here are some alternatives to Little Snitch for Windows and macOS. Let’s start with Mac first.

Read: The Best WiFi Analyser For Mac

Little Snitch Alternatives for Mac

1. Murus Lite

Mac’s own firewall comes with one of the best features available in network firewalls called the PF (packet filter). However, for some users, it may seem a little complex to use and this is where Murus comes in the picture.

Murus brings the PF feature of a firewall in an intuitive, drag & drop based interface that lets you define your own rule set and control the network permissions on your mac. What makes it different from the existing inbuilt firewall? Well, here’s the catch. Common firewalls like Mac’s own PF, restrict and monitor the inbound and outbound network traffic based on attributes like IP address, ports, protocols etc. and by restricting the network functions itself, it affects all the applications. Murus, on the other hand, helps to use PF feature to convert the network firewall into an application firewall wherein you can allow or restrict movement of data packets for each application individually which even helps in restricting spreading of virus, worms or data leak by an application.

Price: Murus comes in three versions: Murus Lite (Free), Murus Basic ($10), and Murus Pro ($17). While Murus lite is the free version of the application, Murus Basic and Murus Pro are the paid versions that come packed with some extra features like logs Visualizer, Vallum, and all companion apps.

Check it out here: Murus

2. Radio silence

Radio Silence is yet another application to control your app specific firewall functions. It has one of the simplest interfaces which allows you to keep a tab on applications. Softwares that try to connect with a remote server outside the user’s control are blocked instantly. The Firewall has its eye on the incoming traffic, Radio Silence does the opposite and looks for outgoing traffic too.

Little Snitch vs Radio Silence

Initially, Little Snitch gives you too many notifications about connection, which may feel overwhelming to some users. Although, it goes away after few weeks of usage.

Radio silence, on the other hand, is quite silent in the functionality as it runs in the background. without any active tabs, icon display or pop-ups. Once you block an app with Radio Silence, it stays blocked, there is no notification or pop-ups, ever.

Price: Radio Silence costs around $9 and comes with a testing trial of 30 days. You get your money back if it doesn’t meet your expectations. There’s also a 24-hour free trial available for those who want to test this software’s limits in a single stretch.

Check out: Radio Silence

3. Private Eye

Private Eye, a real-time network monitoring application that allows monitoring of your live connections made by an application. The app also indicates the presence of an online server where such information is being transmitted.

It displays all attributes of the live connections that the applications in your system have to the web like the time of connection and the IP address of the server connected to.

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Although you can filter and view the results by application or by incoming and outgoing traffic, Private Eye doesn’t have the power to alter any of these connections. You get just enough information to know when an app connects to a server without authorization.

Price: Private Eye is a free application.

Check out: Private Eye

4. Hands off

Hands off is one of the most trusted applications and alternative to Little Snitch when it comes to network privacy. It is also an all-rounder application that gives protection both as the network firewall and application-specific firewall. It controls both inbound and outbound traffic of an application.

Read: See What Others Are Browsing on Your WiFi

Hands off is a little different from other similar applications. It protects and monitors the disk access, and giving an intuitive and user-friendly interface. This app monitors and blocks access to the files stored in your system from online servers and also from the local applications. It prevents the applications from seeking IP address, accessing disk data, erasing disk data, and even storing cookies. Its disk management is so strict that it even controls the read and write permissions of the disk data files even if the applications have access to the files but the interface and usage come in handy.

Price: Hands Off is otherwise an expensive application ($49) but can be tried and tested for free with limited functionality. The advanced functions of the application are accessible in the paid version. The tutorial file that tags along with the application setup is informative.

Check out: Hands Off

5. TCPBlock

TCPBlock is by far the lightest application based firewall available for mac and is absolutely free. It also monitors and protects both inbound and outbound traffic on your mac and can prevent certain applications from opening network connections to unknown servers while you are online.

TCPBlock is implemented as a loadable kernel module which contains all the blocking logic. You can configure it in the System Preferences > TCPBlock preference pane or with the TCPBlock command line utility. All the configuration changes are made in a configuration file on the hard disk of your mac.

Price: Although TCPBlock has discontinued from the market, its previous versions are still available to download for free. It requires only 1.1 MB of your disk space. TCPBlock has the best reviews that an application can get and is still one of the favorites amongst the users. The only catch in using the available version of this application is turning off the SIP (System Integrity Protection). SIP when deactivated, allows third-party applications to run on your mac.

Check out: TCP Block

6. Security Growler

Little Snitch is still hands-down the best connection alerting software available for Mac, we suggest to check it out if you want a comprehensive firewall/alerting system, and are willing to pay a few bucks to get it. Security Growler, on the other hand, is centered around monitoring log files for any kind of pattern. It doesn’t just monitors the TCP connection table but also alerts you of Sudo events, Keychain authorization events, and anything else you can think of that’s reported to a log file.

This app is significantly more lightweight than Little Snitch, it comes in at <15MB of RAM used, simply because it aims to solve a simpler problem than Little Snitch. This application is not designed to prevent malicious connections, that’s what firewalls are for, it’s just meant to keep an unobtrusive log, and alert you whenever important security events are happening. The more informed you are, the better you can protect yourself.

Security Growler is a menu bar based application that sends you notifications whenever one of its monitored patterns have a log update. One thing that sets it apart from other applications, Prowl which sends you notifications over your iPhone and iPad.

Check out: Security Growler

7. LuLu

LuLu by Objective see is another popular opinion amongst Mac users who wish to keep a check on their system’s network activity. The reason for its popularity is because the software is open source, has no ads whatsoever, and comes with all features.

LuLu aims to block all unauthorized outgoing connections unless you specifically allow them. You can choose to allow local or third-party apps and services from the separated menu available. The app interface is pretty simple yet extensive and its operations are so simple that even a child could use it.

When you first install the app you can choose to allow or disallow Apple programmes and previously installed third-party apps. These settings could be later changed from preferences. Under the ‘rules’ head, you can select the services and apps you wish to block from using network services. The app even has a passive mode where it will allow all new apps and still work in silence for the previously installed apps.

Check Out: LuLu by Objective See

Little Snitch Alternatives for Windows

While there is no true alternative to Little Snitch in Windows, we found two applications that came close.

8. Glasswire

GlassWire is quite a simple app which allows you to monitor changes in the system like microphone, webcam or apps in general. It also comes with a firewall feature just like Little Snitch, however, it isn’t that powerful. For example, Little Snitch can allow or refuse to authorize the specific domain and ports of an application trying to access a server online. GlassWire on the other hand only allows or block all connections an application attempts to initiate. There is no option to make specific rules for an app in Glasswire.

Read: 5 Best Network Monitoring Tools for Windows

Price: Glasswire follows the freemium model, The free version of Glasswire shows you which program is connected to which IP address. Although, the paid version of Glasswire has “ask to connect” feature, which gives you a pop-up when an app attempts to make a connection.

Check out: GlassWire

9. Net Limiter

Compared to Glasswire, Net Limiter is a similar alternative to Little Snitch on Windows. Once installed, the app shows you the list of all apps that are making connections to the internet along with their present download and upload speed. You can block network connectivity on individual programs or even restrict how much bandwidth a particular app gets.

Price: Net Limiter is a paid app that cost $29, however it comes with a full 30 days trial.

Check out: Net Limiter

Little Snitch Alternatives

So, these were some of the free and paid alternatives to Little Snitch. It would be nice if Apple would build such detailed functionality into macOS, but they won’t do it for as simple a reason that it’s too hard to use for a regular mac user. So, you can either spend a few bucks and buy little snitch, or use these alternatives, whatever you use, let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments. And if you ask my opinion, I’d suggest LuLu because of its intuitive UI and simple controls.

Torrent, named after BitTorrent, is a file sharing protocol which allows files to be fragmented and downloaded from multiple sources called peers. Although the word “torrent” has been long associated with illegal piracy and forbidden files, the torrent file itself is simply an instruction set of where to find those file fragments, so they can come together to form a whole. All the fragments are hosted by other computer users connected to the torrent network, such as yourself.

Best torrent clients for Mac

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It might sound complicated, but peer-to-peer is actually a very smart and efficient way to share files that don’t rely on single servers or private storage. Mac Torrents are no different to their PC or Linux counterparts. The only thing that isn’t the same is the choice of torrent clients themselves.

What is a Mac torrent Client?

As torrents became popular, the stigma around their use was diminished. Users worldwide were surprised at how quickly they could download files without experiencing the paywall or slowdown of traditional file-sharing systems.

To start downloading files through torrent, you just need to download and install a torrent client (software). The torrent client will then follow the instructions given in the torrent file to complete your download. Think of it like a download manager, specifically built for torrent files.

Torrent Mac clients come in different shapes and sizes, but all ultimately do the same thing — download files (called leeching) or upload files (called seeding). The right torrent client for you depends on your needs. You can opt for small and simple, or look for something more complex boasting advanced features. Downloading and installing a torrent client isn’t illegal per se, but all users should be wary of some nuances.

Is a torrent downloader for Mac legal?

Although torrents have historically been seen as illegal file-sharing systems, they are not inherently illegal at all. Torrent clients have many legitimate uses, including the sharing of open-source software or publically available files. The advantage of using a torrent client in these situations is potentially faster download speeds, especially if you use the best torrent downloader available.

Assuming the files you’re downloading aren’t subject to copyright or distribution laws, there should be no cause for concern. Conversely, if you’re using the torrent client to download files that you’d normally have to pay for, you may be breaching legislation, depending on the jurisdiction you reside in.

What to look for in a torrent Mac client

When it comes to reviewing a torrent downloader for Mac, there are a few considerations to take into account. At a high level, a basic user who runs the torrent client to download files infrequently will be happy with the most basic, lightweight app, and they don’t necessarily need the best torrent software. Those who wish to contribute and share their own files, or spend a lot of time downloading and uploading, might want to enjoy some of the advanced features available. For example:

• Bandwidth limiters allow you to throttle your download or upload speed to ensure your internet connection remains available for other tasks, or to ensure you don’t use all of your internet data.
• Magnet URI functionality lets you begin your Mac torrent download from a link rather than physically downloading a torrent file first.
• Encryption helps to mask the torrent activity to throw off your ISP monitoring and enjoy full-speed downloads in the case of ISP throttling.
• Superseeding enables you to become an uploader much faster after a download, but carries a risk of failing the upload if there’s only one downloader on the other end.
• Pricing can either turn on some advanced features, extra security, and ensure no advertising, or offer you a basic torrent client for free.

As you can see, most of the features separating various torrent clients are generally of a more pro-level nature. For the majority of basic users, they are less important than the look and feel of the torrent app. So what’s the best torrent client for Mac? Let’s dive into the pros and cons of the most popular Mac torrent clients so you know where to pull the trigger.

BitTorrent and uTorrent

BitTorrent for Mac is one of the original torrent clients designed to implement the BitTorrent protocol. It comes with the advantage of many years of experience and updates under the hood.

Strangely, BitTorrent also owns and operates uTorrent, another leading client. At face value, they are essentially the exact same software, right down to the user interface.

The key difference between the two apps is that BitTorrent for Mac only releases stable, tested versions, whereas uTorrent releases alpha and beta versions for those who wish to test out the latest features before everyone else. The early releases can beg the question: Is uTorrent safe? When it comes to subscribing to alpha and beta builds, it’s a matter of buyer beware — best for advanced users.

Another key difference is that uTorrent is slightly smaller than BitTorrent, and therefore easier to launch and less taxing when running a Mac torrent download.

Generally speaking, uTorrent still might be the better option for basic users who download torrents infrequently, simply because of its simplicity and lightweight build. Just hope those betas are stable enough!

Pros:

• Small and lightweight
• Ability to schedule downloads
• Long history of reliable updates

Cons:

• Contains ads (!)
• Both clients are susceptible to some security issues

Vuze and Vuze Plus torrent for Mac

If BitTorrent and uTorrent are the small, lightweight clients that get the job done — Vuze is created for the more advanced user who wishes to enjoy extended functionality.

The key difference here is the ability to add plugins for new features. Vuze comes in two versions. The first is Vuze Leap and the second Vuze Plus, which is essentially the same except for professional virus protection and the ability to preview files as they are downloading. Vuze Plus is also a paid client with all ads removed.

Vuze in general is likely a more suitable candidate for tech-savvy users who wish to take full advantage of the expandable plugin functionality. When set up correctly, it can be a top candidate for the best torrent downloader for Mac.

Pros:

• Expandable functionality through plugins
• Simple interface that borrows from the best
• Vuze Plus features added security

Cons

• Contains banner ads unless in paid version
• Two versions can lead to confusion

Folx Pro – the best torrent client for Mac?

Folx Pro is a paid torrent client, which means there are no ads and it comes with some great security measures right out of the box. Folx covers all of the basic features you would want in a torrent client, including scheduling. You can even search for new torrent files to download from within the client, instead of having to browse the web.

Additionally, Mac users will appreciate the look, which takes after macOS and feels right at home. The interface is beautifully simple — refreshing after the added visual noise of competing Mac torrent clients.

Downloading with Folx Pro is thus even simpler than with other apps:

1. Use the top search bar to type in your keyword and hit Return
2. Wait for all results to show up
3. Choose the appropriate file and click Download on the right-hand side

Pros:

• No ads whatsoever
• Built-in security measures
• macOS-inspired design

Cons

• Paid version only

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Maintain your security at all times

One of the most important considerations to keep in mind when downloading torrent files is the risk of viruses or malware. Because there’s no single owner or distributor of the file at hand, it’s very easy to upload malicious files and escape the liability or consequences of doing so. Often, hackers will hide malicious software or scripts in popular torrent files. In these cases, it’s best to try to download torrent files that are distributed from a trustworthy source. Additionally, the best torrent software should come bundled with some security measures.

In any case, it’s a good idea to always scan your Mac for viruses. Thankfully, there’s an easy to use app called CleanMyMac X which will not only scan your system and quarantine malicious files but also optimize your Mac and help you properly configure your privacy settin

To quickly check your computer after every torrent download with CleanMyMac X:

1. Open the app and navigate to Malware Removal tab under Protection in the sidebar
2. Click Scan and wait for the process to finish
3. Remove any malware found

Now that you know what Mac torrent clients are and some of the features to look for, you’re ready to get started with your unlimited file sharing. It’s recommended that you lean on the side of caution though, so a paid torrent client is your best bet.

Thankfully, you can try both Folx Pro torrent app and CleanMyMac X virus scanner for free during a seven-day trial with Setapp — a subscription service for Mac that grants you access to more than 150 indispensable apps to enrich your digital life. What are you planning to download now?

Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.

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