Open-source alternatives to Simplewall

3proxy is a multi-protocol proxy server and network access control gateway. It functions as a network traffic forwarder capable of routing TCP and UDP traffic across HTTP, SOCKS, and various email and file protocols. The project provides specialized capabilities for secure traffic inspection, including the decryption and analysis of HTTPS and TLS streams through certificate spoofing and mutual authentication. It further supports client identity anonymization by routing outbound traffic through recursive upstream proxy chains. The software covers a broad range of network management functions,

This project is a security hardening guide and privacy configuration manual for macOS. It provides a comprehensive set of instructions for configuring system settings to improve privacy, reduce the attack surface, and implement a malware defense framework. The guide covers technical methods for validating software notarization, verifying application sandboxing, and auditing system activity. It distinguishes itself by providing detailed workflows for restricting high-risk features and applying advanced security configurations to protect the operating system. The documentation covers several k

DisableWinTracking is a privacy hardening tool and telemetry blocker for Windows 10. It reduces data collection and disables diagnostic reporting through the modification of system services and registry keys. The project includes a dedicated utility for removing the OneDrive cloud storage client and cleaning its associated registry entries from the file explorer. It further manages network privacy by updating the system hosts file and configuring firewall rules to block communication with tracking servers. The tool covers broader system debloating and privacy management, including the disabl

BPB-Worker-Panel is a control panel designed for deploying and managing VLESS and Trojan proxies hosted on Cloudflare Workers. It functions as a proxy subscription generator and a manager for secure DNS over HTTPS servers and WireGuard configuration provisioning. The project distinguishes itself through network traffic obfuscation capabilities, utilizing packet fragmentation and SNI spoofing to evade detection. It provides specialized administration for Cloudflare Warp and Warp Pro connections, including the ability to optimize endpoints and export WireGuard configurations. The system covers

Clumsy is a Windows network fault injection tool that intercepts system-wide network traffic at the kernel level using the WinDivert driver, without requiring proxy configuration or application code changes. It captures and manipulates packets for all running applications, including localhost connections, enabling controlled testing of application behavior under degraded network conditions. The tool provides comprehensive network impairment capabilities including latency simulation, bandwidth throttling, packet loss, corruption, duplication, and reordering. Users can apply these impairments s

OpenWrt-nikki is an OpenWrt proxy client and transparent proxy gateway that manages network traffic diversion through remote servers. It functions as a network access controller and DNS hijacking server, intercepting IPv4 and IPv6 traffic to route it through a proxy without requiring client-side configuration. The project features a proxy subscription manager that automates the downloading and refreshing of remote configuration profiles using custom user agents. It employs a mixin-based configuration system to inject custom rules or proxy nodes into existing profiles without overwriting sourc

AdAway is an Android network firewall and DNS traffic filter that functions as a local VPN ad blocker. It intercepts network requests to prevent advertisements and tracking domains from reaching the device by filtering traffic against host lists. The project features a host file manager capable of importing and converting blocklists from external third-party providers. It includes a system for managing both blocked and allowed domains, allowing for the creation of custom rules to permit specific trusted sites or block individual domains. The tool provides granular traffic control through app

Privatezilla is a Windows privacy hardening tool designed to audit security settings, remove pre-installed software, and block outbound telemetry data. It functions as an operating system security auditor and a telemetry blocker to restrict data transmission from third-party applications. The project provides automated utilities for removing built-in applications and cloud services. It employs firewall rules and host file restrictions to prevent unauthorized information collection and stop data transmission to external servers. The tool covers a broad range of system management capabilities,

AdguardFilters is a collection of curated adblock filter lists, content blocking rulesets, and DNS blocklists. Its primary purpose is to provide the rules necessary to identify and remove advertisements, tracking scripts, and intrusive elements across web browsers and applications. The project includes specialized rules for cosmetic filtering to hide layout gaps and a malware domain database to block phishing and spyware destinations. It provides distinct filtering sets for different regions and purposes, such as social media blocking. The repository covers broad capability areas including m

This project is a wireless hotspot management interface for Debian devices. It provides a web-based controller for managing wireless access points, wireless repeaters, VPN gateways, and DNS ad-blocking filters. The system includes a captive portal framework to intercept network traffic via customizable splash pages and a VPN controller that supports WireGuard and OpenVPN with kill-switch functionality. It further differentiates itself with a DNS ad-blocking filter using curated blacklists and the ability to operate in multiple network modes, including bridged access point and wireless repeate

This project is a comprehensive repository of curated domain blocklists designed for network-wide DNS filtering. It functions as a DNS sinkhole feed, providing the necessary data to intercept and block unwanted network requests at the resolution layer before they reach their destination. By returning null or loopback addresses for identified domains, it prevents connections to malicious infrastructure, advertising servers, and tracking endpoints across all devices on a network. The repository distinguishes itself through a tiered categorization logic that allows users to select protection lev

Mitmproxy is an interactive, programmable network proxy engine designed for traffic analysis and protocol manipulation. It functions as a gateway that intercepts, inspects, and modifies network traffic in real-time, supporting HTTP, HTTPS, WebSocket, DNS, and generic TCP or UDP streams. By acting as a trusted certificate authority, the proxy can dynamically generate and sign certificates to decrypt and analyze secure TLS-encrypted connections. The project distinguishes itself through a highly extensible, event-driven architecture that allows users to automate traffic transformation using cust

This project is a comprehensive technical documentation repository focused on Linux system administration, network security, and privacy-oriented computing. It provides a curated knowledge base of instructional guides and configuration tutorials designed to assist users in managing low-level system environments, kernel compilation, and bootloader setup. The repository distinguishes itself by emphasizing privacy engineering and infrastructure hardening. It offers detailed procedures for anonymizing network traffic, securing credentials, and isolating applications within a computing environment

uBlock is a browser content blocker and web privacy tool designed to prevent advertisements and tracking scripts from loading. It functions as a network request filter, a DOM element hider, and a script execution controller to manage how web pages load and render. The project distinguishes itself through a combination of network-level request interception and cosmetic filtering. It uses declarative filter lists and pattern-based matching to block trackers and pop-ups, while employing CSS selectors and wildcard entity matching to remove visual components across multiple regional domain variant

Firejail is a Linux application sandbox and kernel security wrapper that isolates untrusted applications from the host system. It uses kernel namespaces and seccomp filters to restrict filesystem access, drop kernel capabilities, and limit the system attack surface. The project is distinguished by its use of predefined security profiles to automatically apply filesystem restrictions and syscall limits based on the executable being launched. It provides specialized isolation for portable packages such as AppImages and implements X11 display isolation via proxy servers to prevent keyboard loggi

Lists is a curated collection of DNS blocklists, a domain blocklist generator, and a categorized library of domains used for network content filtering. The project provides a command-line pipeline that aggregates upstream sources to build and validate blocklists used to redirect unwanted traffic to null addresses. The project distinguishes itself through a CLI-driven build pipeline that automates the fetching, validation, and daily regeneration of datasets. It organizes domains into discrete functional categories rather than a single monolithic list and exports them in multiple syntaxes, incl

NekoBoxForAndroid is a network utility for Android that functions as a system-wide VPN tunneling client. It leverages the Sing-Box engine to capture and redirect device traffic through a virtual network interface, providing a centralized platform for managing proxy connections and network routing. The application distinguishes itself through its advanced configuration management, allowing users to define granular traffic rules based on domains, IP addresses, or specific applications. It supports complex network requirements by enabling multi-hop proxy chaining, custom DNS resolution strategie

NetBird is a zero-trust networking platform that builds secure, encrypted peer-to-peer overlay networks using the WireGuard protocol. It functions as a software-defined perimeter, connecting distributed infrastructure across cloud environments and physical locations while hiding network resources from the public internet. By integrating with external identity providers, the platform enforces granular access control and identity-based segmentation for every user and device. The platform distinguishes itself through extensive automation and programmatic management capabilities. It provides a ce

Netmaker is a platform for automating and managing virtual mesh networks built on WireGuard. It functions as a centralized control plane that orchestrates encrypted, peer-to-peer tunnels across distributed infrastructure, including cloud environments, on-premise data centers, and containerized clusters. By automating the configuration of routing tables and access policies, the system enables secure, private connectivity between diverse devices and services without requiring manual network administration. The platform distinguishes itself through its focus on zero-trust network access and soft

NextDNS is a network DNS client and proxy that functions as a local resolver, forwarder, and DNS-over-HTTPS proxy. Its primary purpose is to route local name resolution requests to external providers using encrypted HTTPS traffic to improve privacy and bypass network restrictions. The service distinguishes itself by embedding client identity metadata—collected via mDNS or DHCP—into outgoing queries, allowing for per-device tracking and the application of unique filtering profiles. It features advanced routing logic, including split-horizon DNS for balancing public and private resolution, doma

ntopng is a web-based network traffic monitoring tool and flow data aggregator. It functions as a network security monitor, an SNMP network management system, and an industrial protocol analyzer for OT and SCADA environments. The system provides specialized inspection for industrial protocols such as Modbus, DNP3, and IEC 60870. It distinguishes itself through behavioral threat detection, encrypted traffic analysis via handshake fingerprinting, and the ability to identify hardware and operating systems using DHCP and MAC address patterns. Its broader capabilities include real-time traffic an

This project is a multi-protocol proxy server and network tunneling tool designed to manage traffic across heterogeneous infrastructure. It functions as a traffic management gateway, providing the core infrastructure to route, filter, and secure network connections through a unified interface. The software distinguishes itself through its support for cascading proxy chaining and dynamic upstream load balancing, which allow for the creation of complex, multi-hop network paths. It provides granular control over traffic flow by normalizing diverse protocols, enabling transparent port forwarding,

DnsServer is a recursive and authoritative DNS server that provides domain name resolution and zone hosting. It functions as both a recursive resolver, performing iterative lookups across the internet, and an authoritative manager for primary and secondary DNS zones. The system distinguishes itself through high-availability clustering and a programmable HTTP API for automating server configurations and bulk record management. It supports a wide range of encrypted transport protocols, including TLS, HTTPS, and QUIC, and allows for custom functionality via a plugin-based request interception fr

Kill Bill is a subscription billing platform and usage-based billing engine designed to manage recurring invoicing and automated payment collection. It functions as a multi-tenant billing infrastructure, providing isolated environments for different organizational entities through a dedicated API. The system is distinguished by a plugin-based extension framework that allows for the integration of third-party payment gateways and custom business logic. It includes a payment gateway orchestrator to handle transactions and refunds, as well as a revenue recognition system to allocate contract rev

Talos is a minimal, immutable Linux distribution designed specifically for deploying and managing Kubernetes clusters. It functions as an API-driven infrastructure manager that replaces traditional shell access with a declarative gRPC interface to control operating system state and configuration. The system is distinguished by its use of a read-only root filesystem and a security-hardened kernel, which removes standard GNU utilities to reduce the attack surface. It ensures environment consistency by distributing the operating system as versioned, signed images and utilizes TPM-backed verified

NETworkManager is a comprehensive suite of network administration tools designed for the deployment, monitoring, and diagnostic management of enterprise networks. It provides a centralized interface for subnet management, IP address configuration, and wireless network analysis. The project distinguishes itself by integrating a multi-protocol remote administration client that supports SSH, RDP, VNC, Telnet, and PowerShell sessions within a unified tabbed interface. It further differentiates its capabilities through hardware-level discovery using LLDP and CDP frames, alongside the ability to en

Dependency-Track is a software composition analysis tool and vulnerability management system designed to track dependencies and supply chain risk. It functions as a platform for ingesting and analyzing CycloneDX software bills of materials to identify known vulnerabilities and license compliance issues within third-party software components. The system distinguishes itself by mirroring external vulnerability databases locally to enable fast offline analysis and using VEX documents to differentiate between technical vulnerabilities and actual contextual risks. It also integrates with identity