Little Snitch vs Tidy My Mac, and LuLu

What Little Snitch does

Little Snitch is made by Objective Development in Vienna and has been around since 2003. Its current version, 6.5, runs on macOS 14 Sonoma and later, including macOS 27. It:

• shows an alert when an app tries to connect to a server it hasn't been allowed to reach, and lets you allow or deny it, once, for a while or for good;
• has a Silent Mode that allows new connections without asking, so you can decide about them later;
• keeps rules by app, server, domain, port and protocol, in both directions, and identifies apps by their code signature, so malware can't pass itself off as an app you allowed;
• switches between sets of rules, called profiles, when you join a different network;
• subscribes to blocklists of ad, tracking and malware servers, kept up to date every day;
• shows a Network Monitor with a world map of where your apps connect and how much data they send, going back up to twelve months;
• can encrypt DNS lookups and has a command-line tool for administrators.

How much does Little Snitch cost?

A single license is $59 (59 € in Europe), paid once. It covers one person on all their Macs, or several people on one Mac. A Family license covers up to five Macs in one household for non-commercial use, and there are multi-licenses for businesses. Updates within a major version are free; new major versions are paid upgrades at a discount. Licenses bought on April 1, 2026 or later already cover Little Snitch 7, which is in public beta.

Without a license, Little Snitch runs in demo mode with every feature, for three hours at a time; you can restart it as often as you like, and only the Network Monitor stops after 30 days. That makes it easy to try before you buy.

Little Snitch Mini is a separate, simpler app from the same company: watching connections, the map and the traffic chart are free, and blocking and blocklists come with a subscription inside the app.

Is Little Snitch safe?

Yes. It comes from a long-established company, is signed by its developer, and filters connections with Apple's own network extension framework. Download it from obdev.at; the download page shows a Terminal command that checks the disk image is signed by Objective Development. Like every outgoing firewall, it needs approval in System Settings the first time, and a rule that blocks the wrong thing can stop an app or a macOS service from working, so read an alert before you deny it.

LuLu vs Little Snitch

LuLu, by Objective-See, is the free, open-source alternative. It also asks when an app makes a new outgoing connection, keeps rules per app and per address, and has a passive mode that allows everything while it learns. It runs on macOS 10.15 and later.

• Choose LuLu if you want alerts for new connections and simple rules, don't want to pay, and like that anyone can read its code.
• Choose Little Snitch if you want the Network Monitor and its map, rules by port and protocol, profiles that switch with the network, managed blocklists and DNS encryption, and a more polished app.

Both are firewalls only. Neither scans for malware, warns about phishing sites or cleans up your Mac.

Where Little Snitch does more

• Alerts for new connections. Tidy My Mac's Firewall never asks: every app is allowed until you block it.
• Rules by server, port and protocol. Tidy My Mac blocks a whole app or nothing; to block particular sites for every app, it has Web Protection instead.
• Incoming connections, profiles per network, a traffic history and the connection map. Tidy My Mac leaves incoming connections to the macOS firewall and lists connections only while its Firewall screen is open.
• Paid once, on all of one person's Macs, and it runs on macOS 14 Sonoma and later.

Where Tidy My Mac does more

• Protection beyond the firewall: real-time antivirus, ransomware protection, an adware check and Web Protection against phishing and scam sites, which Little Snitch's blocklists don't cover.
• No pop-ups. New apps appear in a list and you block the ones you want, with their helpers counted in. Nothing to answer while you work.
• Security checks: a security settings score, including whether the macOS firewall is on, apps with known vulnerabilities, and which apps can use your camera and microphone.
• Cleanup: junk, a disk map, duplicates, an uninstaller and app updates.

Little Snitch alternatives

• LuLu (free, open source): alerts and rules like Little Snitch's, with fewer options.
• Little Snitch Mini: the same company's simpler app, free to watch connections, with blocking by subscription.
• Tidy My Mac: an outgoing firewall that blocks by app without pop-ups, in the same app as the antivirus, Web Protection and cleanup tools.
• The macOS firewall, built in, blocks incoming connections only. See how to turn it on, and what it doesn't block.

Can you use Little Snitch and Tidy My Mac together?

Yes, but turn off one of the two firewalls. Two network extensions filtering the same connections can slow them down or block what you meant to allow. If you keep Little Snitch for the firewall, leave Tidy My Mac's Firewall off and use the rest of the app; Web Protection and the antivirus work alongside Little Snitch.

Little Snitch's details were checked on Objective Development's website, and LuLu's on Objective-See's, on November 3, 2026. We make Tidy My Mac, so read this page with that in mind. See the full comparison for CleanMyMac, MacKeeper, Intego and the antivirus apps.