GStars
    safing

    safing/portmaster

    🏔 Love Freedom - ❌ Block Mass Surveillance

    networking
    application-firewall
    dns
    firewall
    go
    golang
    Go
    GPL-3.0
    14.0K stars
    608 forks
    90 GitHub watchers
    Updated Nov 6, 2026
    View on GitHub

    Build with Backblaze B2

    SDKs, agent skills, IDE extensions, and reference pipelines from Backblaze Labs. All open source.

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    Where it stands

    Rank, growth pace and release cadence relative to everything GStars tracks.

    2 releases in the last 90 days, the latest 16 days ago, with 18 contributors on GitHub.

    Peaked at #33 in the weekly ranking the week of Dec 7, its best in the past year.

    Use Cases & Benefits

    • Provides a free, open-source application firewall that monitors and controls all network activity on Windows and Linux desktops.
    • Offers comprehensive privacy protection with easy defaults and detailed per-app control, integrating deeply into the network stack for effective packet filtering.
    • Use for blocking trackers, malware, and unwanted network connections automatically to enhance personal privacy without manual configuration.
    • Use for configuring secure DNS resolution with DoH/DoT support and protection against DNS rebinding attacks to safeguard DNS queries.
    • Use for routing traffic through the Safing Privacy Network to achieve onion-encrypted multi-hop privacy and geo-unblocking without traditional VPN drawbacks.

    Should you depend on it?

    License terms, project hygiene and risks, from GitHub metadata and GStars' snapshots.

    License

    GPL 3.0

    Copyleft: distributing software that includes it generally requires releasing your source under the same license.

    Community files

    • README: present
    • Code of conduct: present

    Watch-outs

    • GPL-style copyleft: including it in distributed software generally requires releasing your source under the same license.

    General guidance from repository metadata, not legal advice. How we score

    From the README

    Portmaster is a free and open-source application firewall that does the heavy lifting for you. Restore privacy and take back control over all your computer's network activity.

    With great defaults your privacy improves without any effort. And if you want to configure and control everything down to the last detail - Portmaster has you covered too. Developed in the EU 🇪🇺, Austria.

    Portmaster is a privacy suite for your Windows and Linux desktop.

    Excerpt from the safing/portmaster README on GitHub (GPL-3.0 license). © its authors.Read the full README on GitHub

    Daily snapshots

    Stars gained per day, and how forks and open issues moved, from GStars' daily snapshots

    Aug 12: +9Sep 26: +6

    +515 stars over 88 days across 9 snapshot days; best day +9 on Aug 12.

    Forks

    608+44

    Open issues

    91-4

    Compared with peers in Networking

    Fastest-growing repositories GStars tracks in this cohort for the week of Nov 8, by 7-day star growth

    View category →
    safing/portmaster compared with Networking repositories by stars, 7-day star growth, health score and last release
    RepositoryStars+7dHealthLast release
    MHSanaei/3x-ui49.6K+44852137 days ago
    GyulyVGC/sniffnet42.3K+42275111 days ago
    tailscale/tailscale38.9K+31175today
    netbirdio/netbird30.9K+26775today
    fosrl/pangolin23.6K+218756 days ago
    safing/portmaster14.0K—4416 days ago
    Category median38.9K+31175—
    Compare portmaster with 3x-ui, sniffnet, tailscale →

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