Alternative to Lulu

This blog compares TinyShield with LuLu in terms of design, features, and licensing, including the new TinyShield Lifetime Deal for users who want lifetime updates.

What LuLu Gives You

If you're looking for a free and open source firewall for macOS, LuLu is a great choice. It's free, open source, and has a large community of users.

It's one of the best selling point feature of LuLu, it monitors all outgoing connections and prompts for user approval on unknown traffic. You can block traffic from a given app or IPs.

However, LuLu has some limitations:

Let's look at the main windows of LuLu. Liqid Glass UI is soon introduced on macOS 26. I belive Lulu doens't update it because it's not using SwiftUI.

Let's look at LuLu's Github Issues, the majority of them is releated to "LuLU doens't work or can't monitor network traffic". It hasn't been solved in the latest version, but the issue is still there.

It's a biggest drawback of LuLu, you can't see the domain name of the traffic. Technically, LuLu has supported DNS Lookup, but it doesn't work well. It shows the level 1 domain name, not the full domain name.

What TinyShield Gives You

TinyShield is a native macOS firewall that is designed to be easy to use and understand. It's built on Apple's Network Extension framework, so it's fast and efficient.

TinyShield Advantages

We strictly follow Apple's Human Interface Guidelines, so you can use TinyShield with ease. It's design with modern macOS 15 design language.

Powered by Apple's Network Extension framework, TinyShield is fast and efficient. TinyShield can monitor all network traffic, including incoming and outgoing traffic.

The domains or IPs will be listed as a child of the app or service. You can click on the app or service to see the detailed network traffic.

TinyShield allows you to block traffic from a given app or IP. You can also block traffic from a given domain name.

TinyShield is developed by Proxyman Team, a company that is known for its high-quality network tools. You can open a new issue on Github and our team will respond to you within 24 hours.

TinyShield offers a simple, transparent licensing model. Standard and Combo are one-time purchases that include 2 years of updates, and you can keep using your last eligible version after that. For users who want future updates without renewals, the Lifetime Deal includes 2 macOS devices, lifetime access, and lifetime updates for $69.

No subscriptions, no hidden fees, no surprises.

Conclusion

While each tool has its strengths, TinyShield offers the best combination of features, performance, and usability for most Mac users. Its modern approach to network security, combined with powerful monitoring and blocking capabilities, makes it an excellent choice for protecting your digital life.

Ready to experience the TinyShield difference? See the pricing plans, including the Lifetime Deal, and see why users are switching from other solutions.