Mac firewall comparison
Outbound vs Radio Silence
Pick Radio Silence if you want to block whole apps quietly, with no pop-ups, for a $9 one-time price. Pick Outbound if an app must keep working while you block some of the destinations it contacts.
Updated
Published by Outbound, one of the products compared. This is a feature and workflow comparison, not an independent ranking or performance benchmark.
At a glance
| Criterion | Outbound | Radio Silence |
|---|---|---|
| Price and licence | Closed source. Personal $39 USD one time ($29 for the first 50 licences) with all 1.x and 2.x updates; family $59 USD for 5 Macs; Teams per seat, billed yearly | Personal $9, Team $49 with no seat limit; one-time purchase, and updates have always been free. Source availability: Not stated by the vendor |
| Main decision | App plus destination, port and protocol | Block an app’s network access; child processes of blocked apps are blocked too |
| Host, domain and port rules | Host, domain (with subdomains), IP address, CIDR range or local network, plus ports and protocol | Not stated by the vendor |
| Alert behaviour | Ask mode alert names the app, its developer from the signing certificate, port and protocol, and quotes an app’s Internet Access Policy when one is shipped (apps signed by a developer team or Apple). The rule can cover only this port, any port, or any port and protocol. Unanswered: allowed after 8 s (UDP) or 60 s (TCP) by default; TCP wait adjustable from 15 to 120 s, or block instead | No pop-up permission alerts |
| Silent modes | Learn allows unmatched connections and adds them to Review; Strict blocks them. Your rules apply in every mode | Always quiet; the firewall stays active with its window closed |
| Network monitor | Network Monitor grouped by app, with Sent, Received and Last Seen columns, exact bytes per destination once a connection closes, a traffic chart where you can select a time window, search scoped by app, host, port, protocol, country, direction or rule, and a map of server locations | Real-time monitor of every connection, including helpers, background processes, daemons and XPC services; block with one click |
| Blocklists | Hosts, domain or CIDR lists over HTTPS, up to 200,000 entries per list | Not stated by the vendor |
| Profiles | Profiles, switched with outboundctl; no SSID-based switching in v1 | Not stated by the vendor |
| Command line | outboundctl: status, rules, export and import, profiles, blocklists, audit export, feed checks | Not stated by the vendor |
| Managed deployment | Sample MDM profiles, managed preferences, HTTPS rule feed (up to 50,000 rules, optional SHA-256 pin), JSON Lines audit export | Team licence with no seat limit. MDM tools: Not stated by the vendor |
| Trial and refund | No trial; Personal covers 2 Macs | 24-hour trial with no feature limits; 30-day money-back guarantee |
| macOS and release status | macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon or Intel. Version 1.0, public download | Radio Silence 3, public download (not on the Mac App Store); macOS 10.15 to Tahoe, Apple silicon and Intel |
Competitor details: Radio Silence official product documentation, retrieved October 4, 2026.
Price and licence
The vendor lists Personal at $9 for a single user and Team at $49 with no seat limit, both one-time purchases with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Retrieved October 4, 2026; confirm the currency, final total and regional tax at checkout. Seller’s page.
Outbound personal is $39 USD one time ($29 for the first 50 licences) with all 1.x and 2.x updates. Family is $59 USD for 5 Macs. Personal covers 2 Macs; there is no trial. Outbound is closed source.
Where Radio Silence is the better choice
If your requirement is to keep an app offline, the no-alert workflow may be all you need. Radio Silence includes a network monitor; this is not a comparison between a monitor and no monitor. It costs $9, installs on all the Macs you use personally, runs on macOS 10.15 or later and is available now. It blocks child processes of a blocked app automatically, while still letting that app talk to local processes.
Is whole-app blocking enough, and will it slow my Mac?
If every app you care about should either be online or offline, whole-app blocking is enough and simpler to maintain. It stops being enough when one app needs its own service but you want to deny a separate analytics or update host. Radio Silence’s homepage says it has no effect on your Mac’s performance; Outbound has no performance benchmark for either app, so test with your own workload.
Choose destination rules for selective access
Outbound can combine a process with an exact host, registrable domain, address or network range. One app can have an allow rule for its service and a deny rule for a separate analytics destination. You need to identify those destinations yourself.
Quiet operation has a policy behind it
Outbound’s Learn mode allows unmatched connections and adds them to Review; Strict blocks them. Your rules apply in each mode. Ask mode allows an unanswered connection after 8 seconds for UDP or 60 seconds for TCP by default, or blocks it if you choose.
Migration notes
Write down your Radio Silence block list before you change anything, then re-create those apps as Outbound rules and test them one at a time. Radio Silence is removed by moving the app to the Trash. Test opening documents, authentication, sync and updates: a blanket block can stop legitimate functions, while a narrow rule can miss a helper process. Outbound has no trial, so check the pricing page and ask support before buying if a workflow matters.
A note on fairness
Outbound wrote this page and is one of the two products compared. Radio Silence lists a $9 price, is available now and is deliberately simpler, and that simplicity is a real advantage if you only need whole-app blocks.
Before you switch
- Export your existing policy for reference.
- Choose a small set of essential app connections and re-create them in the new product.
- Test on your macOS build, with your VPN and required management software.
- Keep the old policy and removal instructions available until you have tested the new setup.