GlassWire vs UTM

GlassWire is a network monitoring and personal firewall application for Windows and Android that visualizes current and past network activity to help users spot malware, bandwidth hogs, and unfamiliar devices on their network. Its firewall includes an ask-to-connect mode that lets users approve or deny individual apps' network access, alongside a network time machine for reviewing historical connections. GlassWire also tracks data usage across devices and can alert users before they exceed set data limits, while its network scanner flags new or unknown devices joining a WiFi network. Over 53 million downloads have been recorded for the Windows and Android apps combined.

UTM is a free and open-source virtualization app built specifically for macOS. It uses Apple's Hypervisor framework to run ARM64 operating systems on Apple Silicon at near-native speed, and can virtualize x86/x64 systems on Intel Macs; emulation additionally lets Apple Silicon Macs run x86/x64 and Intel Macs run ARM64, plus other architectures like ARM32, MIPS, PPC, and RISC-V. Built on QEMU with an added native macOS interface, UTM also supports running multiple macOS virtual machines on Apple Silicon (macOS Monterey or later) and can emulate classic, older operating systems on PowerPC, SPARC, or x86_64. It is completely free and open source; a Mac App Store version is available at a price for convenience and automatic updates but includes no extra features over the free direct download.

• Combines network monitoring and firewall in one lightweight app
• Very affordable premium pricing at $2.99/month
• Visual, easy-to-understand traffic graphs
• Available on both Windows and Android

• Completely free and open source
• Runs both virtualized and emulated architectures, including ARM32, MIPS, PPC, RISC-V
• Can run multiple macOS VMs on Apple Silicon
• No feature differences between free and App Store versions

• Free tier limits network history to just 24 hours
• Windows and Android only, no Mac or Linux support
• Advanced threat detection features require Premium

• No GPU acceleration for Windows guests, so 3D games are not well supported
• macOS VM support limited to Apple Silicon running Monterey or newer
• QEMU emulation of unsupported architectures runs slower than native virtualization