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Network Security & NDR

Discover network security solutions including firewalls, NDR, ZTNA, IDS/IPS, and secure web gateways.

Choosing guide

20 results in Network Security & NDR

Active Pro listings from this category appear first. Your sort applies within Pro and Free results.

Focused collections

Shortlists for Network Security & NDR

Explore collections with tools relevant to this category, grouped by deployment, source model or workload.

Open-source security tools for technical teams →

3 matching tools from this category

IT tools with an API →

12 matching tools from this category

How to choose network security & ndr tools

Network security and NDR products control and watch traffic between users, devices, workloads and the internet. They range from next-generation firewalls and secure gateways to zero-trust overlay networks and mesh VPNs that grant access by identity, and to detection tools that spot attacker behavior inside the network. Endpoint protection secures individual hosts, while this category secures the paths between them.

Read the guide

Who uses these tools

  • Network engineers managing perimeter and branch firewalls
  • Security analysts hunting threats in network traffic
  • Infrastructure teams replacing legacy VPN concentrators

Capabilities to compare

  • Stateful inspection, IPS and TLS decryption
  • Identity-based access policies and device posture
  • Traffic anomaly detection and response actions
  • Centralized policy management across sites
  • SD-WAN and SASE integration

Operating considerations

  • Throughput limits when inspection features are enabled
  • Subscription renewals tied to hardware appliances
  • Placement of the coordination server or controller
  • Encrypted traffic visibility versus privacy
  • Lock-in through proprietary policy languages

Selection checklist

  1. Map the traffic flows you must protect, including remote users, branches and cloud workloads, before comparing architectures.
  2. Test throughput with inspection and decryption enabled, since datasheet figures often assume those features are off.
  3. Check how access policies tie to your identity provider and device management for zero-trust rules.
  4. Estimate total cost over several years, including support, threat feed subscriptions and hardware refresh.

What belongs in this category: Included products enforce or inspect network access, as firewalls, ZTNA and mesh VPN overlays, IDS and IPS, secure web gateways or network detection and response, rather than protecting single endpoints or managing identities.

Network Security & NDR on iThub in figures

iThub lists 20 tools in Network Security & NDR. 11 of 20 are open source, 11 of 20 can be self-hosted, 14 of 20 have a free, freemium or open-source pricing model and 12 of 20 offer an API.

Tools listed
20
Open source
11
Self-hostable
11
Free to start
14
With an API
12
Web app
8
Desktop app
14

Recently added: OpenSnitch, Certimate, Technitium DNS Server, Pi-hole

Typical use cases

  • Replacing a remote access VPN with identity-based access
  • Segmenting production networks from office networks
  • Detecting lateral movement and data exfiltration on internal traffic
  • Connecting servers across clouds without opening inbound ports

Trade-offs to model

  • Appliance firewalls give deep inspection at the edge, while overlay networks scale access policies per device without a central choke point.
  • Open source zero-trust overlays avoid licence lock-in but leave controller operations, upgrades and support to your team.

Common mistakes

  • Buying a firewall on headline throughput and discovering it slows sharply once inspection and decryption are turned on.
  • Moving to zero-trust access while leaving the old VPN and broad network rules active indefinitely.

Compare Tailscale and ZeroTier →Browse identity and access management tools →See open source security tools →

Decision resources

Continue the technical evaluation

Use the resources that match your decision stage. Profile data and linked sources were refreshed through November 14, 2026.

Evaluation methodology · Corrections process