Best macOS Network Utility Alternatives, Compared (2026)

Apple pulled Network Utility from macOS back in Ventura, and in the years since, a handful of tools have shown up to fill the gap. Some try to be a full drop-in replacement. Others focus on doing one piece of it really well. This post compares the main options as of 2026: what each one actually does, where it falls short, and which one fits your workflow.

I’m going to be upfront: I built two of the tools on this list, NetUtil and Portie. That gives me a closer look at this space than most reviewers, but it also means you should weigh my comments on those two accordingly. I’ve tried to keep the comparisons honest, including where the other options are genuinely better fits.

If you just want the short version of why Network Utility disappeared and the quickest fix, see Network Utility Was Removed in macOS Ventura. This post goes deeper into the full field of options.

What You’re Actually Replacing

Network Utility bundled seven tools into one window: Info, Ping, Traceroute, Port Scan, Lookup, Whois, and Finger. No Terminal required. Apple removed it without a bundled replacement, so everything below exists because someone else decided to build it.

The Main Tools

NetUtil

NetUtil is the app I built to bring the original toolkit back as a native Mac app: ping, traceroute, DNS lookup, port scan, and interface info, all in one window. Everything runs locally, nothing is sent to a server, and there’s no account required.

The design goal was closer to “the classic toolkit, rebuilt” than “a new take on network diagnostics.” If you used the original Network Utility daily and just want it back, this is the most direct match in scope.

Best for: People who want the original Network Utility feature set back, in a native app, without relearning a new tool.

Tradeoffs: It covers the same ground as the original rather than going deeper into any one tool. If you need serious port-scanning depth or traceroute visualization, the specialist tools below go further in those specific areas.

Neo Network Utility

Neo Network Utility, from DEVONtechnologies, is a free app with a similar goal to NetUtil: bring back what Apple removed. It covers ping, traceroute, port scanning, DNS lookup (including reverse lookups), and adds a few things the original never had, like Wi-Fi analysis and a built-in speed test. It requires macOS Ventura or later and has had steady updates, including a 2.0 redesign for macOS Tahoe.

Best for: Anyone who wants a free, actively maintained, full-featured replacement and doesn’t mind it coming from a third party rather than a single-purpose app.

Tradeoffs: Wider feature scope than most people need if you’re only after the classic diagnostic set. Being free and general-purpose is exactly what makes it a strong default pick, though.

WhatRoute

WhatRoute has been around for a long time and does one thing in particular very well: traceroute, with a geographic visualization of the path your packets take. It also handles ping, DNS, and whois lookups. It’s free, distributed directly from the developer’s site rather than the Mac App Store, and still actively updated.

Best for: Anyone who specifically wants to see a traceroute path rather than just read a list of hops, useful for diagnosing routing issues or just understanding where your traffic actually goes.

Tradeoffs: Narrower in scope than a full Network Utility replacement. It’s a traceroute specialist first, not an all-in-one toolkit.

Nmap (Command Line)

Nmap is the actual industry-standard network scanner, and it’s been the answer to “the real port-scan tool” for over two decades. It’s free, open source, and far more capable than Network Utility’s port scan ever was: network engineers and security professionals use it for exactly that reason.

The catch is the interface. Nmap itself is command-line only. There’s an official GUI, Zenmap, but it’s built with a cross-platform toolkit that doesn’t feel native on a Mac. A few newer, more Mac-native front-ends have shown up to fill that gap if a GUI matters to you.

brew install nmap
nmap -sV -p 1-1000 example.com

Best for: Developers and anyone comfortable with the command line who wants the most capable scanner available, full stop.

Tradeoffs: No polished native GUI out of the box. If you want to point-and-click rather than type flags, this isn’t the fastest path.

Portie

Portie takes a different angle than the rest of this list: instead of being a general Network Utility replacement, it specializes in one piece, knowing exactly what’s using every open port on your Mac, live, with the owning app attached. Viewing the list is free; a one-time $8.99 unlock lets you kill or force-quit a process directly from the row instead of dropping into Terminal.

Where this matters most is the exact situation Network Utility’s port scan never solved well: not just “is port 8080 open” but “what process, specifically, is holding it, and can I get rid of it right now.”

Best for: Developers who regularly hit “address already in use” errors, or anyone who wants to know what’s actually listening on their Mac without guessing from a process list.

Tradeoffs: It’s not a ping/traceroute/DNS tool. If you want the full classic toolkit in one app, pair it with NetUtil or Neo Network Utility rather than expecting it to cover everything.

Which One Should You Use

You want the classic Network Utility toolkit back, exactly: NetUtil or Neo Network Utility. Both cover the same core ground; Neo Network Utility is free and adds a couple of extras, NetUtil is a tighter, single-purpose rebuild.

You need to actually see where your traffic is routing: WhatRoute’s visual traceroute is built specifically for this.

You want the most capable scanner available and don’t mind the command line: Nmap, no contest.

You keep hitting “port already in use” and want to know exactly what’s holding it: Portie. It’s the one tool here that goes deeper than Network Utility ever did on this specific problem.

You want one thing that does most of it for free: Neo Network Utility is the strongest all-around free pick on this list right now.

Summary

None of these are a perfect one-to-one Network Utility clone, because Apple never shipped a replacement to clone. What you get instead is a small ecosystem of tools that, between them, cover everything the original did and go further in a couple of specific areas. Pick based on which problem you actually have most often.