All comparisonsNetGuard and NetCageA no-root Android firewall that allows or denies internet per app on Wi-Fi and mobile, with paid filtering by address.Last checked 7 November 2026Check NetGuard’s own pageYou can’t install NetCage todayIt has no store listing and no public download, so there’s no install link on this page and no price to quote. If you need something on your phone now, NetGuard is there to install and NetCage isn’t.Better served by NetGuardChoose NetGuard if you want an open-source firewall that is on Google Play and F-Droid today, with optional per-address filtering and traffic logs.Better served by NetCageChoose NetCage if you want one switch per app and nothing to tune: the caged app is refused on this phone, in the foreground and the background, and the rest of your phone stays online.Row by rowNetCage’s column comes from its code. NetGuard’s comes from the linked pages. “Not stated” means we didn’t find it there, not that it’s missing.

Feature

NetGuard

NetCage

Blocks one chosen app’s internet

Yes netguard.me

Yes

Keeps blocking while the app is in the background

Yes netguard.me

Yes

Needs no root

Yes netguard.me

Yes

Open source

Yes f-droid.org

Shows ads

No netguard.me

Partly. Promotions for the developer’s own apps only. No ad network.

In-app purchases

Yes play.google.com

What it costs

App: Free. Free install on Google Play; the listing carries an In-app purchases label at $0.99 - $8.49 per item play.google.com

Pro features outside Google Play: €0.10 once. A one-time donation of EUR 0.10 or more unlocks the pro features once; EUR 7 or more unlocks them on every device you own netguard.me

NetCage publishes no price.Where NetCage falls short

It takes Android’s one VPN slot. While NetCage is up you can’t run another VPN, and connecting one stops NetCage.

Apps that share an Android user ID are caged together, and there’s no way to separate them.

A caged app can still hand a link to a browser you haven’t caged, and that browser connects as normal.

It doesn’t work inside an app: no domain rules, no block lists, no traffic log. An app is caged or it isn’t.

NetGuard is open source and NetCage isn’t, so you can read one app’s code and not the other’s.

Every limit, in the documentationComing from NetGuard?The documentation has a page on how the two differ and which of its guides to read first. Read it on the documentation siteIf a row here is wrong, tell us and we’ll open the page again. Contact