GlassWire Firewall premium version comparison

Remember GlassWire? The firewall for Windows launched backed in 2014 as a free beta version that featured a simple elegant interface that provided you with information about connections on the PC it was running on.

The firewall itself lacked some features. While it supported the blocking of programs for example, it did not offer the means to do so automatically.

If you run GlassWire on your system you may have noticed that new features were added in recent updates that have a "buy" tag associated with them.

This is for instance the case in the firewall under "click to block". There you find listed the two additional options "ask to connect" and "block all" which both become available when you purchase a premium version of GlassWire.

Similarly, the network tab displays an option to purchase GlassWire to add network device detection to the feature list of the firewall.

The buy page, publicly available already, lists three different premium versions currently that you can purchase.

Pricing starts at $49 per year and goes all the way up to $199 per year.

	Basic	Pro	Elite
Price	$49	$99	$199
Devices	1	3	5
History	6 months	1 year	unlimited
Remote Connections	3	10	unlimited
Ask to Connect	yes	yes	yes
Lock Down Mode	yes	yes	yes
Mini Graph	yes	yes	yes
Who's on WiFi	yes	yes	yes
Webcam/Mic Detection	yes	yes	yes
Skins	yes	yes	yes
Hide activity	yes	yes	yes

All versions share the same advanced feature set and the only differences between versions is the number of PCs you can run GlassWire on, history retention and the number of remote connections.

• Ask to Connect and Block All mode - The two modes improve security by blocking network connections of new processes or even all processes when activated.
• Mini graph - Displays a small graph on the desktop highlighting activity.
• Webcam and Mic detection - Alerts you whenever a process activates the webcam or microphone.
• Who's on your WiFi or Network - Lists devices connected to the network or WiFi.
• Multiple server monitoring - Monitor multiple devices from one system

While the free version is not listed on the buy now page, GlassWire confirmed in the product forum that it remains available in its current form. The company revealed as well that it plans to test a one-time payment for a period of time.

The feature additions make sense and improve the capabilities of the firewall significantly, but the main question is how users will react to the subscription scheme offered by the company. Having to pay at least $49 per year for a firewall is quite steep especially if you consider that free alternatives such as Windows Firewall, Private Firewall or Comodo Firewall are available.

Now You: Would you pay yearly for a firewall?