Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

netcat VS Signal

Compare netcat VS Signal and see what are their differences

netcat logo netcat

Netcat is a featured networking utility which reads and writes data across network connections...

Signal logo Signal

Fast, simple & secure messaging. Privacy that fits in your pocket.
  • netcat Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-11-19
  • Signal Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-20

netcat videos

Linux Terminal 101: Netcat

More videos:

  • Review - Advanced Netcat and TCP Fun - Hak5 1922
  • Review - Netcat 101: Remote Shells in Windows, HakTip 86

Signal videos

Why We Should All Be Using Signal Messenger

More videos:

  • Review - WhatsApp vs Telegram vs Signal: Which is the BEST?!
  • Review - THE SIGNAL: explained

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to netcat and Signal)
Monitoring Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Communication
0 0%
100% 100
Log Management
100 100%
0% 0
Group Chat & Notifications

User comments

Share your experience with using netcat and Signal. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare netcat and Signal

netcat Reviews

9 Best Angry IP Scanner Alternatives Reviewed 2021 (Free & Paid)
Netcat lacks a lot of the documentation you can easily find with software like AngryIP or Nmap which in my opinion is its biggest drawback. If you’re thinking about trying out Netcat, check out our Netcat Cheat Sheet to quickly pull up powerful and useful commands. Netcat is compatible with Windows, Linux, and macOS systems.
Top 5 Best Port Scanners
Netcat is one of the oldest network tools in the "Unixverse", it's been there since 1995, and the last official version is from 2004. Although it has many forks and variants that work pretty well on modern operating systems, like ncat from the Nmap suite, or this alternative Netcat version from Mike Frysinger.

Signal Reviews

20 Telegram Alternatives to Chat With in 2024
Signal is not a broadcasting app (although it does have a stories feature), nor is it a community-building app. It's a simple messaging Telegram alternative for those wanting to chat with friends.
10 Best Telegram Alternatives in 2024
Signal is an alternative Telegram app which was first developed in the year 2014 by Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton, Signal was launched after whatsapp and after its launch various organizations shifted their work to Signal from Whatsapp due to its highly secured and safe features than any other app.
Top 10 Apps like Telegram for Android and IOs [2023]
Signal is a messaging program that offers all the features you would anticipate from a modern instant messaging app, with a heavy focus on privacy. Signal is one of the safest messaging apps on the market thanks to its open-source architecture, end-to-end encryption, and commitment to never accumulating user data. If you're seeking secure apps like Telegram, Signal's...
The best WhatsApp alternatives for 2023
Signal's open-source end-to-end encryption protocol is also used by WhatsApp, so you'll be getting WhatsApp's security without Facebook's involvement. The Signal app regularly conducts security audits on its software as well, and manages to combine that security with a user-friendly interface that even your technophobic uncle could manage.
The 7 best apps you can use as a WhatsApp alternative
If you're looking for the strongest security in a WhatsApp alternative, Signal is probably what you need. The app leans hard into privacy with complete end-to-end encryption for voice, video, and text conversations when you chat with other Signal users. And the company behind Signal is a US-based non-profit organization that has no profit incentive to sell your data. You can...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Signal seems to be a lot more popular than netcat. While we know about 180 links to Signal, we've tracked only 7 mentions of netcat. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

netcat mentions (7)

  • could not connect to the rhel-9 from putty in windows machine
    If you don't like using telnet, that's fine. Don't use it. There are plenty of other options available. Use netcat. Or use netcat. Or use netcat. Or read and write directly to /dev/tcp/hostname/port using shell constructs. Or run openssl s_client if you suspect something complicated is listening on the other end. There is more than one way to do it and ways that are not your way still work. Source: about 1 year ago
  • The HTTP crash course nobody asked for
    Reminder, there are many different netcats, here are some of the most commons: - netcat-traditional http://www.stearns.org/nc/ - netcat-openbsd : https://github.com/openbsd/src/blob/master/usr.bin/nc/netcat.c (also packaged in Debian) - ncat https://nmap.org/ncat/ - netcat GNU: https://netcat.sourceforge.net/ (quite rare) To prevent any confusion, I like to recommend socat: http://www.dest-unreach.org/socat/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Gaining remote access to a computer with a reverse shell attack in Node.js
    A common tool to execute a reverse shell is called netcat. If you're using macOS, it should be installed by default. You can check by running nc -help in a terminal window. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Programm to send and receive TCP/UDP Packets
    You could try using Ncat on Windows or netcat on Linux, though it's a command-line only tool if that matters. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Is there a way to copy a file from a remote shell to local without using scp?
    If you have netcat, you can easily set up a transfer from one machine to the other:. Source: almost 3 years ago
View more

Signal mentions (180)

  • WhatsApp forces Pegasus spyware maker to share its secret code
    Just so you know: https://grapheneos.org/ and https://signal.org/ do exist! - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • What are you shocked people are still doing nowadays?
    Signal works the same but without the user tracking from Meta/Facebook. Many people use it as well but I'm surprised that a majority sticks to WhatsApp. Source: 7 months ago
  • A Practical Guide For Safety And Reporting Crimes For Our Community
    A question I often get is "Well are my text messages safe" The short answer is... Maybe? Depends on what type of phone you use, your carrier, and a bunch of other factors. One way to avoid this is to use an end-to-end encrypted text service like Signal if that is a concern of yours. VERY IMPORTANT NOTES: Telegram and WhatsApp are not secure. The way to think of this security is that if is retained by a server... Source: 7 months ago
  • Signal Public Username Testing (Staging Environment)
    The linked page is on signalusers.org, but Signal's regular home site is https://signal.org/. I'm looking all over signal.org for some link from there to signalusers.org, as that would make me more relaxed about the authenticity of the latter -- i.e., that it really is run by the same people who run signal.org. Yes, maybe I'm being paranoid. But we're talking about an app whose whole purpose is secure... - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Breaking Global Communication Barriers
    WhatsApp and Signal: Of course I’m going to conclude with the point to point encrypted communication apps Signal and WhatsApp. Most of our clients around the world communicate in these apps more than they make phone calls or send emails. Set up an account in each app and start leveraging the text, photo, phone and video features to have easy and fast conversations with your global contacts. See https://signal.org... Source: about 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing netcat and Signal, you can also consider the following products

Wireshark - Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer for Unix and Windows. It lets you capture and interactively browse the traffic running on a computer network.

Telegram - Telegram is a messaging app with a focus on speed and security. It’s superfast, simple and free.

tcpdump - tcpdump is a common packet analyzer that runs under the command line.

Element.io - Secure messaging app with strong end-to-end encryption, advanced group chat privacy settings, secure video calls for teams, encrypted communication using Matrix open network. Riot.im is now Element.

socat - socat is a relay for bidirectional data transfer between two independent data channels.

WhatsApp - WhatsApp Messenger: More than 1 billion people in over 180 countries use WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends and family, anytime and anywhere.