Angry IP Scanner is free, open source and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, so most people looking for an alternative want either a native app instead of a Java one, or richer device identification. Advanced IP Scanner covers the first on Windows; Fing covers the second, at the cost of an account.
By Ahmad Abdur Rehman, Maintainer, IPScanner.ProLast reviewed 2026-09-14Sources verified 2026-09-14
You already use Angry IP Scanner, or you tried it, and something about it did not fit — the Java runtime, the sparse device names, or the interface.
Angry IP Scanner is a genuinely good tool, and it is worth being clear about that before listing alternatives to it. It is free, it is open source, it runs on all three desktop operating systems, and it needs no installation. For a large number of people the correct answer to “what should I use instead?” is “nothing — keep using it.”
People do leave it, though, and they leave for consistent reasons. The first is that it is a Java application: the current release bundles a runtime with the Windows and macOS builds, which makes the download larger and, on a managed machine, makes the security team ask questions. The second is that the results are thin. Angry IP Scanner tells you an address answered and what its hostname is; it does not try very hard to tell you what the device actually is.
The tools below solve one of those two problems each. None of them solves both, and the one we make is honest about which parts of it do not exist yet.
Side by side
Every cell about a product we do not make is what that vendor or project publishes about itself. “Not stated in the source we cite” means exactly that — the source does not cover the point, so it is left blank rather than filled in from memory.
Competitor entries come from the sources in the citation table below, each retrieved on the date shown there. Our own row states shipped capabilities only.
Tool
Platforms
Licence and price
Account or cloud
Where results live
What it is good at
Sources
Advanced IP ScannerFamatech
Windows 11, 10, 8 and 7, per the vendor. No macOS or Linux build is published.
Free.
Not stated on the page we cite.
Not stated on the page we cite.
It asks the least of you of anything on a Windows network: no install decisions, a familiar list, and shared-folder and Radmin actions built into the same window.
A free Fing account is required, and the desktop app signs in to Fing’s cloud services for device recognition and to sync network data.
Fing’s own documentation describes signing in to its cloud services for device recognition and to sync your network data. Results are not confined to your machine by design.
Device recognition is the product. Fing names the make and model of consumer hardware more often than a purely local tool can, because it matches against a database it maintains centrally.
Windows 7 and newer, macOS (the official installer is published for x86-64 and tested on macOS 10.9 and later), Linux packages, and source for other systems.
Free, under custom licence terms derived from the GNU GPL.
Not stated on the page we cite.
Scanning and output stay on the machine that ran them.
Nothing else on this page is in the same class for depth. Service and version detection, OS fingerprinting, and a scripting engine make it the tool you graduate to when “which hosts are up” stops being the question.
Windows. The project publishes x64 MSI setup and portable builds. The pages we cite do not state a minimum Windows version.
Free and open source under the GNU General Public License v3.
None. The project describes itself as open source, free and without ads, with no subscriptions and no selling of user data; third-party integrations are optional.
Everything runs locally. The project describes optional third-party integrations that the user enables or disables.
It is a toolbox rather than a scanner: IP scanner, port scanner, WiFi analyzer, ping monitor, traceroute, DNS lookup and LLDP/CDP capture sit beside RDP, SSH/PuTTY, PowerShell and VNC clients in one window.
A native macOS application. A Windows x64 portable build is implemented, but native acceptance testing is not complete.
Free-first for individuals. Paid organisation features are planned, not available.
No account for local scanning. The current desktop workflow is Local Only; optional online sync is designed but not built.
On the machine that scanned, encrypted, keyed to the macOS Keychain or Windows DPAPI. Online sync is designed as a per-device opt-in on top of that, and it does not exist yet — there is no upload path in the product today.
It shows the evidence behind every identification instead of asserting an answer, keeps encrypted history so you can see what changed since last time, and prices an expensive action before it runs rather than after.
Our own product, not a citation.
Which one to pick
A comparison that steers every reader to the same answer is an advertisement. These are the conditions under which each tool here is the right choice — including the ones that are not ours.
Advanced IP Scanner
Every machine you administer runs Windows, you want a free tool that a colleague will already recognise, and you do not need it on a Mac.
Fing Desktop
You want the clearest possible answer to “what is that device?” on a home or small-office network, and a cloud account in exchange for it is a trade you are happy to make.
Nmap with Zenmap
You need scripting, service and version detection, or auditable output you can diff — and you are willing to learn the options rather than click a button.
NETworkManager
You administer Windows networks and you would rather have one open-source window containing the scan, the lookup and the remote session than three separate tools.
IPScanner.Pro
You want to know why a device was identified the way it was, and you want the result to stay on your machine unless you deliberately decide otherwise.
If the Java runtime is the problem
On Windows, Advanced IP Scanner is the obvious swap: a free native application with no runtime to explain to anyone. NETworkManager is the open-source version of that answer, and it goes further — the same window holds a port scanner, a WiFi analyzer, DNS lookup and an RDP client, and the project publishes a portable build so nothing has to be installed at all.
On macOS there is no native free equivalent with the same breadth, which is worth stating plainly rather than pretending otherwise. Nmap installs natively and Zenmap ships with it, but that is a different kind of tool. IPScanner.Pro is a native macOS application, and it has no public download yet, so it cannot help you today either.
If thin device information is the problem
Fing is the strongest answer, and the trade is explicit: its own documentation says the desktop app requires a free account and signs in to its cloud services for device recognition and to sync your network data. That central database is exactly why it names hardware the others cannot. If your network’s owner has told you nothing may leave the site, that same sentence rules it out.
The approach we take is different, and it is a real trade-off rather than a free win: instead of matching against a central database, IPScanner.Pro shows the evidence behind each identification and lets you judge it. That produces fewer confident product names than Fing and more visible reasoning, and on a network of private-MAC-randomising phones both approaches struggle.
What each of these cannot do
Every entry below includes the tool we make, on the same terms and in the same list. The competitor entries state capabilities, not quality judgements.
Advanced IP Scanner — Famatech
It has no macOS or Linux version. The vendor’s download page lists Windows only, so “Advanced IP Scanner for Mac” has nothing official to install, and a Mac download offered by some other site would not be the vendor’s.
The vendor’s page does not state how results are stored or whether anything is sent anywhere, so this comparison does not claim either way.
It is closed source, so its behaviour cannot be audited the way an open-source scanner’s can.
It requires a free Fing account, and its documentation says the desktop app signs in to Fing’s cloud services for device recognition and to sync your network data. That is how the product works — it is simply a different data path from a tool that keeps everything on one machine.
Free personal use sits underneath paid subscriptions, so features can move between tiers over time.
On a network whose owner has told you nothing may leave the site, the account requirement is a blocker rather than an inconvenience.
It is built for operators. The primary interface is a command line and the output is text; Zenmap is a front end, not a substitute for learning the flags.
The official macOS package is published for x86-64, so an Apple-silicon Mac means relying on translation or building from source as the project documents.
It is a general-purpose auditing tool, so it does not attempt the “what is this device, and why do we think so?” presentation the other entries here aim for.
Its defaults are powerful enough to alarm an IDS or upset a fragile device. That is a feature for an auditor and a hazard for someone who just wanted a device list.
There is no public download. Signed and notarized distribution does not exist yet, so nothing on this site offers an installer or a version number.
macOS is the verified platform. The Windows x64 build is implemented but has not completed native acceptance testing.
Full ports is not a whole-range sweep. It runs only on devices you select from a completed discovery in the same session.
Restored inventory is labelled historical and never claims a device is reachable now. Startup restore covers the newest retained scan and stops at 256 devices; the History dialog covers the rest.
Device identification can be incomplete. Private MAC addresses, blocked responses and thin evidence limit what any local tool can conclude.
Online sync, accounts and organisation features are not built. The design keeps local storage as the default and adds sync as an opt-in, but none of it ships today.
Scanning on macOS requires Local Network permission; Windows may show a firewall prompt or apply an organisation policy.
What we have built, and what we have not
The row above is a summary. This is the full list, marked by whether it exists today. A feature marked planned is a design decision, not a promise with a date, and nothing on this site should be bought or downloaded on the strength of one — there is nothing to buy or download yet.
ShippedBounded discovery with visible evidence. Quick, Balanced and Thorough discovery inside a scope you authorize, showing provisional rows while the scan runs and the evidence behind every identification.
ShippedFull ports on devices you select. A selected-device action on a finished discovery in the same session, priced as devices × 65,535 attempts before you confirm. It is not a whole-range sweep.
ShippedEncrypted local history. Scans are retained encrypted on the machine that ran them, keyed to the macOS Keychain or Windows DPAPI, with a one-year default retention you can change.
ShippedNEW, GONE and CHANGED against earlier scans. Manual records compare against earlier evidence for the same scope, preserve matched first-seen dates, and suppress GONE on a partial scan so an interrupted run cannot invent a disappearance.
ShippedLocal Only as the default data path. The current desktop workflow is Local Only: results are written to the machine that scanned and there is no upload path in the product today.
PlannedOptional online sync of results. The design keeps local storage as the default and adds sync as a per-device opt-in, so a result reaches a server only when you turn it on. It is not built: there are no accounts, no registered agents and no durable storage yet, and nothing on this site should be read as offering it today.
PlannedSigned, public downloads. There is no public download. Signed and notarized distribution does not exist yet, which is why no page on this site carries a download button or a version number.
Every claim, and where it came from
Every statement about another product on this page comes from that vendor’s or project’s own published material, with the retrieval date shown for each source. Where a source does not cover a point, the table says so instead of guessing. This page contains no benchmarks, no speed or accuracy comparisons and no hands-on measurements of the other tools: we did not test them to write it.
Each row is a claim this page makes about a product we do not make, and the publication it came from.
Claim on this page
Source
Retrieved
Advanced IP Scanner is a free Windows scanner listed for Windows 11, 10, 8 and 7, and the vendor publishes no macOS download.
Nmap is distributed for Windows 7 and newer, macOS (x86-64, tested on macOS 10.9 and later), Linux RPM packages and source, under custom licence terms derived from the GNU GPL.
NETworkManager is released under the GNU General Public License v3 and is described by the project as open source, free and without ads, with no subscriptions and no selling of user data.
NETworkManager bundles an IP scanner, a port scanner, a WiFi analyzer, ping monitor, traceroute, DNS lookup and LLDP/CDP capture alongside Remote Desktop, PuTTY (SSH and serial), PowerShell and TigerVNC clients.
Competitor platforms, licence models and account requirements change. These pages are re-checked quarterly, and immediately when a cited product changes. If something here is out of date, telling us is the fastest way to get it fixed.
About this page and who wrote it
This page was written from the vendors’ and projects’ own published documentation and from the IPScanner.Pro codebase, including the scope, consent and Full-ports rules the desktop application enforces. It makes no first-hand claim about how any other tool behaves in practice, because we did not test them to write it.
Where it is wrong, or where a cited product has changed, support@ipscanner.pro reaches the person who maintains it, and corrections are made rather than argued with. A suspected security issue in IPScanner.Pro goes to security@ipscanner.pro instead — there is a disclosure policy setting out what happens next.
Written by
Ahmad Abdur Rehman — Maintainer, IPScanner.Pro
Relevant experience
Writes and maintains the scanning engine described on this page, including the scope, consent and Full-ports rules the desktop application enforces.
Last reviewed
2026-09-14
Sources verified
2026-09-14
What this page is based on
The vendors’ and projects’ own published documentation, and the IPScanner.Pro codebase. No benchmark, and no hands-on test of any other tool listed here.
Questions people ask
Is Angry IP Scanner still maintained?
Yes. The confusion comes from the project website’s news page, which stops in 2019. The release history tells a different story: 3.10.0 shipped with a bundled Java runtime, support for modern Java, a plugin trust confirmation dialog, quoted shell arguments to prevent command injection via DNS poisoning, and a fix for a possible SQL injection in its SQL exporter. Judge the repository, not the news page.
What is the best free alternative to Angry IP Scanner on Windows?
Advanced IP Scanner if you want the simplest free native tool, and NETworkManager if you want a free and open-source one with more in the box. NETworkManager is released under the GPL v3 and ships x64 MSI and portable builds; Advanced IP Scanner is free but closed source, and the vendor’s page does not describe how results are stored.
Is there an Angry IP Scanner alternative that does not need Java?
On Windows, yes: Advanced IP Scanner and NETworkManager are both native. On macOS the honest answer is that the free, native, broad-feature option is thin on the ground — Nmap installs natively but is a command-line auditing tool with a GUI attached, and IP Scanner by 10base-t is native but limits its free tier to the first 15 devices per scan.
Do any of these keep results off the internet?
Angry IP Scanner, Nmap, NETworkManager and IPScanner.Pro all scan and store locally, and Angry IP Scanner’s only network-bound feature is an optional anonymous error report you can switch off in Preferences. Fing is the deliberate exception: an account and cloud sign-in are how the product works. Advanced IP Scanner’s vendor page does not state either way, so we do not claim it does.
Found something out of date on this page? Tell us at support@ipscanner.pro and it gets corrected — a comparison is only worth reading if the person who wrote it fixes it when it is wrong.