Port manager apps for Mac compared
An honest comparison of the ways to find and stop a local port on a Mac.
You have several ways to see what listens on a port and stop it. This page compares them. We make Portfox, so we say where it fits and where it does not. For other tools we state only what is widely known and point you to their sites for the rest.
At a glance
| Tool | Price | Interface | Good at |
|---|---|---|---|
| lsof | Free, built in | Terminal | Exact and scriptable. Shows every socket, PID and user. |
| Activity Monitor | Free, built in | App | CPU and memory per process. Can quit a process. Its Open Files and Ports tab lists sockets of one process. |
| kill-port, fkill | Free, open source npm packages | Terminal | Kill by port in one command. fkill also offers an interactive picker. |
| Raycast extensions | Check the Raycast Store | Raycast launcher | Search and kill from the keyboard. Features differ per extension. |
| Portlivo | $19.99, closed source, launched Oct 2026 | Mac app | Check their site (portlivo.com). |
| Portfox | Free, MIT licensed | Menu bar app and dashboard | Names services, finds projects, stops and restarts them. |
lsof
It is already on your Mac and it is the most precise tool here. It does not know what a process is for. You read PIDs, then run kill yourself. See how to list all ports.
Activity Monitor
It is good when you start from a process that uses too much CPU or memory. It is awkward when you start from a port, because it does not list by port. You need to know the process name first.
kill-port and fkill
Both run with npx and need Node. npx kill-port 3000 and npx fkill :3000 stop whatever listens on that port. They are fast, but they only kill. You do not see what you killed, and you get no overview.
Raycast extensions
If you already live in Raycast, a port extension is a small step. Quality and features differ between extensions, so check the Raycast Store. You need Raycast installed.
Portlivo
Portlivo is a paid Mac app ($19.99, closed source) that launched in October 2026. We have not compared features in depth. Check portlivo.com for what it does today.
Portfox
What Portfox does that raw tools do not:
- Free, MIT licensed, installs with Homebrew or as a download, and updates itself.
- Detects more than 70 service types from the process, not the port number.
- Resolves the project behind each service and groups by project.
- One row per Docker container, not one row for the Docker process.
- Marks Orphaned servers, whose launcher has exited.
- Badges servers started by Claude Code or Codex.
- Restarts a server with the same command, in the same folder, in Terminal, iTerm2 or Warp.
- A global shortcut and keyboard search, so you can find and stop a port without the mouse.
- An HTTP status pill beside each web port.
- A banner when a watched server stops, with Start Again.
- A QR code to open a LAN-reachable server on your phone.
- Ignore list, and open in your editor or terminal.
- No account, no special macOS permissions. Anonymous usage signals can be switched off in Settings.
Where Portfox does not fit
- It needs macOS 15 or later and Apple Silicon.
- It sees only your user's processes. A database that runs as a root daemon does not appear.
- It lists TCP listeners only.
- If you script everything in a terminal,
lsofandkillmay be all you need.
Which should you pick
- You want a one-off answer or a script:
lsof. - You want one command and have Node:
kill-portorfkill. - You live in Raycast: try a Raycast extension.
- You want a permanent list of what runs on your Mac, with names and projects: Portfox.
brew install --cask xergic/tap/portfox