NETMUTE PRESS KIT
Balane GmbH, Munich, Germany
Last updated: 10 September 2026
Online version, always current: https://www.netmute.com/press

Everything in this kit is cleared for use in articles, videos and
newsletters. No embargo, no approval needed.

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AT A GLANCE
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Product          NetMute
What it is       A per-app firewall and tracker blocker for the Mac,
                 run from the menu bar.
Maker            Balane GmbH, Munich, Germany. Built by one person,
                 Jonas Hoettler.
Requirements     macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later.
Version          2.3.4
Price            Free to download. NetMute Pro is a one-time
                 purchase. Two shops, two amounts: 19,99 EUR /
                 17.99 USD as an in-app purchase in the Mac App Store,
                 and a direct licence with an invoice sold through the
                 site. Five and ten seat licences exist. No
                 subscription, no account. netmute.com/press always
                 carries the current figures; please check them there
                 before printing.
Availability     Mac App Store worldwide, and directly from
                 netmute.com with a licence key.
Languages        47.
App Store        https://apps.apple.com/app/id6759836552
Website          https://www.netmute.com
Press contact    j@hoettler.com

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DESCRIPTIONS, READY TO PASTE
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ONE LINE
NetMute is a menu bar firewall for the Mac: see what every app sends,
and cut it off in one click.

SHORT (55 words)
NetMute is a firewall for the Mac that works per app. It lists every
program talking to the internet, names the servers behind each
connection, and lets you cut any of them off from the menu bar. Its
Tracker Shield blocks known tracking domains system-wide. Free to
download, with a one-time purchase for the full feature set.

LONG (150 words)
NetMute is a per-app firewall and tracker blocker for the Mac. It sits
in the menu bar and answers a question macOS itself does not: which
program is talking to whom, right now, and how much. Every connection
is resolved to a readable service name, sorted by what it is after
(advertising, analytics, telemetry, fingerprinting, or a function the
app genuinely needs), and can be blocked with one switch. NetMute also
builds a picture over time: traffic per app, per day and per network, a
privacy grade per app, and a map of the countries a Mac talks to.
Analysis happens on the Mac, and nothing about the traffic is uploaded
unless a clearly marked option is switched on. NetMute is free to
download; NetMute Pro is a one-time in-app purchase with no
subscription and no account. It is made by Balane GmbH in Munich.

BOILERPLATE
Balane GmbH is a software company in Munich, Germany, founded by Jonas
Hoettler. It builds Mac and iOS software, of which NetMute is the
largest. Press contact: j@hoettler.com

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NUMBERS YOU CAN QUOTE, AND WHERE THEY COME FROM
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381        Curated tracker domains NetMute blocks out of the box.
           Source: tracker_domains.json in the shipped app has 584
           entries, 381 of them classified as tracking. A test pins
           the number so it cannot drift unnoticed.

50         Of those, the number the free version blocks: the most
           active ones. Source: trackerShieldFreeLimit in the app.

37,847     Domains on the block list once the optional public lists
           are switched on (Hagezi plus EasyPrivacy, Balanced level),
           measured 4 September 2026. This number moves with the lists.

47         Languages the app ships in, 1,220 strings each.

346/75/1   Tracker names actually blocked in Safari, Chrome and Brave
           on one Mac, measured 9 September 2026 against real block
           records. See "Where NetMute does and does not reach".

0          Bytes of traffic content NetMute can read. It sees names,
           sizes and destinations, never payloads.

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WHERE NETMUTE DOES AND DOES NOT REACH
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It blocks by name, not by content.
NetMute reads the destination of a connection, its size and its
timing. It never reads what is inside, and it could not: the traffic
is encrypted and NetMute does not attempt to break that.

Browsers that do their own encrypted DNS.
NetMute learns a server's name from the Mac's name resolution. Safari
is covered twice, through the network filter and through a Safari
extension. Chrome, Edge and Arc are covered through NetMute's DNS
proxy. A browser that resolves names over its own encrypted DNS
(Brave, by default) hides the name, and there the tracker blocking
does not bite. NetMute says so in the app rather than claiming
coverage it does not have.

"Nothing leaves the Mac" has two exceptions, both off by default.
The optional public block lists are downloaded from their maintainers,
which reveals an IP address to them like any web request. And an
unknown tracker name can be reported back to us, with explicit consent
for each report, carrying the tracker name and nothing about the user.

It is not a VPN and not an antivirus.
NetMute routes no traffic anywhere, hides no address, scans no files.

macOS 26 only.
It relies on system extensions that only current macOS provides.

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ASSETS IN THIS ZIP
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screenshots/netmute-store-*.jpg   Six App Store frames, 2880x1800,
                                  headline baked in. Good lead images.
screenshots/netmute-ui-*.png      Raw app windows, 2400px wide, light
                                  and dark. No headline, no framing.
netmute-icon-1024.png             App icon, 1024x1024, transparent.
netmute-icon-512.png              Same at 512x512.

Icon and name: NetMute is one word, capital N and capital M. The paid
tier is NetMute Pro. The icon may be scaled and placed on any
background, but please do not recolour, stretch or add effects to it.
The company is Balane GmbH; NetMute is the product.

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REVIEW COPY
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The app is free, so it needs no code. For NetMute Pro, a mail to
j@hoettler.com naming the outlet gets a Mac App Store promo code,
usually the same day. No conditions: we do not ask to see the piece
first.
