Alternatives to netcat
The original TCP and UDP swiss army knife. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
netcat
The original TCP and UDP swiss army knife.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as netcat.
socat
Multipurpose relay that connects almost any two data channels.
socat connects almost any pair of endpoints, including TLS and serial devices, and handles forking servers, at the cost of dense and unforgiving address syntax.
Packet Sender
A utility for sending and receiving TCP, UDP, SSL and DTLS packets to test network services.
Packet Sender adds a graphical interface on Windows, macOS and Linux for sending TCP, UDP, SSL and DTLS packets, plus a command-line tool for scripted tests.
Also worth comparing
These listings name netcat as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
hping3
Packet crafting tool for TCP/IP testing and probing.
netcat offers simple scriptable TCP and UDP connections found on almost every Unix system, without packet crafting or traceroute modes.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Chisel
Fast TCP and UDP tunnel carried over HTTP and secured with SSH.
wstunnel
Carry network traffic through a WebSocket tunnel.
Nmap
The network mapper: find out which hosts are up, which ports are open and what is listening on them.
bore
Forward a local TCP port through a remote server.
websocat
A command-line WebSocket client and server, like netcat or curl for ws:// with socat-style features.
