Diladele Web Safety

Overview

Diladele Web Safety is a self-hosted web filter and secure gateway for households, schools, and organizations that need centralized control of network traffic. It is best suited to administrators who want encrypted-traffic inspection and detailed policy reporting rather than a simple device-level blocker. The free seven-device license lowers the entry cost, while larger networks should weigh annual per-device pricing and the risks of upgrading.

Key features

Web Safety decrypts, inspects, secures, and re-encrypts incoming and outgoing TLS traffic. That provides visibility into encrypted connections for enforcement, but it also makes deployment and policy administration more substantial than DNS-only filtering.

More than 50 regularly updated categories block inappropriate sites, with manual recategorization when a destination needs a local policy decision. Custom blocklists, safe-search controls, and filtering schedules support exceptions and time-based rules. EasyList supplies ad blocking. Download restrictions can be based on filename, detected file contents, MIME type, or file size, giving schools and businesses control over content transfers as well as destinations.

Advanced reports cover visited and blocked sites, user activity, bandwidth, and prohibited categories. Administrators can save reports locally, export them as CSV, or email them, which suits ongoing oversight and compliance reviews.

Identity and policy assignment are flexible: users can be grouped by IP address, subnet, username, or Microsoft Active Directory security group. Authentication options include Kerberos, NTLM, Basic LDAP, and Microsoft Entra ID Captive Portal. The maker also describes family filtering and school policies for teachers, staff, and pupils, including support for the Internet Watch Foundation prevention database.

Pricing

The freemium structure starts with Biz-7 Key at free, covering up to seven filtered devices or users. It is the sensible fit for a home network or very small office, and the vendor also offers a free small-business license at that seven-device ceiling.

Biz-25 Key costs €299 a year for up to 25 filtered devices or users. Biz-50 Key is €399 a year for up to 50. These paid tiers suit growing small businesses, but the free tier gives up more than 70 percent of the Biz-25 capacity without an annual bill. Edu-1000 Key costs €699 a year per 1,000 devices or users, targeting schools and larger managed deployments. Enterprise Key uses custom pricing based on filtered device count.

A free trial license is available from [email protected], including when the trial key bundled with an installer or appliance has expired; no trial duration is given. The vendor also directs that address for licensing help and enterprise quotations. Upgrades may be error-prone: traffic reports, customized Captive Portal pages, some authentication settings, and UI users may not transfer fully, so paid customers should plan migration work before upgrading.

Platforms

Web Safety runs on Linux, including Ubuntu 26.04 hardware, and is available as a virtual appliance for VMware vSphere/ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Proxmox VE, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon AWS. Administration is browser-based. This range fits existing virtualization or cloud estates, while a gateway installation still requires an administrator able to manage infrastructure and authentication.

Who it's for

Families can use the seven-device license for centralized filtering, and schools can apply differentiated policies to staff and pupils with the education database support. Small businesses with up to seven users get a genuinely free starting point; organizations beyond that size gain reporting, directory grouping, and download controls from the paid keys. It is a poor fit for anyone seeking a hands-off consumer app or unwilling to account for upgrade migration.

Pros and cons

Pros

Encrypted-traffic inspection: TLS decryption and re-encryption extend policy visibility beyond ordinary site-category filtering.

Deep policy controls: Categories, recategorization, custom lists, schedules, safe search, ad blocking, and file-based download rules cover varied network requirements.

Useful reporting: Activity, bandwidth, blocked destinations, and prohibited categories can be retained, exported, or emailed.

Broad identity support: IP, subnet, username, Active Directory groups, and four authentication methods accommodate mixed environments.

Flexible deployment: Hardware, multiple hypervisors, Azure, and AWS avoid locking a network to one infrastructure model.

Cons

Upgrade risk: Reports, portal customizations, authentication settings, and UI users may not carry over completely.

Capacity-based costs: Paid licenses are annual and tied to filtered-device or user limits, with enterprise pricing requiring a quotation.

Operational complexity: TLS inspection, directory integration, and self-hosted gateway deployment demand more administration than lightweight filtering services.

Alternatives

Internet Filtering Software is the broader category to browse when you want to compare network-filtering approaches. Choose AdGuard DNS instead if you prefer a freemium service spanning mobile, desktop, web, API, and self-hosted platforms, with an open-source codebase. Control D is an alternative when endpoint-based SMB pricing and broad client support better match your deployment.

OpenBLD suits private users seeking a free DNS service with roughly 100,000 queries per day. FilterDNS is the choice for a free service associated with a public cultural institution. NextDNS is preferable when unlimited devices and configurations matter; its free plan allows 300,000 queries per month. NxFilter offers freeware use for commercial and non-commercial purposes. ClearDNS is a paid alternative with a five-device Essential plan. OpenDNS Home is the simpler free option for preconfigured adult-content blocking without sign-up.

Verdict

Choose Diladele Web Safety if you need a self-hosted gateway that combines TLS inspection, granular content and download policies, directory-aware authentication, and exportable traffic reports. Its free Biz-7 tier is particularly practical for a household or very small office. Look elsewhere if you want minimal administration, unlimited low-cost capacity, or upgrades that preserve every customized report and authentication setting automatically.