The scams got good
Fake bank texts and emails are now "almost indistinguishable from the real thing" — and they show up on a phone Mom actually reads.
— r/cybersecurity_help, 2026
Network-wide scam protection — in one small box
Your parents can't be trained to spot scams. So we protect their whole house instead.
Porchlight is a tiny device that plugs in next to the router and blocks phishing and scam websites for every device in the home — the phone, the laptop, the TV. No apps. No account. No subscription. And no training sessions.
$79 · ₹1,999 one-time
No subscription
2-minute setup
No apps on any device
The problem
Scammers aren't after tech-savvy people. They're after Mom.
Training doesn't work
"He still fell for one — an iPhone for $1." You cannot lecture a lifetime of clicking away, especially from another city.
— r/cybersecurityThe fixes need a sysadmin
Pi-hole means a Raspberry Pi, an SD card and an admin console. Security apps get uninstalled. "Per-device isn't the answer."
— r/cybersecurity_helpParents don't need more lessons. They need infrastructure.
The solution
Meet Porchlight
Porchlight is a small, quiet device that sits beside the router and watches every website address the house asks for. A tiny AI model inside — PhishScout — checks each one in microseconds and quietly blocks the ones that look like scams. Everything else flows through, untouched.
The Porchlight device — soft pebble case, one green light
Certified charger included
USB cable
QR setup card + 2-min video
How it works
Setup: two steps on your phone, one on the router. Once.
Plug it in
Next to the router, into any USB charger. The green light comes on.
Connect from your phone
Join the Porchlight-Setup WiFi it broadcasts. ~30 seconds. No passwords, no app.
Pick your home WiFi
Tap your network, enter its password, done. Porchlight connects and starts protecting.
One router setting (2 minutes, once)
Point your router's DNS at Porchlight using the QR card + video. After that, every device in the house is covered.
That router step is the one unavoidable part — the same as any Pi-hole, but we make it a QR card and a 2-minute video instead of a weekend project.
Scams blocked. Netflix safe.
Porchlight is not an ad blocker. It doesn't use giant blocklists that quietly break websites. PhishScout checks the address of every site and blocks only the ones that look like scams — so banking, Disney+, and online shopping keep working.
Porchlight blocks
- Fake bank logins
- "Your package was delayed" links
- Fake billing pages (Netflix, Apple, ICICI, …)
- Credential-harvesting links
Porchlight never touches
- Ads
- Trackers
- Your browsing history
- Your data (nothing leaves the house)
And if something ever misbehaves — press Pause for 5 minutes. Zero drama, no admin console.
Comparison
Why not just …?
| Instead of… | That costs you | Porchlight |
|---|---|---|
| Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi | A Pi, an SD card, an admin console, and sites that break | Pre-flashed, on-device AI, nothing to maintain |
| NextDNS / AdGuard DNS | $20+/yr, forever, and queries leave the house | One-time price, checks happen on the device |
| Firewalla | $319+ — a firewall when you need scam-blocking | Under $100, one job, done well |
| PuriFi (turnkey Pi-hole) | $109–199, still blocklist-based | Model-based — no lists to grow, fewer false blocks |
Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi
That costs you: A Pi, an SD card, an admin console, and sites that break
Pre-flashed, on-device AI, nothing to maintain
NextDNS / AdGuard DNS
That costs you: $20+/yr, forever, and queries leave the house
One-time price, checks happen on the device
Firewalla
That costs you: $319+ — a firewall when you need scam-blocking
Under $100, one job, done well
PuriFi (turnkey Pi-hole)
That costs you: $109–199, still blocklist-based
Model-based — no lists to grow, fewer false blocks
Competitor pricing from public listings, Aug 2026.
Privacy & trust
Your family's data stays home.
Local-first
PhishScout runs entirely on the device. There's no cloud account, no "we'll store your browsing" — the check happens at the router, in microseconds, and that's it.
Pay once. Own it forever.
No subscription, no "trial expired", no per-device fee. Every core feature — stats, allow/deny lists, pause — is local and free forever.
Open source. Backed by a human.
Network gadgets have burned families before — yes, Fingbox. Porchlight is the opposite: MIT-licensed, model public on Hugging Face, built to be updatable, and a real person answers email.
Proof
Real words from the communities we serve
"pi-hole is a good setup but my parents aren't super technical and i don't live nearby to manage it… looking for something that works out of the box."— r/cybersecurity_help
"per-device isn't the answer."— r/cybersecurity_help
"I got my parents a pi hole for a present… 6 months later, mom was cleaning… she removed a little box near the router and threw it away."— r/pihole
This is exactly why Porchlight is set-and-forget: one box, one green light, nothing for anyone to clean up or manage.
90%
precision — catches scams without false alarms
~9 µs
per check — scored in microseconds, right on the device
131 KB
model — runs fully on-device
100%
on-device — no cloud, no account, nothing to subscribe
Benchmarks from the published PhishScout model card.
Why I built this
Founder story
"My own mom almost wired money to a fake 'bank rep' over the phone. She will never learn to spot a subdomain trick — and I've stopped pretending she should. Porchlight exists so protection doesn't depend on anyone getting lucky."— the founder
Pricing
One price. Every device. No subscription.
Porchlight
$79
One-time · for the whole world · includes certified charger
🇮🇳 In India: ₹1,999 one-time — BIS-certified charger included
- Protects every device on the network
- No app, no account, no subscription
- 2-minute setup, QR + video guide
- Open source & updatable
The first 50 homes get a launch price. Join the waitlist to reserve yours.
If it doesn't protect your family, send it back — no questions.
Gift it
The gift for the house you worry about.
Diwali. Christmas. A birthday. "This watches over your house for you." You set it up from your phone before you even leave — and check on it from anywhere.
Gift it to Mom's house →
FAQ
Questions, answered honestly
If you can join a WiFi network from your phone, you can set up Porchlight — it's two steps on your phone and one 2-minute router setting, guided by a QR card and a video. After that, it runs itself.
Pi-hole blocks ads using giant lists that grow stale and break sites. Porchlight runs a small AI model that scores each site's address and blocks only the ones that look like scams. No lists to maintain, no admin console, nothing to break.
No — Porchlight doesn't block ads or trackers, so streaming and shopping keep working. It only blocks scam-looking websites. And if anything ever misbehaves, you can pause protection for 5 minutes from your phone.
No. You pay once. All core features — stats, allow/deny lists, pause, strictness — are local and free forever.
Nowhere. The model runs on the device. There's no cloud account and nothing leaves the house.
The first batch joins 2.4 GHz networks (most homes). If your router is 5 GHz-only, this batch won't work — a 5 GHz version is on the roadmap. Message us if you're not sure.
A few ISP routers block it. The QR card covers the common ones, and if yours isn't in the guide, email us — that's the one step we'll help with personally.
Fair — and the reason Porchlight is different: MIT open source, the model is public on Hugging Face, firmware is designed to be updatable, and support is a human who answers email. Trust is earned, and we're building for that.
We're shipping a small first batch soon — orders from the waitlist get first dibs. You'll get an email before anyone else when units are ready.
No. Porchlight protects every device on the network at the router level. That's the whole point — nothing to install, nothing to forget.
Scam and phishing websites — fake bank logins, fake billing pages, credential-harvesting links sent by text, email, or QR. It doesn't block ads, and it isn't a firewall or antivirus.
Yes — a local dashboard shows what got blocked and lets you allow/block specific sites, adjust strictness, and pause protection. (A remote dashboard — "see what got blocked at Mom's house from another city" — is on the roadmap.)
Waitlist
Be in the first 50 homes.
We're shipping a small first batch soon. Join the waitlist for first dibs and a launch price — we'll email you the moment units are ready.
🎉 You're on the list!
When the first batch ships, you'll hear first.
Know another family tech-support person? Forward this page — that's the whole go-to-market.
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