The best Garry's Mod anti-cheats in 2026

There are six Garry's Mod anti-cheats still sold or updated in 2026: Mizan, Chronon Labs, LSAC, SwiftAC, Nova Defender and Trinity. The ones most old forum threads recommend, such as !cake Anti-Cheat, LeyAC, QAC, gAC and SimpLAC, have been abandoned for years. This guide puts the six side by side and says which one fits which server.

This page is written by Mizan, one of the six, so read it with that in mind. Every fact about another product comes from its own GitHub repository, GmodStore listing or website, read on 5 November 2026 and linked at the end. Where another product is the better choice, we say so. If something here is wrong or out of date, email contact@mizan.ac and we will correct it.

The short answer

• Mizan, for detection by behaviour across aim, movement and network cheats, with wallhacks cut off by fog of war. It is free while in early access, and opens to Garry's Mod communities one at a time.
• Chronon Labs, for a hosted aim model you can buy today, at €25 per server a month.
• Nova Defender, for free, open-source server security: exploits, backdoors, ban evasion and VPNs. Its free anti-cheat catches simple cheats only.
• LSAC, for a one-off $14.99 server-side anti-cheat, if your host allows binary modules and you can do without support.
• SwiftAC, as a second layer against Lua cheats, at $11.77 once. It doesn't see C++ cheats.
• Trinity, for a free, open-source rule-based anti-cheat that is still in early development.

Every Garry's Mod anti-cheat, and when it was last updated

The dates are the last release or commit on GitHub, or the last version on GmodStore. What happened to each of the old ones has its own page.

Two ways to catch a cheater

A Garry's Mod anti-cheat either looks for the cheat on the player's computer, or judges what the player does on your server.

Client-side checks look for the traces a known cheat leaves in the game: its global names, hooks, files and console variables. They catch a known Lua cheat the moment it loads. They miss two things. A cheat written in C++ runs outside the game's Lua, and SwiftAC's own listing says it "does not work for C++ cheats". And the checks run on the cheater's own computer, so a cheat can be changed to leave no trace. Nova's README says it plainly: "Since the source code of Nova Defender is open and visible, cheats can be easily modified to be undetected again."

Server-side detection judges how the player aims, moves and times their commands, from what the game already sends your server. A private cheat or one written yesterday meets the same checks as a public one, and there is nothing on the player's computer to switch off. The cost is that behaviour has to be judged carefully, or good players get flagged. Ask any server-side anti-cheat how it decides, and how often it is wrong.

Paid cheats such as benzoylmethylecgonine are compiled DLLs that run outside the game's Lua, with aimbots, silent aim, anti-aim and fake lag. A Lua scan never sees them; their behaviour on your server is what gives them away.

Server-side: Mizan, Chronon Labs and LSAC

Mizan runs AI models beside algorithmic detectors. The models score each fight by how the view moves against its target; the detectors test what a hand on a mouse can and can't do, and whether the numbers the game sends add up. A case opens only when two independent kinds of measurement agree, and each detector alarms only at 10,000 to 1 odds against normal play. It names 37 cheat features, including silent aim, backtrack, fake lag, fake latency, warp and fake duck. Its fog of war stops your server sending a player the positions of enemies they can't see, so an ESP has nothing to draw. It reads hundreds of public ban lists, gives you 3D replays and a web dashboard, and bans through your admin mod. It needs a binary module on your server and is in early access.

Chronon Labs sends each fight to one machine-learning model, which "reads 250 signals and returns a confidence score from 0 to 100%". Its Garry's Mod page names aimbots, triggerbots and recoil and spread scripts. The addon is readable Lua with no DRM and needs no binary module. It has 3D replays, a dashboard and network bans across Chronon servers, and costs €25 per server a month on chrononlabs.net, or from $31.63 a month on GmodStore. We have tested it ourselves and wrote up what we found.

LSAC is Leystryku's server-side anti-cheat on GmodStore, at $14.99 once. It has detections for cheats such as aimbots and "cheat preventions" that break ESP, bunny hops and no-spread, including a server-side anti-ESP. It needs a C++ DRM module: "IF YOUR HOST DOES NOT SUPPORT INSTALLING MODULES, DO NOT BUY THIS!" The listing says there is no customer support, the default files can't be edited, and a ban comes at least 60 seconds after a detection. It is also honest about every anti-cheat's limit: "Some Cheats or Cheat Features may always slip through any sort of AntiCheat."

Client-side and open source: Nova Defender, SwiftAC and Trinity

Nova Defender is the best free choice for server security. It is open source, maintained, and does far more than anti-cheat: it screens net messages, blocks backdoors and crashers, catches ban evasion by fingerprint, and checks for VPNs. Its anti-cheat catches "only some simple cheats", its aimbot check is off by default, and detection of newer cheats is a private extension given to server owners on request. Mizan vs Nova Defender goes through it in detail.

SwiftAC is Leystryku's client-side scanner for Lua cheats, at $11.77 once. It catches known Lua cheats when they load. Its listing says it has no behavioural scans and doesn't see C++ cheats, and its seller pairs it with LSAC.

Trinity is a new open-source anti-cheat, first released in September 2026 and still in development. It mixes server-side rules for aim, movement and tick exploits with client-side Lua scans, and has wallhack breakers, though its main one, built on the engine's visibility, is off by default. Mizan vs Trinity has the detail.

Exploit protection is a separate job

An anti-cheat stops players aiming or moving with help. An exploit menu does something else: it sends fake net messages to your addons for free money, items or admin, or floods the server until it crashes. Nova Defender covers this for free. eProtect, on GmodStore, covers net message abuse and exploit menus for a one-off price and does not claim to detect aimbots. Mizan detects network exploits and server crashers as part of the anti-cheat.

Running more than one

Most of these don't run well together. Nova's README advises against it, because "anticheat systems often conflict with each other". Trinity's compatibility page says SwiftAC flags Trinity as a cheat, and that LSAC's own anti-ESP module conflicts with Trinity's. LSAC asks you to remove SimpLAC first.

Pairs that do make sense are ones that do different jobs: Nova Defender for exploits and ban evasion beside a server-side anti-cheat, or SwiftAC beside LSAC, which its seller recommends.

Trying one without banning anyone

Whatever you choose, start it in a mode where it reports to staff instead of banning, and watch it for a week on your own server and gamemode. Every anti-cheat here has one: Mizan's flag mode, Chronon's staff review, LSAC's popup mode, and Nova's staff confirmation, which is on by default. Check each report yourself before you trust it to ban.

Mizan publishes every false flag we've found and how each was fixed, and the full comparison puts Mizan, Chronon Labs, LSAC, SwiftAC and Nova Defender side by side, row by row.

Sources

All read on 5 November 2026.

• Chronon Labs: Garry's Mod anti-cheat, features, pricing and its GmodStore listing.
• LSAC: GmodStore listing and its versions tab.
• SwiftAC: GmodStore listing and its versions tab.
• Nova Defender: GitHub repository and README.
• Trinity: GitHub repository, its default server configuration and compatibility page.
• eProtect: GmodStore listing.
• The abandoned anti-cheats: sources on their own page.
• Mizan: anti-cheat, comparison and false flags.