A-Packets vs Colasoft Capsa
A-Packets
apackets.comColasoft Capsa
colasoft.comSide by side
| Figure | A-Packets | Colasoft Capsa |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $8.25/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 20 | 6 |
| Spec score · Network Packet Analyzer Software | 9.4 (#1) | 8.9 (#4) |
| Spec score · Network Protocol Analyzers | 9.4 (#1) | 9.0 (#4) |
| Integrations | OnPrem supports local passkey two-factor authentication, LDAP/Active Directory, SAML 2.0, OAuth through Google, Microsoft, and GitHub, and SCIM provisioning. | The pages opened describe protocol and application analysis, but do not identify named third-party integrations. |
| Purpose | A-Packets analyzes PCAP and PCAPNG captures for incident response, forensics, and protocol inspection. | Capsa is a portable network analyzer for monitoring, analyzing, and troubleshooting wired and wireless networks. |
| Support | OnPrem inquiries normally begin with a 30-minute fit call, and the maker says it replies to requests within two business days. | Colasoft maintenance includes priority email support, free product updates, and access to prerelease products during the maintenance period. |
| System requirements | The Docker Compose deployment requires Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or RHEL 8+, Docker Engine 24+, at least 8 GB RAM and 80 GB free disk. | Supported systems include 64-bit Windows 7 SP1, 8.1, 10, 11 and Windows Server 2012 through 2019. |
| What it does | A-Packets analyzes PCAP and PCAPNG captures for incident response, forensics and protocol inspection. | Capsa is a Windows LAN and WLAN analyzer for real-time packet capture, traffic monitoring, protocol analysis and network troubleshooting. |
Plans
A-Packets
- Public analysisFree
- Public analysisFree
- Starter Workspace$11.99 a month
- Starter Workspace (monthly)$11.99 a month
- Starter Pack$14.99, paid once
- Starter Pack$14.99, paid once
- Professional$24.99 a month
- Professional (monthly)$24.99 a month
- Standard Pack$44.99, paid once
- Standard Pack$44.99, paid once
Colasoft Capsa
- Capsa FreeFree
- Capsa FreeFree
- Capsa Standard$295, paid once
- Capsa Professional$695, paid once
- Capsa Enterprise$995, paid once
- Capsa Enterprise$1,295, paid once
In their own words
A-Packets
A-Packets analyzes PCAP and PCAPNG captures for incident response, forensics and protocol inspection. It reconstructs HTTP sessions, maps communicating hosts and services, examines wireless artifacts, extracts files, identifies credential exposure and flags suspicious events. The hosted analyzer accepts native capture files from tools such as Wireshark and tcpdump. Public analysis costs nothing, requires no signup and accepts uploads up to 25 MB, but the resulting page is public. Private workspace plans include reports and a REST API key: Starter Workspace (monthly) is $11.99 a month, Professional (monthly) is $24.99 a month, and Advanced (monthly) is $49.99 a month. Yearly workspaces are $99 a year, $199 a year and $399 a year, respectively. One-time packs cost $14.99 as a one-time purchase, $44.99, paid once or $99.99, paid once. Subscription analyses have permanent private storage; credit-pack reports are deleted after 30 days. OnPrem supports customer-controlled storage and air-gapped deployments, but analyzes captures case by case and does not decrypt TLS payloads, capture continuously or alert.
Colasoft Capsa
Colasoft Capsa is a Windows network analyzer for monitoring, analyzing and troubleshooting wired and wireless networks. The Enterprise edition captures packets in real time from local networks and can save transmitted data. It analyzes more than 1,800 protocols and sub-protocols, including VoIP, and displays packet details in Hex, ASCII and EBCDIC. Capsa can diagnose network problems and suggest solutions, monitor conversations, reconstruct packet streams and generate reports for selected items, the whole network or a particular network group. Its security analysis detects DoS and DDoS attacks, worm activity, ARP attacks, TCP port scans and suspicious conversations in real time. Users can set email or sound alerts and schedule capture once, daily or weekly. Capsa Free monitors up to 10 IP addresses, ends sessions after four hours and lacks WiFi connection monitoring. Professional is listed at $695, paid once for a single-seat perpetual license, one machine and one year of maintenance. Enterprise is $1,295, paid once and has a 30-day trial.