Arkime vs Xplico

Arkime is a free, open-source network analysis and session search tool that passively observes traffic and creates searchable session records. It parses layers 3–7 and indexes fields including protocols, DNS names, HTTP headers, TLS/JA4 fingerprints, file hashes, and GeoIP in OpenSearch or Elasticsearch. Operators can store full packets in standard PCAP format or use metadata-only capture, with rules to select traffic for saving. Users can search sessions, inspect packet data, and export results as PCAP or CSV. Cont3xt enriches supported indicators using commercial and OSINT sources, including VirusTotal, Censys, and Shodan; phone enrichment is limited to the U.S. Parliament groups clusters and displays cluster issues and Elasticsearch health. Capture can scale by adding machines or increasing CPU and disk. Arkime has no license fees or paid-only features. Installation guidance covers Linux, recommends Debian or Ubuntu LTS, and links to a container guide. OpenSearch or Elasticsearch is required for session metadata. Authentication options include basic, form, digest, header, and OIDC, while the project advises against anonymous authentication.

Xplico is free, open-source network forensic software that extracts application data from PCAP traffic captures. It can recover email, HTTP content, VoIP calls, and FTP or TFTP data, with protocol support for HTTP, SIP, IMAP, POP, SMTP, TCP, UDP, and IPv6. Port Independent Protocol Identification recognizes application protocols without depending on port numbers. Processing supports multithreading and realtime operation, although speed depends on flows, protocol types, and computer resources. Results can be written to files or SQLite and MySQL databases. A web interface lets concurrent users manage one or more cases, using SQLite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL as a backend. Modular capture, dissector, and dispatcher components can target files, databases, or network sockets. Downloads cover Fedora, CentOS/RHEL, and Ubuntu, alongside source code and a VirtualBox image. The free plan costs nothing; data-entry and input-file counts are unrestricted, with hard-drive size as the stated limit.