Batfish vs Netperf
Batfish
batfish.orgNetperf
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Batfish | Netperf |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Network Testing Software | 8.0 (#12) | 7.7 (#21) |
| License | Batfish is released under the Apache Software License, Version 2.0. | Hewlett Packard Enterprise says this version was open sourced under the MIT license. |
| Purpose | Batfish analyzes network device configurations to find policy violations and validate network behavior. | Netperf measures network performance, including unidirectional throughput and end-to-end latency. |
| Support | The maker directs users with questions or feature requests to its Slack community or GitHub repository. | The README directs people with severe difficulties to contact Rick Jones by email and mentions the netperf-talk mailing list. |
Plans
In their own words
Batfish
Batfish is an open-source tool for analyzing network device configurations and validating network behavior. It works from configuration files, so core analysis does not require direct access to network devices. Teams can inspect deployed configurations and check planned changes before deployment. Checks cover undefined references, MTU and AAA settings, template compliance, sensitive-service reachability and expected traffic paths. Batfish can test whether end-to-end reachability survives any single-link or single-device failure, compare current and planned reachability, assess ACL or firewall changes and evaluate functional equivalence across vendors. Pybatfish provides a Python 3 SDK, and example Jupyter notebooks are available. An all-in-one Docker container bundles Batfish and notebooks. It runs on operating systems supporting Docker. Documented support includes Arista, AWS, Azure, Cisco, Juniper, Palo Alto Networks and SONiC, while Aruba, Dell Force10 and Foundry have limited support.
Netperf
Netperf is an open-source, self-hosted utility for measuring network performance. It reports unidirectional throughput and end-to-end latency through a client-server arrangement: netperf runs tests and netserver supplies the server side. Netserver can run as an inetd child or standalone daemon. The manual describes TCP and UDP transfer and request/response tests over IPv4 and IPv6 sockets, plus XTI, DLPI, Unix domain socket, and SCTP tests. Where the platform and build support it, results can include CPU utilization and service demand. Optional configuration enables STREAM pacing, timing histograms, and interim results. The primary distribution is source code, intended for systems without readily available binaries. Reported Windows builds use Cygwin, the Windows DDK, or Microsoft Visual Studio 2003; the README discusses an OSX naming workaround. Hewlett Packard Enterprise released this version under the MIT license. The project warns that its manual may be outdated, and several test families require explicit configuration.