bottom (btm) vs Glances

bottom is a free graphical system and process monitor that runs in a terminal on Linux, macOS and Windows. It charts CPU use for each core and as an average, along with RAM and swap over time. Network and disk I/O are graphed too, with a control for zooming the displayed time interval. Its process widget lets users display, sort and search process information, use tree mode and send kill signals. Other widgets show disk capacity and use, temperature sensors and battery use. Appearance and behavior can be changed through command-line options or a configuration file, including themes, layout, widget behavior and filtering. An htop-inspired basic mode offers a simpler view, and a selected widget can be expanded to fill the terminal. A read-only option blocks actions that affect the system, such as stopping processes. Installation is documented through package managers, Cargo and pre-built release binaries. Official platform support covers macOS, Linux and Windows; architecture support varies by system. Android and some other systems may work unofficially with limited testing and support.

Glances is a free, open-source, cross-platform tool for monitoring real-time system statistics and running processes. Its listed coverage includes CPU, memory, load, processes, network, disk I/O, sensors, filesystems, containers, alerts, and uptime. Client/server mode enables remote monitoring through a terminal, web interface, or API, while its built-in web UI lets users view a system from a browser-equipped device. Statistics can be exported to CSV or JSON files, databases such as InfluxDB and Prometheus, brokers such as RabbitMQ and Kafka, or a REST endpoint. The project documents Docker and Podman support and describes Docker and LXC container monitoring in its README. Installation options include pip, pipx, Homebrew, Linux and FreeBSD packages, and Docker images. Glances 4 requires Python 3.10 or higher. Its default installation does not include web interface dependencies; separate extras cover features such as web, GPU, containers, exports, and MCP. Version 4.5.1 and higher can provide an MCP server for AI assistants. The project uses the LGPL version 3 license.