bwmon vs Intermapper

bwmon is a free, self-hosted bandwidth monitor for one Linux host and one network interface. Its dashboard updates receive and transmit rates every second, charts recent traffic, and lists top processes. When traffic passes five times its rolling two-minute average, bwmon records process attribution, all-interface rates, and leading conntrack flows for spike investigation. It retains five-minute samples for six months, with views from one hour to all time, a time-of-week heatmap, and a rate histogram. A banner appears when the rolling five-minute average reaches 40 Mbps; cleared alerts remain in the history table. Installation uses a shell script that sets up the collector, systemd service, cron jobs, and nginx server block; the dashboard defaults to port 8080. It requires Linux kernel 4.0 or later and root access. Debian and Ubuntu use the apt-based installer, while other distributions need manual dependency setup. The project recommends authentication for internet-exposed installations.

Intermapper helps IT teams discover network devices and servers, map their relationships, monitor health and performance, and receive alerts when conditions change. Its live maps show infrastructure, dependencies, device status, and network connections. Auto-discovery identifies devices and helps keep the network view current as environments change. Flows Insight analyzes NetFlow, sFlow, jFlow, and cFlow data to show traffic patterns, utilization, and top talkers. Advanced Reporting provides dashboards and automated reports for uptime, service health, SLA performance, and infrastructure trends. Intermapper supports SNMPv3, includes built-in probes, and allows custom probes. APIs and add-ons, including the Intermapper App for Splunk, can complement other tools. Remote access supports SSL and username/password or network-address authentication. A fully functional 30-day trial is available, but continuing afterward requires a purchase. Licensing is based on monitored devices, with subscription or perpetual options starting at 10 devices and extending to unlimited; pricing is by custom quote. Paid licenses include 24/7 technical support according to the upgrade page.