bwmon vs Kentik Network Monitoring System
bwmon
github.comKentik Network Monitoring System
kentik.comSide by side
| Figure | bwmon | Kentik Network Monitoring System |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $2,000/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 5 |
| Spec score · Bandwidth Monitoring Software | 8.5 (#5) | 8.0 (#13) |
| Purpose | bwmon monitors bandwidth on a single Linux host, with live RX/TX, per-process attribution, spike forensics, and six months of history. | Kentik NMS monitors network health and performance by unifying device metrics, enriched flow telemetry, and AI-assisted troubleshooting in a SaaS platform. |
Plans
Kentik Network Monitoring System
- TrialPriced on request
- Pro$2,000 a month
- TrialFree
- Pro$24,000 a year
- PremierPriced on request
In their own words
bwmon
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.
Kentik Network Monitoring System
Kentik Network Monitoring System has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.