bwmon vs NetBalancer
bwmon
github.comNetBalancer
netbalancer.comSide by side
| Figure | bwmon | NetBalancer |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $34.95/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 5 |
| Spec score · Bandwidth Monitoring Software | 8.5 (#5) | 8.8 (#4) |
| Purpose | bwmon monitors bandwidth on a single Linux host, with live RX/TX, per-process attribution, spike forensics, and six months of history. | NetBalancer monitors a computer’s network traffic and lets users set traffic limits, priorities, and rules. |
| Security | The bundled nginx server block is open; the README recommends putting internet-exposed installs behind an authenticated reverse proxy or adding basic authentication. | The maker says site data exchanges use an SSL-secured encrypted channel and digital signatures. |
Plans
NetBalancer
- NetBalancer App and Sync$49.95 a month
- Renew NetBalancer$34.95 a month
- Unregistered versionFree
- Renew NetBalancer$34.95, paid once
- NetBalancer App and Sync$49.95, paid once
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.
NetBalancer
NetBalancer has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.