bwmon vs Sniffnet
bwmon
github.comSniffnet
sniffnet.appSide by side
| Figure | bwmon | Sniffnet |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Bandwidth Monitoring Software | 8.5 (#5) | 8.1 (#11) |
| Purpose | bwmon monitors bandwidth on a single Linux host, with live RX/TX, per-process attribution, spike forensics, and six months of history. | Sniffnet is a network monitoring app for keeping track of Internet traffic, checking bandwidth usage, and inspecting network activity. |
| Security | The bundled nginx server block is open; the README recommends putting internet-exposed installs behind an authenticated reverse proxy or adding basic authentication. | A 2025 security audit covered static analysis, dependency checking, code analysis and fuzzing, dynamic analysis on most supported platforms, and interactive testing; its only relevant finding was low severity and had been fixed. |
Plans
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.
Sniffnet
Sniffnet is a free network monitoring app for Linux, macOS, and Windows. It displays overall internet traffic statistics and real-time charts, and can show which programs use bandwidth. Users can choose a network adapter, filter observed traffic, and import or export PCAP capture reports. Sniffnet identifies local network connections, shows remote hosts’ geographical locations, and finds host domain names and ASNs. It recognizes more than 6,000 upper-layer services, protocols, trojans, and worms. Users can configure notifications for network events and import custom IP blacklists to highlight potentially dangerous connections. The app supports live capture, display filters, protocol dissectors, and offline trace analysis; it reads PCAPNG and CAP files as well as PCAP. Custom themes and 26 languages are available. The listed Sniffnet plan is free and the software is open-source under MIT or Apache-2.0. A 2025 security audit reported one low-severity finding, which had been fixed. Most functionality uses offline databases, while reverse DNS lookups provide hostnames for IP addresses.