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SPECIFICTION
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Cacti vs iftop

Cacti

cacti.net

iftop

ex-parrot.com

Side by side

FigureCactiiftop
Price fromFreeFree
Free planYesYes
Free trial——
Open source——
WebYes—
WindowsYes—
LinuxYesYes
Self-hostedYes—
Plans published11
Spec score · Bandwidth Monitoring Software8.2 (#7)7.6 (#21)
PurposeCacti is a network graphing and operational monitoring framework built around RRDtool.iftop displays current bandwidth usage by pairs of hosts on a network interface.

Plans

Cacti

  • CactiFree

Cacti pricing →

iftop

  • iftopFree

iftop pricing →

In their own words

Cacti

Cacti is a free, self-hosted network graphing and operational monitoring framework built around RRDtool. It collects data through SNMP object identifiers or scripts, which can retrieve database information or run other code. Availability checks cover SNMP, ICMP, TCP, and UDP. Discovery and automation can create graphs and data sources, while Remote Data Collectors distribute collection and cache data during network interruptions. Graph items support line, area, stacked, horizontal-rule, vertical-rule, print, and comment types. Device templates connect devices with graph templates and data queries, and plugins can extend collection to other protocols, with WMI listed as an example. Role-based management covers users, groups, and domains. Cacti supports SNMP versions 1, 2, and 3, with a documented limitation for advanced SNMPv3 settings such as SHA224+ or AES192+ when PHP SNMP is used. It is available for Linux/Unix and Windows. Installation requires MySQL, PHP, RRDtool, Net-SNMP, and a PHP-capable web server such as Apache or IIS.

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iftop

iftop has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

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