Containerlab vs PacketStorm Network Emulators
Containerlab
containerlab.devPacketStorm Network Emulators
packetstorm.comSide by side
| Figure | Containerlab | PacketStorm Network Emulators |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Network Simulation Software | 8.9 (#1) | 7.0 (#30) |
| Support | The project directs users with questions, ideas, and bug reports to its Discord community. | PacketStorm says it develops, manufactures, and supports IP communications testing solutions. |
| Supported operating systems | The installation guide lists Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL, CentOS Stream, Fedora, Rocky Linux, Windows through WSL, and Intel or Apple Silicon macOS environments. | The maker lists Windows, Linux, and Mac as supported operating systems for network emulator scenarios. |
Plans
PacketStorm Network Emulators
- Network EmulatorsPriced on request
In their own words
Containerlab
Containerlab is a command-line tool for orchestrating container-based networking labs. Users describe nodes, links and lab settings in topology files, then use lifecycle commands to deploy, destroy, save, inspect or graph a lab. Supported nodes include containerized and virtual-machine network operating systems from Nokia, Cisco, Juniper, Arista and other vendors and projects. The project lists platforms such as Nokia SR Linux and SR OS, Cisco XRd and Nexus 9000v, Juniper cRPD and vMX, Arista, SONiC, Cumulus VX, VyOS, FRR, VPP, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OpenWRT, Linux containers and generic VMs. It can launch VM routers through vrnetlab or boxen, and Clabernetes can run Containerlab-style topologies on Kubernetes. Optional interfaces include a VS Code extension, desktop app and web app; desktop and web connect to a reachable clab-api-server on a Linux host. Its single binary and topology definitions can start labs in CI systems such as GitLab CI and GitHub Actions. Containerlab is free and open source. Documented prerequisites include a Linux server or VM, Docker and sudo privileges for some operations.
PacketStorm Network Emulators
PacketStorm Network Emulators has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.