DriveDx vs SMART Sniffer
DriveDx
binaryfruit.comSMART Sniffer
github.comSide by side
| Figure | DriveDx | SMART Sniffer |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 10 | 2 |
| Spec score · Disk Health Monitoring Software | 7.9 (#13) | 8.3 (#5) |
| Purpose | DriveDx diagnoses and monitors SSD and HDD health to help users detect problems before data loss or downtime. | SMART Sniffer monitors disk health and reports early warning signs to Home Assistant. |
| Security | The store says industry-standard encryption protects the confidentiality of personal information submitted for purchase. | Bearer-token authentication between the agent and integration is optional, and binary downloads are checked with SHA256 checksums. |
Plans
DriveDx
- DriveDx – Personal License$19.99, paid once
- DriveDx – Family License$39.99, paid once
- 2-Computer Pack$49.99, paid once
- 5-Computer Pack$99.99, paid once
- 10-Computer Pack$189.99, paid once
- 20-Computer Pack$359.99, paid once
- 50-Computer Pack$749.99, paid once
- 100-Computer Pack$1,199.99, paid once
- 200-Computer Pack$1,899.99, paid once
- 300-Computer Pack$2,799.99, paid once
In their own words
DriveDx
DriveDx monitors and diagnoses SSD and HDD health on macOS, with the aim of helping users identify drive trouble before data loss or downtime. It evaluates indicators such as SSD wear and write endurance, I/O errors, pending sectors, and reallocated bad sectors. Its reports distinguish Warning, Failing (Pre-fail), and Failed states. The app can run in the background, check drives periodically, and alert users when it detects an issue. Users can initiate and control self-tests of electrical or mechanical performance and read performance. DriveDx calculates health and performance ratings, plus an indicator of remaining SSD lifetime. It can email problem alerts and drive status reports, with reporting configurable by criteria, and can alert users when free space crosses a chosen threshold. The product page lists compatibility from macOS 10.9 through macOS 26 and invites users to try it free, without specifying a trial length. There is no free plan. The personal license costs $19.99 as a one-time purchase for up to three personal computers and non-commercial use; other licenses cover household or commercial computer counts.
SMART Sniffer
SMART Sniffer monitors disk health and sends warnings to Home Assistant. A lightweight Go agent runs on each monitored machine, where every drive appears as its own Home Assistant device. Its Attention Needed sensor covers ATA, SATA, NVMe, and SAS drives, returning NO, MAYBE, YES, or UNSUPPORTED. When a drive’s health changes, persistent Home Assistant notifications can appear automatically, with options to escalate, de-escalate, or dismiss them automatically. Agents advertise on the local network through mDNS/Zeroconf, allowing Home Assistant to find them without manual IP entry. Filesystem monitoring is optional; for configured mountpoints, it reports total, used, and available bytes plus usage percentage. An integration service call can provide SMART data and assessments for use with Google AI, ChatGPT, Claude, or Ollama. The agent also exposes HTTP endpoints for health, drive summaries, individual SMART data, and filesystem usage. SMART Sniffer is free and MIT-licensed. It requires smartmontools 7.0 or newer for JSON output; some USB enclosures that block SMART passthrough are reported as unsupported with unknown health.