Glances vs Supervisor
Glances
nicolargo.github.ioSupervisor
supervisord.orgSide by side
| Figure | Glances | Supervisor |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 0 |
| Spec score · Process Monitoring Software | 8.9 (#3) | 7.3 (#21) |
| Installation | The documented installation paths include pip, pipx, uvx, operating-system packages, and optional extras such as web or all. | Supervisor can be installed with pip or from a downloaded distribution, including on systems without internet access. |
| License | Glances is distributed under the GNU LGPL version 3, expressed on PyPI as LGPL-3.0-only. | PyPI lists Supervisor as using a BSD-derived license. |
| Platforms | The project documents GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, macOS and Windows support; it also gives installation instructions for rooted Android devices using Termux. | The documentation says Supervisor will not run on Windows and lists Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, and FreeBSD among tested or supported systems. |
| Support | The project directs users to its manual, official Reddit forum and GitHub Discussions for help. | The project directs users to its GitHub issues page to report bugs or other errors. |
| Web interface | A built-in web UI lets users view monitoring data from another device. | A sparse browser-based interface can display and control process status when the HTTP server is enabled. |
Plans
In their own words
Glances
Glances is a free, open-source, cross-platform tool for monitoring real-time system statistics and running processes. Its listed coverage includes CPU, memory, load, processes, network, disk I/O, sensors, filesystems, containers, alerts, and uptime. Client/server mode enables remote monitoring through a terminal, web interface, or API, while its built-in web UI lets users view a system from a browser-equipped device. Statistics can be exported to CSV or JSON files, databases such as InfluxDB and Prometheus, brokers such as RabbitMQ and Kafka, or a REST endpoint. The project documents Docker and Podman support and describes Docker and LXC container monitoring in its README. Installation options include pip, pipx, Homebrew, Linux and FreeBSD packages, and Docker images. Glances 4 requires Python 3.10 or higher. Its default installation does not include web interface dependencies; separate extras cover features such as web, GPU, containers, exports, and MCP. Version 4.5.1 and higher can provide an MCP server for AI assistants. The project uses the LGPL version 3 license.
Supervisor
Supervisor is a free client/server system for starting, monitoring and controlling processes on UNIX-like operating systems. It can restart processes after crashes and report their status. Administrators set per-process options in an INI-style configuration file, including failed-process restarts and automatic log rotation. Priorities and groups let related processes be started or stopped together.
Control is available through a command-line client, an optional browser interface and an XML-RPC interface. The browser view can display and control process status when the HTTP server is enabled; authentication can be required for commands over UNIX-domain or TCP sockets. Supervisor also has an event-notification protocol usable by programs in any language and extension points for Python developers. It can be installed with pip or from a downloaded distribution, including on systems without internet access. It is intended for project- or customer-related processes, not as a replacement for init as process ID 1. It runs on supported UNIX-like systems and does not run under Windows.