GNS3 vs LibreSpeed

GNS3 is free, open-source software for emulating, configuring, testing, and troubleshooting virtual and real networks. Its graphical client works with a virtual machine, and servers can run locally or remotely. Users can combine emulated devices running actual images with simulated devices, including a built-in layer 2 switch. It supports appliances from vendors such as Cisco, Brocade, Cumulus Linux, and HPE, as well as Docker, QEMU-based appliances, VMware, VirtualBox, Hyper-V, and connections to real networks. The GNS3 Marketplace offers preconfigured appliance templates with recommended settings. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux; documentation recommends the GNS3 VM for most Windows and macOS setups and complex topologies. Users must supply their own Cisco IOS images. There are no monthly or yearly license fees, and device capacity depends in practice on the host computer’s CPU and memory. GNS3 is used for networking education, certification practice, proofs of concept, demonstrations, and interoperability testing. A server has no authentication enabled by default and should be restricted at the network level.

LibreSpeed is a lightweight JavaScript speed test that uses XMLHttpRequest and Web Workers to measure download, upload, ping, and jitter. It supports IE11, current Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and mobile browser versions. Telemetry and result sharing are optional, and an installation with multiple test points can automatically select the point with the lowest ping. A separate stability test reports current, average, minimum, and maximum latency, jitter, failed-request percentage, threshold alerts, and CSV export. It can target a local backend, configured test points, or Google, Cloudflare, and Apple. Deployment uses a web server such as Apache, nginx, or IIS with PHP 5.4 or newer, though other backends are available. Optional result storage supports MariaDB, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and SQLite. The project provides an Android client template, a command-line client, and a .NET client library through NuGet. Go and Rust implementations are available; the Node.js implementation is partial and not recommended. LibreSpeed is free and open source, with self-hosting and no paid plans listed.