Kathará vs Mahimahi
Kathará
kathara.orgMahimahi
mahimahi.mit.eduSide by side
| Figure | Kathará | Mahimahi |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Network Simulation Software | 8.0 (#9) | 7.4 (#23) |
| Intended users | The project says it is used in courses and projects and describes use in teaching, production-network sandbox testing, and protocol development. | The site describes the tools as intended for browser developers, website authors, and network protocol designers. |
| Purpose | Kathará is an open-source container-based network emulation system for interactive lessons and demos, sandbox testing of production networks, and network protocol development. | Mahimahi is a set of lightweight tools for measuring and emulating web performance. |
Plans
In their own words
Kathará
Kathará is a free, open-source system for emulating networks in interactive lessons, demos, production-network sandbox tests, and protocol development. It represents network devices with containers connected through virtual Layer-2 LANs, and scenarios can use Docker or Kubernetes as their virtualization backend. Built-in images include Quagga, FRRouting, Bind, P4, and OpenVSwitch; users can also supply their own container images. A Python package exposes APIs for custom code. Kathará supports Linux, macOS on Intel or Apple Silicon, and Windows 10 and 11. Debian and Ubuntu installations are available through apt, with precompiled packages for other listed distributions. Settings cover IPv6, terminal behavior, volume mounts, and remote Docker or Kubernetes connections. The software depends on Docker by default, and rootless Docker and Podman are unsupported. The project lists version 3.8.3 as covered by security patches. It is free, with a listed price of free.
Mahimahi
Mahimahi has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.