Kathará vs OMNeT++
Kathará
kathara.orgOMNeT++
omnetpp.orgSide by side
| Figure | Kathará | OMNeT++ |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Network Simulation Software | 8.0 (#9) | 7.7 (#16) |
| Headquarters | Rome, Italy | Budapest, Hungary |
| 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 maker describes OMNeT++ as popular in scientific and industrial settings and lists research and teaching as noncommercial use cases. |
| 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. | OMNeT++ is an extensible, modular C++ simulation library and framework primarily used to build network simulators. |
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.
OMNeT++
OMNeT++ is a modular C++ simulation library and framework used mainly to build network simulators. Its discrete-event models consist of communicating C++ modules whose structure is defined in the NED language. Simulations can run in Qtenv, a graphical runtime environment, or Cmdenv, a command-line interface. The IDE Analysis Tool uses Pandas and Matplotlib to analyze and plot results; R and Matlab can also process them. Extensions cover real-time simulation, network emulation, database integration, and SystemC integration, while the INET model library provides Internet stack models and other protocols and components. Packages are offered for Linux, Windows, and macOS, along with a core archive and container images. The project recommends opp_env for installation and uses WSL in its recommended Windows route. Its Academic Public License allows noncommercial teaching and research; commercial work requires a separate license, priced on request. The maker says the software has no telemetry or account system and keeps models and results on the user's computer.