LMbench vs Novabench
LMbench
github.com
Novabench
novabench.comSide by side
| Figure | LMbench | Novabench |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $3/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 5 |
| Spec score · PC benchmark tools | 8.5 (#14) | 8.6 (#9) |
| Spec score · PC Benchmark Software | 8.3 (#16) | 8.5 (#7) |
| Comparison database | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Operating systems | UNIX/POSIX; Linux; FreeBSD; NetBSD; Solaris; SunOS; AIX; HP-UX; IRIX; OSF/1; Windows NT (partial) | Windows,macOS,Linux |
| Workload areas | Bandwidth; latency; processor operations; memory hierarchy; cache; TLB; process and file-system operations; networking | CPU,GPU,RAM,disk |
Plans
In their own words
LMbench
LMbench is a free, self-hosted benchmark suite for measuring system performance, with a focus on data movement and its cost. Its workload areas include memory, disks, file systems, networks, pipes, virtual memory, processor operations, cache, and TLB behavior. Latency measurements report time and CPU cycles per operation; bandwidth results include megabytes per second and CPU cycles per megabyte. Other benchmarks cover null process execution time, context switching, network transfers, socket operations, and large-transfer throughput. The command line can run benchmarks, and `make see` compares results with system results included in the repository. Documentation names UNIX/POSIX, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, SunOS, AIX, HP-UX, IRIX, OSF/1, and partial Windows NT support. Linux and Windows are listed as platforms. LMbench is GPL-2.0 licensed and costs nothing. Its documentation warns that other system activity, especially CPU cache and cycle effects, can affect measurements, and recommends multiple runs with output comparison.