Ostinato vs Shadow
Ostinato
ostinato.orgShadow
shadow.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | Ostinato | Shadow |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $12/mo | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 4 | 0 |
| Spec score · Network Testing Software | 8.1 (#11) | 6.8 (#29) |
| Purpose | Ostinato generates, customizes, or replays L2/L3 traffic to validate throughput, QoS, multicast, routing, switching, protocol behavior, and network performance. | Shadow is a scientific experimentation tool for research, development, testing, and evaluation of real networked applications on simulated networks. |
| Support | Customers with Pro or Business licenses may submit support tickets; Pro email support is available for 30 days from purchase, and community forums are available to all listed license tiers. | The project directs users to GitHub Discussions for community support and GitHub Issues for bug reports. |
Plans
Ostinato
- Solo$12 a month
- Pro$49 a month
- Business$208 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
Ostinato
Ostinato generates and customizes network traffic, or replays PCAP files, to help validate throughput, QoS, multicast, routing, switching, protocol behavior, and network performance. Users can edit supported protocol headers, set frame sizes, and create custom headers with hexdumps or scripts. PCAP replay can preserve or alter packet timing, loop traffic, or reorder packets. Native protocols include Ethernet, VLAN, QinQ, IPv4/IPv6, UDP, stateless TCP, ICMP, ARP/NDP, IGMP/MLD, and GRE; other methods can support headers such as MPLS and VXLAN. Reports show transmit and receive statistics, per-stream packet loss, and latency and jitter measured with software timestamps. A Python API supports stream and scenario creation, run control, counter collection, and CI/CD integration. Ostinato lists GNS3, EVE-NG, Cisco CML, and Containerlab as supported lab environments, and says it works on AWS and Azure cloud VMs. It runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, and self-hosted or API setups. Plans start at $12 a month billed annually; an active subscription is required.