perfSONAR vs Wireshark
perfSONAR
perfsonar.netWireshark
wireshark.orgSide by side
| Figure | perfSONAR | Wireshark |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Network Troubleshooting Software | 7.6 (#8) | 8.2 (#5) |
| Founded | 2005 | 1998 |
| License | perfSONAR components and tools are licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0, and distributed without warranty as described on the license page. | Wireshark is open-source software released under the GNU General Public License version 2, and the downloaded version is the full version without a license fee. |
| Purpose | perfSONAR is a network measurement toolkit designed to provide federated path coverage and help establish end-to-end network performance expectations. | Wireshark captures and interactively browses network traffic as a network protocol analyzer. |
| Support | The project provides a user mailing list for questions about deployments and an announcement mailing list for releases and security updates. | Community support is available through the Q&A site and Wireshark users mailing list. |
Plans
In their own words
perfSONAR
perfSONAR is a free, open-source network measurement toolkit for assessing performance across network paths and finding problems as they occur. It offers a common interface for scheduling measurements, storing results in uniform formats, retrieving data at scale, and generating visualizations. Operators coordinate tests across multiple nodes with a shared JSON mesh configuration; results can remain on each node or go to a central dashboard server. A standard node runs throughput or latency tests on one network interface, although simultaneous testing there may affect accuracy. The documentation covers Docker and Ansible deployment, a central archive with Grafana, and Client and esmond APIs for raw data access. perfSONAR is installed on an operator-controlled local server, so maintaining nodes and test configuration is required. It monitors packet loss and jitter, supports path visualization and synthetic tests, and is licensed under Apache License 2.0. The listed plan costs nothing.
Wireshark
Wireshark is a free network protocol analyzer for capturing and examining network traffic. It supports live capture and offline analysis through a graphical interface or the TShark terminal utility, and can inspect hundreds of protocols. Display filters narrow what appears during analysis, though their syntax differs from capture filters. Wireshark reads and writes capture formats including pcap and pcapng, and can decompress gzip-compressed files. Analysis features include VoIP tools, packet coloring rules, and exports to XML, PostScript, CSV, or plain text. It can decrypt traffic for protocols including IPsec, Kerberos, SSL/TLS, WEP, and WPA/WPA2. The software is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows under GNU General Public License version 2, with no license fee for the full version. Windows packages include Npcap, which is needed for live packet capture. What a capture can show depends on the operating system, capture library, network interface, and network configuration; switched networks may not expose unicast traffic between other ports. Community help is available through a Q&A site and users mailing list.