Sniffnet vs Wireshark
Sniffnet
sniffnet.appWireshark
wireshark.orgSide by side
| Figure | Sniffnet | Wireshark |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 2 |
| Spec score · Network Packet Capture Software | 8.2 (#5) | 8.2 (#6) |
| Spec score · Network Packet Analyzer Software | 8.2 (#11) | 8.3 (#10) |
| Documentation | The project wiki contains installation, capture setup, monitoring, advanced-feature and FAQ sections. | Official material includes a User’s Guide, Developer’s Guide, wiki, FAQ, Q&A site, issue tracker and user/developer mailing lists. |
| Licence | Sniffnet is dual-licensed under MIT or Apache-2.0. | Wireshark is open source under GNU GPL version 2 or later, with source code available for modification and redistribution under the licence. |
| Purpose | Sniffnet is a network monitoring app for keeping track of Internet traffic, checking bandwidth usage, and inspecting network activity. | Wireshark captures and interactively browses network traffic as a network protocol analyzer. |
| Support | The download page directs users with persistent installation problems or doubts to open an issue. | Community support is available through the Q&A site and Wireshark users mailing list. |
| What it does | Sniffnet is a desktop application for monitoring Internet traffic, bandwidth use and network connections. | Wireshark captures and interactively examines traffic moving across computer networks for troubleshooting, analysis, development and education. |
Plans
In their own words
Sniffnet
Sniffnet is a free network monitoring app for Linux, macOS, and Windows. It displays overall internet traffic statistics and real-time charts, and can show which programs use bandwidth. Users can choose a network adapter, filter observed traffic, and import or export PCAP capture reports. Sniffnet identifies local network connections, shows remote hosts’ geographical locations, and finds host domain names and ASNs. It recognizes more than 6,000 upper-layer services, protocols, trojans, and worms. Users can configure notifications for network events and import custom IP blacklists to highlight potentially dangerous connections. The app supports live capture, display filters, protocol dissectors, and offline trace analysis; it reads PCAPNG and CAP files as well as PCAP. Custom themes and 26 languages are available. The listed Sniffnet plan is free and the software is open-source under MIT or Apache-2.0. A 2025 security audit reported one low-severity finding, which had been fixed. Most functionality uses offline databases, while reverse DNS lookups provide hostnames for IP addresses.
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.