termshark vs Wireshark
termshark
github.comWireshark
wireshark.orgSide by side
| Figure | termshark | Wireshark |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Network Protocol Analyzers | 8.2 (#9) | 8.2 (#10) |
| Spec score · Network Packet Analyzer Software | 8.2 (#12) | 8.3 (#10) |
| Filtering | It filters packet captures and live captures using Wireshark display filters. | Users can filter packets using many criteria, including display filters for addresses, ports and protocols. |
| License | The repository identifies the project as MIT licensed. | 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 | Termshark is a terminal user interface for tshark, inspired by Wireshark. | Wireshark captures and interactively browses network traffic as a network protocol analyzer. |
| Support | The repository links a user guide and FAQ for documentation. | Community support is available through the Q&A site and Wireshark users mailing list. |
Plans
In their own words
termshark
termshark is a terminal interface for tshark, inspired by Wireshark, for inspecting packet captures and network traffic. It can read pcap files or sniff live interfaces when tshark is permitted, including on a remote machine where a capture need not be copied to a desktop. Users can apply Wireshark display filters, group conversations by protocol, and reassemble TCP and UDP streams. Packet search covers packet lists, structures and bytes, using text, regular expressions, hexadecimal input or display filters. The guide also describes importing a Wireshark column set when the configuration can be found, and transferring the current capture with Magic Wormhole. The project lists Linux, macOS, BSD variants, Android through Termux and Windows. It is free and MIT-licensed, and the project says its Go implementation builds as one executable on each platform. Packet analysis requires tshark 1.10.2 or higher in the user's PATH. The project notes that some tshark features are not yet exposed by termshark; the latest listed release is v2.4.0, dated July 11, 2022.
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.