Open Source Wireshark AlternativesTop Network Analyzers & Network Monitors like Wireshark

The best open source alternative to Wireshark is tcpdump. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to Wireshark and many of them is open source so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternatives to Wireshark are NetworkMiner, Ettercap, PCAPdroid and Termshark.

filter to find the best alternatives

Wireshark alternatives are mainly Network Monitors, but if you're looking for Network Analyzers or HTTP(S) Debuggers you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac, Linux, iPhone + Network Monitoring and iPhone + Network Analyzer. You can also filter by region, for example EU-based alternatives if you prefer software developed in the European Union. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Wireshark.
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Alternatives list

  1. tcpdump icon
     60 likes

    tcpdump is a common packet analyzer that runs under the command line. It allows the user to intercept and display TCP/IP and other packets being transmitted or received over a network to which the computer is attached.

    28 tcpdump alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
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    1
    Comments about tcpdump as an Alternative to Wireshark
    Guest
    Positive
    0

    It's open source and use CLI

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    tcpdump icon
    tcpdump icon
    • tcpdump is Free and Open SourceWireshark is also Free and Open Source
  2. NetworkMiner icon
     19 likes

    NetworkMiner is a Network Forensic Analysis Tool (NFAT) for Windows. NetworkMiner can parse PCAP files and regenerate/reassemble transmitted files and certificates from PCAP files with HTTP, FTP, SMB, SMB2, TFTP and several other protocols.

    38 NetworkMiner alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  3. Ettercap icon
     19 likes

    Ettercap is a suite for man in the middle attacks on LAN. It features sniffing of live connections, content filtering on the fly and many other interesting tricks.

    20 Ettercap alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  4. PCAPdroid icon
     5 likes

    PCAPdroid is an android app to capture the phone traffic and analyze it remotely (e.g. via Wireshark). The traffic can be easily downloaded from a remote device thanks to the integrated HTTP server, or streamed to a remote UDP receiver.

    45 PCAPdroid alternatives

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Android
    • F-Droid
     
  5. Termshark icon
     Like

    If you're debugging on a remote machine with a large pcap and no desire to scp it back to your desktop, termshark can help!

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  6. Sysdig icon
     12 likes

    Sysdig is open source, system-level exploration: capture system state and activity from a running Linux instance, then save, filter and analyze. Think of it as strace + tcpdump + lsof + awesome sauce.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  7.  7 likes

    Scapy is a powerful interactive packet manipulation program. It is able to forge or decode packets of a wide number of protocols, send them on the wire, capture them, match requests and replies, and much more.

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  8.  21 likes

    NetHogs is a small 'net top' tool. Instead of breaking the traffic down per protocol or per subnet, like most tools do, it groups bandwidth by process.

    25 Nethogs alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Xfce
     
  9.  3 likes

    tcpflow, a TCP Flow Recorder, is a program that captures data transmitted as part of TCP connections (flows), and stores the data in a way that is convenient for protocol analysis or debugging. A program like 'tcpdump' shows a summary of packets seen on the wire, but...

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  10. G-Earth icon
     2 likes

    Cross-platform Habbo packet manipulator.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
     
  11.  Like

    httpry is a tool designed for displaying and logging HTTP traffic. It is not intended to perform analysis itself, but instead to capture, parse and/or log the traffic for later analysis. It can be run in real-time displaying the live traffic on the wire, or as a daemon process...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  12. TraceWrangler is a network capture file toolkit running on Windows (or on Linux, using WINE) that supports PCAP as well as the new PCAPng file format, which is now the standard file format used by Wireshark.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
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