16 Useful Bandwidth Monitoring Tools to Analyze Network Usage in Linux

Why are today's networks so slow? Are you having trouble monitoring your Linux network bandwidth usage? If you want to visualize what's happening on your network so you can understand and troubleshoot whatever is causing it to be slow, today's tools can help. The tools listed below are all open source and range from small tools to full monitoring solutions for monitoring bandwidth on a single Linux box.

1. vnStat – Network Traffic Monitor

VnStat is a full-featured command-line based program for real-time monitoring of Linux network traffic and bandwidth utilization on Linux and BSD systems.

One advantage it has over other tools is that it logs network traffic and bandwidth usage statistics for later analysis - this is its default behavior. You can actually view these logs even after a system reboot.

Install VnStat in Linux:

 $ sudo yum install sysstat [ On Older CentOS / RHEL & Fedora ]
 $ sudo dnf install sysstat [ On CentOS / RHEL / Fedora / Rocky Linux & AlmaLinux ]
 $ sudo apt -get install sysstat [ On Debian / Ubuntu & Mint ]
 $ sudo pacman - S sysstat [ On Arch Linux ]

2. iftop – Displays bandwidth usage

iftop is a simple, easy to use, real-time top-like command-line based network bandwidth monitoring tool for quickly understanding network activity on the interface. It displays network bandwidth usage updates every 2, 10 and 40 seconds on average.

Install iftop in Linux:

 $ sudo yum install iftop [ On Older CentOS / RHEL & Fedora ]
 $ sudo dnf install iftop [ On CentOS / RHEL / Fedora / Rocky Linux & AlmaLinux ]
 $ sudo apt -get install iftop [ On Debian / Ubuntu & Mint ]
 $ sudo pacman -S iftop [ On Arch Linux ]

3. nload – Displays network usage

nload is another simple and easy to use command line tool for monitoring network traffic and bandwidth usage in real time. It uses graphs to help you monitor inbound and outbound traffic. In addition, it displays information such as the total amount of data transferred and the minimum/maximum network usage.

Install nload in Linux:

 $ sudo yum install nload [ On Older CentOS / RHEL & Fedora ]
 $ sudo dnf install nload [ On CentOS / RHEL / Fedora / Rocky Linux & AlmaLinux ]
 $ sudo apt -get install nload [ On Debian / Ubuntu & Mint ]
 $ sudo pacman -S nload [ On Arch Linux ]

4. NetHogs – Monitor Network Traffic Bandwidth

NetHogs is a small text tool similar to top that is used to monitor the real-time network traffic bandwidth usage of each process or application running on your Linux system. It simply provides real-time statistics of network bandwidth usage on a per-process basis.

Install NetHogs in Linux:

 $ sudo yum install nethogs [ On Older CentOS / RHEL & Fedora ]
 $ sudo dnf install nethogs [ On CentOS / RHEL / Fedora / Rocky Linux & AlmaLinux ]
 $ sudo apt - get install nethogs [ On Debian / Ubuntu & Mint ]
 $ sudo pacman -S nethogs [ On Arch Linux ]

5. bmon – Bandwidth Monitor and Rate Estimator

bmon is also a simple command line tool for monitoring network bandwidth utilization and rate estimator in Linux. It captures network statistics and visualizes them in a human-friendly format so that you can keep an eye on your system.

Install Bmon in Linux:

 $ sudo yum install bmon [ On Older CentOS / RHEL & Fedora ]
 $ sudo dnf install bmon [ On CentOS / RHEL / Fedora / Rocky Linux & AlmaLinux ]
 $ sudo apt -get install bmon [ On Debian / Ubuntu & Mint ]
 $ sudo pacman - S bmon [ On Arch Linux ]

6. Darkstat – Capture Network Traffic

Darkstat is a small, simple, cross-platform, real-time, and efficient web-based network traffic analyzer. It is a network statistics monitoring tool that works by capturing network traffic, computer usage statistics, and provides reports in a graphical format over HTTP. You can also use it through the command line to achieve the same results.

Install Darkstat in Linux:

 $ sudo yum install darkstat [ On Older CentOS / RHEL & Fedora ]
 $ sudo dnf install darkstat [ On CentOS / RHEL / Fedora / Rocky Linux & AlmaLinux ]
 $ sudo apt - get install darkstat [ On Debian / Ubuntu & Mint ]
 $ sudo pacman -S darkstat [ On Arch Linux ]

7. IPTraf – IP Network Monitor

IPTraf is an easy to use, ncurses based and configurable tool for monitoring incoming and outgoing network traffic through an interface. It is very useful for IP traffic monitoring, viewing general interface statistics, detailed interface statistics, etc.

Install IPTraf in Linux:

 $ sudo yum install iptraf [ On Older CentOS / RHEL & Fedora ]
 $ sudo dnf install iptraf [ On CentOS / RHEL / Fedora / Rocky Linux & AlmaLinux ]
 $ sudo apt -get install iptraf [ On Debian / Ubuntu & Mint ]
 $ sudo pacman - siptraf [ On Arch Linux ]

8. CBM——(Color Bandwidth Meter)

CBM is a tiny command line utility used to display the current network traffic on all connected devices in colored output in Ubuntu Linux and its derivatives like Linux Mint, Lubuntu etc. It displays the network interface, bytes received, bytes transferred and total bytes for each connection, allowing you to monitor the network bandwidth.

Install Color Bandwidth Meter in Linux:

 $ sudo yum install cbm [ On Older CentOS / RHEL & Fedora ]
 $ sudo dnf install cbm [ On CentOS / RHEL / Fedora / Rocky Linux & AlmaLinux ]
 $ sudo apt - get install cbm [ On Debian / Ubuntu & Mint ]
 $ sudo pacman -S cbm [ On Arch Linux ]

9. Iperf/Iperf3 – Network bandwidth measurement tool

Iperf/Iperf3 is a powerful tool for measuring network throughput over protocols such as TCP, UDP, and SCTP. It is primarily used to help tune TCP connections on a specific path, so it can be used to test and monitor the maximum bandwidth achievable on an IP network (supports both IPv4 and IPv6).

It requires a server and a client to perform the test (reporting bandwidth, loss, and other useful network performance parameters).

Install Iperf3 in Linux:

 $ sudo yum install iperf3 [ On Older CentOS / RHEL & Fedora ]
 $ sudo dnf install iperf3 [ On CentOS / RHEL / Fedora / Rocky Linux & AlmaLinux ]
 $ sudo apt -get install iperf3 [ On Debian / Ubuntu & Mint ]
 $ sudo pacman -S iperf3 [ On Arch Linux ]

10. Netperf – Network Bandwidth Test

Netperf is similar to iperf and is used to test network performance. It can help monitor network bandwidth in Linux by measuring data transfer using TCP, UDP. It also supports measurements over Berkeley Sockets, DLPI, Unix Domain Sockets, and many other interfaces. You need a server and a client to run the test.

Install Netperf in Linux:

 $ sudo yum install netperf [ On Older CentOS / RHEL & Fedora ]
 $ sudo dnf install netperf [ On CentOS / RHEL / Fedora / Rocky Linux & AlmaLinux ]
 $ sudo apt -get install netperf [ On Debian / Ubuntu & Mint ]
 $ sudo pacman -S netperf [ On Arch Linux ]

11. SARG – Squid Analysis Report Generator

SARG is a squid log file analyzer and Internet bandwidth monitoring tool. It generates useful HTML reports with information including but not limited to IP addresses and total bandwidth usage. It is a handy tool for monitoring Internet bandwidth utilization of individual machines on a single network.

12. Monitorix – System and network monitoring tool

Monitorix is ​​a lightweight system resource and network monitoring application designed for small Linux/Unix servers and also provides amazing support for embedded devices.

It helps you monitor network traffic and usage statistics from an unlimited number of network devices. It supports both IPv4 and IPv6 connections, includes packet flow and traffic error graphs, and supports up to 9 disks per network interface.

Installing Monitorix in Linux:

 $ sudo yum install monitorix [ On Older CentOS / RHEL & Fedora ]
 $ sudo dnf install monitorix [ On CentOS / RHEL / Fedora / Rocky Linux & AlmaLinux ]
 $ sudo apt -get install monitorix [ On Debian / Ubuntu & Mint ]
 $ sudo pacman - S monitorix [ On Arch Linux ]

13. Cacti – Network Monitoring and Graphing Tool

Cacti is a full-featured, web-based network graphics PHP application with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface. It uses a MySQL database to store collected network performance data for generating customized graphs. It is a front-end for RRDTool and can be used to monitor small to complex networks with thousands of devices.

14. Observium – Network Monitoring Platform

Observium is a full-featured network monitoring platform with an elegant yet powerful, powerful yet simple and intuitive interface. It supports many platforms, including Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, Cisco, HP, Dell and many others, and includes automatic detection of devices. It helps users collect network metrics and provides intuitive device metric charts based on the collected performance data.

15. Zabbix – Application and Network Monitoring Tool

Zabbix is ​​a feature-rich and commonly used network monitoring platform designed with a server-client model for real-time monitoring of networks, servers, and applications. It collects different types of data for visual representation of network performance or load indicators of monitored devices.

It is able to use well-known network protocols such as HTTP, FTP, SMTP, IMAP, etc., without the need to install additional software on the monitored device.

16. Nagios – Monitor systems, networks, and infrastructure

Nagios is a robust, powerful, feature-rich and widely used monitoring software. It allows you to monitor local and remote network devices and their services from a single window.

It provides bandwidth monitoring via SNMP in network devices such as switches and routers, allowing you to easily identify overused ports and pinpoint possible network abusers.

Additionally, Nagios helps you keep an eye on bandwidth utilization and errors on each port, and enables rapid detection of network outages and protocol failures.