Comparison of packet analyzers explained

The following tables compare general and technical information for several packet analyzer software utilities, also known as network analyzers or packet sniffers. Please see the individual products' articles for further information.

General information

Basic general information about the software—creator/company, license/price, etc.

	Creator	data-sort-type="number"	Latest release	User interface	Software license	data-sort-type="currency"	Cost
Allegro Network Multimeter	Allegro Packets	July 20, 2023 / v4.0.4	web GUI		Non-free, price on request, depending on device and extensions
Cain and Abel	Massimiliano Montoro	/ 4.9.56	GUI
Capsa	Colasoft	/ 11.1^[1]	GUI		^[2]
Carnivore	Federal Bureau of Investigation			N/A
Charles Web Debugging Proxy	Karl van Randow	/ 4.1.4	GUI		$30–$50 (Free Trial)
Clarified Analyzer	Clarified Networks		GUI
Clusterpoint Network Traffic Surveillance System	Clusterpoint		web GUI
CommView	TamoSoft	/ 6.5 Build 770	GUI
dSniff	Dug Song	/ 2.3^[3]	CLI
EtherApe	Juan Toledo	/ 0.9.18^[4]	GUI
Ettercap	ALoR and NaGA	/ 0.8.3.1-Bertillon^[5]	Both
Fiddler	Eric Lawrence / Telerik	/ 5.0.20194^[6]	GUI
justniffer	The Justniffer team	/ 0.5.15^[7]	CLI
Kismet	Mike Kershaw (dragorn)	/ 2020-04-R3^[8]	CLI
Microsoft Message Analyzer	Microsoft	/ 1.4^[9]	GUI
Microsoft Network Monitor	Microsoft	/ 3.4	GUI
netsniff-ng	Daniel Borkmann	/ 0.6.2	CLI
ngrep	Jordan Ritter	/ 1.47	CLI
Observer	Viavi Solutions (formerly Network Instruments)		GUI
OmniPeek (formerly AiroPeek, EtherPeek)	LiveAction (formerly Savvius, WildPackets)	/ 11.1	GUI		^[10]
Sniffer	Netscout (formerly Network General)	2013^[11]	GUI	Proprietary	Non-free
SteelCentral Transaction Analyzer	OPNET Technologies/Riverbed Technology	/ 17.0.T-PL1^[12]	GUI
snoop	Sun Microsystems	/ Solaris 10	CLI
tcpdump	The Tcpdump team	/ 4.99.4^[13]	CLI
Wireshark (formerly Ethereal)	The Wireshark team	/ 4.0.6^[14]	Both
Xplico	The Xplico team	/ 1.2.2^[15]	Both

Operating system support

The utilities can run on these operating systems.

Client	Microsoft Windows	macOS	Linux	BSDs	Solaris	Other
Cain and Abel
Capsa Free Edition
Carnivore
Charles Web Debugging Proxy
CommView
dSniff
EtherApe
Ettercap
justniffer
Kismet
Lanmeter						Fluke proprietary hardware
netsniff-ng
ngrep						AIX, BeOS, HP-UX, IRIX, Tru64 UNIX
Microsoft Network Monitor
OmniPeek (formerly AiroPeek, EtherPeek)
snoop
tcpdump	(WinDump)					AIX, HP-UX, IRIX, Tru64 UNIX
Wireshark (formerly Ethereal)						AIX, HP-UX, IRIX, Tru64 UNIX
Xplico

Notes and References

1. Colasoft Announces Release of Capsa Network Analyzer v11.1 with Enhanced Usability. April 25, 2018.
2. Web site: Capsa Enterprise Edition & Standard Edition & Free Edition – Colasoft. https://archive.today/20130120010119/http://www.colasoft.com/capsa/editions.php. dead. January 20, 2013.
3. Web site: CHANGES. monkey.org.
4. Web site: EtherApe, a graphical network monitor. etherape.sourceforge.net. March 22, 2020.
5. Web site: Releases · Ettercap. ettercap-project.org. March 22, 2020.
6. Web site: Fiddler Release History . Telerik . October 3, 2019.
7. Web site: justniffer - Browse Files at SourceForge.net. SourceForge. September 8, 2022.
8. Web site: Kismet. kismetwireless.net. May 28, 2020.
9. Web site: Download Microsoft Message Analyzer from Official Microsoft Download Center. . https://web.archive.org/web/20190803035049/https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=44226. August 3, 2019 . dead.
10. Web site: store.savvius.com. June 3, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160813115749/https://store.savvius.com/index.php. August 13, 2016. dead.
11. Book: Netscout. 2013 Netscout Sniffer Portable. 2013.
12. Web site: SteelCentral Transaction Analyzer.
13. Web site: Tcpdump/Libpcap public repository. tcpdump.org. June 12, 2023.
14. Web site: Wireshark 4.0.6 Released. May 24, 2023. June 12, 2023.
15. Web site: Xplico – Xplico 1.2.2.