list of system monitoring tools
👤 SUVANKAR SARKAR •
📅 April 5, 2026 •
👁️ 19 views
• 🔄 Updated April 6, 2026
system monitoring
cli
btop or btop --force-utf
pipx install 'glances[all]' is the best way to have
to run glances or glances -w --browser
| Tool | Description |
| --- | --- |
| **top** | The original Unix task manager. Very basic but always available. |
| **htop** | Improved, interactive version of `top` with better visuals and controls. |
| **btop** | Modern, graphical terminal monitor with mouse support and fancy UI. |
| **atop** | Advanced version of `top` with logging and long-term resource tracking. |
| **glances** | Cross-platform tool showing multiple system resources in a single view. |
| **nmon** | Performance monitor with extensive CPU, disk, and network stats. |
| **bpytop** | Python version of `btop` (older). |
| **bashtop** | Original Bash-based version of `btop`. No longer maintained. |
| **vtop** | Graphical `top` written in Node.js with sparkline graphs. |
| **gotop** | Fast terminal monitor written in Go with visuals like `btop`. |
| **gtop** | Node.js-based terminal monitor with charts. |
| **dstat** | Combines vmstat, iostat, netstat for detailed resource usage. |
| **iftop** | Real-time bandwidth usage per connection. |
| **nethogs** | Shows bandwidth per process (unlike `iftop`). |
| **iptraf** | Real-time IP LAN monitoring tool. |
| **iotop** | Shows real-time disk I/O per process. |
| **powertop** | For power consumption monitoring and tuning (great for laptops). |
| **tload** | Displays system load average graph in terminal. |
| **uptime** | Lightweight tool showing system uptime and load. |
| **smem** | Reports memory usage in a more accurate way than `ps` or `top`. |
| nvtop | |
| nvidia-smi | |
| amdgpu\_top | |