No. 12 of 31 ·Bandwidth Monitoring Software

vnStat

Linux · Self-hosted

Freedom report

Two barsScore 6.3

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely1 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

vnStat is ranked #12 of 31 in bandwidth monitoring software on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, Self-hosted. There is a free plan.

vnStat plans and pricing

All plans

vnStat Free Open source / GPL'ed · Linux and BSD humdi.net · 4 Oct 2026

Compared on bandwidth monitoring software

Free plan: Yes
Application monitoring: No
Historical data retention: unlimited
Bandwidth alerts: Yes

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The record

Purpose: vnStat is a console-based network traffic monitor that logs traffic for selected interfaces.
Data source: It uses network interface statistics provided by the kernel and does not sniff traffic.
History: It provides summary, five-minute, hourly, daily, monthly, yearly, and top-days statistics.
Interfaces: It can monitor multiple network interfaces at the same time.
Retention: Data retention duration is configurable; the repository README gives defaults of five-minute data for 48 hours, hourly data for four days, daily data for two full months, and yearly data forever.
Output: It supports text output, JSON and XML database output, alerts, and optional image output when the GD Graphics Library is installed.
Resource use: The maker says vnStat uses system resources lightly regardless of network traffic rate.
Installation: The maker offers source for Linux and BSD, plus links to Docker and Snap distributions.
Security: Because vnStat reads kernel-provided interface statistics, the maker says it does not sniff network traffic.
Integrity check: The repository's getting-started instructions describe optional GPG verification of the stable release archive and its signature.
Support: The maker suggests GitHub for bug reports, improvement ideas, feature requests, and pull requests, and also lists email and IRC contact options.
Data editing: The FAQ says no vnStat-specific database editor is available and suggests using sqlite3 to read or modify the database.
Estimate limitation: The FAQ says traffic estimates work fairly well when interface traffic stays at a similar magnitude and cannot predict peaks.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Bandwidth Monitoring Software in 2026#12 of 31

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Sources

humdi.net/vnstat/· checked 4 Oct 2026
github.com/vergoh/vnstat· checked 4 Oct 2026
humdi.net/vnstat/FAQ· checked 4 Oct 2026