Side by side
HDD Health Monitor vs SMART Sniffer
Both stand on disk health monitoring software. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.
Free plan Windows
HDD Health Monitor brings drive health indicators, alerts, and retained history into a standalone Windows utility. Its ability to read S.M.A.R.T. data depends on drive and controller support, and it requires administrator privileges.
Visit HDD Health Monitor Free plan Open source APILinuxMac+3
SMART Sniffer brings drive health reporting from multiple machines into Home Assistant and includes optional filesystem monitoring. Its smartmontools requirement and the USB passthrough limitation may affect which drives it can report on.
Visit SMART SnifferThe facts
| HDD Health Monitor | SMART Sniffer | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Yes |
| Runs on | Windows | API, Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Web, Windows |
| Lowest paid plan | Free or on request | Free or on request |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Maker | Not published | Not published |
| Website | hddmonitor.github.io | github.com |
| On disk health monitoring software | #13 of 28 | #1 of 28 |
HDD Health Monitor: what it does well
- Monitors multiple physical drives automatically.
- Records selected health data every five seconds while running.
- Provides several drive-health and failure alerts.
- Runs without an installer or dependencies.
- Free, MIT-licensed, and requires no registration.
What to know first
- Administrator privileges are needed to read S.M.A.R.T. data.
- USB bridge support can prevent S.M.A.R.T. access.
- S.M.A.R.T. data usually cannot be read from unofficial flash drives, memory cards, or eMMC products.
- Some Windows antivirus products may incorrectly flag it as malware.
SMART Sniffer: what it does well
- Monitors ATA, SATA, NVMe, and SAS drives
- Can automatically escalate or dismiss health notifications
- Discovers agents over local-network mDNS/Zeroconf
- Includes optional filesystem usage monitoring
What to know first
- Requires smartmontools 7.0 or newer
- USB enclosures blocking SMART passthrough show unknown health
- Bearer-token authentication is optional rather than required
Alternatives to HDD Health Monitor Alternatives to SMART Sniffer The whole list