Side by side
htop vs nmon
Both stand on process 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 LinuxMac
htop provides a terminal-based way to view processes, with controls for I/O priority and CPU affinity. Keep in mind that it does not report SWAP use per process.
Visit htop Free plan LinuxSelf-hosted
Choose nmon if you need free Linux performance monitoring with both live terminal data and CSV capture. Look elsewhere if you need a matching prebuilt binary for your Linux distribution and cannot compile from source, or if an open-source AIX version is required.
Visit nmonThe facts
| htop | nmon | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Not published |
| Runs on | Linux, Mac | Linux, Self-hosted |
| Lowest paid plan | Free or on request | Free or on request |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Maker | Not published | Not published |
| Website | htop.dev | nmon.sourceforge.io |
| On process monitoring software | #11 of 26 | #15 of 26 |
htop: what it does well
- Free, with source code and distribution binaries.
- Supports Linux, BSD systems, macOS, and Solaris.
- Offers Unicode graphs and a tree view.
- Can configure I/O priority and CPU affinity.
- Customizable header meters and terminal color themes.
What to know first
- Requires ncurses and a text-mode terminal.
- No per-process SWAP column is provided.
nmon: what it does well
- Free Linux performance monitoring under GPLv3.
- Shows CPU, memory, network, disks, filesystems, NFS, and top processes.
- Saves performance data as comma-separated files.
- Offers nmonchart and nmon Analyser for graphing captured output.
- Describes njmon injectors for InfluxDB and Splunk.
What to know first
- Linux distributions without a matching binary require a source build.
- The AIX version is not open source.