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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Wireshark in a TUI

Wireshark-style terminal packet analyzer on eBPF/TCX — live packet list, protocol detail tree, section-colorized hex; works on raw-IP tunnel devices - yeet-src/pktscope

Pktscope is a terminal-based packet analyzer that replicates Wireshark's functionality in the command line. It uses eBPF and TCX technology to display live packet lists, hierarchical protocol details, and color-coded… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

  1. 1

    Hi everyone, I recently published a small open-source project. It’s a minimal network packet analyzer written in Go — designed more like a learning toy than a replacement for Wireshark. It currently supports parsing basic protocols like TLS, DNS, and HTTP, and includes a tiny fuzzing engine to test payload responses. You can inspect raw packet content directly from the terminal. The output is colored for readability, and the code structure is kept simple and clear. The entire program is very small — just about 400 lines of Go code. I know it’s not anywhere near Wireshark’s level, and I still…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2WA

    2012 · cloudshark.org · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    Hi all, I'm excited to announce Stratoshark, a sibling application to Wireshark that lets you capture and analyze process activity (system calls) and log messages in the same way that Wireshark lets you capture and analyze network packets. If you would like to try it out you can download installers for Windows and macOS and source code for all platforms at https://stratoshark.org. AMA: I'm the goofball whose name is at the top of the "About" box in both applications, and I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.

    2025 · stratoshark.org · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    Hey all, I built babyshark, a terminal UI for PCAPs aimed at people who find Wireshark powerful but overwhelming. The goal is “PCAPs for humans”: Overview dashboard answers what’s happening + what to click next Domains view (hostnames first) → select a domain → jump straight to relevant flows (works even when DNS is encrypted/cached by using observed IPs from flows) Weird stuff view surfaces common failure/latency signals (retransmits/out-of-order hints, resets, handshake issues, DNS failures when visible) From there you can drill down: Flows → Packets → Explain (plain-English…

    Feb 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    This code is still in early beta, but i sincerley hope it will become as ubiquitous as VIM on Linux.

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    Hi HN community, I’m Zach, founder and CEO of Warp, and am excited to show you Warp, a fast Rust-based terminal that’s easy to use and built for teams. As of today, Warp is in public beta and any Mac user can download it. It works with bash, zsh, and fish. The terminal’s teletype-like interface has made it hard for the CLI to thrive. After 20 years of programming, I still find it hard to copy a command’s output; I always forget how to use `tar`; and I always have to relearn how to move my cursor. To fix fundamental accessibility issues, I believe we need to start innovating on the terminal,…

    2022 · warp.dev · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    Hey HN, we built Subtrace (https://subtrace.dev) to let you see all incoming and outgoing requests in your backend server—like Wireshark, but for Docker containers. It comes with a Chrome DevTools-like interface. Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsGa6ZwVxdA, and see our docs for examples: https://docs.subtrace.dev. Subtrace lets you see every request with full payload, headers, status code, and latency details. Tools like Sentry and OpenTelemetry often leave out these crucial details, making prod debugging slow and annoying. Most of the…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    Trayce (https://github.com/evanrolfe/trayce_gui) is an open source desktop application which monitors HTTP(S) traffic to Docker containers on your machine. It uses EBPF to achieve zero-configuration sniffing of TLS-encrypted traffic. As a backend developer I wanted something which was similar to Wireshark or the Chrome network tab, but which intercepted requests & responses to my containers for debugging in a local dev environment. Wireshark is a great tool but it seems more geared towards lower level networking tasks. When I'm developing APIs or microservices I dont care…

    2024 · trayce.dev · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    the tcpkit was designed to make network packets programable with Lua script - git-hulk/tcpkit

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    An eBPF tool monitoring a goroutine. Contribute to keisku/gmon development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    Wireshark for MCP. A transparent proxy that shows every real tool call between your AI client and your MCP servers, live in your terminal. - kerlenton/mcpsnoop

    Jul 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12NM

    A real-time network connection monitoring tool built with Rust and GTK4, displaying active connections with live I/O statistics in a modern graphical interface. https://github.com/grigio/network-monitor

    Nov 2025 · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    Hi HN, I'm Tyler Flint, one of the creators of qtap. For a while now, my team and I at Qpoint.io have been grappling with the challenge of understanding what's actually happening inside the encrypted traffic leaving our production systems. Modern apps rely heavily on third-party APIs (think payment processors, data providers, etc.), but once TLS kicks in, figuring out exactly what data is being sent, identifying PII exposure, or debugging integration issues becomes incredibly difficult without resorting to complex and often brittle solutions. Traditional approaches like forward proxies…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14SA

    I've frequently found myself using [nvitop](https://github.com/XuehaiPan/nvitop) to diagnose GPU/CPU contention issues. The two best things about it are: - It's easy to install if I can access pip in the container - It makes a compelling screenshot (which helps me communicate with coworkers.) With those two lessons in mind: Here is Sping! Purpose: Help observe and diagnose latency issues at layer 4+ (TCP/HTTP/HTTPS) Two good things about it: - It's easy to install if you have pip. (Available at…

    2025 · dseltzer.gitlab.io · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    Hey! We are presenting CodeTracer - a user-friendly time-traveling debugger designed to support a wide range of programming languages: https://github.com/metacraft-labs/codetracer?tab=readme-ov-f... CodeTracer records the execution of a program into a sharable self-contained trace file. You can load the produced trace files in a GUI environment that allows you to move forward and backward through the execution and to examine the history of all memory locations. They say a picture is worth a thousand words — well, a video is even better! Watch the demo below to see…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    A powerful, modern network packet analyzer built with Rust.

    Dec 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    The top-like text-based user interface for Austin. Contribute to P403n1x87/austin-tui development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    Control your AI terminal sessions from your phone.

    Apr 2026 · liutianjie.github.io · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    Hey everyone, I've made this website that I hope can help some people. The original inspiration comes from being tired of having a specific site (and finding it!!) that serves my needs for a single purpose. Straight forward tools, no fuss. The objective is to be fully in-browser, no login and if possible without contacting a remote server. PGP Key Analyser - Analyze PGP keys directly in your browser - finally I can see the infos without having to download the key on my device Proton Date - Check ProtonMail account creation dates - pretty niche I admit Favicon Hash - Generate website favicon…

    2025 · kriztalz.sh · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    eBPF is an amazing technology that allows safely running user-supplied functions at pretty much arbitrary probe points in a kernel/user space context. Much has been written about how amazing this feature is for kernel observability. But as someone who writes user space code, what I find even more amazing is the support for tracing arbitrary user space programs, with no code changes and low overhead. However, doing in-depth analysis can get complicated and time-consuming. My goal with wachy was to make this debugging significantly easier/faster to use, by displaying traces in a TUI…

    2022 · rubrikinc.github.io · its alternatives →

  21. 21
    Tcpviz▲7

    Wireshark pcap visualization & tcp traffic analysis

    2025 · its alternatives →

  22. 22SS
  23. 23

    Hi HN! I'm Mo, a platform engineer at Deltaflare working on critical infrastructure protection. I built Cerberus because traditional packet capture tools (tcpdump, Wireshark) have too much overhead for production CNI environments. eBPF lets us filter and classify packets at the kernel level with near-zero performance impact. Some interesting challenges: - eBPF verifier is strict - every memory access needs bounds checking - Limited to 32 bytes of L7 payload (tradeoff between inspection depth and overhead) - TC vs XDP decision (chose TC for compatibility) Looking for contributors, especially…

    Dec 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    Hi HN - I’m the developer of PingStalker, a macOS utility I built to see what’s really happening on the LAN/WLAN. I live in the CLI, but when it came to discovery and monitoring, I found it limiting. So I built a GUI that brings my favorite tools together in one place. PingStalker started because I wanted to know if something on the network was scanning my machine. I also wanted quick access to core details—external IP, Wi-Fi data, and local topology. Then I wanted more: fast, reliable scans using ARP tables and ICMP. As a Wi-Fi engineer, I couldn’t stop there. I kept adding ways to…

    Nov 2025 · pingstalker.com · its alternatives →

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