Uncovering the Best psutil Alternative for System Monitoring
psutil is a powerful Python module that offers a comprehensive interface for gathering information on running processes and system utilization. It's a go-to tool for developers and system administrators who need to programmatically access data on CPU, memory, disks, network, and users, often replicating the functionality of popular command-line tools like ps, top, df, and netstat. While incredibly versatile, there are various reasons why you might seek a psutil alternative. Perhaps you need a standalone GUI, a more lightweight solution, or a tool with specific features tailored to your environment. This article explores some of the top contenders that can fulfill your system monitoring needs.
Top psutil Alternatives
Whether you're looking for a command-line utility, a graphical interface, or something in between, these alternatives offer robust solutions for monitoring your system resources and processes, often with their own unique advantages over a direct programming interface like psutil.
htop
htop is an interactive process viewer for Linux, Mac, and BSD, serving as a popular open-source replacement for the traditional 'top' command. It's a text-mode application that runs on the command line, offering a more user-friendly interface for performance monitoring and managing processes compared to the programmatic approach of psutil. It's lightweight and focused on interactive system oversight.
glances
Glances is a powerful CLI curses-based monitoring tool available for GNU/Linux, BSD, Mac, and Windows. While it uses the psutil library internally to gather system information, it provides an immediate, visual, and interactive command-line interface for network monitoring and hardware monitoring, making it a great alternative for those who want a ready-to-use monitoring dashboard rather than building one with psutil.
GNOME System Monitor
GNOME System Monitor is a free and open-source graphical tool designed for Linux and BSD (specifically GNOME environments) that helps users manage running processes and monitor system resources. It offers a user-friendly GUI for application monitoring and task management, providing a visual overview that psutil's programmatic interface doesn't inherently offer.
Resource Monitor
Resource Monitor is a built-in system application in Microsoft Windows operating systems. It provides a detailed graphical interface to view information about hardware usage (CPU, memory, disk, and network), offering robust hardware monitoring, performance monitoring, and system info at a glance. For Windows users, it's a direct and comprehensive alternative to using psutil for system insights.
nmon
nmon (Nigel's Monitor) is a free and open-source system administrator, tuner, and benchmark tool for Linux. It provides a vast amount of important performance information in a single screen, making it a powerful command-line alternative for those who need in-depth system data collection and analysis, often used for performance troubleshooting where psutil might be integrated into a larger script.
Linux Process Explorer
Linux Process Explorer is a free and open-source tool for Linux that aims to replicate the functionality and feel of the well-known Windows Process Explorer by Mark Russinovich. It provides a graphical view of running processes and their resource usage, offering a GUI alternative for detailed process inspection that goes beyond the data retrieval capabilities of psutil alone.
Atop
Atop is an advanced interactive monitor for Linux systems, designed to view the load on both system-level and process-level. As a free and open-source tool, Atop provides detailed insights into resource consumption, including hardware monitoring, and can even log system activity for post-mortem analysis, making it a robust alternative to live scripting with psutil for historical data.
Kiwi application monitor
Kiwi application monitor is a freemium program for Windows that allows you to monitor your applications/processes, Windows, and User activity. It's a small, user-friendly tool that can be set to start with your system, providing continuous application monitoring that offers a more visual and persistent solution compared to using psutil for one-off data retrieval or custom scripts.
Ultimately, the best psutil alternative depends on your specific needs. Whether you require a powerful command-line interface, a comprehensive graphical user interface, or a tool designed for a particular operating system, the options above provide robust solutions for monitoring your system's health and performance. Explore these alternatives to find the perfect fit for your workflow and system administration tasks.