Alternatives to below
A Linux resource monitor that records system, cgroup and process statistics and replays them later. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
below
A Linux resource monitor that records system, cgroup and process statistics and replays them later.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as below.
atop
A full-screen Linux performance monitor that reports and logs system and per-process resource usage.
atop also logs system and per-process usage for later review and includes exited processes, but lacks below's cgroup hierarchy view and is not open source.
sysstat
Collection of Linux command-line performance tools including sar, iostat, mpstat and pidstat.
sysstat records history with sar and covers CPU, disk, per-process and network statistics, with text output instead of below's interactive replay interface.
Performance Co-Pilot
A toolkit for collecting, archiving and analysing performance metrics across many systems.
Performance Co-Pilot archives metrics across many hosts and operating systems for live and historical analysis, suiting fleets better but with a steeper learning curve.
nmon
A terminal performance monitor for Linux and AIX showing CPU, memory, disks, network and processes.
nmon records performance to CSV for later analysis and runs on Linux and AIX, but has no cgroup view or built-in replay like below.
htop
Interactive process viewer for the terminal.
htop gives an interactive live process view on Linux and macOS, but records nothing, so it cannot show what happened after the fact.
btop++
A terminal resource monitor that looks good enough to leave open, with processes, CPU, memory, disks, network and GPUs.
btop++ shows live processes, CPU, memory, disks, network and GPUs in one screen, but has no historical logging or replay.
Also worth comparing
These listings name below as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
dool
A Linux command-line tool that reports CPU, memory, network, disk and load statistics in real time.
below records system, cgroup and process statistics on Linux so past events can be replayed in an interactive terminal interface.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
cAdvisor
A daemon that collects and analyzes resource usage and performance data for running containers.
Netdata
Per-second metrics for a machine with no configuration, and charts that appear the moment you install it.
bpftrace
A high-level tracing language and command-line tool for observing the Linux kernel and processes with eBPF.
sysdig
A Linux command-line tool for exploring and troubleshooting systems by capturing system calls, with container support.
iotop-c
A top-like Linux terminal tool that shows disk read and write activity for each process.
