Alternatives to HWMonitor
A Windows hardware monitor that reads voltages, temperatures, fan speeds, power and clock sensors. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
HWMonitor
A Windows hardware monitor that reads voltages, temperatures, fan speeds, power and clock sensors.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as HWMonitor.
HWiNFO
The deepest hardware report and sensor monitor on Windows, free for personal use.
HWiNFO adds deep hardware reports, sensor logging, alerts and an on-screen display for free personal use, but commercial use requires a paid Pro licence.
Libre Hardware Monitor
Reads temperatures, fan speeds and voltages straight off the motherboard, and feeds them to other tools.
Libre Hardware Monitor is free and open source, reads similar sensors and can feed other tools as a library, but needs administrator rights for low-level sensors.
AIDA64 Extreme
Detailed hardware identification, sensor monitoring and benchmarking for Windows.
AIDA64 Extreme combines sensor monitoring with detailed inventory and benchmarking, and can send readings to a remote client, but it is paid after a trial.
Open Hardware Monitor
Open-source reader for temperature, fan and voltage sensors.
Open Hardware Monitor is open source and also runs on Linux, but it is no longer developed and often misses newer chipsets.
Speccy
Quick summary of a Windows PC's hardware and temperatures.
Speccy shows temperatures alongside a hardware summary with shareable snapshots, but development has slowed and sensor coverage is narrower.
Core Temp
Small utility that reads per-core CPU temperature on Windows.
Core Temp is a tiny free tool that reads only per-core CPU temperatures, dropping motherboard, GPU and drive sensors, and its installer bundles offers.
NZXT CAM
A free Windows app that monitors PC performance and controls NZXT fans, lighting and LCDs.
NZXT CAM is a free Windows app that monitors CPU, GPU, memory and temperatures and controls fans and lighting only on NZXT hardware.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
CPU-Z
A tiny freeware window that tells you exactly which processor, board and memory are in a Windows PC.
GPU-Z
A tiny Windows utility that reports everything about your graphics card: clocks, memory type, bus width, sensors and BIOS.
FanControl
Controls CPU, GPU and case fans using custom curves from any temperature sensor.
Hard Disk Sentinel
Drive health, temperature and lifetime monitoring for HDDs and SSDs.
MSI Afterburner
Widely used GPU overclocking and monitoring tool with on-screen display.
Argus Monitor
Windows tool for fan control based on any temperature source, with hardware and drive monitoring.
