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Sidebar Diagnostics vs HWMonitor: catalog facts
Sidebar Diagnostics	HWMonitor
Free Free and open source under the GPL-3.0 licence.	Freemium Free, ad-supported on the website, with a paid PRO version.
Windows	Windows
Always-visible sidebar instead of a separate window Covers CPU, RAM, GPU, network and drives	Reads a wide range of motherboard, CPU, GPU and drive sensors Portable zip version available
Windows only Last code change was in early 2024	Windows only Graphs and remote monitoring are in the paid PRO version
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Closed source
License: GPL-3.0	License not stated
No account needed	No account needed
Works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.