bmon
bmon is a free bandwidth monitor and rate estimator for Linux and macOS.
What bmon is
bmon is a free bandwidth monitor and rate estimator for Linux and macOS. It captures networking statistics and presents them for monitoring and debugging. Its interactive curses interface provides visual output, including graphs rendered with Braille cells, while programmable text output supports scripting. The 5.0 release notes list JSON output, traffic-control ingress and egress display filters, and IPv4 and IPv6 addresses in additional information. Installation guidance covers packages for Fedora and CentOS 7, building on Debian or Ubuntu and CentOS 6, and macOS installation through Homebrew or source compilation. Release notes also mention CI builds for Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD, plus fixes for FreeBSD, DragonFly BSD, and OpenBSD builds. The project is hosted on GitHub Pages and maintained by tgraf. MIT and BSD license files are listed. bmon has no application, user, or SNMP monitoring and no bandwidth alerts.
Good
- Free open-source bandwidth monitoring
- Interactive curses interface
- Programmable text output for scripts
- JSON output supported
- Ingress and egress display filters
Watch out
- No application monitoring
- No user monitoring
- No SNMP monitoring
- No bandwidth alerts
Who it suits
bmon fits Linux or macOS users who need bandwidth statistics, rate estimation, terminal graphs, or scriptable output. It also suits people comfortable installing packages or compiling from source.
Verdict
bmon focuses on network bandwidth statistics rather than broad infrastructure monitoring. Its terminal interface, scripting output, and JSON support suit technical users who do not need alerting or application-level views.
Plans and prices
From bmon's own pricing page, checked 7 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Open-source bandwidth monitoring and rate estimation tool |
The facts
Each one read from bmon's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Address details
- The 5.0 release notes say IPv4 and IPv6 addresses were added to additional information.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Graph display
- The 5.0 release notes say the curses interface can render graphs with Braille cells.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Installation
- The README provides package installation instructions for Fedora and CentOS 7, and build instructions for Debian/Ubuntu and CentOS 6.checked 7 Oct 2026
- JSON output
- The 5.0 release notes list support for JSON output.checked 7 Oct 2026
- License
- The repository lists MIT and BSD license files.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Maintainer and hosting
- The project page says it is maintained by tgraf and hosted on GitHub Pages.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Output modes
- It provides an interactive curses interface and programmable text output for scripting.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- bmon captures networking-related statistics and presents them visually as a monitoring and debugging tool.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Rate estimation
- The project describes bmon as a bandwidth monitor and rate estimator.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Traffic control filters
- The 5.0 release notes list display filters for traffic control ingress and egress.checked 7 Oct 2026
Where it runs
- Linux and BSD builds
- The 5.0 release notes mention CI builds for Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD, plus fixes for FreeBSD, DragonFly BSD, and OpenBSD builds.checked 7 Oct 2026
- macOS support
- The README documents installation on macOS through Homebrew or by compiling from source.checked 7 Oct 2026
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