Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Wireshark VS Packetyzer

Compare Wireshark VS Packetyzer and see what are their differences

Wireshark logo Wireshark

Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer for Unix and Windows. It lets you capture and interactively browse the traffic running on a computer network.

Packetyzer logo Packetyzer

Packetyzer provides a Windows user interface for the Ethereal packet capture and dissection library.
  • Wireshark Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-11
  • Packetyzer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-16

Wireshark features and specs

  • Comprehensive Protocol Support
    Wireshark supports a vast number of protocols out of the box, allowing for detailed inspection and analysis of network traffic.
  • Free and Open-Source
    Wireshark is free to use and its source code is openly available, enabling customization and community-driven improvements.
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    Wireshark runs on various operating systems including Windows, macOS, and Linux, making it accessible to a wide audience.
  • Rich Feature Set
    It offers features like live capture, offline analysis, deep inspection of hundreds of protocols, and powerful display filters for granular traffic analysis.
  • Strong Community Support
    A large and active community provides extensive documentation, tutorials, and support forums, making it easier for users to troubleshoot and learn.

Possible disadvantages of Wireshark

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Due to its extensive feature set and technical nature, Wireshark can be challenging for beginners to master.
  • Resource Intensive
    Live traffic capture and analysis can consume considerable system resources, which may affect performance, especially on less powerful machines.
  • Security Risks
    Running packet capture tools like Wireshark on production systems carries inherent security risks, as it could potentially expose sensitive data.
  • Interface Complexity
    The user interface, while powerful, can be overwhelming and non-intuitive for new users, making navigation and finding specific features difficult.
  • Limited Support for Encrypted Traffic
    Wireshark has limited capabilities when it comes to analyzing encrypted traffic, as decryption support requires additional setup and access to encryption keys.

Packetyzer features and specs

  • User Interface
    Packetyzer provides a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) that makes it easy to analyze network packets, particularly for users who prefer visual tools over command-line interfaces.
  • Windows Compatibility
    The tool is specifically designed for Windows, ensuring it integrates well and operates smoothly within the Windows ecosystem.
  • Protocol Analysis
    Packetyzer supports a wide range of network protocols, allowing users to dissect and study the behavior of different protocol operations and identify any anomalies.
  • Visual Representation
    The tool offers detailed visual representations of network data, which assists users in comprehending complex packet information at a glance.

Possible disadvantages of Packetyzer

  • Outdated Software
    Packetyzer has not been actively maintained or updated in recent years, which can make it less reliable with modern network technologies.
  • Limited OS Support
    As a tool designed exclusively for Windows, it lacks cross-platform support, preventing use on Linux or macOS without workarounds.
  • Dependency on Ethereal
    Packetyzer relies on Ethereal (now known as Wireshark) for its backend functionalities, which can limit its capabilities compared to using Wireshark directly.
  • Performance Constraints
    Users may experience performance issues, especially when analyzing large volumes of network data, due to its older architecture that does not optimize for modern hardware capabilities.

Analysis of Wireshark

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Wireshark is considered an excellent tool for network analysis. Its open-source nature, regular updates, and strong community support further enhance its reputation as a reliable and robust tool.

Why this product is good

  • Wireshark is widely regarded as a leading network protocol analyzer due to its comprehensive features, user-friendly interface, and extensive protocol support. It allows users to capture and examine data packets in real-time, making it invaluable for diagnosing network issues, performing security audits, and educational purposes.

Recommended for

  • Network administrators looking to troubleshoot connectivity issues.
  • Security professionals conducting penetration tests and analyzing network traffic for vulnerabilities.
  • Students and educators who need a practical tool to learn about network protocols and behaviors.
  • IT professionals managing complex networks who require detailed traffic analysis.

Wireshark videos

Wireshark Tutorial for Beginners

More videos:

  • Review - Monitor Network Traffic with Wireshark - Review
  • Review - Wireshark 101: CloudShark Review - HakTip 144

Packetyzer videos

No Packetyzer videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Wireshark and Packetyzer)
Monitoring Tools
97 97%
3% 3
Log Management
96 96%
4% 4
Performance Monitoring
100 100%
0% 0
Productivity
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Wireshark and Packetyzer

Wireshark Reviews

9 Best Angry IP Scanner Alternatives Reviewed 2021 (Free & Paid)
The beauty in Wireshark is that your network scans can be as broad or as granular as you make them. With a few clicks, you can begin capturing a snapshot of all packet traffic across your local area network. It can be overwhelming at first to see every single packet across a network, but Wireshark makes isolating specific events simple with its color coding and filtering...
10 Best WireShark Alternatives for Android Devices in 2021
If you are well enough into network communication, you must know about WireShark. WireShark is the most popular network analyzer for PC. You can use WireShark to see anything on your network that’s not encrypted. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have an Android app, however, you can still track, monitor, or capture network packets on your Android devices using our best list of...
Source: techreen.com
11 Best Wireshark Alternatives in 2020
Wireshark is a widely used network monitoring and WiFi troubleshooting tool. However, with Wireshark tool is that you can only gather information from the network but cannot send this information.
Source: www.guru99.com
5 Best Wireshark alternative packet sniffers
Wireshark & Alternative tools FAQs ⭐Can Wireshark do deep packet inspection or do I need something else?⭐Is Wireshark a vulnerability scanner?⭐Is Wireshark good at port scanning?⭐Which tool is a command line alternative to Wireshark?
Comparing Charles Proxy, Fiddler, Wireshark, and Requestly
Although thousands of developers around the globe use Wireshark and Charles Proxy, they fail to occupy the top side in the design aspect. Wireshark’s interface is robust and detailed but can be intimidating for beginners. While Charles Proxy has a more approachable interface compared to Wireshark, it might seem cluttered to some users. Fiddler’s UI is information-rich and...
Source: dev.to

Packetyzer Reviews

We have no reviews of Packetyzer yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Wireshark seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 11 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Wireshark mentions (11)

  • Wifi problematic, wired connections seem okay. Help?
    Https://wireshark.org, opening that, go to edit preferences and enable "IP network" in the name resolution area, to show website names instead of only IP addresses. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Eeros in bridge mode with wired home
    To prove this, download wireshark Https://wireshark.org/. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Lose internet when downloading large files
    Give that a try and I'll re-recommend for a second time, to run and watch Wireshark: Https://wireshark.org. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Performance scores for Google Lighthouse/Insights seem to be very inaccurate
    Https://www.gap.com/ returned a performance score of 10/100, with a time to interactive score of 36.1 seconds! Https://www.patreon.com/ returned a score of 18 Https://wireshark.org/ returned a score of 28, with "unused javascript" taking 14.9 seconds to load. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Is there a way to programatically turn off Downtime on a child device?
    I tried using Wireshark to figure out which URL is being called but my knowledge here is VERY limited and I couldn’t figure it out. Source: about 3 years ago
View more

Packetyzer mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Packetyzer yet. Tracking of Packetyzer recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Wireshark and Packetyzer, you can also consider the following products

Zabbix - Track, record, alert and visualize performance and availability of IT resources

NetworkMiner - NetworkMiner is a Network Forensic Analysis Tool (NFAT) for Windows.

Datadog - See metrics from all of your apps, tools & services in one place with Datadog's cloud monitoring as a service solution. Try it for free.

SmartSniff - SmartSniff is a packet sniffer that capture TCP/IP packets and display them as sequence of conversations between clients and servers.

SolarWinds NPM - Advanced network monitoring for on-premises, hybrid, and cloud. Download a FREE 30-day trial of SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) today!

PCAPdroid - PCAPdroid is an android app to capture the phone traffic and analyze it remotely (e.g. via Wireshark). The traffic can be easily downloaded from a remote device thanks to the integrated HTTP server, or streamed to a remote UDP receiver.