Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Wireshark VS Resource Monitor

Compare Wireshark VS Resource Monitor 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.

Resource Monitor logo Resource Monitor

Resource Monitor is a system application in Microsoft Windows operating systems.
  • Wireshark Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-11
  • Resource Monitor Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-04

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.

Resource Monitor features and specs

  • Detailed Performance Monitoring
    Resource Monitor provides detailed statistics on CPU, memory, disk, and network usage, allowing users to monitor the performance of their system in real-time.
  • Process and Services Insights
    The tool offers insights into running processes and services, including which resources they are consuming, helping users identify problematic applications or services.
  • Built-in Windows Tool
    As a built-in tool in Windows, Resource Monitor is easily accessible and doesnโ€™t require any additional installation or setup.
  • Interactive Graphs and Charts
    Resource Monitor includes interactive graphs and charts that visually represent resource usage over time, aiding users in understanding performance trends.

Possible disadvantages of Resource Monitor

  • Limited to Windows
    Resource Monitor is exclusive to Windows operating systems, which means users on other platforms do not have access to it.
  • Basic Compared to Third-Party Tools
    Compared to some third-party performance monitoring tools, Resource Monitor may lack advanced features and customization options.
  • Complex for Novice Users
    The detailed information provided by Resource Monitor can be overwhelming for users who are not familiar with system performance metrics.
  • Static Functionality
    Resource Monitor's features are relatively static without much room for customization or extension compared to more robust, third-party monitoring suites.

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

Resource Monitor videos

Repurpose Your Old Phone As A PC Resource Monitor!

More videos:

  • Review - Resource Monitoring

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Wireshark and Resource Monitor)
Monitoring Tools
90 90%
10% 10
Log Management
100 100%
0% 0
Command Line Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Performance Monitoring
79 79%
21% 21

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 Resource Monitor

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 thatโ€™s not encrypted. Unfortunately, it doesnโ€™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 โญCan Wireshark do deep packet inspection or do I need something else?โญIs Wireshark a vulnerability scanner?โญIs Wireshark good at port scanning?โญ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. Wiresharkโ€™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. Fiddlerโ€™s UI is information-rich and...
Source: dev.to

Resource Monitor Reviews

We have no reviews of Resource Monitor yet.
Be the first one to post

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: over 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 couldnโ€™t figure it out. Source: over 3 years ago
View more

Resource Monitor mentions (0)

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

What are some alternatives?

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

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

htop - htop - an interactive process viewer for Unix. This is htop, an interactive process viewer for Unix systems. It is a text-mode application (for console or X terminals) and requires ncurses. Latest release: htop 2.

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

Process Explorer - The top window always shows a list of the currently active processes, including the names of their owning accounts, whereas the information displayed in the bottom window depends on the mode that Process Explorer is in: if it is in handle mode you'lโ€ฆ

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.

Process Lasso - Process Lasso is NOT yet another task manager.