What is ctop used for?

ctop is a top-like terminal interface that shows real-time metrics for Docker and runC containers, with filtering, sorting and per-container views. It is a good fit for spotting resource-hungry containers on a host and quick container checks over SSH.

Yes. ctop is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at bcicen/ctop and is written mainly in Go.

Yes. ctop is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

What are some alternatives to ctop?

Similar open-source tools in the Monitoring & Observability category include cAdvisor, Dozzle and Netdata. SaaS products in the same category include Amazon CloudWatch, Azure Monitor and Coralogix.

Is ctop actively maintained?

The most recent commit to ctop was on 8 July 2024, and the latest release is v0.7.7, published on 22 March 2022. The project has 18k stars on GitHub.

ctop: open-source monitoring & observability

About ctop

ctop is a terminal tool that gives a concise, live overview of metrics for multiple containers, much like the top command does for processes. It also has a single-container view for digging into one container. It has built-in support for Docker and runC, and the authors plan connectors for other container and cluster systems. It is written in Go and aimed at developers and operators who work with containers on the command line.

ctop needs no arguments and reads the usual Docker host environment variables by default. Options let you show only active containers, set an initial filter, invert colors, reverse the sort order and choose the initial sort field. While it runs, key bindings open the container menu, toggle display of non-running containers, filter, sort, open the single view and view logs. Pressing S saves the current filters and sort settings to a config file that is loaded next time.

Releases are available for Linux, macOS and Windows, and the tool is packaged through Homebrew, MacPorts, Scoop, the Arch user repository and, via a third party, Debian and Ubuntu. ctop is MIT licensed.

Key features

Live metrics for multiple containers
Single container detail view
Docker and runC support
Filter and sort containers
Container log viewing
Saveable config file

Good fit for

→Spotting resource-hungry containers on a host
→Quick container checks over SSH

Built with: Go; Docker
Tags: docker; containers; monitoring; cli; tui; golang; metrics; devops

ctop: questions and answers

What is ctop used for?: ctop is a top-like terminal interface that shows real-time metrics for Docker and runC containers, with filtering, sorting and per-container views. It is a good fit for spotting resource-hungry containers on a host and quick container checks over SSH.
Is ctop open source?: Yes. ctop is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at bcicen/ctop and is written mainly in Go.
Is ctop free?: Yes. ctop is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
What are some alternatives to ctop?: Similar open-source tools in the Monitoring & Observability category include cAdvisor, Dozzle and Netdata. SaaS products in the same category include Amazon CloudWatch, Azure Monitor and Coralogix.
Is ctop actively maintained?: The most recent commit to ctop was on 8 July 2024, and the latest release is v0.7.7, published on 22 March 2022. The project has 18k stars on GitHub.