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Glances

Open source

Glances is a cross-platform system monitoring tool in Python that works as a top and htop alternative, with a terminal view, web UI and REST API.

Visit Glances View on GitHub
nicolargo.github.io
Glances homepage screenshot
GitHub stars
34k
Last commit
2 days ago
Repository age
14 years
Version
v4.5.7
Licence
Custom
Self-hosted
Yes

About Glances

This listing refers to Glances, the system monitoring tool written in Python and published under the author's name, Nicolargo. It is presented as a top and htop alternative that shows what is happening on a machine in one screen, and it runs on GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, macOS and Windows.

Glances reports CPU, memory, load, the process list, network interfaces, disk I/O, IRQ and RAID, sensors, filesystems, containers including Docker and Podman, and system information such as uptime. It includes a quicklook summary, alert thresholds and a monitoring list for chosen processes. Besides the curses-based terminal interface, it ships a built-in web UI for when no terminal is at hand, plus an XML-RPC server and a RESTful JSON API so other software can pull its data.

The repository license is listed as 'Other' on GitHub, so check the exact terms. Glances is installed on the machine you want to watch, so it is self-run by nature, and it suits sysadmins and home-lab users who want a quick, lightweight view of system health without deploying a full monitoring stack.

Key features

  • Terminal interface for CPU, memory and processes
  • Built-in web UI
  • RESTful JSON API and XML-RPC server
  • Docker and Podman container monitoring
  • Disk, network, sensor and filesystem stats
  • Alerts and process monitoring

Good fit for

  • →Quick health checks on servers
  • →Remote system monitoring through the web UI
  • →Feeding system metrics to other tools via API
Built with
Python
Tags
system-monitoring
glances
python
top-alternative
htop-alternative
monitoring
cli
rest-api

Glances: questions and answers

What is Glances used for?
Glances is a cross-platform system monitoring tool in Python that works as a top and htop alternative, with a terminal view, web UI and REST API. It is a good fit for quick health checks on servers, remote system monitoring through the web UI and feeding system metrics to other tools via API.
Is Glances open source?
Yes. Glances is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at nicolargo/glances and is written mainly in Python.
Is Glances free?
Yes. Glances is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.
What are some alternatives to Glances?
Similar open-source tools in the Monitoring & Observability category include Nvitop, s-tui and gpustat. SaaS products in the same category include AppSignal, Amazon CloudWatch and AppDynamics.
Is Glances actively maintained?
Yes. The most recent commit to Glances was on 1 October 2026, and the latest release is v4.5.7, published on 26 September 2026. The project has 34k stars on GitHub.

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