btop
A beautiful, interactive resource monitor for CPU, memory, disks, network, and processes.
About
btop (btop++) is a terminal resource monitor by Jakob P. Liljenberg, written in C++ as the performance-focused successor to bashtop and bpytop. It presents CPU (per-core), memory, disks, network, and processes as a single interactive dashboard with color-coded graphs, a game-inspired menu system, full mouse support, custom themes, and braille or block graph symbols. Each pane can be toggled on the fly, and processes can be filtered, sorted, inspected, and signaled without leaving the UI.
It is positioned as a modernized alternative to htop/top and glances, aimed at sysadmins, developers, and power users who want the prettiest live view of their machine. The performance claims (low overhead, responsive UI) are provider-stated; no independent benchmarks were found, though the C++ rewrite of the bash/python predecessors is the explicit rationale. Free and Apache-2.0 licensed for Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and Windows.
What it can do
- Per-core CPU graphs plus memory, swap, disk, and network panels
- Interactive process list with filtering, sorting, and tree view
- Send signals and renice processes from the UI
- Full mouse support: click, scroll, drag
- Game-inspired menu system for all settings
- Custom themes and selectable graph symbols
- Battery meter and temperature monitoring
- Auto-scaling network graphs
- Disk I/O activity and speeds per mount
- Config presets and toggleable panes
Setup
Install via your package manager: sudo apt install btop, brew install btop, pacman -S btop, or grab a release binary. Launch with btop. Press ESC for the settings menu; configure themes and defaults in ~/.config/btop/btop.conf. Key shortcuts: F to filter processes, T for tree view, arrow keys to navigate, Q to quit.
Prerequisites
Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, or Windows 10+; a terminal with color support for the full visual experience.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 8/10
Scored 8/10 (metrics tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: ~35.0k GitHub stars with commits pushed October 16, 2026; independent writeups confirm the C++ rewrite of bashtop/bpytop, the dashboard panes, mouse support, process signaling, and theming. Strengths: the most polished terminal monitor in its class, broad platform support, sane defaults with deep configurability. Docked for: (1) low-overhead claims are provider-stated with no published independent benchmarks; (2) the rich visuals cost more resources than minimal tools like htop; (3) documentation is good but community resources are thinner than htop's. License: Apache-2.0.
★ 35,002 GitHub stars
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 8.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 9.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 9.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 8.0/10
- · ~35.0k GitHub stars (Oct 16, 2026 snapshot), commits pushed same day; by Jakob P. Liljenberg; C++
- · Successor to bashtop/bpytop; per-core CPU, memory, disk, network panes; mouse support; game-style menus; themes
- · Low-overhead claims are provider-stated, no independent benchmarks; heavier than minimal htop
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.