BoxWatch vs Glances
Glances is a popular open-source, cross-platform system monitor written in Python. It runs as a TUI (terminal), a web UI, or a REST API server, giving you a real-time snapshot of CPU, memory, disk, network, processes, containers, and more on any machine you can log into. BoxWatch is a hosted SaaS that collects those same host metrics via a lightweight push agent, then layers on alerting, uptime checks, cron monitoring, status pages, and scheduled reports. The two tools overlap on host metrics and process visibility, but serve different primary jobs: Glances answers "what is this machine doing right now?" while BoxWatch answers "is everything still up, and who gets paged when it is not?"
Quick verdict
If you want a free, self-hosted, zero-cost terminal or web dashboard for ad hoc system inspection on machines you can already SSH into, Glances is an excellent pick with no ongoing cost and no vendor dependency. If you need persistent alerting (email, Slack, PagerDuty), uptime checks against HTTP/TCP endpoints, cron dead-man monitoring, public status pages, or a multi-server overview you can share with a team, BoxWatch covers those workflows and Glances does not. Teams that already export metrics to InfluxDB or Prometheus may find Glances fits naturally as a local inspector alongside those pipelines, but the SaaS-style "someone woke me up at 2am" alerting loop belongs to BoxWatch.
Pricing
| Plan | Glances | BoxWatch |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Fully free, unlimited servers (self-hosted) | Hobby: $0/mo, up to 5 servers |
| Small team | Free | Pro: $13/mo, up to 25 servers |
| Growing team | Free | Team: $29/mo, up to 100 servers |
| Large fleet | Free | Scale: $79/mo, unlimited servers |
| Hosted SaaS | Not available | All paid plans included |
| License | LGPL v3, open source | Proprietary SaaS |
Feature comparison
When Glances is the better choice
Glances wins cleanly when cost and self-hosting are the deciding factors. If every server is behind a firewall you already control, you do not need external agents pinging back to a SaaS, and a real-time local dashboard is all you need, Glances is free forever with no subscription risk. It also wins on breadth of metric export: built-in gateways to Prometheus, InfluxDB, Elasticsearch, Kafka, and twenty-plus other backends mean it plugs into an existing observability stack with no custom code. For individuals, homelab operators, and teams that already run Grafana, Glances is a low-friction collector with a pleasant web UI and zero operating cost.
When BoxWatch is the better choice
- You need push alerts (email, Slack, Discord, PagerDuty webhooks) without writing and maintaining shell scripts around Glances actions.
- You want cron/heartbeat monitoring so you know when a scheduled job silently stops running.
- You need HTTP/TCP/TLS synthetic checks against internal or private endpoints from your own agents.
- You want a public status page and uptime SLA tracking to share with customers or stakeholders.
- You want persistent trend charts, scheduled weekly reports, and a multi-server comparison view without standing up and maintaining Grafana.
- Your team needs 2FA, scoped API keys, and a managed SaaS with no self-hosting overhead.
FAQ
Does Glances send alerts when a metric crosses a threshold?
Glances can trigger a shell command (a critical_action) when a metric hits a warning or critical threshold. That shell command can call mail, curl, or any notification tool you install. There is no built-in email, Slack, or webhook integration: you write and maintain the scripts yourself. There is also no built-in cooldown, dedup, or recovery notification. BoxWatch handles all of that natively with configurable cooldown windows and automatic recovery messages.
Can Glances monitor whether my cron jobs ran successfully?
No. Glances watches live system metrics on a running host. It has no concept of a heartbeat check (where a job pings a URL to confirm it ran). BoxWatch's cron monitoring feature is purpose-built for exactly this: each cron job gets a unique endpoint to ping, and BoxWatch alerts you if the expected ping does not arrive within the configured grace window.
Is Glances free for commercial use?
Yes. Glances is distributed under the LGPL v3 license, which permits commercial use. You self-host it on your own infrastructure and pay nothing to the project. BoxWatch's Hobby plan is also free for up to 5 servers, but the paid tiers are required for larger fleets or features like uptime checks and scheduled reports.