# mtr

5 Hacker News commenters recommended mtr and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free tool combining traceroute and ping; people call it the go-to for network traces. Critics note its probes are only point-to-point.

## Why people recommend it

- Go-to tool for network traces (3 comments): "MTR is a must have tool for any time you need tracert." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47698236)) "mtr is my go-to for network traces" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47696218)) "I prefer to use mtr these days." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47696701))
- Essential, highly recommended tool (2 comments): "MTR is a must have tool for any time you need tracert." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47698236)) "mtr is spectacular, highly recommended." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47696771))
- Combines traceroute and ping (2 comments): "poking around with MTR (traceroute and ping combined) using various exit nodes and destinations would give you some more information" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47632228)) "A modern mtr (traceroute is so 90's) should do things like run up and down the stack" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47697599))

## What people warn about

- Only basic point-to-point probing (2 comments): "A modern mtr (traceroute is so 90's) should do things like run up and down the stack" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47697599)) "The problem is that these are basically point-to-point probes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47129238))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [NetViews](https://hackerapproved.com/p/netviews.md): 17 recommend
- [Whosthere](https://hackerapproved.com/p/whosthere.md): 16 recommend
- [Snitch](https://hackerapproved.com/p/snitch.md): 10 recommend
- [PingStalker](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pingstalker.md): 7 recommend
- [ping](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ping.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "mtr", https://hackerapproved.com/p/mtr/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).