mtr
Ranked 8 of 8 network diagnostic tools by recommenders
Free tool combining traceroute and ping; people call it the go-to for network traces. Critics note its probes are only point-to-point.
Free tool combining traceroute and ping; people call it the go-to for network traces. Critics note its probes are only point-to-point.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Go-to tool for network traces
“MTR is a must have tool for any time you need tracert.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Understanding Traceroute” “mtr is my go-to for network traces”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Understanding Traceroute” “I prefer to use mtr these days.”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Understanding Traceroute” Essential, highly recommended tool
“MTR is a must have tool for any time you need tracert.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Understanding Traceroute” “mtr is spectacular, highly recommended.”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Understanding Traceroute” Combines traceroute and ping
“poking around with MTR (traceroute and ping combined) using various exit nodes and destinations would give you some more information”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home” “A modern mtr (traceroute is so 90's) should do things like run up and down the stack”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Understanding Traceroute”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Only basic point-to-point probing
“A modern mtr (traceroute is so 90's) should do things like run up and down the stack”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Understanding Traceroute” “The problem is that these are basically point-to-point probes”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 on Hacker News
Other network diagnostic tools people recommend
The four most recommended other network diagnostic tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 8 network diagnostic tools, rankedWhat people said
All 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“MTR is a must have tool for any time you need tracert.”
“A modern mtr (traceroute is so 90's) should do things like run up and down the stack”
“mtr is spectacular, highly recommended.”
“I prefer to use mtr these days.”
“mtr is my go-to for network traces”
“poking around with MTR (traceroute and ping combined) using various exit nodes and destinations would give you some more information”
“The problem is that these are basically point-to-point probes”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.