Glances shows everything about a system at a glance: CPU, memory, load, disks, filesystems, network, sensors, processes, and containers, on one screen. It works like an extended top or htop in the terminal, but it also serves a web interface and a REST API, which makes it a handy building block for homelab dashboards.

Modes

glances              # terminal UI
glances -w           # web server, at http://host:61208
glances -s           # server mode for remote clients
glances -c host      # connect to a remote Glances server

What it shows

• CPU, per-core usage, load average, and memory and swap
• Disk I/O, filesystem usage, and RAID status
• Network interfaces and throughput
• Sensors: temperatures, fans, and battery
• Processes, sortable, with alerts for heavy ones
• Containers: Docker, Podman, and LXC
• GPU (NVIDIA and AMD) with plugins

Thresholds colour values green, blue, magenta, and red as they approach limits. Our guides on load average, memory, and ps vs top vs htop explain what the numbers mean.

API and exports

The REST API makes Glances data available to other tools, and dashboards such as Homepage and Homarr have Glances widgets. Exporters send metrics to Prometheus, InfluxDB, Elasticsearch, PostgreSQL, Kafka, and others, and CSV and JSON output are available for scripts. Recent versions also include an MCP server for AI assistant integration.

Installing

sudo apt install glances        # distro packages
pipx install 'glances[web]'     # latest, with the web UI
docker run -d --pid host --network host -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro nicolargo/glances:latest-full

The container needs host PID and network namespaces to see the real system. The web UI has no authentication by default; set a password (--password) or keep it on your LAN.

Glances or the alternatives?

• Netdata: per-second metrics with rich built-in dashboards and alerting
• Beszel: lightweight multi-server monitoring with history
• htop / btop: terminal-only process viewers

Glances is the most versatile single-host tool: terminal, web, and API in one package.

License

GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0.

Links

• Repository
• Website