What Is Serial Port & Telemetry Tooling?
Mix (24 tools)
- License: 18 open source · 6 proprietary
- Hosting: 24 self-hosted · 0 SaaS · 0 both
Tools that talk to a device over a serial port (RS-232 / USB serial), and often Bluetooth, TCP, or UDP as well, to monitor, debug, and plot the data coming from embedded boards, microcontrollers, and sensors. They span a spectrum:
- Serial terminals / consoles – open a port, set baud/parity, send and receive bytes, log a capture. The classic embedded/console workflow.
- Serial debug / test tools – multi-protocol (serial + BT + TCP/UDP) send/receive with hex/ASCII views, scripting, and often simple plotting.
- Telemetry plotters / dashboards – parse a live data stream and draw real-time charts, gauges, and dashboards; the “see your sensor data” use case.
Boundaries (what this is not)
- Not general terminal emulators (
term-emu/) – those are SSH/telnet/local shells (Alacritty, iTerm, …); here the focus is the serial device link and its telemetry, not a shell. - Not SCADA / soft-PLC (
scada/,soft-plc/) – those run industrial processes; these just read and visualise a serial/telemetry stream. - Not infrastructure monitoring (
monitoring/) – that watches servers, not a microcontroller on a USB cable.
About this data & disclaimer
The information on these pages was researched by a combination of human review and large language models. This catalogue serves as a reference for the resources, applications, devices, deployment payloads, and other components that the ResorsIT platform integrates, deploys, and manages. To suggest an addition or correction, please contact us. Prepared by Rhodium Systems Inc., author of the ResorsIT platform — a unified IT operations management platform for IT teams and MSPs that integrates a curated suite of open-source, commercial, and SaaS applications into a single system with shared identity, single sign-on, access control, and a common audit trail. This information is compiled on a best-effort basis: it may be incomplete, contain errors, and become out of date as tools, vendors, licences, and features change. Use this catalogue only as a starting point for your own research, and independently verify and review any tool carefully against your own requirements before relying on it.
Comparison
At a glance
| Tool | Kind | Inputs | Plots? | OS | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serial Studio | Dashboard | Serial/BT/TCP/UDP/MQTT | Yes | Win/mac/Linux | GPL-3.0 (+Pro) |
| PlotJuggler | Plotter/analysis | Serial/many + ROS | Yes | Win/mac/Linux | MPL-2.0 |
| SerialPlot | Plotter | Serial | Yes | Win/Linux | GPL-3.0 |
| Tauno Serial Plotter | Plotter | Serial | Yes | Win/Linux | GPL-3.0 |
| seriot | Monitor + plotter | Serial | Yes | Linux | GPL-3.0 |
| Better Serial Plotter | Plotter | Serial | Yes | Win/mac/Linux | MIT |
| Teleplot | Telemetry plot | Serial/UDP | Yes | Win/mac/Linux | MIT |
| SerialTest | Debug/test | Serial/BT/TCP/UDP | Yes | Win/mac/Linux/Android | GPL-3.0 |
| COMTool | Debug | Serial/TCP/UDP | Yes | Win/mac/Linux | LGPL-3.0 |
| QSerial | Serial utility | Serial | No | Win/mac/Linux | MIT |
| SerialTool | Debug | Serial/TCP/UDP | Yes | Win/Linux | GPL-3.0 |
| Realterm | Debug/capture | Serial/TCP | No | Windows | BSD-3-Clause |
| minicom | Terminal | Serial | No | Linux/Unix | GPL-2.0 |
| picocom | Terminal | Serial | No | Linux/Unix | GPL-2.0 |
| tio | Terminal (TUI) | Serial | No | Linux/mac/BSD | GPL-2.0 |
| CuteCom | GUI terminal | Serial | No | Linux/mac | GPL-3.0 |
| GTKTerm | GUI terminal | Serial | No | Linux | GPL-3.0 |
| moserial | GUI terminal | Serial | No | Linux | GPL-3.0 |
| Telemetry Viewer | Dashboard | Serial/TCP/UDP | Yes | Win/mac/Linux | No license |
| CoolTerm | GUI terminal | Serial | No | Win/mac/Linux | Freeware |
| Termite | GUI terminal | Serial | No | Windows | Freeware |
| Hercules SETUP | Terminal | Serial/TCP/UDP | No | Windows | Freeware |
| Docklight | Protocol analyzer | Serial | No | Windows | Commercial |
| Serial Port Monitor | Port sniffer | Serial | No | Windows | Commercial |
How to choose
- Just a serial console (log in to a device, watch a boot log) – tio (modern), minicom / picocom (classic), or a GUI: CuteCom, GTKTerm, moserial.
- Plot live sensor / telemetry data – Serial Studio or PlotJuggler (richest), SerialPlot / Better Serial Plotter / Teleplot (simple), seriot / Tauno on Linux.
- Debug a mixed serial + TCP/UDP protocol – SerialTest, COMTool, SerialTool, or Realterm (Windows, binary capture).
- Windows shop that wants a polished free GUI – CoolTerm, Termite, or Hercules; Docklight / Serial Port Monitor if a paid analyzer / sniffer is justified.
Boundaries
- SSH / telnet / local-shell terminals live in
term-emu/; industrial process control inscada/andsoft-plc/; infrastructure monitoring inmonitoring/.
Tools
24 tools.
Better Serial Plotter
A cross-platform desktop drop-in replacement for the Arduino IDE Serial Plotter with multi-plot, dual y-axes, and CSV export.
License: MIT (OSS) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
COMTool
Cross-platform Python/Qt serial, TCP/UDP and SSH debug assistant with plugins, plotting and scheduled auto-send.
License: LGPL-3.0-only (OSS) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
CoolTerm
CoolTerm is a freeware serial-port terminal for exchanging data with microcontrollers, GPS receivers, and other hardware, with hex display and data logging on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
CuteCom
CuteCom is a Qt graphical serial terminal for connecting to serial devices with configurable line settings, hex/ASCII views, logging, and file send.
License: GPL-3.0-or-later (OSS) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
Docklight
Docklight is a commercial Windows serial-protocol testing, analysis, and simulation tool that monitors, logs, detects, and responds to RS232/RS485/TCP/UDP/USB-HID/Bluetooth communications, with a scripting edition and a DLL automation API.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
GTKTerm
GTKTerm is a GTK graphical serial terminal for Linux/POSIX systems, used to talk to embedded devices, microcontrollers, modems, GPS, and CNC machines.
License: GPL-3.0-or-later (OSS) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
Hercules SETUP utility
Hercules SETUP utility is a freeware Windows terminal from HW-group that combines RS-232/RS-485 serial, TCP/IP client and server, and UDP terminals in one portable executable for testing and configuring network and serial devices.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
minicom
minicom is the classic text-mode serial communication program for connecting to serial consoles, modems, and embedded devices from a terminal.
License: GPL-2.0-or-later (OSS) · Kind: cli · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Local host account · Key-based access
moserial
moserial is a GNOME graphical serial terminal for interacting with serial devices, with ASCII/hex views and session recording.
License: GPL-3.0-or-later (OSS) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
picocom
picocom is a minimal dumb-terminal serial program for talking to serial consoles and modems from a shell, with a tiny footprint.
License: GPL-2.0-or-later (OSS) · Kind: cli · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Local host account · Key-based access
PlotJuggler
PlotJuggler is a fast desktop time-series plotting and analysis tool, widely used in robotics and ROS, that visualizes streamed or logged data with transforms and plugins.
License: MPL-2.0 (OSS) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
QSerial
Cross-platform Qt serial-port utility for sending text/hex/base64 and viewing received bytes in multiple encodings.
License: MIT (OSS) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
Realterm
A Windows serial and TCP terminal for engineering, reverse engineering, debugging, and datalogging, with hex/binary display modes and file capture.
License: BSD-3-Clause (OSS) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
Serial Port Monitor
Serial Port Monitor is commercial Windows software from Electronic Team (Eltima) that sniffs, monitors, logs, and analyzes COM-port traffic in real time, including ports already in use, with table, dump, terminal, and Modbus views.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
Serial Studio
Serial Studio is a real-time telemetry dashboard and data-visualization tool for serial, Bluetooth LE, TCP/UDP, and MQTT streams from embedded devices and sensors.
License: GPL-3.0-or-later (OSS) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
SerialPlot
SerialPlot is an open-source Qt desktop application that reads and plots numeric data from a serial port in real time, supporting ASCII and binary frame formats.
License: GPL-3.0-or-later (OSS) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
SerialTest
Cross-platform serial, Bluetooth, TCP and UDP data transceiver with a realtime plotter, hex/ASCII views and file transfer.
License: GPL-3.0-only (OSS) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
SerialTool
Cross-platform C++/Qt Serial-Port/TCP/UDP debugging tool with terminal, multi-channel waveform display and XModem file transfer.
License: GPL-3.0-only (OSS) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
Seriot
Seriot is a GNOME/GTK4 desktop serial monitor and serial plotter for Linux that displays and graphs live data from a serial port.
License: GPL-3.0-only (OSS) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
Tauno Serial Plotter
Tauno Serial Plotter is a lightweight Python/PyQt6 desktop plotter that graphs live numeric data from a serial port for Arduino and other embedded devices.
License: GPL-3.0-only (OSS) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
Telemetry Viewer
Telemetry Viewer is a Java desktop tool that reads telemetry over UART/serial, TCP, or UDP and renders it into a tiled dashboard of line charts, FFTs, histograms, and dials.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
Teleplot
A ridiculously simple telemetry plotter that visualizes data from print-style statements sent over Serial or UDP, with a VS Code extension and standalone web app.
License: MIT (OSS) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
Termite
Termite is a free Windows RS232 serial terminal from CompuPhase with a chat-style interface, command history, and an extensible plug-in filter architecture for hex view, logging, timestamps, and auto-replies.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: desktop · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential · Local host account
tio
tio is a modern, simple serial device tool for connecting to serial consoles with auto-reconnect, logging, hex mode, and Lua scripting.
License: GPL-2.0-or-later (OSS) · Kind: cli · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Deployment Payload
Access & Identity: Local host account · Key-based access
