PingPlotter alternative: compared with WinMTR, PingInfoView and Ping Tracer.
All five tools measure the connection on Windows, but they answer different questions. PingPlotter, WinMTR, PingInfoView and Ping Tracer show ping and route data to people who know how to read the graph. Something Just Lagged records what the PC went through before and after each lag and hands you a report ready for your ISP support ticket.
Summary
| Tool | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Something Just Lagged | US$14.99One-time payment, for two computers, after 7 free days. | Recording the moment of the lag and proving the outage to your ISP, with a PDF report. |
| PingPlotter | Free to US$349Free: 1 target and 10 minutes of history. Standard: US$6.99 a month or US$39.99 perpetual. Professional: US$29 a month or US$349 perpetual. | Following latency and loss for every hop of the route over time, with alerts. |
| WinMTR | FreeOpen source. | A quick snapshot of the route to one destination while the problem is happening. |
| PingInfoView | FreeNirSoft freeware. | Pinging many addresses at once and keeping a log of the failures. |
| Ping Tracer | FreeOpen source. | Watching a live graph of the latency of every hop to one destination. |
What each one records
- Has it
- Limited or paid plans only
- Does not have it
- Not in the documentation
| Something Just Lagged | PingPlotter | WinMTR | PingInfoView | Ping Tracer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it measures | |||||
| Continuous ping | Router and 3 external targets | 1 target on Free, 2 on Standard, no limit on Professional | 1 target and every hop to it | Many addresses | Several targets and every hop to them |
| Latency and loss per hop | One trace when you mark a lag | Yes, continuous | Yes, live | No | Yes, continuous |
| DNS lookups and HTTPS timing | Yes, with the time of each phase | Not in the documentation | Not in the documentation | Not in the documentation | Not in the documentation |
| Wi-Fi signal and access point changes | Yes | Connection type and signal, Cloud only | Not in the documentation | Not in the documentation | Not in the documentation |
| Network adapter drops | Yes | Not in the documentation | Not in the documentation | Not in the documentation | Not in the documentation |
| Speed test | Up to 4 a day, compared with your plan | Not in the documentation | Not in the documentation | Not in the documentation | Not in the documentation |
| How it keeps records | |||||
| History | 7 days of measurements and a 30-day summary | 10 minutes on Free; continuous on Standard and up | No, only totals since you started it | CSV log | Text log |
| Detects outages on its own | Yes, and saves an incident | Alerts, on Standard and up | No | Sound or command after consecutive failures | Not in the documentation |
| Marking the moment of the lag | Ctrl+Alt+L shortcut: keeps 5 minutes before and 2 after | A comment on the graph, with the mouse | Not in the documentation | Not in the documentation | Not in the documentation |
| What it hands you | |||||
| Report for the support ticket | One-page PDF per incident and a 30-day history PDF | Image, shared page and CSV | Text or HTML | Text, HTML, XML or CSV | Not in the documentation |
| Systems | Windows | Windows and macOS | Windows | Windows | Windows |
Prices and features checked on the official websites in September 2026.
PingPlotter
It is the most complete tool on this list for seeing the route. It shows the latency and loss of every hop over time, sends alerts, publishes results to a shareable page and, on the Cloud plan, measures from other computers. It also runs on macOS.
The difference: PingPlotter shows ping and route data, and reading the graph is up to you. According to its documentation, it does not measure DNS or HTTPS request timing, and Wi-Fi signal only appears on the Cloud plan. Continuous history and alerts start at Standard, which costs US$6.99 a month or US$39.99 perpetual.
Choose PingPlotter if you need a graph of every hop throughout the whole day, email alerts or macOS.
WinMTR
It combines ping and traceroute in one window: for every hop to the destination, it shows loss and minimum, average and maximum latency, updated every second. It is free, open source and needs no installation. The code has barely changed since 2011, at version 0.92.
The difference: WinMTR shows totals since you clicked start, not a timeline. If the outage happened ten minutes ago, you cannot see when it started or how long it lasted, and it does not keep recording on its own.
Choose WinMTR for a quick snapshot of the route while the problem is happening, or when your ISP's support asks for an MTR.
PingInfoView
From NirSoft, free and with no installation. It pings many addresses at once, over ICMP or a TCP port, keeps a CSV log of every ping or only the failures, and can play a sound or run a command after a few consecutive failures.
The difference: it is a table of pings, with no graph and no route. The log shows what failed, but turning that into an explanation for your ISP is your job.
Choose PingInfoView to watch several devices on your network or servers and keep a simple log of failures.
Ping Tracer
Free and open source. It pings every hop between the PC and a destination, up to 10 times a second, and draws the latency of each one on a graph, with losses in red. Since version 2.0 it writes text logs. Its own author describes it as light on features and polish.
The difference: it is a graph to watch live, and it only measures ping. Its documentation does not mention alerts when the connection drops or reports.
Choose Ping Tracer if you want a free graph of every hop and do not need a report.
Where Something Just Lagged is different
- It measures more than ping. DNS lookups, HTTPS requests with the time of each phase, Wi-Fi signal, access point changes and adapter drops go on the same timeline. A DNS failure while ping still answers goes unnoticed by tools that only measure ping.
- It keeps the moment of the lag. Ctrl+Alt+L preserves the 5 minutes before and the 2 after. An outage of 30 seconds with no destination answering is saved on its own, even in the middle of the night.
- It hands you the report. Each incident becomes a one-page PDF to attach to your support ticket, and the 30-day history PDF shows the pattern: outages, loss by hour of the day and speed tests compared with your plan.
- One-time purchase. Free 7-day trial; then US$14.99, for up to two computers.
Where it is not the best choice
It only runs on Windows and only measures the PC where it is installed. It does not show the route hop by hop all the time: it runs a trace when you mark a lag. If a continuous graph of every hop is what you need, PingPlotter and Ping Tracer do that better. And it does not lower your ping: it records what happened.
With the records in hand, the next step is the support ticket. How to file an ISP complaint with evidence.
Sources
- PingPlotter: pricing and editions
- PingPlotter: manual
- WinMTR: official website
- PingInfoView: NirSoft page
- Ping Tracer: GitHub repository
Free 7-day trial. Then US$14.99 one-time, no subscription.
Back to the website