Best QoS Software for PC [Top 7 Tools Reviewed]
Bandwidth prioritization helps you focus your resources better
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Key notes
- Network prioritization lets you dictate which services benefit most from your Internet connection.
- To control and manage how your bandwidth is used you need network QoS software
- The article below will showcase the best bandwidth prioritization software that you can get.
Bandwidth prioritization is generally thought of as something that happens on the router via QoS (Quality of Service). Bandwidth limiter tools analyze your network and let you control how much bandwidth you want to allocate to specific apps or processes.
The monitoring features that most bandwidth prioritization software comes with are very important in determining what sort of rules to set up.
What is internet priority software?
Due to various reasons, such as a bad connection or low-end equipment, you may experience bad loading speeds when trying to access the Internet.
You can remediate this by prioritizing your Wi-Fi or changing your QoS settings using your router’s admin controls. The more straightforward option, however, is to use dedicated software.
An Internet priority software can greatly help in this type of scenario, helping you boost speed rates and have a seamless experience.
Here’s an overview of what these types of tools offer:
- Simple and easy-to-follow user interface
- Prioritize bandwidth for a specific app
- Capable to monitor and manage Internet speed
- Monitors traffic, status, and signal strength
- Basic anti-cyber attackers shield
Now that we know what to look for, let’s see which are the best tools to prioritize bandwidth on your PC.
What is the best bandwidth prioritization software for PC?
ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer – Complete network overview
If you’re looking for a solution to monitor the bandwidth across all your network and prioritize it on certain processes, ManageEngine’s NetFlow Analyzer is just what you’re looking for.
It’s professional-grade software that not only identifies any app or process that is hogging bandwidth, but it helps you assign limitations to any of them.
Using this app, you can view bandwidth usage by application, protocol, IP address group, and more.
All the live reports can be seen on your dashboard, which is customizable to show traffic charts, bandwidth trend reports, heat maps, top lists, and any other data you may require.
Nothing will escape your eyes because you may monitor controllers, SSIDs, access points, and QoS.
And if you’re on the move, you will still get alerts on attacks and other critical events delivered to your phone so you can take care of the situation ASAP.
The beauty of NetFlow Analyzer is that it’s accessible from any browser, wherever you are, at any time.
Here are some of its top features to consider:
- Manage the bandwidth on all your network devices, including controllers, SSIDs, access points, and QoS
- Customizable cloud-based dashboard accessible from anywhere in the world
- Get extensive and detailed reports on bandwidth consumption
- View bandwidth usage by application, protocol, IP address group, and more
- Very easy to implement and use
ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer
Manage the bandwidth on your entire network on the IP level or application with this professional tool.PRTG Network Monitor – Simple implementation
Keeping an overview of your device’s network traffic is important and, with the help of this tool’s features, you can do that easily.
PRTG Network Monitor has been developed by one of the biggest network security companies in the world.
With the help of this software, you can monitor and manage the speed, load, traffic, status, or signal strength of your routers.
If at any moment your routers are not available or if your network is too loaded, the PRTG Network Monitor will alert you so you can remedy the situation.
Basically, it is a great tool to have that ensures you can fix any network issue before it becomes a big problem and disrupts your work activity.
Here are a few of its key features:
- Manage the speed, load, traffic, status, or signal strength of your routers
- On-premises or cloud-based monitoring hosted by Paessler
- Monitor up to 1,000 devices and services
- Classic on-premises deployment
PRTG Network Monitor
Your best option of bandwidth monitor to manage and control your household network speed and signal strength.GlassWire – Network security features
GlassWire is a multifunctional tool that won’t only monitor and boost your Internet connectivity but also secure your household network against possible cyber-attacks.
The all-encompassing GlassWire console displays graphs that show precisely what programs have been eating your bandwidth and when so you can take the appropriate actions. The entire network traffic is monitored and filtered by IP/Host, app, traffic type, and more.
The tool uses a notification system to alert you of any network-related changes and new devices or apps connecting to your network and affecting bandwidth.
You can even see how your device apps and programs behave while you’re taking a break.
Additional tool features include an efficient firewall that can approve or deny app connection and block any intrusion from possible malware.
Take a look at some of its best features:
- Network security features
- Network traffic is monitored and filtered by IP/Host, app, traffic type, and more
- Alerts you of any network-related changes
- Detects any apps that are affecting bandwidth
GlassWire
Easy-to-use network traffic monitoring and firewall tool to quickly manage bandwidth limitations with minimum impact.SolarWinds Netflow Analyzer – Simple and modern interface
SolarWinds provides an easy-to-follow bandwidth monitoring software with a simple and modern user interface that allows users to easily access the information they need to improve their connection.
This software monitors your network and is able to identify traffic patterns. It provides IPv4 and IPv6 flow records.
It can also monitor Cisco NetFlow, Juniper J-Flow, sFlow, Huawei NetStream, and IPFIX flow data. Using this information it finds the apps and protocols that consume the most bandwidth.
You can set it up to get alerts whenever there are important changes in your application traffic. This will help you fix the issue right away.
NetFlow Traffic Analyzer uses the data it identifies to create comprehensive reports that help you understand your connection issues and what can be done about them.
The software is secure and is able to detect certain malicious traffic flows. This can prevent cyber attackers from accessing the devices on your network.
⇒ Get SolarWinds NetFlow Analyzer
NetLimiter 4 – Great for individuals
The best software currently available to help users prioritize bandwidth usage is NetLimiter 4.
This bandwidth prioritization software has a ton of features and a modern, easy-to-use interface. It even has a remote web interface that lets you log in from a different computer.
NetLimiter 4 Pro has a fully free trial period that is available to anyone.
This trial period gives users access to extra features such as traffic monitoring, remote administration, and even traffic blocking, along with many other features.
Also, anyone with a license to the pro version of the previous iteration will get full access forever.
It is also still a work in progress, with more features on the way. Packet loss and latency simulation, as well as advanced traffic monitoring that actively scans for threats, are both features that are still in development for NetLimiter 4.
There is also a working yet-to-be-documented API hanging off the program, giving tech-savvy users more options to extend the program to their liking.
NetBalancer – Easy to use
NetBalancer has recently been spruced up with a more modern UI. Still, it does look a bit dated.
This helped keep it lower on the list since it feels less intuitive to use when compared to the more modern NetLimiter 4.
For the number of features in the program, though, it is still more usable than the next item on our list, TMeter.
The features that NetBalancer ships with, however, make it more than worth a look.
On top of all of the usual features one might expect from the typical bandwidth prioritization software, NetBalancer has a couple of surprises.
The first exciting feature is cloud synchronization, which lets users see web traffic and events on one computer from another.
The second is two different quick views of web traffic. NetBalancer has a widget to show current web usage (both in and out) and a system tray icon.
However, the system tray icon and the widgets look just as dated as the rest of the UI.
These two features don’t necessarily help with bandwidth prioritization, but they do help people figure out if they might need to use the prioritization features that NetBalancer has or provide a quick view for those who love statistics.
TMeter – Wide array of features
TMeter is a free application that comes with a seemingly unlimited number of features.
Of course, it has the basics, such as traffic monitoring and bandwidth prioritization. But it also comes with many advanced features like built-in NAT, DHCP, and a built-in firewall.
All of these advanced features and statistics they help provide come at a cost. It is not a monetary cost, as the application is fully free, but rather a usability cost.
The UI is dated and can be confusing. The program itself is also overkill if you focus on the bandwidth prioritization of a home computer.
However, if you are a power user, the amount of information that can be seen from any of the traffic flowing through the program can be very enlightening.
The statistics can help you set up more advanced rules. When they are combined with advanced features, it can help you set up more advanced rules.
As you can see in the screenshot, rules can even be set up on a per-user basis across the network. So, you could technically limit your spouse’s bandwidth while you game.
The one missing feature, though, is a remote web interface. Unfortunately, that does not look like it’s on the roadmap for this program.
How does an Internet priority software work?
Bandwidth prioritization software analyzes your traffic and connection status and, based on that information, is able to determine what apps or processes on your system use the most bandwidth.
They are able to allocate more bandwidth to apps or processes that require that as you use them.
Some allow you to manually select which app needs prioritization, while others determine this automatically and tweak your settings accordingly.
They are mainly useful when your network capacity is limited, and you experience symptoms like latency issues or page loading problems.
They can also greatly help users who connect multiple devices to the same network regularly.
Bandwidth prioritization can be very important to people on Internet connections with bandwidth limits or those seeking to ensure that the applications they care about can access the Internet as fast as they want.
This can be especially helpful for PC gamers to help avoid any possible lag caused by other applications hijacking the computer’s available bandwidth.
Any bandwidth prioritization software discussed above will help you get the job done; it all depends on the number of extra features and customization you might want.
You might also be interested in our guide on how to limit or change the bandwidth on Windows 11.
In the comments section below, let us know if you have other suggestions or recommendations.
