“It’s not the network” is easy to say and hard to prove. PingPlotter exists to settle that argument: it pings every hop between your machine and a destination, over and over, and draws the result as a graph. When a video call breaks up, you can point at the hop that started losing packets and at the minute it began.
It is made by Pingman Tools, and unlike many “free” network tools, PingPlotter Free is a real, permanent edition — not a nag screen. A new installation starts with the full Professional feature set, and after the initial period it keeps working as Free. The current version is 5.27.13 (August 2026).
PingPlotter at a glance
| Latest version | 5.27.13, released 24 August 2026 |
|---|---|
| Licence | Free edition is permanent; paid editions add more |
| Editions | Free (permanent), plus paid Standard, Professional and Cloud editions |
| Platforms | Windows 11, 10 and Server 2016–2025 (32- and 64-bit), plus macOS. An iOS app exists |
| Older Windows | The 5.25.21 branch (July 2026) is the last build for Windows 7 and 8 |
| Requirements | 1 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM, 55 MB disk plus space for trace data |
| Developer | Pingman Tools, LLC |
What you get in the free edition
- One target, traced continuously, with a sample every second.
- Per-hop latency and packet loss in a trace graph, so a problem three hops away is visible as a red column.
- A timeline graph that shows how the route behaved over the last ten minutes.
- ICMP, TCP and UDP packet engines — useful when a firewall drops ICMP but allows TCP to port 443.
- Image export and share pages, so you can send a provider something more convincing than “the internet is slow”.
What the free edition does not include
| History | Only 10 minutes of continuous monitoring is kept — you cannot leave it running overnight and look at the morning |
|---|---|
| Targets | One. Paid editions raise this |
| Alerts | Not in the free edition — alerts are a paid feature |
| Jitter and MOS | Paid editions only — these are the numbers that matter for voice quality |
| Local network discovery | Paid editions; maps your gateway and adapters, including VPN and WireGuard |
| REST API, web interface, summary views | Paid editions |
| Remote collection from other sites | Cloud only — the desktop editions always test from the machine they run on |
One more honest limitation: PingPlotter measures latency, packet loss, jitter and routing. It is not a speed test and will not tell you your throughput in megabits.
Download and install
- Click the Download button at the top of this page and unpack the archive.
- Run the installer. If your security software blocks the executable, the vendor also publishes a plain archive version that needs no installer.
- On first start you get the full Professional feature set. You do not have to do anything afterwards — the installation becomes Free automatically.
- For managed deployments, recent builds accept a
SKIPCHECKSswitch, and PingPlotter can be run as a background service.
How to use it in a real complaint
- Start a trace to something meaningful — the video-conferencing server, the branch office gateway, or a public address like a DNS resolver. Do not trace your own router: it will always look perfect.
- Let it run while the problem happens. Ten minutes is enough on the free edition, and the problem usually shows itself within that window.
- Read the graph from the bottom up: the last hop is your destination. If loss appears at hop 7 and stays through hops 8, 9 and 10, the fault is at hop 7 — almost always inside a provider’s network.
- Ignore loss that appears at one middle hop and disappears afterwards. That is a router deprioritising ICMP replies to itself, not a real fault. This single misreading causes most false alarms.
- Export the image or the share link and attach it to the ticket, with the timestamps.
Common problems and fixes
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| The download is blocked by the browser or antivirus | Use the archive version the vendor publishes alongside the installer. |
| Installation is refused on older Windows 10 or Server 2016 | Fixed in 5.27.10; on builds before 1809 update Windows or use the legacy 5.25.x branch. |
| TCP traces stop working after a reboot | Update to 5.27.13 — it fixes a Windows TCP traceroute re-initialisation bug, and the vendor calls the update highly recommended for anyone using the TCP engine. |
| Garbled characters in Local Network Discovery | Caused by a system-installed Roboto font; remove or replace it. |
| Saving fails on a locked-down machine | Write-filtered systems report the disk as full; point the data directory somewhere writable. |
PingPlotter vs. alternatives
| Tool | How it compares |
|---|---|
| WinMTR / MTR | Free and combines ping with traceroute, but gives you a table rather than a history you can show someone |
| SmokePing | Self-hosted, excellent long-term latency graphs, needs a server and configuration |
| Windows pathping | Built in and free; one run, no continuous view |
| The Dude | Maps and monitors many devices, but does not analyse a route hop by hop |
FAQ
Is PingPlotter Free really free?
Yes. After the initial Professional period the installation continues as the Free edition, permanently, with one target and ten minutes of history.
Do I have to uninstall anything afterwards?
No. The same installation simply switches to the free feature set.
Can it monitor a server overnight and alert me?
Not on the free edition — alerts and longer history are a paid feature.
Does it work on macOS?
Yes, there are Windows and macOS builds. There is no Linux desktop version.
Which packet type should I use?
Start with ICMP. If a firewall along the path blocks it, switch to TCP on the port your application actually uses — the result reflects reality better.
Why does one hop in the middle show 100 % loss while the destination is fine?
That router is rate-limiting replies to itself. Only loss that continues to the final hop indicates a real problem.
Is there a free alternative to PingPlotter?
WinMTR on Windows and MTR on Linux and macOS combine ping and traceroute in a table. SmokePing gives long-term latency graphs if you can run a server. Windows also has pathping built in for a one-off run.
Does PingPlotter run on Linux?
There is no Linux desktop version — only Windows and macOS. On Linux, MTR does the same hop-by-hop job from the terminal.
