A serial terminal is software that allows communication with devices through a serial port, often used for debugging embedded systems and interacting with hardware like microcontrollers. It essentially acts as a bridge, displaying data sent to and received from the connected device and enabling users to send commands or data to the device.
This roundup looks at software designed for working with serial data, telemetry streams, and time series information.
These tools help users monitor, test, debug, plot, and analyze data received from serial ports, Bluetooth connections, TCP/UDP sockets, embedded devices, sensors, microcontrollers, and other connected hardware.
They range from straightforward serial monitors and port-testing utilities to more advanced dashboards capable of real-time visualization, graphing, packet inspection, and data playback. Some focus on developers needing reliable communication diagnostics, while others are aimed at engineers, makers, researchers, and hobbyists who need to turn raw incoming data into clear, readable charts. Features commonly include cross-platform support, configurable connection settings, live plotting, logging, filtering, protocol debugging, and visual analysis of telemetry or time series data. Together, they provide useful options for anyone building, testing, troubleshooting, or analyzing systems that communicate over serial or network-based data channels.
Our findings are captured in the ratings chart below in the classic LinuxLinks-style. Only free and open source software is eligible for inclusion.
| Serial Port and Telemetry Visualization Tools | |
|---|---|
| Serial Studio | Telemetry dashboard and real-time data visualization tool |
| SerialTest | Test tool for serial port, Bluetooth, TCP and UDP |
| PlotJuggler | Visualizing and analyzing time series data |
| COMTool | Cross platform serial debug tool |
| Telemetry Viewer | Data visualization tool |
| Tauno Serial Plotter | Graphical serial data plotting tool |
| seriot | Serial monitor and serial plotter |
| QSerial | Cross-platform serial port utility |
| SerialTool | Serial-Port/TCP/UDP debugging tool |
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