top vs htop — Which Should You Use to Monitor Linux?

Both top and htop show live, updating views of running processes and system resource usage, but htop is a more modern, user-friendly alternative.

Key points

• top is installed by default on almost every Linux system; htop typically needs to be installed separately
• htop offers a color-coded, scrollable interface, and lets you interact with processes (like killing them) using the mouse or arrow keys
• Both show CPU, memory usage, and a live list of processes, updating at a regular interval

Example

htop