VisualRoute alternative: Route Map, free and open source
Route Map is a free, open source visual traceroute for Windows, macOS and Linux. It places each router by its operator's own hostname first, checks every placement against the round trip, and shows where each hop's location came from. No account, no telemetry.
Also: Windows Installer Windows Zip macOS Apple silicon macOS Intel Linux Debian, Ubuntu (.deb) Linux Fedora, RHEL, openSUSE (.rpm) Linux AppImage Linux tar.gz. v0.5.0-beta.4, checksums and install steps.
About VisualRoute
VisualRoute is a commercial traceroute tool from Visualware Inc. It runs on 64-bit Windows 10 and 114 and is sold as a perpetual licence in Personal, Advanced, Business and SupportPro editions, priced through a configurator on its pricing page, with optional annual support and a 15-day trial1,2. The current release is 15.0a; its release notes give no date3.
Side by side
"Not stated" means VisualRoute's own pages do not say, not that it lacks the feature. Edition names say where its pricing page lists a feature.
| Route Map v0.5.0-beta.4 | VisualRoute 15.0a | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Perpetual licence, price from Visualware's configurator; 15-day trial1,2 |
| Licence | Open source, AGPL-3.0 | Proprietary: "All rights reserved", no licence named1 |
| Platforms | Windows 10 and 11, macOS 12 or later, Linux x86_64, with native installers | 64-bit Windows 10 or 114 |
| How a hop gets its place | The router's hostname first (CAIDA Hoiho, carrier site codes), then DB-IP Lite on your machine or RIPEstat online | Not stated; its pages speak of IP location reporting and geolocation2,5 |
| Physics check | Every placement checked against the round trip; rejections shown with the reason | Not stated |
| Source shown per hop | Yes | Not stated |
| AS path and RPKI | AS path offline from DB-IP Lite ASN; RPKI per AS from RIPEstat | Whois and network provider reporting; RPKI not stated2 |
| Continuous monitoring | Watch, mtr style, with a ping plot | Yes, Advanced and up2 |
| Multipath discovery | Paths: Paris traceroute with the multipath detection algorithm | OmniPath, Business and up2,5 |
| Reverse trace | From a RIPE Atlas probe near the target back to you, with your own Atlas key | Traceroute from Visualware server locations, Business and up; a trace back to you is not stated2 |
| DNS timing | Yes | DNS response testing, Advanced and up2 |
| Port tests | Yes, at most 32 ports; a reachability check, not a scanner | Application port testing and probing, Business and up2 |
| Remote agents | Your own servers, over your own ssh | Remote agents, SupportPro2 |
| Exports | PNG, PDF, JSON | Not stated |
| Telemetry | None | Not stated |
| Submarine cables | No: the cable data is sold under licence | Not stated |
| Exchange points | No: PeeringDB's terms do not allow bundling its list | Not stated |
What Route Map does not do
Route Map draws no submarine cables and labels no exchange points: the cable data is sold under licence, and PeeringDB's terms do not allow bundling its prefix list. Its Windows and macOS builds are not code-signed yet. It traces from your computer or from a server you already reach with ssh, and runs no measurement servers of its own. Its port test is a reachability check, not a port scanner.
See also: Route Map and Open Visual Traceroute, and what a visual traceroute shows, and where most of them go wrong.
Sources
- visualroute.visualware.com, read 26 October 2026
- visualroute.visualware.com/pricing, read 26 October 2026
- visualroute.visualware.com/support/newrelease, read 26 October 2026
- visualroute.visualware.com/support/requirements, read 26 October 2026
- visualroute.visualware.com/features/, read 26 October 2026
If something here is wrong or out of date, tell us at [email protected] and we will correct it.