Heartbeat — Know Your Network Is Alive

Core Platform

EVERY FLAG. EVERY EDGE CASE.

Built on ICMP from the ground up. Every feature maps to a real network diagnostic workflow.

📡

ECHO_REQUEST Engine

Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST datagrams to any host or gateway and measure round-trip time with sub-millisecond precision.

🔢

Count Mode

Set exact packet budgets with -c COUNT. Stop after N packets. Know exactly what you're sending, always.

⏱️

Interval Control

Tune your probe cadence with -i INTERVAL. From 2ms bursts (superuser) to leisurely 10-second sweeps.

📦

Packet Sizing

Craft custom payloads with -s SIZE. From 0 to 65507 bytes. Diagnose MTU issues, stress-test links, find fragmentation boundaries.

🌐

TTL Management

Control hop distance with -t TTL. Map network topology. Know exactly how many routers your packets traverse.

⚡

Flood Mode

Unleash -f for maximum throughput testing. Packets fly as fast as they return — 100/sec floor. Superuser required.

🔇

Quiet Output

Skip the noise with -q. Summary lines only — startup and finish. Perfect for scripted monitoring pipelines.

🔄

Dual-Stack

Force -4 or -6 to target IPv4 or IPv6 explicitly. Full dual-stack support out of the box.

Workflow

THREE PACKETS TO NETWORK TRUTH

Target

Point Heartbeat at any host, gateway, or broadcast address. Specify interface with -I, set your TTL, choose your protocol stack.

Transmit

ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets launch at your configured interval and size. Each one carries a timestamp for precise RTT calculation.

Measure

Collect ECHO_REPLY responses and compute min/avg/max/mdev round-trip times, packet loss percentage, and network jitter metrics.

Live Demo

HEARTBEAT IN ACTION

Watch real ICMP sessions unfold. Every output is 100% authentic.

heartbeat — session

$ heartbeat -c 4 heartbeat.global

PING heartbeat.global (203.0.113.42) 56(84) bytes of data.

64 bytes from heartbeat.global: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=12.3 ms

64 bytes from heartbeat.global: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=11.8 ms

64 bytes from heartbeat.global: icmp_seq=3 ttl=56 time=12.1 ms

64 bytes from heartbeat.global: icmp_seq=4 ttl=56 time=11.9 ms

--- heartbeat.global ping statistics ---

4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3004ms

rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 11.800/12.025/12.300/0.187 ms

$ heartbeat -f -c 1000 10.0.0.1

PING 10.0.0.1 (10.0.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.

........... (flood output)

--- 10.0.0.1 ping statistics ---

1000 packets transmitted, 998 received, 0.2% packet loss

rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.234/1.127/8.443/0.891 ms

$ heartbeat -D -i 0.5 -s 1400 prod.cluster.io

[1712505600.123456] 1408 bytes from prod.cluster.io: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.89 ms

[1712505600.623789] 1408 bytes from prod.cluster.io: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.91 ms

█

Why Heartbeat

THE CATEGORY LEADER

Side-by-side, Heartbeat outperforms every network diagnostic on the metrics that matter.

Capability	Heartbeat	Competitor A	Competitor B	Competitor C
RTT precision	Sub-ms (µs)	1ms floor	10ms floor	1ms floor
Dual-stack (IPv4+IPv6)	✅	IPv4 only	✅	IPv4 only
Flood mode	✅ (-f)	❌	Limited	❌
Custom packet size	0–65507 bytes	Fixed 64	Up to 1500	Fixed 64
Timestamp injection	✅ (-D)	❌	❌	Partial
Interface binding	✅ (-I)	❌	✅	❌
Broadcast support	✅ (-b)	❌	❌	❌
Price	Free tier	$49/mo min	$99/mo min	Enterprise only

Pricing

PLANS THAT SCALE WITH YOUR NETWORK

Start free. Upgrade when your monitoring footprint demands it.

Starter

$0/mo

For individuals checking connectivity.

Default 56-byte packets
Up to -c 100 per session
IPv4 only
Basic RTT summary
10 sessions/day

Get Started

TRUSTED BY NETWORK-CRITICAL TEAMS

★★★★★

"We replaced our entire $40K/yr monitoring stack with Heartbeat. Flood mode surfaced a packet loss issue our old tools missed for months. The min/avg/max/mdev stats are chef's kiss."

Nadia Kowalski VP Network Engineering, CloudMesh

★★★★★

"Timestamp injection with -D changed our incident response. We can now correlate packet loss with infrastructure events down to the microsecond. Absolute game-changer."

Jin Kim SRE Lead, OmniScale

★★★★★

"I ping 300+ hosts every 30 seconds through Heartbeat's quiet mode. Zero noise, pure signal. The packet loss percentages flow straight into our Grafana dashboards. Mission-critical."

Clara Liang Head of Infrastructure, NetForge

★★★★★

"Dual-stack support sold us. We're running IPv6 migrations across three data centers and Heartbeat lets us validate connectivity on both stacks from a single command. Indispensable."

Hugo Park CTO, DataPath Systems

What's New

SHIPPING RELENTLESSLY

v5.3

Adaptive Ping Mode (`-A`)

Interpacket interval now adapts to round-trip time. Effectively, no more than one unanswered probe exists in the network at any time. 2ms default on low-RTT networks.

Feature Performance

v5.2

JSON Output (`-j`) — Experimental

Machine-readable JSON output for every ping session. Pipe directly into monitoring dashboards, log aggregators, and alerting pipelines.

Feature Beta

v5.1

Outstanding Reply Tracking (`-O`)

Reports outstanding ECHO reply status before sending next packet. Combined with -D for comprehensive diagnostic logging of missing answers.

Improvement

FAQ

QUESTIONS? WE'VE GOT ANSWERS.

What does Heartbeat actually send?

ICMP ECHO_REQUEST datagrams — the protocol's mandatory packet type. Each contains an IP header (20 bytes), ICMP header (8 bytes), a timestamp, and optional pad bytes. The default payload is 56 bytes, totaling 64 ICMP data bytes.

What do the min/avg/max/mdev numbers mean?

These are round-trip time statistics. Min is the fastest response, max is the slowest, avg is the mean, and mdev is the population standard deviation — essentially how variable your latency is. High mdev means inconsistent network performance affecting bulk transfers and VoIP quality.

Can I ping broadcast addresses?

Yes, with the -b flag. Heartbeat explicitly supports broadcast pinging for network discovery and stress testing. Use responsibly — flood pinging broadcast addresses should only be done under controlled conditions.

Why does flood mode require superuser?

Flood mode (-f) sends packets as fast as they return — or 100 times per second, whichever is faster. This can impose significant load on the network. CAP_NET_RAW capability is required to protect shared infrastructure.

How do I use Heartbeat for scripted monitoring?

Use -q for quiet output (summary only), -c N to define packet count, and -w DEADLINE to set a timeout. The exit code tells you if the host is alive (0) or unreachable (1). Perfect for automated health checks.

KNOW YOUR NETWORK
IS ALIVE.

PULSE MONITOR

EVERY FLAG. EVERY EDGE CASE.

ECHO_REQUEST Engine

Count Mode

Interval Control

Packet Sizing

TTL Management

Flood Mode

Quiet Output

Dual-Stack

THREE PACKETS TO NETWORK TRUTH

Target

Transmit

Measure

HEARTBEAT IN ACTION

LATENCY HEATMAP

UPTIME STATUS PAGE

THE CATEGORY LEADER

PLANS THAT SCALE WITH YOUR NETWORK

TRUSTED BY NETWORK-CRITICAL TEAMS

SHIPPING RELENTLESSLY

Adaptive Ping Mode (`-A`)

JSON Output (`-j`) — Experimental

Outstanding Reply Tracking (`-O`)

QUESTIONS? WE'VE GOT ANSWERS.

KNOW YOUR NETWORKIS ALIVE.

PULSE MONITOR

EVERY FLAG. EVERY EDGE CASE.

ECHO_REQUEST Engine

Count Mode

Interval Control

Packet Sizing

TTL Management

Flood Mode

Quiet Output

Dual-Stack

THREE PACKETS TO NETWORK TRUTH

Target

Transmit

Measure

HEARTBEAT IN ACTION

LATENCY HEATMAP

UPTIME STATUS PAGE

THE CATEGORY LEADER

PLANS THAT SCALE WITH YOUR NETWORK

TRUSTED BY NETWORK-CRITICAL TEAMS

SHIPPING RELENTLESSLY

Adaptive Ping Mode (-A)

JSON Output (-j) — Experimental

Outstanding Reply Tracking (-O)

QUESTIONS? WE'VE GOT ANSWERS.

KNOW YOUR NETWORK
IS ALIVE.

Adaptive Ping Mode (`-A`)

JSON Output (`-j`) — Experimental

Outstanding Reply Tracking (`-O`)