Bitmeter

Bitmeter is a bandwidth meter application designed to keep an eye on your download and upload rates, providing a handful of useful statistics via a very user-friendly interface.

Thus, the application helps you monitor connection speed, but Internet traffic as well and can lend you a hand when trying to detect malicious software that may reside on your computer.

It sports excellent features, starting with real-time updates that inform you of download and upload rates at any given moment with the help of an eye-candying floating window.

Although in most cases a floating window is quite annoying, this isn't the case with Bitmeter, because the application comes with a dedicated “Click Through” feature that makes the window “invisible” to all clicks.

In other words, it will be displayed on the screen but it won't react to your clicks, and all actions will be applied to the content underneath the floating window.

As said, Bitmeter shows real-time statistics, but it also comprises more detailed figures to show you download and upload stats in the last few hours, days and months. Of course, you can view a summary as well and the interval is fully configurable.

Another great feature allows you to set up alerts when some pre-defined limits are reached, be they related to speed, volume or traffic.

Last but not least, Bitmeter comes in handy to all dial-up users with limited data accounts, allowing them to configure ISP restrictions to make sure they do not exceed the available traffic.

Overall, Bitmeter is definitely one of the best tools in this particular software category, aimed at all user categories in the audience.