sparkyfish

An open-source network speed and latency tester with a rich terminal UI. Deploy your own server anywhere and measure real throughput between any two points on your network.

Why sparkyfish?

• Run your own speed test servers -- Ookla's private Speedtest server now costs $5,000+/year. Sparkyfish is free and open source.
• No artificial limits -- test at whatever speed your server and client can handle: 1 Gbps, 10 Gbps, or beyond.
• Rich terminal UI -- real-time streaming line charts for download, upload, and latency built with Bubble Tea and ntcharts.
• No net-neutrality concerns -- ISPs can't selectively prioritize your test traffic.
• Simple architecture -- one static binary for the client, one for the server. No dependencies.
• Cross-platform -- Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, OpenBSD. amd64 and arm64.

Installing the client

Debian / Ubuntu

sudo dpkg -i sparkyfish_<version>_amd64.deb

RHEL / Fedora

sudo rpm -i sparkyfish_<version>_amd64.rpm

Arch Linux (AUR)

yay -S sparkyfish

macOS / other

Download the archive for your platform from the Releases page and extract the binary to somewhere in your $PATH.

Build from source

Requires Go 1.22+:

git clone https://github.com/chrissnell/sparkyfish.git
cd sparkyfish
make client     # builds bin/sparkyfish

Installing the server

Debian / Ubuntu

sudo apt install ./sparkyfish-server_<version>_amd64.deb
sudo systemctl enable --now sparkyfish-server

RHEL / Fedora

sudo rpm -i sparkyfish-server_<version>_amd64.rpm
sudo systemctl enable --now sparkyfish-server

Arch Linux (AUR)

yay -S sparkyfish-server
sudo systemctl enable --now sparkyfish-server

The packages create a sparkyfish system user, install a systemd unit, and place the default config at /etc/default/sparkyfish-server. Edit that file to set your location and other options:

# /etc/default/sparkyfish-server
SPARKYFISH_OPTS="-listen-addr=:7121 -location='Dallas, TX' -cname=speedtest.example.com"

Then restart: sudo systemctl restart sparkyfish-server

Kubernetes (Helm)

A Helm chart is included in packaging/helm/sparkyfish-server/.

helm install sparkyfish-server ./packaging/helm/sparkyfish-server \
    --set sparkyfish.location="Dallas, TX" \
    --set sparkyfish.cname="speedtest.example.com"

Key values:

| Value | Default | Description | |-------|---------|-------------| | sparkyfish.location | "" | Physical location shown to clients | | sparkyfish.cname | "" | Canonical hostname reported to clients | | sparkyfish.debug | false | Enable verbose server logging | | service.type | LoadBalancer | Kubernetes service type | | service.externalTrafficPolicy | Local | Preserves client source IPs | | service.annotations | {} | Annotations for MetalLB, etc. |

The deployment runs as non-root with a read-only root filesystem and all capabilities dropped.

Docker

docker run -d -p 7121:7121 ghcr.io/chrissnell/sparkyfish:latest \
    -location="Dallas, TX"

Note: Docker networking overhead can reduce throughput accuracy. For production use, prefer running the binary directly or in Kubernetes with hostNetwork.

Build from source

Requires Go 1.22+:

git clone https://github.com/chrissnell/sparkyfish.git
cd sparkyfish
make server     # builds bin/sparkyfish-server

Usage

Client

sparkyfish <server-hostname>[:port]

The default port is 7121. The client connects, runs latency probes, then measures download and upload throughput, displaying live results in the terminal.

Keyboard controls:

• q / Ctrl+C -- quit
• r -- re-run the test (after completion)

The terminal must be at least 60x24 characters.

Server flags

| Flag | Default | Description | |------|---------|-------------| | -listen-addr | :7121 | IP:port to listen on | | -cname | | Canonical hostname reported to clients | | -location | | Physical location displayed to clients | | -debug | false | Enable verbose logging |

Make sure port 7121/tcp is open in your firewall.

Protocol

Sparkyfish uses a simple, open TCP protocol on port 7121. See docs/PROTOCOL.md for details. You're welcome to implement your own compatible client or server.

License

MIT