BGP visualizers and map tools compared
"BGP visualizer" covers several different tools. Some draw every path to one prefix at one moment, some replay how a prefix's paths changed over time, and some describe a network's neighbours. Which one you need depends on the question, and no single tool answers all of them.
Start with the question
People reach for a BGP visualizer for four different reasons, and each is answered by a different kind of picture.
- "How does the Internet reach this prefix right now?" A map of the AS paths towards one prefix, taken from many vantage points at once.
- "What changed, and when?" A view over time: which paths appeared, which were withdrawn, and in what order.
- "Who is this network connected to?" A graph around one AS: its upstreams, downstreams and peers.
- "What does this one router see?" A raw route table from a single network, with attributes such as communities and local preference.
A map of paths: this site
BGP Map draws the AS paths that RIPE RIS collector peers report for one prefix, merged into a single graph. Collector peers sit at the top, the origin and the prefix at the bottom, and the path most peers chose is drawn in red. It answers the first question well. It is a snapshot, and the history it keeps is a short log of origin and upstream changes noticed while somebody has the page open. It does not replay older events, and it shows only what the collector peers see. The guide on reading a BGP map explains the picture.
A replay over time: BGPlay
BGPlay, a visualisation offered through RIPEstat, animates how the paths to a prefix changed within a chosen time window, using RIPE RIS data. It is the better tool for the second question, for example to see how a route moved after an outage or to check the timeline of a suspected hijack. The trade-off is that you watch events in sequence instead of seeing all current paths side by side.
A graph around one network: Hurricane Electric's BGP Toolkit
The BGP Toolkit at bgp.he.net is an explorer built around an AS or prefix. For a network it lists the prefixes it announces, its neighbours, the exchange points it is present at and a graph of its relationships, as seen from Hurricane Electric's own view of the routing table. It suits the third question. Because the data comes from one network's perspective plus its public registrations, the neighbour list can differ from what the RIPE RIS collectors see. Neither is wrong: they are different vantage points.
A single router: looking glasses
A looking glass lets you run a command such as show ip bgp on a router someone operates. It is the only way to see the attributes that decide why a network chose a route, and it shows exactly one network's opinion. Our guide on BGP map, looking glass or traceroute compares the three in detail. Collector projects such as RIPE RIS and RouteViews publish the same kind of data in bulk, which is what most web tools are built on.
What none of them show
Public route data has blind spots, whichever picture is drawn on top of it.
- Collectors see only what their peers send, so private peering between two small networks is invisible. The guide on origin, upstream and peer roles explains why peers rarely show up.
- An AS path is a list of networks, not routers. Traffic can take a different physical route than the announcements suggest.
- Whether a route is legitimate is a separate question. Compare the origin with the registry record and with the RPKI status; the guide on spotting a hijack on a map lists the checks.
Which to use when
| You want to know | Reach for |
|---|---|
| All current paths to a prefix, on one picture | A path map such as this one |
| How paths to a prefix changed during an incident | BGPlay in RIPEstat |
| A network's neighbours, prefixes and exchange points | An AS explorer such as the Hurricane Electric BGP Toolkit |
| Why one network picked a particular route | That network's looking glass |
| Whether an origin is authorised for a prefix | An RPKI validator, such as the one on PikoNetwork |
If you came from BGPView, which shut down in November 2025, the BGPView alternative page says which of its lookups map to which of these tools. To try a path map, open 1.1.1.0/24, then follow the red path from the bottom row up.
More guides
- How to read a BGP mapWhat the boxes, arrows, numbers and colours on a map mean.
- How to find the upstream providers of a networkReading transit providers from AS paths, and what the shares mean.
- Which network announces an IP address?From an address to its prefix and origin AS, and when whois disagrees.
- What is an AS path?How the AS path is written and used, and what prepending does.
- Tier 1 networksThe transit-free networks, with a link to each one's map.
- Origin, upstream and peer: who is who on a BGP mapThe roles networks play on a path, and why peers hide.
- BGP map, looking glass or traceroute: which one to useWhich tool answers which routing question.
- How to spot a BGP hijack on a mapThe signs of a hijack in route data, and the harmless look-alikes.
- Is my prefix visible on the Internet?Reading visibility from a map and the common reasons a prefix is missing.