Top 10 Best File Monitoring Software of 2026

Wazuh is an open-source unified XDR platform renowned for its robust file integrity monitoring (FIM) capabilities, continuously scanning critical files, directories, and registries for changes across endpoints, servers, and cloud environments. It detects creations, modifications, deletions, and attribute alterations in real-time, using checksums like SHA-256 for accuracy and generating alerts for compliance and security incidents. Integrated with SIEM, vulnerability detection, and threat intelligence, Wazuh's FIM helps organizations maintain data integrity and respond to insider threats or malware effectively.

Tripwire is a comprehensive file integrity monitoring (FIM) solution designed to detect unauthorized changes to files, directories, and system configurations in real-time. It creates baselines of file states, including content, attributes, and metadata, and generates alerts for deviations to help prevent security breaches and ensure compliance with standards like PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR. The platform supports hybrid environments, including on-premises servers, cloud instances, containers, and endpoints, with integration capabilities for SIEM systems and automated remediation workflows.

Process Monitor (ProcMon) is a free advanced monitoring tool from Microsoft Sysinternals that provides real-time visibility into file system, Registry, process, thread, and DLL activity on Windows systems. As a file monitoring solution, it captures detailed events including file reads, writes, creations, deletions, and renames, associating them with the responsible processes. Its powerful filtering, highlighting, and logging features enable precise analysis of file access patterns for troubleshooting, security auditing, and performance optimization.

Directory Monitor is a lightweight Windows application designed to continuously monitor specified folders and network shares for file system changes, including creations, deletions, modifications, and renames. It provides real-time alerts via tray notifications, logs, or custom actions such as executing scripts, sending emails, or running programs. The software supports multiple monitors with filters and is ideal for tracking file activities without heavy resource usage.

Netwrix Auditor is a robust IT auditing platform specializing in monitoring file system activities on Windows servers and shares. It tracks file access, modifications, deletions, and permissions changes in real-time, providing detailed reports and alerts to detect unauthorized activities. Ideal for compliance and security, it integrates with SIEM systems and offers policy-based monitoring to automate responses.

ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer is a robust log management platform with integrated file integrity monitoring (FIM) capabilities, tracking changes to critical files and folders across Windows, Linux, and virtual environments. It provides real-time alerts, detailed audit trails of who changed what files, when, and how, along with forensic reports for security investigations. The tool excels in correlating file modifications with system logs to detect insider threats and ensure compliance with standards like PCI DSS, HIPAA, and SOX.

OSSEC is an open-source host-based intrusion detection system (HIDS) renowned for its robust file integrity monitoring (FIM) capabilities, tracking changes to files, directories, ownership, permissions, and attributes across Windows, Linux, Unix, and macOS systems. It uses checksums (MD5/SHA) and real-time scanning to detect unauthorized modifications, supporting both local and centralized agent-based deployments. Beyond FIM, it integrates log analysis and rootkit detection, providing comprehensive security monitoring.

Splunk Enterprise is a comprehensive data analytics platform that excels in collecting, indexing, and analyzing machine-generated data, including real-time file monitoring through universal forwarders that tail logs and detect changes in directories. It provides powerful search capabilities, alerting, and visualization for file events, making it suitable for tracking modifications, additions, and deletions in enterprise environments. While not a dedicated file integrity monitoring tool, its extensibility allows integration with security workflows and compliance reporting.

Filebeat is a lightweight, open-source log shipper from Elastic that monitors log files on servers, collects events in real-time, and forwards them to Elasticsearch, Logstash, or other outputs for centralized analysis. It excels in tailing files efficiently with features like multiline support, backpressure handling, and autodiscovery for dynamic environments like Kubernetes. As part of the Beats family, it simplifies log aggregation in distributed systems while adding metadata and parsing capabilities.

AIDE (Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment) is a free, open-source file integrity monitoring tool primarily for Unix-like systems. It creates a database of file attributes such as permissions, ownership, timestamps, and cryptographic hashes (MD5, SHA1, etc.), then performs periodic checks to detect unauthorized changes. Ideal for security auditing, compliance, and intrusion detection, it supports customizable rules for selective monitoring but relies on scheduled runs rather than real-time alerts.