Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs WhatsUp Gold comparison

Cisco and Progress Software are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Cisco is ranked #36 with an average rating of 8.0, while Progress Software is ranked #23 with an average rating of 8.0. Cisco holds a 0.9% mindshare in NMS, compared to Progress Software’s 2.3% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Progress Software users who would recommend it.

Cisco Secure Network Analytics

Read 61 Cisco Secure Network Analytics reviews

8,028 Views
3,131 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

WhatsUp Gold

Read 25 WhatsUp Gold reviews

10,003 Views
5,802 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Cisco Secure Network Analytics

WhatsUp Gold

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

WhatsUp Gold and Cisco Secure Network Analytics compete in the network monitoring and security sector. WhatsUp Gold is favored for its cost-effectiveness and customer support, while Cisco Secure Network Analytics stands out with superior functionality, making it worth the investment for its advanced features.

Features: WhatsUp Gold offers real-time network monitoring, providing a comprehensive map of the network environment and device status alerts which enhance visibility and management efficiency. It is also effective in simplifying network management through intuitive dashboards and automation capabilities. Cisco Secure Network Analytics focuses on advanced threat detection and security analytics, offering robust insights into network traffic anomalies and potential threats. Additionally, it supports deep packet inspection and detailed forensic analysis, key components in comprehensive network security.

Room for Improvement: WhatsUp Gold could enhance its threat detection capabilities and expand its security analytics. Improving integration options with third-party security tools would also strengthen its offering. Its user interface could benefit from more customization features to enhance user experience. Cisco Secure Network Analytics might work on simplifying its deployment and reducing complexity in its configuration settings. Enhancing the cost-effectiveness of its services could attract more budget-conscious clients. Streamlining its feature set for small to medium enterprises could widen its market reach.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: WhatsUp Gold offers a straightforward deployment process along with dependable customer service, facilitating a smoother implementation experience. Cisco Secure Network Analytics, while having a more complex deployment, compensates with extensive resources and diverse support options, ensuring comprehensive customer service despite the initial setup challenges.

Pricing and ROI: WhatsUp Gold is known for its lower setup costs and strong ROI, making it appealing for businesses with budget constraints. Despite its higher initial cost, Cisco Secure Network Analytics presents a significant ROI through its robust security features, catering to organizations focused on advanced network security investments.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs. WhatsUp Gold Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs. WhatsUp Gold

April 2026

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Helped 893,244 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Secure Network Analytics

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

36th

Ranking in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Detection and Response (NDR) (8th), Cisco Security Portfolio (9th)

WhatsUp Gold

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

23rd

Ranking in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

10th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (30th), Server Monitoring (15th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (18th), Configuration Management (21st), Log Management (41st), Cloud Monitoring Software (22nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure Network Analytics is 0.9%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhatsUp Gold is 2.3%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
WhatsUp Gold	2.3%
Cisco Secure Network Analytics	0.9%
Other	96.8%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Muhammad Harun-Owr-Roshid

CEO at BRIGHT-i SYSTEMS LIMITED

Have streamlined network visibility and troubleshooting while seeing benefits from AI integration

In terms of improvements for Cisco Secure Network Analytics, from the implementation point of view, now that AI is in use, some other features need to be upgraded considering AI solutions. Proper management of the database is also important; it should be centralized for easier data collection from a single database. When precise manual analysis is needed, it's sometimes difficult, so having a centralized database will allow network admins to find actual scenarios more effectively, especially since some information may not be visible on the GUI. Cisco should upgrade their hardware part to run the database, because sometimes it cannot handle the load while all features are running in the network. The database management should indeed be centralized because while AI runs behind the systems, central management is essential. For example, in a network with 100 Cisco switches, a few routers, firewalls, and access points, all data generated should be preserved in a central database. This approach simplifies management and analysis for troubleshooting, as GUI interfaces may not always provide visible information. Centralizing the database will allow for better understanding of which information is preserved for each specific device.

Read full review

Erik Cheng

Technical Manager at Quan Hung Gourmet

Efficient monitoring with detailed customization, yet complexity remains

The best feature of WhatsUp Gold is the automatic generation of topology and its integration with virtualization and wireless. I have used the automated device discovery with this topology feature. The interactive map feature helps me manage the topology because sometimes we cannot draw the topology correctly, so we need to manually edit the connections. The alerting system is very tunable and customizable, but it's a little complicated to use. Many customers cannot manage it by themselves and need support from us, the provider. We always use the dashboards in the SOC, where we constantly display a dashboard or multiple dashboards. This allows us to know immediately if the connection or bandwidth is full or if the connection is broken.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"AI provides suggested common lines and protection features that help safeguard networks from various threats or unwanted situations."

"Stealthwatch has definitely reduced the incident response time, making troubleshooting now only minutes instead of a couple of hours and increasing our threat detection rate by around 25-30%."

"The most valuable feature about this solution is that it gives me insight into my network, with great analytics and threat protection capabilities to detect faults and find viruses and trojans, and I can definitely say that this solution saves us time, money, and administrative work."

"This solution allows us to be more agile when it comes to troubleshooting our NetFlow and our network systems."

"It's easy to set up. The deployment takes one or two days."

"If you are using Darktrace or NAC solutions you can integrate Stealthwatch."

"This solution has improved my organization because when I have users who are having issues with patching slowness it gives me the ability to be able to proactively troubleshoot and determine what the issue is."

"Cisco Stealthwatch has improved our organization's analytics and threat protection capabilities by catching threats early on and it saved us a net fortune when we caught an employee constantly pulling three or four GBs of data from an FTP server."

More Cisco Secure Network Analytics pros

"The interface in the last few years it has been a lot greater, they are much more user-friendly. I like the interface."

"There is a flow monitor option, so we can trace the source IP, the destination IP, and top talker feature in this."

"The user interface is good enough."

"The most valuable aspects of the solution are the application monitors that allow for discreet roaming on network devices."

"The product is reasonably priced."

"We primarily use the solution to check the state of the network, monitoring thousands of devices and all of the internal network, and it is the first tool we use to see the state of the network for real-time monitoring."

"The threshold alerting is the most valuable feature."

"Their tech support is very good."

More WhatsUp Gold pros

Cons

"If they can make this product more web-based, that would be amazing."

"One area that could be improved in SNA is the integration with Cisco ISE for user and session details, which currently requires additional setup."

"The solution should have the ability to analyze security events not only at the network layer but also at the application and OS layers."

"One of the things which bugs me about Lancope is the licensing."

"We haven't seen ROI."

"The reporting of day-to-day metrics still has room for improvement."

"The overall visibility into the actual device itself would be helpful. I don't just want support-specific data, but also to be able to see information such as CPU and other internal components or usage of the devices."

"I'm not really sure it gives us a true picture."

More Cisco Secure Network Analytics cons

"The price could be improved. When we first started using this product, the company was new. The prices were very low then, in comparison with HP OpenView or IBM, but now the policy is too high, relative to the number of devices we have."

"We can never achieve or get a good picture of the network topology."

"There is a very big gap in the support."

"I would like to see them do an enhancement to the application monitoring. A lot of other products do better application monitoring so they should do some improvements to the application monitoring."

"I haven't had any issue with stability, except during the upgrade to 2017 when we encountered slow responses."

"The point system is not clear and clarity around this would improve our understanding of the system."

"Honestly, I do not particularly like WhatsUp Gold. I think we should get rid of it."

"The licensing model could be improved. Right now, the levels are too far apart. This causes the solution to be more expensive than it needs to be."

More WhatsUp Gold cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing for this solution is good."

"NetFlow is very expensive."

"Licensing is on a yearly basis."

"Licensing is done by flows per second, not including outside>in traffic."

"This is an expensive product. We have quit paying for support because we don't want to have to upgrade it and keep paying for it."

"Licensing is done by flows per second, not including outside (in traffic)."

"The yearly licensing cost is about $50,000."

"It has a subscription model. There is yearly support, and there is also three-year support. It depends on what the customers want."

More Cisco Secure Network Analytics pricing and cost advice

"This is a well priced solution."

"The most valuable feature is the cost compared to other solutions."

"The pricing can be on the expensive side when considering competing products."

"There are some subscription charges that are quite heavy. I need to pay for support every year and these charges can be quite expensive. Aside from the initial cost for the tool, you need to pay additionally for support."

"It is per device, per year. The pricing is very clear. If you have a service agreement, you get all of your major upgrades and minor upgrades. It was under $10,000 to go all-in with all of the different add-ons for it."

"There is a license needed to use WhatsUp Gold."

"The choice of version depends on the number of points, or devices, that you want to monitor, and this makes the product expensive."

"Pricing is reasonable compared to other products."

More WhatsUp Gold pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	52

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	14

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Stealthwatch?

Regarding cost, for the Bangladesh context, Cisco Secure Network Analytics is a little bit high-priced because we are a developing country, making it tough to manage affordable solutions. However, ...

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What needs improvement with Cisco Stealthwatch?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cisco Stealthwatch?

Our customers mainly use Cisco Secure Network Analytics to get whole network visibility and easy troubleshooting to find actual problems and also to mitigate loopholes or findings immediately to pr...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for WhatsUp Gold?

Clients find the licensing calculator confusing, but we simplify this for them by collecting relevant information first. The licensing is based on devices, providing better cost-effectiveness than ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with WhatsUp Gold?

It would be great if WhatsUp Gold could add features that simplify management with AI, as it is currently too complicated to manage.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for WhatsUp Gold?

My use case for WhatsUp Gold includes all device availability checks, bandwidth usage, CPU, and memory usage, as well as alarm notifications.

See all answers

Comparisons

Darktrace vs Cisco Secure Network Analytics

Compared 8% of the time

Vectra AI vs Cisco Secure Network Analytics

Compared 4% of the time

ThousandEyes vs Cisco Secure Network Analytics

Compared 4% of the time

Nmap vs Cisco Secure Network Analytics

Compared 3% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Cisco Secure Network Analytics

Compared 3% of the time

More Cisco Secure Network Analytics Competitors

LibreNMS vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

SCOM vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

ScienceLogic vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

NinjaOne vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

More WhatsUp Gold Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Network Analytics

May 2026

Download Cisco Secure Network Analytics product report

Buyer's Guide

WhatsUp Gold

April 2026

Download WhatsUp Gold product report

Also Known As

Cisco Stealthwatch, Cisco Stealthwatch Enterprise, Lancope StealthWatch

No data available

Overview

Cisco Secure Network Analytics enhances network security through integrated threat detection and detailed traffic visibility, optimizing performance with AI analytics and strong platform integrations.

Cisco Secure Network Analytics offers deep visibility into network traffic, with tools like network maps and server response times. Its AI-driven analytics help detect threats, focusing on east-west traffic. Integration with platforms such as pxGrid and ISE complements its capabilities. Reporting and telemetry help in identifying bandwidth issues, yet improvements are desired in AI for better data organization. Installation complexity and false positives present challenges, and managing network loads effectively is a recognized need.

What are the key features of Cisco Secure Network Analytics?

Deep Visibility: Provides comprehensive insights into network traffic and server behavior.
Network Maps: Enhances understanding of traffic flow and infrastructure layout.
AI Analytics: Uses AI for superior threat detection and anomaly recognition.
Integration: Compatible with platforms like pxGrid and ISE for enhanced security management.
Telemetry: Delivers detailed bandwidth usage and traffic analysis reports.

How does Cisco Secure Network Analytics provide value?

Enhanced Security: Elevates threat detection and response capabilities.
Traffic Insights: Identifies encrypted and anomalous network behaviors.
Compliance Support: Assists in meeting industry standards for data protection.
Endpoint Protection: Guards network endpoints against potential threats.

Industries such as banking, defense, and police rely on Cisco Secure Network Analytics for securing networks against threats. Its capability to provide insights into encrypted traffic and facilitate device auditing makes it a sought-after choice for those requiring extensive network visibility. Users appreciate its application for threat prevention and response in demanding sectors.

Cisco

WhatsUp Gold stands out with its comprehensive network monitoring, dynamic mapping, and real-time alerts, offering essential tools for managing extensive IT infrastructures.

WhatsUp Gold provides robust capabilities in network visibility through dynamic mapping and NetFlow analysis. The platform's interactive topology aids in pinpointing issues effectively. Auto-discovery ensures complete network device tracking. While offering an intuitive interface and integration with Cisco ServiceNow, users find server performance monitoring useful for incident handling. However, improvements are anticipated in application monitoring and Active Directory integration. The pricing model and customization options leave room for enhancement. Despite these, users benefit from its integrated dashboards for immediate device health checks and network updates, making it beneficial for large-scale infrastructure management.

What features does WhatsUp Gold offer?

Network Monitoring: Provides continuous oversight of network components
Dynamic Mapping: Offers visual representation of network topology
NetFlow Analysis: Delivers insights into bandwidth utilization
Threshold Alerts: Notifies users upon reaching set performance thresholds
Auto-Discovery: Detects devices automatically for complete network coverage

What benefits should users expect from reviews?

Comprehensive Visibility: Enhanced understanding of network elements
Real-Time Monitoring: Immediate insights into network and device status
Cost-Effectiveness: Competitive solution suitable for expansive networks
User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies the management of complex networks

Organizations in sectors like telecommunications, education, and healthcare utilize WhatsUp Gold for their network monitoring needs. Telecom companies track switches and routers, educational institutions manage bandwidth usage, and healthcare facilities monitor device availability to ensure seamless operations.

Progress Software

Sample Customers

Edge Web Hosting, Telenor Norway, Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, Webster Financial Corporation, Westinghouse Electric, VMware, TIAA-CREF

Artoni Trasporti, Austin Independent School District, Banca Marche, Burke County North Carolina, Cambridge University School of Clinical Medicine, Clayco, Community Integrated Care, Desca, Deutsche Bergbau, Flexi-Van, Gropper, Hamleys, Hammonds Furniture, Knowledge IT, Idras S.P.A., Sibeg, Swann Engineering, Trivium Lindenhof

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs. WhatsUp Gold

April 2026

Free Report: Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs. WhatsUp Gold

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs. WhatsUp Gold and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.

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