Elastic Observability vs WhatsUp Gold comparison

Elastic and Progress Software are both solutions in the Cloud Monitoring Software category. Elastic is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.9, while Progress Software is ranked #21 with an average rating of 8.7. Elastic holds a 2.4% mindshare in CMS, compared to Progress Software’s 3.1% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Elastic users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Progress Software users who would recommend it.

Elastic Observability

Read 29 Elastic Observability reviews

8,553 Views
3,250 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

WhatsUp Gold

Read 25 WhatsUp Gold reviews

6,518 Views
2,216 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Elastic Observability

WhatsUp Gold

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

WhatsUp Gold and Elastic Observability compete in the observability and monitoring category. Elastic Observability is often recognized for its robust features and higher perceived value, while WhatsUp Gold is favored for its ease of deployment and customer service.

Features: WhatsUp Gold offers straightforward monitoring capabilities, user-friendly dashboards, and reliable customer support. Elastic Observability provides comprehensive data analytics, strong integrations, and advanced monitoring features.

Room for Improvement: WhatsUp Gold could improve its scalability, reporting functionalities, and integration options. Elastic Observability needs a more intuitive initial setup, enhanced support resources, and simpler user interfaces.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: WhatsUp Gold is easy to deploy and has excellent customer service with responsive support. Elastic Observability, although more complex to implement, is supported by extensive documentation and reliable service.

Pricing and ROI: WhatsUp Gold has lower setup costs with quicker ROI. Elastic Observability is more expensive but considered worth the investment due to its extensive capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Elastic Observability vs. WhatsUp Gold Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Observability vs. WhatsUp Gold

March 2026

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Helped 884,873 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

Elastic Observability

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

10th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

15th

Ranking in Log Management

15th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

11th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Container Monitoring (5th)

WhatsUp Gold

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

26th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

19th

Ranking in Log Management

35th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

21st

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (24th), Server Monitoring (15th), Configuration Management (20th), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Cloud Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Elastic Observability is 2.4%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhatsUp Gold is 3.1%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Elastic Observability	2.4%
WhatsUp Gold	3.1%
Other	94.5%

Cloud Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Mohammed-Abdelalim

Assistant Vice President at QualityKiosk Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Has provided powerful customization for unique monitoring needs but needs more out-of-the-box capabilities

In my opinion, the best features of Elastic Observability are their flexibility to integrate with other existing systems and the ability to build a unified monitoring tool that can integrate with existing ones and end-to-end user journeys which require a lot of customizations. The greatest feature in Elastic is the ability to customize. This is similar to my comments about customizable dashboards in Elastic because it's visible to the analyst. However, it's very great. Customizing these dashboards can meet the customer's specific use cases and specific stories that they have in their environment, their special environment that doesn't look like other environments. The dashboarding in Elastic is highly customizable to the level of logos. If the customer wants his company logo in the dashboard, it can be done.

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

"It is very stable, and I would rate it ten out of ten based on my interaction with it."

"Elastic APM has plenty of features, such as the Elastic server for Kibana and many additional plugins. It's a comprehensive tool when used as a logging platform."

"It is scalable and supports multitenancy, which is beneficial for MSPs."

"The most valuable feature of Elastic Observability is the text search."

"I recommend Elastic Observability for its completeness of vision and wide ecosystem."

"Machine learning is the most valuable feature of this solution."

"I found Elk to be excellent for log analytics, security analytics, application code-level analytics, collaboration with DevOps teams, CI/CD, microservices, and Kubernetes, specifically cloud-native or cloud-specific tasks."

"The most valued feature of Elastic is its log analytics capabilities."

More Elastic Observability pros

"The most valuable feature is the auto-discovery function."

"I use it on premises to monitor my network database. We monitor the link up/down and use the SNMP traps as well."

"Auto scanning is most valuable. It looks for rogue devices on your network."

"The tool's most valuable feature is the visibility it offers of everything in the network and infrastructure."

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

"It is stable."

"We no longer have to manually search for problems because we are alerted when something in the network goes down."

"It's a good product, and if one has the expertise to use it, it will be a good investment and it will help IT to save and plan for the future."

More WhatsUp Gold pros

Cons

"There's a steep learning curve if you've never used this solution before."

"In the future, Elastic APM needs a portfolio iTool. They can provide an easy way to develop the custom UI for Kibana."

"I would have preferred built-in tools to manage the indexes on deployment for better visual representation, as the initial feedback regarding system performance and data storage was fairly primitive and lacking."

"The interface could be improved."

"When opening tickets, we cannot use our team mailbox."

"The auto-discovery isn't nearly as good. That's a big portion of it. When you drop the agent onto the JVM and you're trying to figure things out, having to go through and manually do all that is cumbersome."

"The price is the only issue in the solution. It can be made better and cheaper."

"One example is the inability to monitor very old databases with the newest version."

More Elastic Observability cons

"The new release cadence needs to be improved. It takes a while for them to add new features and functionality. There should be a quicker turnaround with new versions."

"You have to invest a few days to become an expert in this solution."

"Importing the maps and being able to customize them could be easier."

"The initial setup of WhatsUp Gold is a medium range of difficulty levels. However, if it is your first time it could be difficult."

"I would like to see better integration with switches so that you can see what is connected to each port, what the traffic is, and have a network map automatically generated."

"I might like to see a better interface in the future."

"Pricing is too high relative to how many devices we use. The price list is not linear to number of devices."

"Setting up WhatsUp Gold is complicated and not easy because it requires managing SNMP and many complex settings in the devices it's monitoring, and fine-tuning it to fit our needs is also not very easy."

More WhatsUp Gold cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is not that cheap."

"Users have to pay for some features, like the alerts on different channels, because they are unavailable in different source versions."

"So far, there are just the standard licensing fees. Several of the components are embedded in the license or are even open source. They're even free depending on what you use, which makes it even more appealing to someone that is discussing pricing of the solution."

"Elastic Observability's pricing could be better for small-scale users."

"The price of Elastic Observability is expensive."

"We will buy a premium license after POC."

"Elastic Observability is cheaper than other similar solutions, such as Dynatrace. Its license calculation is based on various factors like data volume and physical infrastructure, particularly related to RAM capacity."

"One needs to pay for the licenses, and it is an annual subscription model right now."

More Elastic Observability pricing and cost advice

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

"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."

"The price of WhatsUp Gold is good."

"This is a well priced solution."

"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."

"Pricing is reasonable compared to other products."

"The tool's price is reasonable. WhatsUp Gold is cheaper than SolarWinds."

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

More WhatsUp Gold pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

10%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	16

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

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Elastic Observability?

Elastic Observability significantly improves incident response time by providing quick access to logs and data across various sources. For instance, searching for specific keywords in logs spanning...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Elastic Observability?

The problem is their licensing model, which is a bit confusing. Many customers struggle to understand their total cost of ownership because Elastic licensing is not dependent on easy, quantifiable ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Elastic Observability?

After careful consideration about areas for improvement in Elastic Observability, aspects such as pricing, customization, implementation, and scalability could be improved. As a user of the system,...

See all answers

What do you like most about WhatsUp Gold?

The interactive mapping interface for scrolling, zooming, and drilling down on an element to learn about a network issue is good. When we see a network there will sometimes be a spot that has one l...

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

Comparisons

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Compared 6% of the time

Grafana vs Elastic Observability

Compared 6% of the time

New Relic vs Elastic Observability

Compared 5% of the time

Sentry vs Elastic Observability

Compared 5% of the time

Datadog vs Elastic Observability

Compared 4% of the time

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LibreNMS vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 4% of the time

SCOM vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 4% 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

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Observability

March 2026

Download Elastic Observability product report

Buyer's Guide

WhatsUp Gold

February 2026

Download WhatsUp Gold product report

Overview

Elastic Observability offers a comprehensive suite for log analytics, application performance monitoring, and machine learning. It integrates seamlessly with platforms like Teams and Slack, enhancing data visualization and scalability for real-time insights.

Elastic Observability is designed to support production environments with features like logging, data collection, and infrastructure tracking. Centralized logging and powerful search functionalities make incident response and performance tracking efficient. Elastic APM and Kibana facilitate detailed data visualization, promoting rapid troubleshooting and effective system performance analysis. Integrated services and extensive connectivity options enhance its role in business and technical decision-making by providing actionable data insights.

What are the most important features of Elastic Observability?

Centralized Logging: Streamlines the collection, analysis, and storage of log data.
Powerful Search: Provides robust search capabilities for quick access to relevant information.
Scalability: Supports growing data needs across diverse environments.
Real-time Telemetry: Ensures up-to-date insights and monitoring.
Platform Integration: Seamlessly connects with services like Teams and Slack.
Data Visualization: Enhances visibility with Elastic APM and Kibana.

What benefits and ROI should users explore in reviews?

Cost-effectiveness: Offers significant savings through efficient data management.
Rapid Incident Response: Minimizes downtime with quick troubleshooting tools.
Comprehensive Insights: Supports better business decisions with detailed data analysis.
Performance Tracking: Enables assessment of system effectiveness and improvements.

Elastic Observability is employed across industries for critical operations, such as in finance for transaction monitoring, in healthcare for secure data management, and in technology for optimizing application performance. Its data-driven approach aids efficient event tracing, supporting diverse industry requirements.

Elastic

Explore and manage your entire network infrastructure effortlessly with WhatsUp Gold's robust layer 2/3 discovery, creating a detailed interactive map from the edge to the cloud. Monitor devices, wireless controllers, servers, virtual machines, applications, and traffic flows across various environments. Real-time alerts ensure optimal performance, allowing you to meet or exceed SLAs. The platform offers customizable maps, dashboards, and alerts for easy network management. Quickly resolve issues with intuitive workflows, reducing Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR). WhatsUp Gold's integrated log management provides easy visibility and control of device log data, allowing monitoring, filtering, searching, and alerting on syslogs or Windows logs. Archive logs to comply with regulatory requirements and preserve historical data, all through a user-friendly interface. Streamline network monitoring and issue resolution with WhatsUp Gold, making network management efficient and hassle-free.

Progress Software

Sample Customers

PSCU, Entel, VITAS, Mimecast, Barrett Steel, Butterfield Bank

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

Elastic Observability vs. WhatsUp Gold

March 2026

Free Report: Elastic Observability vs. WhatsUp Gold

Find out what your peers are saying about Elastic Observability vs. WhatsUp Gold and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

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See our Elastic Observability vs. WhatsUp Gold report.

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