Iris Session Analyzer vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer comparison

NETSCOUT and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) category. NETSCOUT is ranked #15, while SolarWinds is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.8. NETSCOUT holds a 1.6% mindshare in NTA, compared to SolarWinds’s 5.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of NETSCOUT users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

Iris Session Analyzer

Read 2 Iris Session Analyzer reviews

207 Views
205 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic ...

Read 43 SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer reviews

1,825 Views
584 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Iris Session Analyzer

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic ...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer and Iris Session Analyzer are network monitoring solutions. Users tend to favor Iris Session Analyzer for its advanced features despite the higher cost.

Features: SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer offers detailed traffic analysis, customizable alerts, and extensive network monitoring capabilities. Iris Session Analyzer provides robust session tracking, in-depth protocol analysis, and comprehensive packet capturing. Iris Session Analyzer delivers deeper insights into packet-level data.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer could benefit from more intuitive navigation and better integration with third-party tools. Iris Session Analyzer needs improved documentation and experiences occasional performance lags with large data sets.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer has a straightforward deployment process and responsive customer service. Iris Session Analyzer requires significant configuration but also has reliable customer service.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is competitively priced with a favorable return on investment. Iris Session Analyzer has a higher cost but is considered worth the price due to its feature set.

To learn more, read our detailed Iris Session Analyzer vs. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Iris Session Analyzer vs. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 868,706 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

Iris Session Analyzer

Ranking in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

15th

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic ...

Ranking in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

4th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) category, the mindshare of Iris Session Analyzer is 1.6%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is 5.1%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer	5.1%
Iris Session Analyzer	1.6%
Other	93.3%

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

Featured Reviews

Muhammad Anas

Assistant Manager NOC and Infrastructure at NiFT

Provides a memory utilization graph and shows disk space and uplink utilization but could include smart navigation in next release

The solution is deployed on-premises. There are more than 20 people who use this solution in my organization. They're infrastructure engineers, network engineers, and information security engineers A great feature is the memory utilization graph. It shows utilization, disk space utilization,…

Read full review

Raja Xabi

Technical Manager at APRAL

Improved bandwidth management and network visibility have resulted in financial benefits and streamlined operations

There is always room for improvement in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, such as implementing instant reporting based on business intelligence reports and more granular filters in their dashboard to improve the GUI view and reporting. The licensing model of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is always an issue for users because competitors offer unlimited and perpetual licenses, and SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer's model is quite costly compared to other brands. If users are comfortable with SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, they have to make the hard decision to invest, and it's suggested from a user's perspective that SolarWinds should improve their financial model and licensing to become competitive, especially for small to medium businesses.

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

"A great feature is the memory utilization graph."

"The feature that I have found the most useful is the decode of packets. It gives us a variety of information that helps us in figuring out what to look at. The networks are getting really complex, and without the information that we get from Iris Session Analyzer, we couldn't do our job. Its graphical user interface is also very easy to use and intuitive."

"It helps us know when a branch is down because it has a graphic presentation of all the locations a node represents."

"What I like the most is the bandwidth assessment."

"The support is excellent."

"It is great at telling you if your devices are working and it keeps an eye on your network's overall performance."

"What the network team found most valuable in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is that it helps them to troubleshoot or analyze the issue. For example, traffic that comes from our location: India, goes to the US, so for the network team to analyze where the traffic comes from and where it is directed, and whether the packets are being dropped, they use SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer. The network team also likes that through the solution, they can analyze the complete traffic utilization and how they're going to use it. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is user-friendly. The team finds it comfortable to use."

"I rate the support in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer as 10 out of 10 because whenever I open a tech ticket, they respond instantly, and their engineer is well-equipped to resolve the issues."

"The most helpful feature of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is bandwidth analysis, which lets you see who's hogging your network."

"I would rate NetFlow Traffic Analyzer's stability ten out of ten."

More SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer pros

Cons

"Sometimes the network analyzer will show that a server is down when it's actually working."

"They can increase flexibility in the search engine. Basically, I go with the information I have at the time. If I could just type in the parameter that I want to search for and its value, it might be easier than having to do the groundwork upfront before I can get my traces."

"It does not flow. It cannot do our metric performance monitoring. So it is very limited. They can do it but in a very limited fashion. It is only good for SNMP-based alerts."

"SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer could improve its flexibility and integration with AI to provide analytics beyond just showing up/down statuses and traffic volumes."

"Deployment needs improvement. The process is complicated, requiring attention to infrastructure settings and installation of components like the origin application server, platform, close storage, and policy agents."

"An area for improvement in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is the dashboarding. The user interface also has room for improvement because it's currently clunky."

"As people always complain about the pricing for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, it's an area for improvement in the solution. People find it expensive. Another area for improvement in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is support, as it could be better."

"An area for improvement in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is application visibility because some applications aren't being recognized correctly. You can see applications such as Facebook and YouTube, but SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer needs to have more visibility into more applications. Currently, SolarWinds fails to detect more powerful applications, such as Zoom and Teams. If SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer can recognize every application and be able to report on each in terms of bandwidth, then that would be good. This is what I'd like to see in the next release of the solution."

"Technical support needs improvement."

"It can be complex to set up and configure."

More SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't know what the cost to buy the solution was, but I doubt if it's a significant part of the budget as far as the maintenance and support are concerned."

"We have licenses for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer. In terms of pricing, its license is not that expensive versus other tools such as HP."

"The solution's licensing is high-priced."

"While the pricing is fair, it could be better."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"Licensing for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is paid yearly, and there are no additional costs that you need to pay apart from the standard licensing fees because you don't need to purchase another solution to make SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer work. Pricing for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is more expensive than other solutions."

"For our environment, we pay approximately $25,000 USD yearly."

"NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is reasonably priced."

"The price of this solution is exceptional."

More SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

868,706 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	26

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

I have worked from 1973 with all kind of systems in large enterprises across the world. And have experience with all kind of software in monitoring from infra to end to end, it depends on the funct...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer?

The licensing model of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is always an issue for users because competitors offer unlimited and perpetual licenses, and SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer's model i...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer?

Regarding improvement, the application monitoring capabilities are not exceptional. If SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer could improve in that area, it would be helpful. It is less AIOps driven a...

See all answers

Comparisons

Nagios Network Analyzer vs Iris Session Analyzer

Compared 100% of the time

More Iris Session Analyzer Competitors

Zabbix vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

Compared 19% of the time

Darktrace vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

Compared 15% of the time

Wireshark vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

Compared 11% of the time

Plixer Scrutinizer vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

Compared 10% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

Compared 9% of the time

More SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

September 2025

Download Iris Session Analyzer product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

September 2025

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer report

Download SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer product report

Also Known As

No data available

Netflow Traffic Analyzer

Overview

Iris Session Analyzer (ISA) uncovers and analyzes the specific calls and sessions that fail to deliver required performance.

NETSCOUT

SolarWinds Netflow Traffic Analyzer enables you to capture data from continuous streams of network traffic and convert those raw numbers into easy-to-interpret charts and tables that quantify exactly how the corporate network is being used, by whom, and for what purpose.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

xtel communications, banco votorantim, petronas

Oceaneering International, Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, 335th Signal Command, Immofori

Buyer's Guide

Iris Session Analyzer vs. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

September 2025

Free Report: Iris Session Analyzer vs. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

Find out what your peers are saying about Iris Session Analyzer vs. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

868,706 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Iris Session Analyzer vs. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer report.

See our list of best Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) vendors.

We monitor all Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.