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Kentik vs Nmap comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.6
Kentik reduces bandwidth cost, improves latency and efficiency, automates insights, and eliminates the need for complex in-house tools.
Sentiment score
7.8
Nmap offers cost savings and efficiency for businesses, despite limitations, with users noting significant financial benefits like bug bounty earnings.
If we had, for example, a contracted capacity from Vivo of 50 GB and we were using 40, with Kentik we reduced this usage from 40 to 20.
Network Engineer at a media company with 51-200 employees
In production environments, especially for service providers on IP networks and data centers, Kentik helps in reducing the time to identify and resolve issues.
BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
I believe the return on investment has been mainly time savings in performing troubleshooting.
Network Analyst at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Kentik's customer service is praised for responsive support, expert assistance, proactive communication, and efficient issue resolution despite high demand.
Sentiment score
7.1
Nmap users benefit from community support and online resources, seldom needing formal technical support due to its robust functionality.
I have mostly used forums for any support needed because the setup is straightforward and the documentation is quite good.
BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
They have monthly calls and discuss the product roadmap with us to determine what is needed.
Network Engineer III at Fortanix
I have never reached out to customer support because Nmap never gave me any troubles.
Student at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Kentik demonstrates strong scalability and global integration capabilities, with users planning to expand due to its scalable infrastructure.
Sentiment score
8.2
Nmap is renowned for scalability, handling vast networks efficiently, praised for adaptability despite lacking cloud capabilities.
Kentik's integration with Kubernetes makes scaling easier.
BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
Kentik's scalability is effective; the platform can handle these large volumes.
Network Analyst at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Kentik's scalability depends on how it is contracted.
Network Engineer at a media company with 51-200 employees
Nmap's scalability is of a gold standard.
Student at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Kentik is reliable with minimal downtime, quick bug fixes, and positive feedback from users in various environments.
Sentiment score
8.1
Nmap is highly rated for stability and reliability, though some Windows users report issues after long-term use.
In production, however, dimensioning of the underlying platforms is something to be mindful of.
BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
Based on stability, I would give Kentik a nine.
Network Engineer III at Fortanix
I can say it is so great for us because if we configure it with Flowspec, the orchestration that we use, which is Kentik, makes the decision and automatically forwards the traffic to another position that we have in our network, or outgoing that we use.
Telecomm Analyst at a tech company with 11-50 employees
Nmap has never crashed, and it is an amazingly optimized tool.
Student at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Kentik seeks improvements in AI reliability, interface design, user permissions, and analytics features for enhanced user experience.
Nmap requires a GUI, faster scans, enhanced reporting, vulnerability assessments, advanced features, and improved stability for better usability.
More work is required to integrate AI for troubleshooting, simplifying root cause analysis, and providing suggested solutions for network issues.
BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
It needed to be a bit easier for new users and have slightly more customized reports.
Network Analyst at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Currently, the way I'm configuring it uses reactive alerts, which means alerts are triggered when an issue occurs. I would prefer more proactive alerts in the future.
Epicor Engineer at Sunway Group
Nmap could potentially become a GUI and provide automatic reports with one-click downloads.
Student at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Setup Cost

Kentik's pricing is seen as high, with annual contracts, discounts for education, and desired flexibility in licensing.
Nmap offers a free version and paid options for enterprises needing enhanced features and commercial support flexibility.
The pricing is good and aligns with the market target.
Sales Manager at IFX NEtworks
Kentik’s pricing is competitive in the marketplace.
BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
Later, the prices are very high to maintain all the functionality blocks.
Network Engineer at a media company with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

Kentik offers traffic visibility, real-time monitoring, and security enhancement with customizable dashboards, ideal for improving network performance and cost efficiency.
Nmap's powerful features offer comprehensive network analysis, vulnerability identification, and flexibility, making it essential for security audits and bug bounty projects.
The best features that Kentik offers are the ability to identify traffic end-to-end and to know which transit is used, if it goes through any other transit, to see the entire flow, from the subscriber to the content provider and vice versa.
Network Engineer at a media company with 51-200 employees
This allows for better understanding of whether there is a critical ongoing case related to incoming traffic, such as a DDoS event, which is crucial for a service provider dealing with numerous customers.
Network Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Kentik has positively impacted our organization because when something happens, we use Kentik to analyze the problem and it brings us a faster solution to the problem, and the troubleshooting is clearer.
Telecomm Analyst at a tech company with 11-50 employees
Nmap will be a little difficult for beginners because of the learning curve and the CLI-based system, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes very powerful.
Student at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Kentik
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
22nd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (16th)
Nmap
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
20th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Kentik is 1.8%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nmap is 1.1%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Nmap1.1%
Kentik1.8%
Other97.1%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

Gcecilio - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a media company with 51-200 employees
Traffic insights have reduced transit costs and support secure, direct connections with providers
The best features that Kentik offers are the ability to identify traffic end-to-end and to know which transit is used, if it goes through any other transit, to see the entire flow, from the subscriber to the content provider and vice versa, from the content provider to the subscriber.I can also determine whether it is symmetric or asymmetric traffic, and if it goes through any provider that has some kind of bottleneck. That is very important. Regarding the security part, which is also possible to handle through Kentik, you can configure it in a way that makes the network more secure and reduces the amount of dirty traffic or attacks received. Kentik has had a high positive impact on my organization. Besides the cost reduction, it has been possible to perform troubleshooting more effectively, and also regarding DDoS-related attacks. In addition to cost reduction, we had a more reliable connection. Since the moment we identified that it was possible to have a direct connection with content providers like CDN77, Cloudflare, and Akamai, we established a direct connection there through a PNI with these content providers, making the network less dependent on an IP transit provider.
Sai Aditya Panda - PeerSpot reviewer
Student at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Penetration testing has become efficient as I identify open ports and security risks with confidence
Nmap could potentially become a GUI and provide automatic reports with one-click downloads. For example, the report could show all the open ports for an IP address with a professionally formatted report. This is a far-fetched suggestion and not really required, but it could make the work a little better. On a scale of one to ten, I give Nmap a solid nine. I mean, how can you fix something that is not broken? Nmap is already the best, and I do not think there are any other features that can be added. Its job is reconnaissance, so I do not think there is more to add to it. However, if I get any ideas, I will let them know about this.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Media Company
9%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
9%
Government
9%
University
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kentik?
I would say Kentik's pricing is not cheap. From my perspective as part of the technical team, I would not categorize it as expensive, but I know it is not cheap.
What needs improvement with Kentik?
There's always room for improvements and better relations when using any kind of product. We faced some issues with Kentik UI and alerting, which we asked them to fix, and they succeeded. They have...
What is your primary use case for Kentik?
We are using Kentik mostly for synthetic tests, and from one last year, network monitoring as well. We are using it for inter DC BGP tests and server monitoring as well.
What is your primary use case for Nmap?
My main use case for Nmap is reconnaissance, so identifying open ports or running services and ultimately finding the security risks or vulnerabilities in a system. OS detection is the most importa...
What advice do you have for others considering Nmap?
I think I should be learning more about the commands and how Nmap works so that it will be better for my career. I will do that. There is nothing else to add to it, except a huge thank you to the p...
What needs improvement with Nmap?
Nmap could potentially become a GUI and provide automatic reports with one-click downloads. For example, the report could show all the open ports for an IP address with a professionally formatted r...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Pandora, Yelp, Neustar, Box, University of Washington, Zoom, Tata, and Cogent. 
Lockheed Martin, Eastern Bank Boston, Perspecta, Harris Corporation, Discovery Communication
Find out what your peers are saying about Kentik vs. Nmap and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
907,372 professionals have used our research since 2012.