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NETSCOUT Network & Application Observability vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 12, 2026

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

NETSCOUT Network & Applicat...
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
92
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (46th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (29th), Network Troubleshooting (12th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (11th)
SolarWinds Network Device M...
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
34th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of NETSCOUT Network & Application Observability is 3.8%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is 0.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NETSCOUT Network & Application Observability3.8%
SolarWinds Network Device Monitor0.8%
Other95.4%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

HT
Newwork And Collaboration Supervisor at Nafeza
Monitoring has improved bandwidth insights and application diagnosis but setup and costs still need work
They need room for improvement about the spare parts. There are shortages in Egypt in their stock. We tried to make RMA for specific parts, and it took a long time. Comparing this to a vendor like Cisco, who provides any component next business day, NETSCOUT nGeniusONE took a long time. This needs more improvement. I believe it is expensive. They need to reduce its budget a little bit. Comparing to other solutions, it is very expensive.
SG
IT Infrastructure Senior Network Technician at Autoliv
Offers some features but needs better customization and analysis tools
There are solutions that can perform better, but due to pricing for our corporate implementation, we had to stay with this solution. It accomplishes the necessary tasks, but there is room for improvement. The features are not as customizable as we would prefer, but they are workable. If configured properly, you can perform a drill-down analysis. However, I have not used this feature much for our infrastructure on the network side.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We have seen a measurable decrease in mean time to know and mean time to repair, and because the tool allows us to get to things a lot quicker and see things a lot quicker, we have actually reduced those times and it has definitely helped with our network uptime, with an improvement in uptime of at least 50 percent."
"We build application dashboards and performance indexes for locations."
"The real-time insights that NETSCOUT nGeniusONE provides are very helpful."
"Proactive versus a customer having a bad experience: That is the key point."
"The ability to troubleshoot customers' connectivity has been very beneficial."
"The solution most definitely provides us with increased visibility while conducting an IT deployment, allowing us to understand changes that we're making in the network, see our network's performance day-to-day and hour-to-hour, and even identify customer impact before the customer complains."
"The packet capture is the most valuable feature for us. It gathers data from the device. In case somebody has a problem, I can go back X amount of time - days, hours - and get the data to do real troubleshooting."
"The product is stable. I have never had any issue where we have lost an InfiniStream, or visibility from that particular InfiniStream, throughout the bank."
"The solution and its interface are elaborate and fully integrate all monitored items for easy analysis and troubleshooting."
"I rate the product's initial setup process a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one means it is a difficult phase and ten is an easy process."
"Overall, it is a good user experience and the dashboards are very usable."
"SolarWinds is flexible and works with multiple vendor devices."
"I like the mapping that you could do and the dashboards were very pretty."
"The alerts we are getting when we start losing connection access have been helpful."
"The product is useful for switches and IP phones."
"The most valuable features of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor are the reports. We are configuring the reports, and the first reports are only about the devices. We are configuring the thresholds in order to monitor all the devices."
 

Cons

"Another thing that would help out is if they packaged the NetFlow monitor into nGeniusONE. Their NetFlow monitor works with nGeniusONE where you can actually get the netflow of pretty much anything you hook it up to. But it's a separate box that you have to buy. If there was a way that could package that into nGeniusONE, it would be a complete package straight out of the box."
"The monitoring and reporting tool needs improvement."
"There are so many pieces of their product that integrate with one another that perhaps a recommendation for improvement would be some sort of bigger overview and map to help understand how all their pieces integrate together."
"Most of the functionality I mentioned above could be improved, to be honest. Also, it's not intuitive, it's not simple to use."
"There's a little too much investigation that the user has to do at this point."
"The technology goes end-of-life on us every year, which is why I am looking forward to vSTREAM."
"We have faced delays in data retrieval and the lack of support due to the product being out of service."
"The solution is not great, but it is not bad."
"The solution is not user-friendly."
"Although I haven't explored all of the features available, I wouldn't mind if the software were made to be a bit more customizable."
"The solution lacks in performance monitoring."
"In terms of price, it could be less expensive."
"SolarWinds Network Device Monitor could improve by being more user-friendly. The network has so many features which make it difficult to find how to configure how to use it. It is not simple to customize."
"SolarWinds pricing is on the higher side, and in India, every customer is cautious about commercial aspects."
"The initial setup is a bit complex. It's not for anyone who is a beginner to work in the products to do it."
"SolarWinds Network Device Monitor lacks the granularity of other monitoring tools like LiveNX."
 

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."
"The biggest problem we have with this product is the expense."
"The license becomes cost prohibitive very quickly."
"Like any company, we always want better pricing. The pricing is okay, but it's not a cheap solution. When you want to deploy it across an enterprise as large as ours, you go into seven figures. It's not a cheap solution to get out there."
"It is very expensive, but it's well worth the money."
"There is a need to make yearly payments towards the licensing charges attached to the product. The product may come across as a cheap tool for some, while it may seem costly for others."
"Make sure you get the low down on your licensing and understand the licensing requirements before making a purchase, especially when it comes to an upgrade. Make sure that it suits your needs before you commit to it. For example, we purchased ATA at version 6.2.1. At that time, the licensing covered everything we need. NETSCOUT comes out with 6.2.2, stating that in order to upgrade, you had to purchase CyberStream licensing. Now that requires some additional funding from both a capital investment and a maintenance cost. That's something that should have been said, "Well, if you want these additional features, you will need to purchase these CyberStreams." Otherwise, we should be allowed to continue on the basic operations as it is now through the newer releases without being stuck."
"I rate the price of NETSCOUT nGeniusONE a four out of five."
"Well, we had a perpetual license and the renewal was $20 to $25,000."
"I rate the product's price as three to three and a half or on a scale of one to ten, where one means low price, and ten means high price."
"I find the cost of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor reasonable for our company. Though, I'm not aware of the exact licensing cost."
"Thankfully, it doesn't take a lot of manpower to install and deploy."
"The price of the SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is good."
"When compared with other solutions SolarWinds is more expensive."
"The product is expensive."
"The enterprise license is good for the SolarWinds Network Device Monitor. However, it is expensive, they should reduce their price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
17%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise59
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
I would say if it’s an ISP that will build a scrubbing center, Netscout/Arbor is a good solution. In all other solutions, Imperva is a great choice.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NETSCOUT nGeniusONE?
Regarding its high price, I give NETSCOUT nGeniusONE a seven.
What needs improvement with NETSCOUT nGeniusONE?
They need room for improvement about the spare parts. There are shortages in Egypt in their stock. We tried to make RMA for specific parts, and it took a long time. Comparing this to a vendor like ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?
I am not a positive person regarding SolarWinds Network Device Monitor.
What needs improvement with SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?
There are solutions that can perform better, but due to pricing for our corporate implementation, we had to stay with this solution. It accomplishes the necessary tasks, but there is room for impro...
What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?
I have experience regarding the AD part, but my focus for the last 15 years has been oriented to the network side. My experience with identity tools comes more from a network perspective. We used N...
 

Also Known As

NETSCOUT nGenius, NETSCOUT nGeniusONE, NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE, NETSCOUT vSTREAM, NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG, TruView
Network Device Monitor
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Cerner Corporation
Air Rarotonga
Find out what your peers are saying about NETSCOUT Network & Application Observability vs. SolarWinds Network Device Monitor and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.