NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs vRealize Network Insight comparison

NETSCOUT and Broadcom are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. NETSCOUT is ranked #85, while Broadcom is ranked #34 with an average rating of 8.3. NETSCOUT holds a 0.4% mindshare in NMS, compared to Broadcom’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of NETSCOUT users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

NETSCOUT vSTREAM

Read 3 NETSCOUT vSTREAM reviews

677 Views
643 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

vRealize Network Insight

Read 47 vRealize Network Insight reviews

2,191 Views
1,556 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

NETSCOUT vSTREAM

vRealize Network Insight

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

vRealize Network Insight and NETSCOUT vSTREAM are competitors in the network performance management space. vRealize Network Insight has an advantage in terms of pricing and support, whereas NETSCOUT vSTREAM is preferred for its extensive feature set, which justifies a higher cost.

Features: vRealize Network Insight offers comprehensive network visualization, analytics for cloud environments, and application performance insights. NETSCOUT vSTREAM provides robust traffic analysis, real-time monitoring, and precise troubleshooting insights for complex networks.

Room for Improvement: vRealize Network Insight could enhance its traffic analysis capabilities, provide more in-depth real-time monitoring features, and improve its troubleshooting tools for large-scale networks. NETSCOUT vSTREAM may benefit from an improved cloud compatibility, streamlined onboarding process, and more user-friendly interfaces.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: vRealize Network Insight's cloud-based model ensures simplified onboarding, reducing initial complexity. NETSCOUT vSTREAM's on-premises deployment requires more time and effort, but it provides excellent ongoing support.

Pricing and ROI: vRealize Network Insight is noted for its competitive pricing and lower initial setup costs, resulting in a quicker ROI. NETSCOUT vSTREAM offers a significant ROI thanks to its advanced functionalities but at a higher initial investment.

To learn more, read our detailed NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. vRealize Network Insight Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. vRealize Network Insight

December 2025

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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 vSTREAM

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

85th

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

vRealize Network Insight

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

34th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (38th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of NETSCOUT vSTREAM is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vRealize Network Insight is 0.7%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
vRealize Network Insight	0.7%
NETSCOUT vSTREAM	0.4%
Other	98.9%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Keval Lodaya

Network Engineer at Inniti Network Solution

A user-friendly solution that is easy to install and improves visibility

I would like to see improvements made to the user guide. From my personal experience, it is helpful to see a list of steps describing what to do next in different situations. An example is what to do and what to back up in the case of certain types of failure. There are also cases where a customer can't understand specific features. Enhancements to the user guide would be helpful for this. More features for network fragmentation would be helpful.

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Shaijith KB

Senior System Specialist at General Directorate of Residence and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA)

Comprehensive management and detailed reports benefit operations while improvements are needed in support and maintenance

We have Tanzu and OpenShift. We have OpenShift, Canonical, and the Tanzu one. The Tanzu platform from VMware is a Kubernetes platform. We haven't completely installed Tanzu yet; we installed the vROps part. vRealize Network Insight is beneficial because you can control the East-West traffic. vRealize has a component called NSX, which has East-West traffic controlling and micro-segmentation, that is one of the best options, and we have the layer extension, layer 2 extension possible through NSX. If you have anything accountable in any business, even in a candy business, having proper accountability on what you are selling and buying will save a lot. If you don't know what you're selling and buying, you will end up with a loss. My team does not use the flow analytics feature; we have a security and network monitoring team, which is a different SOC team. I am using it as an administrator internally. We perform different tasks including costing analysis, capacity management, and many other things. vRealize Network Insight has a concern about the maintenance part, as it requires a person to monitor it completely. It's not something you install and your report will be generated automatically. You have to work on this properly to get the insights. vRealize Network Automation, vRealize Operations, and vRealize Network Insight are completely related to the network. I cannot say much about these network aspects because I am on the operations side, but overall, the vRealize suite is good for reporting perspective or any ISO-related documentation; this is very helpful. The product is called vRealize Operations Manager, and now it is referred to as Aria or vAria. I am now a Senior System Specialist. We use different metrics because we have multiple departments, and we can monitor utilization and comparisons with the previous year. On a scale of one to ten, I rate this solution a seven.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the valuable features is the packet decoding."

"vSTREAM gives us better visibility and reporting about our network infrastructure, allowing for cost-optimization."

"It allows us to see how the network devices function as well as to see network glitches or fluctuations or dropping of packets."

"One of the most valuable features is the ability to look at the traffic flows, to look at NetFlow data."

"The most valuable feature is the profiling of the applications for micro-segmentation... It has made the migration to NSX much easier. Most of the sys admins within the smaller silos, they have no idea what ports are needed to run their stuff at all. I am pretty sure the micro-segmentation would never, ever have occurred without it."

"It allowed us to set up NSX and to do microsegmentation, without all of the pain points of having to determine each port and each IP address that needed to have access, and which ones needed to be blocked."

"The solution helps reduce time to value, increase performance, provide deep visibility, and easily manage networks."

"By doing dependency mapping, it makes migrations more efficient. There are less outages that require engineers to spend additional hours troubleshooting the migration failures."

"It especially helps with deploying NSX, that you're not having to manually chase down and figure out what you need to do to microsegment VMs. This gives a nice option where you can say, "Hey, this VM, show me what flows are there." I can export it out and then import it as an NSX rule and job done."

"What's valuable to us is the ability to get a view into the virtual space, which is something we haven't had before. Before, it was done by collecting from network endpoints and extrapolating into the virtual environment. Now it's coming directly from the virtual environment."

More vRealize Network Insight pros

Cons

"I would like for it to have a smaller footprint of the virtual appliance and better performance."

"Room for improvement exists in filtering in the packet decode."

"I would like to see improvements made to the user guide."

"The compatibility with each and every component of the infrastructure is the main thing that I am looking for. I would like them to make sure that it's compatible with different kinds of storage systems, etc. I have seen the compatibility list. I feel it can be more compatible than it is right now."

"The IT infrastructure industry is expected to evolve towards a hybrid cloud model in the next five to ten years. In this model, most of the customer's resources reside on-premise within a private cloud setup, such as VMware. Another segment operates within public cloud environments like Azure and AWS, and a portion remains in traditional data centers. There should be seamless interoperability between public and private clouds. AWS and VMware need to work together to make it possible. Whether users interact with on-premise infrastructure or configure resources in the public cloud, the user experience must be seamless."

"While it's not exactly a feature, what normally happens when we are trying to look at the VM flow portion is - although Network Insight does have options to integrate a few physical switches into it - we can't really get an end-to-end flow of the network. We might be using a few switches that are not supported by Network Insight. That is where they can improve, in the support for more physical switches and network devices."

"The UI, even though once you get to know it, it's easier, still it's hard to figure out by yourself. You have to go read, watch videos. It has a lot of data on it. So that is an issue."

"After Broadcom acquired VMware, I would rate their support at five or less in many cases. It's difficult to find necessary documentation, open tickets, and get support."

"I would like to see more interoperability on the firewall and low balancer sides."

"After you use it for a little while you become accustomed to it but the layout doesn't feel very intuitive. You have to dig around and find the exact place where you can find the information, where you can actually see your east-west traffic, etc. I would like them to bring that information more to the forefront, instead of having to find it."

"Support could be much better."

More vRealize Network Insight cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing is quite expensive."

"It's an expensive product because we have a lot of nodes."

"They should include the product in NSX because it's important to have it for deployment."

"The solution has helped us to reduce time, increase performance, reduce costs, and even easily manage networks. We are probably seeing 10 to 20 percent labor savings because we are able to be very specific and focused on what we want to do. It ends up saving the customer money and makes us be more efficient on our cost deliveries."

"It has brought more money into our company."

"It reduces costs. It takes something that may be challenging and makes it more usable and visual by being able to bring in tools, seeing what their impact is, such as microsegmentation and application rationalization, and seeing it quickly."

"I rate vRealize Network Insight's pricing a seven point five out of ten."

"Cost always has room for improvement, you could always make it cheaper. But I think it's a good value for what you pay for it."

"We have spent less time investigating network flows, so it is absolutely cost-effective."

More vRealize Network Insight pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Energy/Utilities Company

14%

Government

11%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

Healthcare Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	41

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about vRealize Network Insight?

The tool's ease of configuration and use and the availability of information and artifacts through professional services and the web are key factors that customers find valuable.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vRealize Network Insight?

In VMware you have to buy a separate license for it. We have VVF and VCF-type of licenses, and if you want to go with this NSX and sort of higher-end professional services, you need to go with VCF....

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What needs improvement with vRealize Network Insight?

There is room for improvement as not all cases are getting resolved, and we often do not get L3 support directly, having to go through L1 and L2, resulting in delays that usually are a headache for...

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Network Monitoring Software

January 2026

Download NETSCOUT vSTREAM product report

Buyer's Guide

vRealize Network Insight

January 2026

Download vRealize Network Insight product report

Also Known As

vSTREAM

Arkin

Overview

The vSTREAM virtual appliance complements existing Adaptive Session Intelligence (ASI)-based instrumentation to provide the same level of visibility within virtualized and cloud infrastructures that is already possible in physical environments. The vSTREAM virtual appliance is ideal for monitoring service-critical traffic running within virtualized or cloud infrastructures, either locally on a host or as an aggregation point for multiple hosts. With complete visibility across physical, virtual and cloud networks, the vSTREAM virtual appliance presents real-time views of end-to-end call trace data and network-wide KPIs, to protect the reliability and availability of networks and application services.

NETSCOUT

VMware vRealize Network Insight delivers intelligent operations for software-defined networking and security. It helps customers build an optimized, highly-available and secure network infrastructure across multi-cloud environments. It accelerates micro-segmentation planning and deployment, enables visibility across virtual and physical networks and provides operational views to manage and scale VMware NSX deployments.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Metropolitan Police Agency, Banpara, PropertyRoom.com

NTTi3, VCIX-NV, VMware Networking and Security Business Unit, Illumio, CompuNet

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. vRealize Network Insight

December 2025

Free Report: NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. vRealize Network Insight

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