Observer GigaStor vs SolarWinds NPM comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Viavi Solutions and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Viavi Solutions is ranked #84, while SolarWinds is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.3. Viavi Solutions holds a 0.5% mindshare in NMS, compared to SolarWinds’s 3.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Viavi Solutions users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

Observer GigaStor

Read 7 Observer GigaStor reviews

3,621 Views
2,317 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SolarWinds NPM

Read 161 SolarWinds NPM reviews

28,370 Views
21,845 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Observer GigaStor

SolarWinds NPM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

SolarWinds NPM and Observer GigaStor are competing products in the network performance monitoring space. SolarWinds NPM is favored for cost-effectiveness and user-friendly support, while Observer GigaStor stands out with comprehensive features suitable for detailed analysis.

Features: SolarWinds NPM provides real-time network monitoring, advanced alerting, and user-friendly dashboards. It offers robust scalability for growing networks. Observer GigaStor provides detailed packet capturing, deep packet inspection, and extensive data analysis capabilities. It also offers tools for comprehensive historical data review.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds NPM could improve with more detailed packet analysis, enhanced historical data context, and higher granularity in alerts. Observer GigaStor could benefit from simplified deployment processes, more intuitive user interfaces, and better integration with third-party tools.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds NPM is known for an easy setup and responsive customer service, making it accessible for businesses of all sizes. Observer GigaStor, requiring a more complex installation, addresses advanced user needs with its potent capabilities but may demand more technical support during deployment.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds NPM offers a straightforward, cost-effective pricing model, ensuring a solid ROI, particularly for budget-conscious businesses. Observer GigaStor, while demanding a higher initial investment, delivers excellent ROI for businesses prioritizing extensive network analysis and diagnostics.

To learn more, read our detailed Observer GigaStor vs. SolarWinds NPM Report (Updated: November 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor vs. SolarWinds NPM

November 2026

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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

Observer GigaStor

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

84th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Troubleshooting (14th), Network Packet Broker (NPB) (6th)

SolarWinds NPM

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

161

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (8th), Cloud Monitoring Software (9th)

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Observer GigaStor is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 3.6%, down from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SolarWinds NPM	3.6%
Observer GigaStor	0.5%
Other	95.9%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Jeroen-Dubbelman

Director at Bitrate

Aids significantly in the threat-hunting process and provides a score-based evaluation of user experience

There are many valuable features, but understanding end-user response times stands out. It provides a score-based evaluation of user experience, helping customers quickly pinpoint whether issues originate from the network, server, client, or application. Additionally, it facilitates in-depth analysis of application dependencies. The retrospective network analysis capability of Observer GigaStor has been beneficial. It's a pivotal feature for network performance solutions. However, I prefer to consider the entire solution suite - GigaStor, along with GigaFlow and Apex - for comprehensive network visibility and monitoring. So, I prefer to integrate all three solutions to provide the best visibility. They complement each other well, with Apex aggregating and correlating data from both GigaStor and GigaFlow to enhance environmental understanding and troubleshooting efficiency.

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Vivek Jaiswal

Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Central monitoring has improved outage alerts and now needs smarter detection and modern dashboards

Regarding the automated network topology and mapping feature in SolarWinds NPM, I am not satisfied with it. For static monitoring, it is acceptable. However, if it is possible, I would need a feature in SolarWinds in the future for some kind of malfunctioning detection, such as malware attacks or that type of environment. We did not have any facility to detect that in SolarWinds. I think it would be better to incorporate those types of features. Regarding customization options in SolarWinds, the ability to customize the dashboard has room for improvement. The dashboard is quite old, and we need some improvement in it. Nowadays, we have multiple tools with AI-based monitoring and web-based dashboards. SolarWinds also has a web-based dashboard, but I think there is scope for improvement in the UI. There may be other areas I would like to improve in SolarWinds NPM.

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

"If you have the opportunity, I would strongly encourage you to get it, because it makes the IT experience easier and more flexible, by providing the ability to see things in your networks like the directory packet label."

"Go take a look at it. It's a great product and has great capabilities."

"I have no regrets using this product, I am very satisfied for what I paid for it and for the things I am able to do with the product."

"There are many valuable features, but understanding end-user response times stands out. It provides a score-based evaluation of user experience, helping customers quickly pinpoint whether issues originate from the network, server, client, or application. Additionally, it facilitates in-depth analysis of application dependencies."

"Industry-leading line rates, packet-capture technology and data-mining capabilities are the most valuable features."

"This solution allows us to see exactly what is going on in the network and we can very quickly solve issues with users."

"It's able to capture packets and, after a long time, you can come and use that information; to check, to analyze - everything you would want to do. So it's very good and helpful if you want to protect your data. It is stored in a certain place where you can access it every time you want to analyze it."

"I also have the ability to see an application's performance, to see what's going on, why a network is slow, why this program for this user is experiencing a delay or some network issue"

More Observer GigaStor pros

"We found that it was easy to operate, and it was simple if anyone has entry-level working experience or even if someone is not experienced."

"This solution provides one standardized platform for network device monitoring."

"It improved the way our organization functions by being a consolidated product which I was able to do a lot of the initial data entry and organization with."

"The alerting system in SolarWinds NPM aids in proactive network management."

"SolarWinds NPM has a colorful UI and many easy-to-use features. It does not need to be configured as much and is also easy to install."

"Having all 3 products tied together gives me the data I need to accurately pinpoint a problem within moments, instead of collating data from various applications and servers."

"Without NPM monitoring, we would be in a world of hurt and constantly responding to outages and unexpected downtime."

"SolarWinds NPM is useful for any company that has business-critical applications running over a network and they want to monitor the network behavior."

More SolarWinds NPM pros

Cons

"The Observer Console UI is consistent and stable, but could use some updating to be more modern."

"GigaStor feeds into Apex. So, the area where there could be improvement would be in artificial intelligence. For example, the incorporation of more advanced machine learning or AI capabilities could enhance its functionality."

"The interface is pretty complex, so for the average user, it takes a while to get up to speed with it. I would like it to be more user-friendly."

"Maybe the graphical user interface could be simplified to allow people to use it more easily. It's already good, but they can work more on it to make it even easier."

"I would like to have more than 4TB of storage available in the portable version of this solution."

"There are some issues, in our environment that puts processing restraints on the Gigastor when turning on trending data to be sent to APEX."

"Graphics need improvement. Because a lot of the information there you have to input first in some case to have full potential. It could be more automated."

"Map section and Bandwidth."

"Stability is an issue. We have installed SolarWinds (Server 2016) on a dedicated physical server and as a virtual machine in a brand new Hyper-V environment with brand new servers."

"The product is scalable, but at a cost. Extra modules have to be purchased for each extra server. The initial set up isn't complex, but will require someone who is experienced with the network monitoring system"

"SolarWinds NPM can be very slow at times. The database optimization can be done to improve the product performance."

"Technical Support: This is also an area where SolarWinds could do a lot better."

"The cost is based on the number of nodes, so it is expensive when you have a lot of them."

"It would be nice if SolarWinds could have a polling engine on the site that would collect the reporting and then manage everything itself."

"I would like to have a Syslog server module for this product. That would make the solution better."

More SolarWinds NPM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's quite expensive."

"It depends on the requirements you have. There are three types of license. There's the updates license, the work group license, and the workstation license."

"I believe the original setup cost was around $3500 with an annual cost of around $1200-$1500 to renew the support license. This would bring the average day-to-day cost of around $5-$6 over three years."

"The cost is based on the number of nodes, so it is expensive when you have a lot of them."

"It is not an expensive product."

"Excluding the costs of running VMs and physical blade servers, our licensing costs run around US$200,000/year for over 60 polling engines."

"The standard licensing fees are what we're paying. It's about $20,000 a year for all our licensing."

"I’d suggest that people be aware that licensing has tiers."

"Licenses depend on the number of devices, but all license levels come with technical support."

"There is a permanent license and also a subscription level which has annual fees. The price of the solution is fair."

More SolarWinds NPM pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user174738

IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

May 31, 2015

Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor

I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

17%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

Outsourcing Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	60
Midsize Enterprise	33
Large Enterprise	87

Questions from the Community

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What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

It actually depends on the exact purpose or kind of devices (network devices, servers, something else). Some tools are better for only network devices while others are better for a cloud monitoring...

See all answers

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

From my point of view, SolarWind is the best tool.

See all answers

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

We are partners with SolarWinds and we sell a lot of Network management to large enterprises also because of scalability, products like Network Performance Monitor & Netflow Traffic Analyzer ar...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

Gigamon Deep Observability Pipeline vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 5% of the time

IxChariot vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 5% of the time

Viavi Observer Platform vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 5% of the time

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Nagios XI vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 3% of the time

DX Spectrum vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 3% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 3% of the time

ManageEngine OpManager vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 3% of the time

NETSCOUT Network & Application Observability vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 2% of the time

More SolarWinds NPM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor

October 2026

Download Observer GigaStor product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds NPM

October 2026

Download SolarWinds NPM product report

Also Known As

No data available

Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer

Overview

Observer GigaStor provides detailed network visibility and data capture for efficient troubleshooting and analysis. It's a robust tool designed to manage today’s complex network environments, offering reliability and performance insights.

Observer GigaStor specializes in long-term network traffic capture, delivering comprehensive forensic analysis capabilities. It stands as a trusted resource for IT departments aiming to resolve network performance issues swiftly. By capturing and storing packets with high precision, it aids in identifying both current and past anomalies, ensuring network health and performance continuity through proactive monitoring.

What are the key features of Observer GigaStor?

Long-term Data Capture: Enables storage of vast amounts of data for extensive historical analysis.
Comprehensive Protocol Support: Offers support for diverse protocols, enhancing troubleshooting accuracy.
Retrospective Analysis: Provides the ability to trace issues back to their origin point, improving issue resolution speed.
Scalability: Adapts to network growth without sacrificing performance capabilities.

What benefits and ROI can be expected from reviews?

Increased Troubleshooting Efficiency: Provides quicker resolution times, reducing network downtime.
Enhanced Network Visibility: Improves understanding of network performance and traffic patterns.
Reduced Operational Costs: Limits the need for manual troubleshooting, saving on labor costs.
Improved Decision Making: Data insights aid in strategic planning for infrastructure improvements.

Observer GigaStor's implementation spans across various industries, from telecommunications to finance, where maintaining robust and secure network performance is crucial. Its ability to analyze and retrieve historical network data supports compliance and operational stability demands in these sectors.

Viavi Solutions

SolarWinds NPM is a network performance monitoring tool offering a user-friendly interface with customizable dashboards. It provides real-time tracking of device health, latency, and bandwidth utilization, supporting diverse integration and scalability needs.

SolarWinds NPM's robust features include real-time monitoring of network performance and efficient tracking of device health, latency, and bandwidth utilization. The tool is appreciated for its ease of deployment, scalability, and support for integration with other tools. Features like SNMP monitoring, NetPath, and comprehensive reporting enhance its diagnostic capabilities and network visibility. However, users identify areas for improvement such as real-time analytics, advanced customization options, and enhanced scalability for larger enterprises. Better customer support, improved integrations, and security measures are also desired.

What are the key features of SolarWinds NPM?

User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies navigation and operation.
Customizable Dashboards: Allows personalized data views.
Real-Time Monitoring: Provides instant updates on network performance.
Strong Alerting Capabilities: Offers immediate notifications for issues.
Scalability: Supports growth with ease.
Integration: Works smoothly with other tools for comprehensive monitoring.
SNMP Monitoring: Tracks device stats effectively.
NetPath: Helps visualize network paths and performance.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Improved Network Visibility: Enables proactive issue resolution.
Enhanced Diagnostics: Facilitates quicker troubleshooting.
Real-Time Performance Data: Supports informed decision-making.
Ease of Deployment: Reduces setup time and complexity.
Infrastructure Monitoring: Ensures network stability and reliability.
Custom Integration: Adapts to existing IT environments.

In enterprise environments, SolarWinds NPM is deployed to monitor network health and device status, sending alerts for any issues. It provides visibility into network performance, tracking bandwidth utilization and server metrics efficiently. Its applications span from monitoring routers, switches, and firewalls to supporting infrastructure monitoring across industries.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Cisco Systems, Hawaiian Telecom, Renown Health, State of Nevada, U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Allstate Insurance, Jack Henry & Associates, United States Airforce, US Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Chicago Board Options Exchange

Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor vs. SolarWinds NPM

November 2026

Free Report: Observer GigaStor vs. SolarWinds NPM

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