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SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs WhatsUp Gold comparison

SolarWinds and Progress Software are both solutions in the Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) category. SolarWinds is ranked #3 with an average rating of 7.8, while Progress Software is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.7. SolarWinds holds a 5.8% mindshare in NTA, compared to Progress Software’s 2.6% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of SolarWinds users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Progress Software users who would recommend it.
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic ...
Read 43 SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer reviews
  • 2,260 Views
  • 791 Comparison Views
83% willing to recommend
WhatsUp Gold
Read 25 WhatsUp Gold reviews
  • 5,476 Views
  • 164 Comparison Views
85% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer and WhatsUp Gold based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

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To learn more, read our detailed SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs. WhatsUp Gold Report (Updated: December 2025).
Buyer's Guide
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs. WhatsUp Gold
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

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic ...
Ranking in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)
3rd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
WhatsUp Gold
Ranking in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)
10th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (29th), Network Monitoring Software (26th), Server Monitoring (16th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (24th), Configuration Management (19th), Log Management (32nd), Cloud Monitoring Software (23rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) category, the mindshare of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is 5.8%, up from 5.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhatsUp Gold is 2.6%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer5.8%
WhatsUp Gold2.6%
Other91.6%
Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)
 

Featured Reviews

Raja Xabi - PeerSpot reviewer
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
EC
Erik Cheng
Technical Manager at Quan Hung Gourmet
Efficient monitoring with detailed customization, yet complexity remains
The best feature of WhatsUp Gold is the automatic generation of topology and its integration with virtualization and wireless. I have used the automated device discovery with this topology feature. The interactive map feature helps me manage the topology because sometimes we cannot draw the topology correctly, so we need to manually edit the connections. The alerting system is very tunable and customizable, but it's a little complicated to use. Many customers cannot manage it by themselves and need support from us, the provider. We always use the dashboards in the SOC, where we constantly display a dashboard or multiple dashboards. This allows us to know immediately if the connection or bandwidth is full or if the connection is broken.
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

"NTA's most valuable feature is traffic analysis and visibility."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"They have instructional videos and other information available on the site to assist you with learning it."
"The integration with other SolarWinds products is good."
"For stability, I would give SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer a rating of ten out of ten."
"The program is scalable enough for our usage."
"The bandwidth monitoring functionality is one of the most important features for our customers. When the customer notices that their bandwidth usage is too high for some reason, they will use the traffic analysis within SolarWinds NTA to identify which protocols (e.g. HTTPS) or applications are using up the bandwidth."
"I would rate NetFlow Traffic Analyzer's stability ten out of ten."
More SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer pros
"The product is reasonably priced."
"Auto scanning is most valuable. It looks for rogue devices on your network."
"The solution effectively monitors network devices and servers."
"WhatsUp Gold is very easy to deploy."
"The threshold alerting is the most valuable feature."
"The installation and configuration process are easy."
"The most valuable features are network bandwidth monitoring and monitoring device health."
"The documentation is very good."
More WhatsUp Gold pros
 

Cons

"It's scalable, but it could be simplified because it's not completely easy."
"This solution does not do a very good job when I am trying to look deeper into my internal network, in particular with respect to individual ports."
"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."
"The price of the solution is a bit high for our clients. They should consider adjusting their price model."
"Technical support could be improved with quicker response times."
"There is room for improvement when it comes to the traffic generated by the analyzer and the analysis of that traffic."
"I would like to see more artificial intelligence capabilities."
"The solution should improve its automation feature. It's quite limited compared to other products."
More SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer cons
"Improvements are needed in integration, especially for WhatsApp call and messages."
"I think there are a few bugs now. Although they give some resolution for this, we cannot share the network remotely because of our company policy."
"I would like to see better integration with switches so that you can see what is connected to each port, what the traffic is, and have a network map automatically generated."
"I might like to see a better interface in the future."
"WhatsUp Gold should work on real-time monitoring and configuration management. If they succeed in doing this, the solution will cover all the network troubleshooting aspects and will be a benefit."
"Setting up WhatsUp Gold is complicated and not easy because it requires managing SNMP and many complex settings in the devices it's monitoring, and fine-tuning it to fit our needs is also not very easy."
"One of the biggest things that made us start to look at another product is we're not able to have an end to end monitoring from a user perspective throughout the system and back to the user. All the monitoring is from inside out, we need something that also can give us from outside in."
"The tool should focus on increasing its market share, as it is the only area of concern where improvements are needed."
More WhatsUp Gold cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of this solution is exceptional."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"I don't have information on the licensing cost for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer because it's bundled with another SolarWinds solution. My organization has seven different models and pays for the license yearly. My organization also had to deploy additional pollers, but the cost wasn't very expensive, though I can't give the exact numbers."
"The solution's licensing is high-priced."
"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."
"The licensing for this solution is based on the number of nodes."
"SolarWinds' pricing structure is the primary reason why some customers opt for another solution such as ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer. In NTA, you are charged per port, meaning that if you have a 24-port switch you will be charged for 24 individual nodes. ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer, on the other hand, charges per switch, such that if you add a switch, the entire switch will count as one single node."
"We pay yearly, and we are happy with its price."
More SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer pricing and cost advice
"The tool's price is reasonable. WhatsUp Gold is cheaper than SolarWinds."
"There are some subscription charges that are quite heavy. I need to pay for support every year and these charges can be quite expensive. Aside from the initial cost for the tool, you need to pay additionally for support."
"The price of WhatsUp Gold is good."
"It is per device, per year. The pricing is very clear. If you have a service agreement, you get all of your major upgrades and minor upgrades. It was under $10,000 to go all-in with all of the different add-ons for it."
"I'm not sure, but it's expensive. We don't pay any additional fees."
"Pricing is reasonable compared to other products."
"The most valuable feature is the cost compared to other solutions."
"There is a license needed to use WhatsUp Gold."
More WhatsUp Gold pricing and cost advice
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) solutions are best for your needs.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Healthcare Company
7%
University
5%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise26
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

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
What do you like most about WhatsUp Gold?
The interactive mapping interface for scrolling, zooming, and drilling down on an element to learn about a network issue is good. When we see a network there will sometimes be a spot that has one l...
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for WhatsUp Gold?
Clients find the licensing calculator confusing, but we simplify this for them by collecting relevant information first. The licensing is based on devices, providing better cost-effectiveness than ...
See all answers
What needs improvement with WhatsUp Gold?
It would be great if WhatsUp Gold could add features that simplify management with AI, as it is currently too complicated to manage.
See all answers
 

Comparisons

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Zabbix vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer
Compared 8% of the time
Darktrace vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer Logo
Darktrace vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer
Compared 7% of the time
SolarWinds NPM vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer Logo
SolarWinds NPM vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer
Compared 6% of the time
Entuity vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer Logo
Entuity vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer
Compared 4% of the time
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PRTG Network Monitor vs WhatsUp Gold Logo
PRTG Network Monitor vs WhatsUp Gold
Compared 4% of the time
LibreNMS vs WhatsUp Gold Logo
LibreNMS vs WhatsUp Gold
Compared 4% of the time
SCOM vs WhatsUp Gold Logo
SCOM vs WhatsUp Gold
Compared 3% of the time
NinjaOne vs WhatsUp Gold Logo
NinjaOne vs WhatsUp Gold
Compared 3% of the time
ManageEngine OpManager vs WhatsUp Gold Logo
ManageEngine OpManager vs WhatsUp Gold
Compared 3% of the time
More WhatsUp Gold Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer
January 2026
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer reportDownload SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer product report
Buyer's Guide
WhatsUp Gold
January 2026
WhatsUp Gold reportDownload WhatsUp Gold product report
 

Also Known As

Netflow Traffic Analyzer
No data available
 

Overview

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

Explore and manage your entire network infrastructure effortlessly with WhatsUp Gold's robust layer 2/3 discovery, creating a detailed interactive map from the edge to the cloud. Monitor devices, wireless controllers, servers, virtual machines, applications, and traffic flows across various environments. Real-time alerts ensure optimal performance, allowing you to meet or exceed SLAs. The platform offers customizable maps, dashboards, and alerts for easy network management. Quickly resolve issues with intuitive workflows, reducing Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR). WhatsUp Gold's integrated log management provides easy visibility and control of device log data, allowing monitoring, filtering, searching, and alerting on syslogs or Windows logs. Archive logs to comply with regulatory requirements and preserve historical data, all through a user-friendly interface. Streamline network monitoring and issue resolution with WhatsUp Gold, making network management efficient and hassle-free.

Progress Software
 

Sample Customers

Oceaneering International, Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, 335th Signal Command, Immofori
Artoni Trasporti, Austin Independent School District, Banca Marche, Burke County North Carolina, Cambridge University School of Clinical Medicine, Clayco, Community Integrated Care, Desca, Deutsche Bergbau, Flexi-Van, Gropper, Hamleys, Hammonds Furniture, Knowledge IT, Idras S.P.A., Sibeg, Swann Engineering, Trivium Lindenhof
Buyer's Guide
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs. WhatsUp Gold
December 2025
Free Report: SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs. WhatsUp Gold
Find out what your peers are saying about SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs. WhatsUp Gold and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
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