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SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs WhatsUp Gold comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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)
4th
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 (22nd), Server Monitoring (14th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (18th), Configuration Management (20th), Log Management (39th), Cloud Monitoring Software (23rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) category, the mindshare of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is 6.5%, up from 5.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhatsUp Gold is 3.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer6.5%
WhatsUp Gold3.5%
Other90.0%
Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)
 

Featured Reviews

RK
Manager Observability at ICE
Comprehensive monitoring is effective with attention to proactive alerting
The dashboards of the NTA module are very interactive and precise. It provides detailed information with drill-down facility. We can check issues from a subnet to a particular location, to a specific website. To that level, we can drill down in the dashboard. The dashboard output is good, and we can create modern dashboards. We can leverage the SolarWinds Query Language (SWQL), which is an out-of-the-box SolarWinds language to create modern dashboards. The dashboard features I personally appreciate the most in the SolarWinds module. Regarding alerting, it has many out-of-the-box alerts configured, such as device down, SNMP not responding, CPU or memory usage. These alerts can be customized as per requirements. It has excellent alerting features and reporting capabilities. We can create reports based upon alerts or events. Many out-of-the-box reports are present in SolarWinds which we can leverage. For alerts, the dashboards are excellent, allowing us to segregate alerts based upon groups, location, or specific device type. These options are available within SolarWinds, and we can customize them as per requirements. It provides proactive monitoring, rather than waiting for applications to go down due to heavy bandwidth or latency. We can identify issues ahead of time and resolve them before they become critical situations. This module is particularly helpful in identifying issues before they turn into significant problems.
EC
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"What the network team found most valuable in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is that it helps them to troubleshoot or analyze the issue. For example, traffic that comes from our location: India, goes to the US, so for the network team to analyze where the traffic comes from and where it is directed, and whether the packets are being dropped, they use SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer. The network team also likes that through the solution, they can analyze the complete traffic utilization and how they're going to use it. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is user-friendly. The team finds it comfortable to use."
"What I like about SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is that it's useful for analyzing traffic. It also has an application visibility feature that lets you control applications."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to look for any increases in bandwidth over time so that we can plan before it becomes critical."
"At the end of the day, you can get very comprehensive reports showing you everything that is happening in the domain."
"We conduct network traffic analysis for a couple of key reasons. First, we look for traffic anomalies, such as unexpected increases or decreases in network traffic within specific segments. This helps us determine if the network needs to be re-architected."
"The performance analysis is a valuable feature, and with the performance analyzer, we can see the realtime monitoring, the realtime performance, and historical performance on specific components like virtualization storage, CPU, servers and network equipment."
"The solution's most valuable feature is its traffic analysis."
"It is great at telling you if your devices are working and it keeps an eye on your network's overall performance."
"It is easy to access and discover devices, as well as monitor them automatically. The topology discover is also a useful feature."
"It is stable."
"The most valuable features are network bandwidth monitoring and monitoring device health."
"Their tech support is very good."
"In terms of pricing, I'd say that the pricing is nice and the product is good."
"This product has aided us in procurement and is overall a well-priced solution."
"Overall, we have been satisfied with the functionality of the product."
"We no longer have to manually search for problems because we are alerted when something in the network goes down."
 

Cons

"In terms of support, I would rate them five or six out of ten. It was difficult to find videos for training. Overall, I am not satisfied with the support."
"Technical support could be improved with quicker response times."
"An area for improvement in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is application visibility because some applications aren't being recognized correctly. You can see applications such as Facebook and YouTube, but SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer needs to have more visibility into more applications. Currently, SolarWinds fails to detect more powerful applications, such as Zoom and Teams. If SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer can recognize every application and be able to report on each in terms of bandwidth, then that would be good. This is what I'd like to see in the next release of the solution."
"Technical support needs improvement."
"NTA's documentation for the implementation phase needs some enhancement."
"The licensing should be more realistic so that we can adjust the number of nodes according to my needs, rather than in fixed increments."
"The pricing is expensive."
"The solution should improve its automation feature. It's quite limited compared to other products."
"Regional product team support is not very good."
"The interface needs some work."
"Honestly, I do not particularly like WhatsUp Gold. I think we should get rid of it."
"The point system is not clear and clarity around this would improve our understanding of the system."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"The product is old and not updated."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 pricing is really good."
"The licensing for this solution is based on the number of nodes."
"The price of this solution is exceptional."
"We pay yearly, and we are happy with its price."
"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 pricing is reasonable."
"For our environment, we pay approximately $25,000 USD yearly."
"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."
"There is a license needed to use WhatsUp Gold."
"The most valuable feature is the cost compared to other solutions."
"The pricing can be on the expensive side when considering competing products."
"Pricing is reasonable compared to other products."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Construction Company
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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.
What is your primary use case for WhatsUp Gold?
My use case for WhatsUp Gold includes all device availability checks, bandwidth usage, CPU, and memory usage, as well as alarm notifications.
 

Also Known As

Netflow Traffic Analyzer
No data available
 

Overview

 

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
Find out what your peers are saying about SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs. WhatsUp Gold and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.