SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs Wireshark comparison

"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."

"What people found most valuable in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is its report customization feature."

"The software management tools are very useful for our customers."

"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."

"It helps us know when a branch is down because it has a graphic presentation of all the locations a node represents."

"It provides proactive monitoring, rather than waiting for applications to go down due to heavy bandwidth or latency."

"In terms of the implementation, we've actually used SAM, the server and application monitoring tools. The network configuration tools are very useful in terms of bulk upgrading switches and infrastructure. Also, the Network Traffic Analyzer was extremely useful to track down errant users soaking up bandwidth."

"This tool provides insights into top utilization applications or it identifies which circuit or application is consuming the most on the complete one-gig circuit traffic path."

"It's easy to troubleshoot issues because there's a large online community."

"I can save the traffic and analysis when I want to. Also, it's especially helpful to follow the stream (TCP, UDP, etc.)."

"Wireshark is a good tool to start with network analyzing and packet capturing."

"It has a good syntax to put the commands in and get information out of."

"The most valuable feature is the traffic gate, which shows which IPs are getting more bandwidth or traffic."

"It helps in analyzing if something looks suspicious, such as a brute force attack or scanning from somewhere."

"Being able to dissect email data and figure out what is inside email messages was the most valuable feature. Such a feature is pretty helpful for an ongoing forensic investigation or when there is a potential insider threat that you are trying to investigate. It allows you to see the network activity of the users you are investigating. It also gives you more visibility into your network. It was very easy to set up. There is a lot of information out there on Google and YouTube about how to use it. There is also community support. If you have any trouble, it is pretty easy to find an answer online. You will have to do some digging only if you have a very specific use case."

"It gives us the ability to pinpoint problems and to communicate network problems with software and hardware vendors."

"SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer could improve its flexibility and integration with AI to provide analytics beyond just showing up/down statuses and traffic volumes."

"One area that we struggle with is the price. Because the price of this solution is so high, we are largely unable to introduce it into the local market, and only the banking sector has the means to afford it."

"The plotting of the device on the map is not appropriate."

"They should work on the configuration of the Log Analyzer feature."

"Currently, it shows only the top ten applications or ports in use, while the remaining data appears as 'remaining traffic,' causing confusion."

"Customer Support is quite complex."

"It's not a cheap product, so the pricing could be improved."

"NTA's documentation for the implementation phase needs some enhancement."

"The product is great but I wish there were more of an emphasis on the command line tools."

"It needs the ability to follow multiple interfaces for specific traffic from different network zones/virtual networks. It would help to understand how any packet is going through the network."

"The decryption of encrypted packets could be better."

"I would like better control of bandwidth from the service provider."

"With Wireshark, you cannot download and utilize the packet in automation."

"You need good network connectivity to download during the setup, otherwise, it might take a while."

"Wireshark could make the filtering rules easier to apply and offer a drag-and-drop option as opposed to type and text."

"It would be better if they offered a hybrid version like My Cloud Control."

"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."

"We have licenses for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer. In terms of pricing, its license is not that expensive versus other tools such as HP."

"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."

"The pricing is really good."

"The licensing for this solution is based on the number of nodes."

"NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is reasonably priced."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"While the pricing is fair, it could be better."

"It is free."

"We are using a freeware version of this solution, so there are no licence costs involved."

"We're using the free version of Wireshark."

"It's a stand-alone tool. If there is a commercial license for it I am unaware of it."

"I am using the free version of this solution."

"The tool is free."

"Wireshark is free of charge, and there's no license involved."

"Wireshark is open-source and free of charge."