SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs Wireshark comparison

"It is great at telling you if your devices are working and it keeps an eye on your network's overall performance."

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

"It allows us to pinpoint which protocol is overloading the link."

"I can point out the exact root cause 'why.' If there is a slowness, I can point out what was before the issue or before the slowness, what it is, and what is now."

"So far, it is a very stable product."

"They have instructional videos and other information available on the site to assist you with learning it."

"The support is excellent."

"The monitoring is perfect, showing you the details for the utilization of resources and network bandwidth."

"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.)."

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

"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."

"Wireshark saves a lot of time, especially with network troubleshooting."

"Wireshark is very user-friendly; even someone with basic IT knowledge can use it."

"Wireshark's best features are that it lets us see what traffic is in the network and what data should be encrypted."

"The best part about Wireshark, in my opinion, is its ability to analyze packet capture files."

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

"Technical support needs improvement."

"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."

"If your network is on SolarWinds, and you notice that the traffic is bad because it says "user downloading a heavy file," it doesn't indicate which endpoint is downloading those heavy files. SolarWinds doesn't have the tools to be able to handle this kind of situation. You can just notice through your network device that the traffic is becoming overwhelming or heavy, but you cannot go inside and get more details related to the endpoint where it is happening. We would like SolarWinds to be able to handle this kind of situation and even manage the traffic inside a network from the endpoint to the network device. These would be good enhancements. It is mostly stable. The problem comes only when we want to add another SolarWinds model. SolarWinds has so many models, and sometimes when we want to add other models on the platforms that are reserved for our firm, it freezes. When this happens, we have to create a new VM for that model."

"The analysis can utilize algorithms like K-means clustering or associative neural networks for predictions rather than relying on generative AI, which is more suited for text."

"Customer Support is quite complex."

"The pricing is expensive."

"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."

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

"The product has been using the same GUI for many years."

"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 average person would probably find Wireshark hard to use. When I first installed it, I was overwhelmed by all the data it was shooting out. It doesn't make sense until you start doing some research and figure out what everything means. It isn't the most user-friendly tool. It just provides so much information."

"You need some basic knowledge to work with Wireshark. Maybe it could be more user-friendly just for new users. Just for the new generation."

"It is not an easy program. You will need to study to use it to its full capabilities (follow a course)."

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

"Sometimes I need to use tcpdump when I need to check the packets on CLI."

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

"The pricing is really good."

"The price of this solution is exceptional."

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

"For our environment, we pay approximately $25,000 USD yearly."

"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."

"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."

"NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is reasonably priced."

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

"Wireshark is open source and gives great value and functionality to the network investigation."

"Wireshark is free software, so you can download it and use it for free with no licensing fees."

"Wireshark is an open-source product, so it's free to use."

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

"This is an open-source product that can be used free of charge."

"The solution is open source so is free."

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