WhatsUp Gold vs vRealize Network Insight comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Broadcom and Progress Software are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Broadcom is ranked #36 with an average rating of 7.5, while Progress Software is ranked #25 with an average rating of 7.0. Broadcom holds a 0.8% mindshare in NMS, compared to Progress Software’s 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of Broadcom users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Progress Software users who would recommend it.

vRealize Network Insight

Read 47 vRealize Network Insight reviews

5,648 Views
4,123 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

WhatsUp Gold

Read 25 WhatsUp Gold reviews

14,156 Views
7,786 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

vRealize Network Insight

WhatsUp Gold

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

WhatsUp Gold and vRealize Network Insight are competing network monitoring solutions. vRealize Network Insight seems to have an edge in feature depth, which makes it suitable for complex environments, while WhatsUp Gold's affordability and support appeal to budget-conscious buyers.

Features: WhatsUp Gold provides comprehensive network monitoring, intuitive maps, and customizable dashboards. Conversely, vRealize Network Insight provides deep visibility into virtualized environments, advanced analytics, and security insights.

Room for Improvement: WhatsUp Gold could enhance advanced analytics, expand support for virtual environments, and improve integration with third-party tools. vRealize Network Insight may benefit from simplification of its user interface, reduction of deployment complexity, and more cost-effective pricing options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: WhatsUp Gold is known for its easy installation and configuration, supported by efficient customer service. On the other hand, vRealize Network Insight involves a more substantial initial setup and configuration but is backed by strong technical support.

Pricing and ROI: WhatsUp Gold offers a competitive pricing structure, delivering favorable ROI with fast implementation and lower initial costs. vRealize Network Insight, while requiring more investment upfront, provides a comprehensive feature set that offers longer-term ROI in complex environments.

To learn more, read our detailed WhatsUp Gold vs. vRealize Network Insight Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

WhatsUp Gold vs. vRealize Network Insight

September 2026

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Helped 913,806 peers since 2012

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

vRealize Network Insight

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

36th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

43rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

WhatsUp Gold

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

25th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

20th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (37th), Server Monitoring (14th), Configuration Management (21st), Log Management (41st), Cloud Monitoring Software (26th), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (13th)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of vRealize Network Insight is 0.8%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhatsUp Gold is 2.1%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
WhatsUp Gold	2.1%
vRealize Network Insight	0.8%
Other	97.1%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Shaijith KB

Senior System Specialist at General Directorate of Residence and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA)

Comprehensive management and detailed reports benefit operations while improvements are needed in support and maintenance

We have Tanzu and OpenShift. We have OpenShift, Canonical, and the Tanzu one. The Tanzu platform from VMware is a Kubernetes platform. We haven't completely installed Tanzu yet; we installed the vROps part. vRealize Network Insight is beneficial because you can control the East-West traffic. vRealize has a component called NSX, which has East-West traffic controlling and micro-segmentation, that is one of the best options, and we have the layer extension, layer 2 extension possible through NSX. If you have anything accountable in any business, even in a candy business, having proper accountability on what you are selling and buying will save a lot. If you don't know what you're selling and buying, you will end up with a loss. My team does not use the flow analytics feature; we have a security and network monitoring team, which is a different SOC team. I am using it as an administrator internally. We perform different tasks including costing analysis, capacity management, and many other things. vRealize Network Insight has a concern about the maintenance part, as it requires a person to monitor it completely. It's not something you install and your report will be generated automatically. You have to work on this properly to get the insights. vRealize Network Automation, vRealize Operations, and vRealize Network Insight are completely related to the network. I cannot say much about these network aspects because I am on the operations side, but overall, the vRealize suite is good for reporting perspective or any ISO-related documentation; this is very helpful. The product is called vRealize Operations Manager, and now it is referred to as Aria or vAria. I am now a Senior System Specialist. We use different metrics because we have multiple departments, and we can monitor utilization and comparisons with the previous year. On a scale of one to ten, I rate this solution a seven.

Read full review

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

"This tool is critical because from a VMware perspective, it's really the only tool that does application rationalization."

"With this product, we can precisely identify communication patterns between virtual machines within our data center, whether it's east-east or east-west communication."

"It allows you to see traffic that you couldn't otherwise see, which is traffic within your Layer 3-bounded network, meaning east-west traffic. It's hard to get that any other way."

"I love what we can do with this and I love everything it gives to us."

"Technical support is great. They do excellent work."

"One of the most valuable features is the ability to look at the traffic flows, to look at NetFlow data."

"What's valuable to us is the ability to get a view into the virtual space, which is something we haven't had before. Before, it was done by collecting from network endpoints and extrapolating into the virtual environment. Now it's coming directly from the virtual environment."

"If we can get it to provide those firewall rules it will literally save hundreds of man-hours, if not thousands of man-hours."

More vRealize Network Insight pros

"The solution effectively monitors network devices and servers."

"We've been using it for many years and we use it typically for early warning, as it notifies customers of problems prior to failure."

"Overall, we have been satisfied with the functionality of the product."

"One thing good about WhatsUp Gold is that it is fairly stable."

"The most valuable feature is the auto-discovery function."

"This is a good, stable network monitoring solution for devices."

"The most valuable features are network bandwidth monitoring and monitoring device health."

"I use it on premises to monitor my network database. We monitor the link up/down and use the SNMP traps as well."

More WhatsUp Gold pros

Cons

"When we talk about those micro-segmentation rules, there's an Export function. It is very macro-segmentation oriented instead. So if you choose an application, it will find the tiers within that application and say that it's communicating on, say, port 80 to a separate VLAN. There might be 200 machines in that other VLAN. You don't want to open port 80 at all of them. So we need a lot more granularity in those suggested firewall rules."

"It needs to be a little easier to use and to understand the information it's putting out. That would make it more helpful. If you're not a network person you need to understand things like network policies and concepts. If you gave it to a regular admin, it would be nice if it were easier for them to pick up what is going on, understand the flows and whether or not stuff should be talking to each other, as opposed to just port groups and IP addresses."

"Support could be much better. They do not do a good job of finding issues."

"There's enough information there, especially in the visualizations, but I would love to see this in a kiosk mode, where I could have a dashboard for interested stakeholders to see and appreciate what's going on. Then, moving on to a more practical level for our Help Desk, our operations team could benefit by seeing, in real-time, a visual view of the network."

"After Broadcom acquired VMware, I would rate their support at five or less in many cases. It's difficult to find necessary documentation, open tickets, and get support."

"When we talk about those micro-segmentation rules, there's an Export function. It is very macro-segmentation oriented instead."

"It needs improvement in terms of its efficiency."

"I want to be able to monitor a network flow that is approximately two weeks back, but I haven't found an easy way to do this."

More vRealize Network Insight cons

"Importing the maps and being able to customize them could be easier."

"I haven't had any issue with stability, except during the upgrade to 2017 when we encountered slow responses."

"The new release cadence needs to be improved. It takes a while for them to add new features and functionality. There should be a quicker turnaround with new versions."

"The pricing for this solution has gone up quite recently, which has led some of our customers to buy an alternative product."

"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 price could be improved. When we first started using this product, the company was new. The prices were very low then, in comparison with HP OpenView or IBM, but now the policy is too high, relative to the number of devices we have."

"There are some subscription charges that are quite heavy. I need to pay for support every year and these charges can be quite expensive."

"The technical support does not bother to respond."

More WhatsUp Gold cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have spent less time investigating network flows, so it is absolutely cost-effective."

"It's an expensive product because we have a lot of nodes."

"I rate vRealize Network Insight's pricing a seven point five out of ten."

"It reduces costs. It takes something that may be challenging and makes it more usable and visual by being able to bring in tools, seeing what their impact is, such as microsegmentation and application rationalization, and seeing it quickly."

"It has brought more money into our company."

"They should include the product in NSX because it's important to have it for deployment."

"It's a little expensive, but for what you're getting out of the product, you often see the trade-off. It depends on the type of licensing you have. It might be a little too pricey for some."

"The solution has helped us to reduce time, increase performance, reduce costs, and even easily manage networks. We are probably seeing 10 to 20 percent labor savings because we are able to be very specific and focused on what we want to do. It ends up saving the customer money and makes us be more efficient on our cost deliveries."

More vRealize Network Insight pricing and cost advice

"The tool's price is reasonable. WhatsUp Gold is cheaper than SolarWinds."

"The price of WhatsUp Gold is good."

"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."

"This is a well priced solution."

"I'm not sure, but it's expensive. We don't pay any additional fees."

"The choice of version depends on the number of points, or devices, that you want to monitor, and this makes the product expensive."

"The most valuable feature is the cost compared to other solutions."

"Pricing is reasonable compared to other products."

More WhatsUp Gold pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

14%

Construction Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	43

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	14

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vRealize Network Insight?

In VMware you have to buy a separate license for it. We have VVF and VCF-type of licenses, and if you want to go with this NSX and sort of higher-end professional services, you need to go with VCF....

See all answers

What needs improvement with vRealize Network Insight?

There is room for improvement as not all cases are getting resolved, and we often do not get L3 support directly, having to go through L1 and L2, resulting in delays that usually are a headache for...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for vRealize Network Insight?

We have Tanzu, and we also work with multiple Kubernetes services such as Nutanix and Google. We are working on these Kubernetes services on the operations side. For Tanzu, we have several componen...

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

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.

See all answers

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Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 3% of the time

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Compared 3% of the time

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Compared 3% of the time

NinjaOne vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs WhatsUp Gold

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

vRealize Network Insight

August 2026

Download vRealize Network Insight product report

Buyer's Guide

WhatsUp Gold

August 2026

Download WhatsUp Gold product report

Also Known As

Arkin

No data available

Overview

vRealize Network Insight provides deep visibility into network flows, intuitive visualization, and real-time monitoring. It identifies communication patterns and offers insights into east-west traffic within data centers, simplifying complex network analysis and troubleshooting.

This platform enhances efficiency in firewall management and supports microsegmentation with an intuitive interface. Its integration with VMware products and natural language querying adds value. Users use it for optimizing network flows, planning NSX deployments, and visualizing traffic. It assists in applying security policies, tracking data center flows, and building network architecture by providing advanced insights for policy refinement, ensuring network performance and compliance.

What are the key features of vRealize Network Insight?

Deep Network Visibility: Offers detailed insights into network flows and communication patterns.
Intuitive Visualization: Simplifies monitoring with clear, real-time graphics.
User-Friendly Interface: Facilitates easy navigation for complex network analysis.
Integration with VMware: Seamless alignment with existing VMware products.
Natural Language Querying: Offers insights with easy-to-use query capabilities.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Efficiency in Firewall Management: Streamlines and optimizes firewall operations.
Supports Microsegmentation: Enhances security through improved policy enforcement.
Advanced Network Insights: Provides valuable data for performance optimization.
Compliance Assurance: Ensures adherence to security and performance standards.

In specific industries, vRealize Network Insight is implemented to optimize network architecture, manage application dependencies, and enhance security measures. Companies utilize its analytical capabilities to refine policies and ensure robust network performance and security compliance, particularly in complex and hybrid cloud environments.

Broadcom

WhatsUp Gold stands out with its comprehensive network monitoring, dynamic mapping, and real-time alerts, offering essential tools for managing extensive IT infrastructures.

WhatsUp Gold provides robust capabilities in network visibility through dynamic mapping and NetFlow analysis. The platform's interactive topology aids in pinpointing issues effectively. Auto-discovery ensures complete network device tracking. While offering an intuitive interface and integration with Cisco ServiceNow, users find server performance monitoring useful for incident handling. However, improvements are anticipated in application monitoring and Active Directory integration. The pricing model and customization options leave room for enhancement. Despite these, users benefit from its integrated dashboards for immediate device health checks and network updates, making it beneficial for large-scale infrastructure management.

What features does WhatsUp Gold offer?

Network Monitoring: Provides continuous oversight of network components
Dynamic Mapping: Offers visual representation of network topology
NetFlow Analysis: Delivers insights into bandwidth utilization
Threshold Alerts: Notifies users upon reaching set performance thresholds
Auto-Discovery: Detects devices automatically for complete network coverage

What benefits should users expect from reviews?

Comprehensive Visibility: Enhanced understanding of network elements
Real-Time Monitoring: Immediate insights into network and device status
Cost-Effectiveness: Competitive solution suitable for expansive networks
User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies the management of complex networks

Organizations in sectors like telecommunications, education, and healthcare utilize WhatsUp Gold for their network monitoring needs. Telecom companies track switches and routers, educational institutions manage bandwidth usage, and healthcare facilities monitor device availability to ensure seamless operations.

Progress Software

Sample Customers

NTTi3, VCIX-NV, VMware Networking and Security Business Unit, Illumio, CompuNet

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

WhatsUp Gold vs. vRealize Network Insight

September 2026

Free Report: WhatsUp Gold vs. vRealize Network Insight

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