10 Best Network Monitoring Software for 2022

Zoho's OpManager is a robust network monitoring software that comes with powerful monitoring, alerting, and reporting capabilities. It offers more than 200 performance widgets that allow you to monitor each element in your infrastructure. Furthermore, it can automatically discover and map more than 15,000 interfaces and track each device's metrics easily. On top of that, the company offers top-notch support.

• Standard edition – Starting at $245 for 10 devices, this plan offers the software’s basic features.
• Professional edition – For the starting price of $345, you can monitor 10 devices and take advantage of all of the software’s features, excluding distributed network monitoring. Also, both the standard and professional editions can monitor up to 1,000 devices. If you need more, you’ll have to opt for the next plan.
• Enterprise edition – If you want to purchase the best monitoring software with its full set of features, you’ll have to pay at least $11,545 for 250 devices. The only limitation is the enterprise edition can monitor up to 10,000 devices, which is more than enough for most companies.

Auvik is a cloud-based network monitoring system that lets companies keep tabs on their IT assets and services. The best part about it is that it’s suitable for both beginners and intermediate users.

Overview

In about the last ten years, this Canada-based developer has made a name for itself in the field. Auvik was founded in 2011, and three years later, it officially released its network monitor software. Over the next few years, the company expanded to the UK, Spain, and Australia. Soon enough, it started making over $17 million in sales every year.

Features

Many of Auvik’s features serve to give you better control over your network, without increasing the workload. With administrator access, you can handle data about topology, config history, and device performance. 

Another notable benefit is that the program will crunch the number entirely on its own. Plus, you don’t only get data now, but the program stores it for comparison purposes.

Monitoring

Auvik supports several processes you’re probably already familiar with. This includes SNMP, Secure Shell, MDNS, UPnP and more. This gives you a better view of what’s happening on your routers and which devices are connected to your network.

One of the things Auvik does differently from other network performance monitoring tools - it provides the user with granular information of their entire network. It’s much easier to detect what’s going on right away and react accordingly.

Automation

The tool also automates a number of areas of operation. This includes configuration backup, recovery, and workflows through different APIs. It scans your data every hour and backs it up with the most recent changes you’ve made.

APIs allow you to pull information from multiple resources on your network in a matter of seconds. Then, you can feed the data you get to other third-party tools that can help optimize your operations.

Alerts

This program offers both pre-configured and customizable alerts that tell you more about what’s happening on your network. Those that come with Auvik have been designed in line with the best practices in the industry and include everything from extra information to emergencies.

There are a total of 50+ alerts you can utilize.

Integrations

Auvik integrates with various third-party systems. Their purpose is to improve your company’s performance and cut downtime you spend doing manual work.

You can use this network managing tool in combination with: 

• Freshdesk
• Slack
• Microsoft Teams
• ArcusTeam
• ConnectWise
• iLert

And a lot more.

Ease of Use

As mentioned earlier, Auvik had beginners in mind when designing the program. All options are easy to find in the dashboard.

It has a set of collapsible menus that are quite easy to navigate. This ensures you’re always just a click or two away from the option you’re looking for. There are even search boxes!

So, even if you’re entirely new to this network management tool, it’s difficult to get lost in all the options available.

Knowledge Base and Support

Auvik displays a sales number in the right corner of most of its web pages. However, it doesn’t work for customer support. If you want to get in touch with the company’s representatives, you have to log into the website using your credentials. Then, you can talk to them through live chat or email.

While no phone customer support isn’t necessarily ideal, Aucik offers an extensive knowledge base on its website. We found plenty of useful information, all organized in a way you can easily find exactly what you’re looking for.

Auvik Free Trial

One of the best things about it is that there’s a 14-day free trial that gives you a chance to test the system before asking for a quote. It’s important to mention that it starts as soon as you complete the registration process, and not after you download the program.

The free trial gives you full access to all features Auvik offers.

Pricing

The pricing system Auvik offers isn’t as straightforward as it is with some other network tools we looked at. In fact, the company doesn’t mention costs on its website. Instead, you have to fill out a form and get a custom quote based on the information provided.

Auvik only mentions that it charges by the number of billable devices you have on your client networks. During the trial period, Auvik will automatically assess how many billable devices there are on your networks for once you switch to a premium plan.

Verdict

It’s easy to see why Auvik stands among the best network monitoring programs around. It’s great to have a simplified view of your network gadgets, and how well they connect. Also, it’s very useful for troubleshooting outages and connection issues. It works the best for small businesses wanting a clear picture of their networks.

SolarWinds can monitor on-prem, cloud, and hybrid infrastructures. This vendor-agnostic software comes with deep packet inspection, network traffic analyzer, capacity forecasting, and much more. Still, one of SolarWinds's best selling points is that it can monitor each node at a granular level. On top of that, you get a configurable alerting module that can automatically execute more than 30 actions in case a node changes its state.

• Node and Interface Availability
• Current Node Status
• Historical CPU and Memory Reports
• Historical Traffic Reports

• NMP SL100 – $2,995 for up to 100 elements.
• NMP SL250 – $6,795 for up to 250 elements.
• NPM SL500 – $10,695 for up to 500 elements.
• NPM SL2000 – $19,795 for up to 2,000 elements.
• NMP SLX – $33,195 for unlimited elements.

ConnectWise Automate is an excellent network monitoring software that comes with some amazing and practical features. The tool offers automation, practical self-help, and stealth remote access. This solution also comes with automatic asset discovery, endpoint management, patching, and excellent monitoring capabilities. To top it off, ConnectWise Automate offers a completely customizable dashboard, so you can tailor it to suit your needs.

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor is an excellent network monitoring tool that allows you to manage your infrastructure no matter its type. You'll find many practical features in this scalable product, and it could easily be the tool you've been searching for. This agentless network monitoring software comes with more than 230 sensors and a powerful reporting module.

Overview

PRTG is an agentless network monitoring software, so it doesn’t require any installations on your devices. It uses SNMP, WMI, SQL, packet sniffing, and other protocols to communicate with the network’s endpoints.

It is available via a web browser, on-premise client, and mobile apps.

The software’s a bit cumbersome, and newcomers will find it difficult to understand what’s going on within the network. However, once you get past that first impression, you’ll see that PRTG is an excellent tool for both monitoring and infrastructure management.

This server network monitoring software is easy to implement and has an auto-discovery module. It can monitor LAN and WAN devices, cloud services, servers, websites, and apps. PRTG’s network analysis tools turn it into an excellent solution for WAN optimization, network tomography, route analytics, and website monitoring.

One of PRTG’s most significant benefits is its scalability – its monitoring capacity can grow along with your business.

With that said, let’s see which other features make PRTG one of the recommended systems on the market.

Features

Like the majority of network monitoring tools on this list, PRTG will welcome you with a dashboard. From there, you can access the hierarchical device tree, and you can use the drag and drop interface to customize it.

However, the tab you’ll be using the most for visualization is called Maps.

Maps

There aren’t any out-of-the-box maps, so you’ll need to create your own. Although it will take some time, creating the widgets is easy enough – you have to select an object from the device tree and choose its properties. Once finished, you can set an automatic map rotation.

There’s an awful lot you can do with maps – you can choose different designs, create various layouts, include geo-maps, and much more. Moreover, these maps are excellent for network performance monitoring, since you get to see all the metrics at a glance.

Interface

As mentioned before, this network monitor software has a web-based, on-premise, and mobile applications. The desktop one is only available for Windows devices, and mildly put – needs some polishing. It’s slow and buggy at times, but I guess most professionals would prefer to access the tool via the web browser anyway.

As you can see from the screenshot above, PRTG uses the sunburst view to represent your network. It’s quite useful, and you can drill down to devices’ details with one click.

Extra feature

The software also comes with a top-notch automatic failover handling, and there’s one failover in every PRTG on-premise license. That way, you can keep monitoring even if the cluster’s primary master is down for some reason.

And while on the subject, let’s focus on the main feature.

Monitoring

Paessler’s network monitor software comes with 230 out-of-the-box sensors, and you can add custom ones.

With PRTG, you can monitor practically everything in your IT infrastructure. You’ll gain insight for your servers’ health (CPU load, performance, disk space, RAM, etc.), bandwidth, firewalls, switches, routers, databases, websites, еtc.

Furthermore, the tool supports distributed monitoring, meaning it can monitor networks in various locations. That makes PRTG one of the great network performance monitoring software one the market.

And since by the end of 2021, 67% of enterprise infrastructure will be cloud-based, PRTG offers cloud monitoring as well. Also, the company’s devs are creating an Azure cost sensor.

How do I know?

The software’s roadmap is public, and you can request additional features. Once enough people have voted for one, the company’s devs will start working on it. And that’s just one of the reasons why PRTG is one of the network monitoring software – the company listens to its clients.

Anyways, in addition to the solution’s monitoring capabilities, PRTG is also a WiFi and internet monitoring software. You can track speed, usage, bandwidth, URL response time, and much more.

But it gets better.

PRTG supports monitoring of all the major vendors – Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM, Oracle, VMWare, Citrix, and more. That way, you won’t have to configure the sensors manually for any of their devices and services. And if these sensors’ status changes, you’ll get notified.

Alerts

Paessler’s network monitoring software will notify you if any of the following happens:

• Sensor status changes
• Threshold breaches
• Value changes

If any of those occurs, you can configure the software to perform specific actions.

It can notify you via email, SMS, push notification, Slack, or Teams message. It can also send an SNMP trap, a Syslog message, or assign a ticket. And finally, you can configure PRTG to execute an HTML action or a program.

On top of that, by setting custom threshold levels, you can adjust the sensors’ sensitivity, thus eliminating the noise.

Reports

This network monitoring software won’t blow your mind with the number of out-of-the-box report templates. In fact, there are only eight, including a summary for all sensors, uptime/downtime, fastest/slowest ping sensors, etc.

However, you can create your own reports by using the built-in report generator. From there, you have plenty of options, and you can extract whatever information you need. Furthermore, you can schedule the custom reports to be run at specific time intervals.

PRTG can generate reports in HTML, XML, PDF, and CSV. The software can also email them automatically.

Ease of use

PRTG’s interface will be overwhelming for beginners.

It’s functional, but I expected to see some of the famous German precision implemented in the software. At first glance, it seems a bit chaotic and overwhelming.

However, once you get past that first impression, you’ll see it’s a relatively easy-to-use network monitoring program.

Still, more than likely, there will be a learning curve, especially for newcomers.

Knowledge Base and Support

I rarely use the word extensive in my reviews, but it suits Paessler’s knowledge base like a glove.

In addition to the software’s manual, you can find everything you need to know about monitoring on the company’s website. There are webinars, how-to guides, and even articles explaining the basic IT terms – like server, SNMP, ping, etc.

All in all, you can understand everything – from general concepts to how to use Paessler’s network monitoring solution.

So far, so good, but eventually, you’ll need to contact support. And the only way to do so is by sending a ticket. And although the website claims that the reps “strive to respond to all requests within one business day,” support is often slow to respond.

PRTG Network Monitor Free Trial

You can test Paessler’s network monitor solution free of charge for 30 days. No credit card required.

Pricing

First of all, here’s what I like about PRTG’s pricing – each of the following plans includes all of the software’s features.

You won’t have to pay extra for add-ons, licenses, or anything else. The prices depend only on the number of sensors you’ll need. Typically, you’ll need about 10 per device.

With that said, let’s see how much it will cost you annually to use this network monitoring software:

• PRTG 500 –$1,600 for 500 sensors
• PRTG 1000 –$2,850 for 1,000 sensors
• PRTG 2500 – $5950 for 2,500 sensors
• PRTG 5000 – $10,500 for 5,000 sensors
• PRTG XL1 – $14,500. With this plan, you can use unlimited sensors.
• PRTGL XL5 – $60,000 for unlimited sensors and five server installations. The plans above include only one server installation.

The network monitoring program also offers a free plan with 100 sensors. Once your trial expires, the software reverts to freeware. And you can upgrade to a paid license at any time.

PRTG’s pricing makes it suitable for a small business. It’s affordable and gets the job done efficiently.

Verdict

Although there are several drawbacks, PRTG is an excellent piece of network monitoring software. By using it, you’ll be able to monitor your entire IT infrastructure. And after all, that’s what you need from such software.

LogicMonitor is an agentless, cloud-based software for monitoring on-premise, cloud, or hybrid infrastructures. It offers numerous practical features like auto-discovery, a great alerting engine, and hundreds of widgets for granular monitoring. This easy-to-use network monitoring software will amaze you with its numerous integrations, customization options, and powerful monitoring capabilities.

Overview

LogicMonitor is an agentless, cloud-based software for monitoring on-premise, cloud, or hybrid infrastructures. It discovers devices automatically and can monitor hardware metrics, network flow data, and website performance. Moreover, the software starts collecting the data automatically.

It uses many data collection methods (SNMP, WMI, MySQL, etc.) to monitor the network devices and NetFlow to keep track of traffic flows. LogicMonitor uses this data to create alerts and generate reports. Moreover, the software comes with more than 2,000 out-of-the-box integrations and an open REST API.

Like the majority of network performance monitoring tools on this list, LogicMonitor has a customizable dashboard. You can create as many as you need and rearrange them however you want. There are more than 1000 modules that can give you insight or alert you about any issues.

Features

In addition to the monitoring, alerting, and reporting features (more on that in a bit), you can visualize the network’s topology.

Network mapping and management

This feature isn’t as robust as some of the competitors’ but it still shows the logical relationships between objects. Unfortunately, it’s not something special if you want to see their physical locations, for example. Nevertheless, although it’s not perfect, it does a decent job.

There’s also an anomaly detection feature, which is a must-have for such a product. That way, you can reduce troubleshooting time and perform better monitoring.

Role-based access

This software for network management offers some other great-to-have features. For instance, you can set a completely customizable role-based access control. And you can have as many users as you like since you’ll pay only for the number of devices you want to monitor.

And speaking of users, LogicMonitor has a built-in audit log that lets you see who did what and when. Additionally, the software can create automated reports based on these logs, summarizing the important events.

Mobile app

Also, LogicMonitor is one of the few monitoring tools that offer a mobile app. It has some limitations compared to the browser version, but it does offer the core functionalities of the product. That way, you can monitor your network on the go.

Monitoring

Thanks to the customizable panels and numerous modules, you can monitor your entire infrastructure. Also, the company offers extra features (at a price) if you want to visualize cloud performance, containers, and applications.

These additional options can turn LogicMonitor into a rather pricey network monitoring software. However, if you can afford it, the software won’t let you down.

Anyways, you can still monitor the hardware infrastructure, network flow data, and website performance, without purchasing the additional features.

Furthermore, you can monitor and manage devices’ configuration and analyze how any changes affect the network’s performance.

And if something goes wrong, you’ll get notified.

Alerts

Out-of-the-box you’ll get pre-configured alerts. However, tuning them with specific thresholds is a time-consuming process.

Anyways, once you manage to tailor the alerts according to your needs, you can get notified via SMS, email, voice call, or any integrated third-party app (like Slack). Moreover, you can take immediate action and acknowledge or escalate the alert.

The network monitoring program offers more than a dozen filters to help you quickly address the alerts. You can filter them by anomalies, severity, rules, and much more.

Additionally, you can use the access roles mentioned above to configure who gets notified. You can do so based on the severity of the problem, device, technology, and even the time of day.

Reports

This network monitoring software comes with a variety of industry-standard reports. You can generate reports based on alerts, monitored data, resources, and users.

There are more than 15 predefined reports, and you can set schedules to receive them daily, weekly, or monthly.

You can generate SLA, dashboard, user, role, alert trend reports, and many more.

One of LogicMonitor’s strong suites in terms of reporting is that you can create an “Alert forecasting report.” It can forecast which endpoints are likely to have any issues in the next 30 days.

All in all, LogicMonitor offers a practical reporting module and then some.

Ease of use

Although this network monitoring solution has an easy-to-use and functional drag and drop interface, it will take some time to get used to the software. The installation itself is a breeze, but after its completion, there is a learning curve.

The reason behind it is the sheer number of monitors and features packed in the software. It can be overwhelming in the beginning, so don’t expect you’ll be good to go in no time.

Support and resources

First of all, the website has detailed documentation and knowledgebase, where you can find everything you need.

Additionally, there is an “extensive” video library with tutorials and webinars. Well, I wouldn’t call it extensive, but there are enough videos to teach you the basics.

And if you require further assistance, you can reach out to customer service.

LogicMonitor is arguably the best network management tool on this list in terms of customer service. My questions got answered by friendly and helpful reps. Still, I’m not that easily impressed with customer reps, so I read dozens of user-written reviews related to customer support.

The feedback from all of these reviews was the same – LogicMonitor offers stellar support. I couldn’t find a single negative review of the company’s reps.

All in all, if you need any assistance or guidance – you’ll get it.

LogicMonitor Free Trial

You can test this network monitoring software free of charge for 14 days. No credit card required.

Pricing

The company offers three plans, and you’ll have to request a quote for each of them. Bear in mind that you’ll be charged based on the number of devices you’d like to monitor.

Here are the plans:

• Starter – Starts at 50 devices. It offers basic network tools and visualizations.
• Pro – Starts at 100 devices. This plan includes workflow automation, Netflow, topology mapping, integrations, and one-year data retention.
• Enterprise – Starts at 200 devices. If you opt for this plan, you’ll unlock all of LogicMonitor’s features, 24/7 customer support, and a dedicated customer success manager.

If you are a service provider that needs to monitor many endpoints, LogicMonitor has two plans available – SP Pro and SP Enterprise. Both start at 250 devices.

The company doesn’t reveal the software’s pricing, but the overall user opinion is that the software can get quite expensive.

Verdict

So, is LogicMonitor the best monitoring software? It certainly has the potential to be.

A few more improvements and it will be ready to claim the crown. However, it’s an excellent piece of software with some minor drawbacks. If its price doesn’t stretch your budget, that is.

Intermapper is a fast, reliable software that can automatically discover, map, and monitor every device in your network. You can monitor each device's metrics, and the software shows you its physical location for quicker troubleshooting. It's one of the top tools for mapping your entire infrastructure. Moreover, it's extremely easy to use, and even novice network and system admins will feel right at home with Intermapper.

Overview

Intermapper is a map-based network monitoring program developed by HelpSystems. It can monitor everything with an IP address.

The software uses a variety of protocols to communicate with devices, and you can monitor on-premise, off-site, and cloud infrastructures. There are more than 100 out-of-the-box probes (sensors) that can interrogate the devices and gather metrics.

What I like most about Intermapper is that it’s so easy to use.

Compared to the other network monitoring tools on the market, the learning curve is almost negligible.

The software is easy to install, and the auto-discovery tool finds the devices in your network relatively fast. Creating maps and assigning probes and alerts is also a breeze, thanks to the (outdated) drag and drop UI.

And unlike other monitoring tools, Intermapper allows you to manage your network from whatever platform you use – be it Windows, Mac, or Linux.

Now let’s see what makes this tool one of the top network monitoring software.

Features

Intermapper’s primary purpose is to map and monitor your network. And it does an excellent job at it.

You can create live diagrams of your network, and you can convert them into Layer 2 and 3 topology maps. Additionally, you can customize the visualization by choosing various icons, backgrounds, and layouts.

In addition to its impressive mapping capabilities, this network monitoring software is excellent for performance monitoring. It’s vendor-agnostic, and you’ll get information about every device with an IP address.

Automation

The network monitoring software has some automation options as well. You can execute scripts to restore or restart failed devices and create backups and logs.

The software’s automation possibilities are far from mind-blowing, but HelpSystems have another software called “AutoMate” that can expand Intermapper’s automation capabilities immensely.

But it gets better!

Capacity planning

Thanks to its robust data collection, Intermapper can help you find trends and discover issues so you can perform efficient capacity planning.

You can create a variety of charts for every monitored metric. You can use those to get a birds-eye view of your network’s issues. And thanks to its powerful mapping features, Intermapper displays device dependencies, so you can quickly find any bottlenecks.

Remote access

Intermapper also allows you to give users remote access to monitor the network, and keep track of network traffic and bandwidth usage. Unfortunately, you’ll have to purchase the software’s add-ons to do so.

All in all, HelpSystems delivers all the essentials you’d need from a network monitoring solution and then some.

Monitoring

So, what can this network monitoring program actually monitor?

The short answer would be – anything with an IP address.

That includes servers, routers, switches, firewalls, environmental sensors, and much more. You’ll be able to drill down into details about the CPU load, disk space, memory, health, etc.

Additionally, you can use Intermapper’s probes to monitor applications.

The software can interrogate nodes via SNMP, HTTP, TCP, and command-line access. You can also use probes to monitor standard devices, and there are many user-created probes you can download. You can create your own as well!

Isn’t that great?

What makes Intermapper different from other monitoring tools is that it doesn’t monitor the devices via dashboards. You can view everything from the maps you’ve created. They are very easy to build! With a few clicks, you can drill down into details or open subnets.

You can also add various graphs to your view for real-time monitoring of devices’ performance.

That said, if you’ve used other network monitoring tools that offer a single pane of glass view, you might find Intermapper a bit baffling at first. Still, the software is easy to use, once you overcome the initial confusion.

However, if you find it more convenient to use dashboards, you can integrate Intermapper with HelpSystems Insite. It’s a web-based tool that you can use to create customized dashboards.

The software’s original interface allows you to see quickly if any device changes its status. On the top right corner, you can see all nodes and their state. And if any of them isn’t in the “OK” state, you can configure the software to notify you.

Alerts

When a device exceeds its performance thresholds, the network monitor system will notify you. The software can send a notification via email and SMS, play a sound (the default sounds are quite fun), Syslog. Furthermore, you can configure Intermapper to send an SNMP trap and execute a task or a script.

What I like most about Intermapper’s alarming module is its flexibility.

You can assign which person (or group) gets notified when a device changes its state. You can set various notifiers to an entire map or an individual node. And to limit the noise, you can add delays for minor outages, so you don’t get bombarded with alerts.

Reports

Compared to some of the other systems on this list, Intermapper won’t amaze you with its reporting capabilities.

There are eight built-in reports, and you can customize them by including the data you need. They include:

• Average Response Time
• Outage History
• Down Devices
• Worst Devices
• Outgoing Traffic
• Incoming Traffic
• Slowest Devices
• Short-term Packet Loss

Additionally, you can create your own by using any of the gathered data. Intermapper also comes with a built-in basic report editor so you can customize the layout.

The network monitoring software can export the reports to CSV files, and you can send a link to the document to whoever needs to see it.

You can’t convert reports to PDF, run scheduled ones, or automatically email them.

Ease of use

As mentioned earlier, Intermapper is incredibly easy to use, even for newcomers.

The software’s interface isn’t flashy and won’t give you any modern look vibes, but it’s functional. There are occasional bugs, but no major deal-breakers.

Overall, this network monitoring program is easy to use, and its maps are easy to navigate and understand.

Knowledge base and support

The website’s knowledge base is sufficient and offers lots of resources and documentation. I found it somewhat lacking, and it could be more detailed. Still, it’s easy to discover what you are looking for. If it’s there, that is.

Also, there are about two webinars each month. Moreover, HelpSystems’ YouTube channel has many videos that will guide you through your Intermapper journey.

Naturally, if something remains unclear, you can contact support. You can do so via live-chat (through a third-party vendor), email, or phone.

However, I have mixed feelings about this network managing tool’s customer support.

The live chat is outright useless unless you have very general inquiries. The reps aren’t familiar with the software, and all they can do is copy/paste information from HelpSystems’ website.

On the other hand, the email I sent got answered quickly, and the reply was detailed and helpful. I couldn’t find any user reviews focusing on the company’s customer support, so I guess the email support is fine. My personal experience with this rep is positive.

Intermapper Free Trial

You can test this network monitoring software for free for 30 days. No credit card required. There’s also a free plan that allows monitoring of up to 10 devices.

Pricing

You can use Intermapper as a freeware as long as you need to monitor up to 10 devices.

For anything more, you’d have to request a quote. The network monitoring software’s pricing scheme is transparent – you pay for the number of devices you want to monitor, and that’s that. You can also opt for the “Unlimited License” that can allow you to track unlimited devices.

Verdict

In a nutshell, Intermapper is an excellent network mapping and monitoring software. It’s not flawless, but its ease-of-use, mapping capabilities, and detailed monitoring make it a good choice for SMBs. 

WhatsUp Gold is a network management tool that can monitor on-premise, cloud, or hybrid infrastructures. This software offers everything you'd look for in such a system. You can monitor all types of networks, get alerts, and generate reports. WhatsUp Gold also allows you to control each device's access to the Web, filter suspicious IPs, and minimize potential threats. And if you are using cloud services, there's a built-in billing monitor.

Overview

WhatsUp Gold is a network management tool that offers performance monitoring and mapping. You can use it to monitor on-premise, cloud, or hybrid infrastructures.

Although it doesn’t offer many features compared to other solutions on this list, it certainly deserves its place among the best. And there’s a simple reason for that – WhatsUp Gold is perfect for monitoring networks.

The software has all the essential tools you’ll need to keep your network up and running. You can monitor all the crucial data, receive alerts, and generate reports.

So, let’s see what the software is capable of.

Features

After the super-easy deployment, the first thing you’ll notice is the auto-discovery feature. Naturally, any professional tool shouldn’t require you to input all the devices’ addresses manually. So, within minutes, WhatsUp Gold will find all your devices, their types, vendor, and more.

Network management

Additionally, the software has the Network Traffic Analysis tool that collects data for the network traffic monitor and the bandwidth one.

The same module can reveal any communications from suspicious IPs. It also applies when users are accessing the Dark Web. That way, you can control their access and minimize potential threats.

You get an out-of-the-box action policy that can detect if a device goes down. I know it’s one of the must-have features for such software, but this one can automatically execute a script to reboot the device.

But it gets better!

Configuration management

WhatsUp Gold also comes with configuration management. It archives and can restore devices’ configuration to ensure the network’s performance. The software will send you a notification in case there’s a change in a device’s configuration.

What makes WhatsUp Gold a good tool is that it can help manage not only the configuration settings but also IP addresses and wireless networks.

And if that’s not enough, have some more amazingness:

Extra features

WhatsUp Gold includes a public REST API for integrations and workflow automation. It also has mobile apps for both iOS and Android devices.

In a nutshell – it’s an all-in-one monitoring solution, no matter the type of your network.

Monitoring

Although the software has several handy features, it shines the brightest when it comes to monitoring.

WhatsUp Gold lets you see everything:

• Virtual machines – VMWare and Hyper-V
• AWS, Azure, SQL server monitoring
• Applications
• Bandwidth consumption
• Network performance
• Wireless networks

And more.

The network monitor uses SNMP, SSH, WMI, and other methods to interrogate the devices and track CPU and memory usage, disk space, and other metrics.

The recently released version also includes cloud application performance monitoring. It can be used with all cloud-based apps in the AWS or Azure ecosystems.

And speaking of the cloud, WhatsUp Gold has a built-in billing monitor for cloud services.

But it gets better.

WhatsUp Gold also has decent mapping capabilities. You can get a birds-eye view of the entire network, device dependencies, and any issues that have occurred. Double-click any of them, and you can drill down to details.

Alerts

This network managing tool handles the alarms via the action policies mentioned above.

You can configure these policies to ring an alarm or inform a team member via SMS or email. A nice touch is the option to select which team members should get notified about the issue.

What I like about these action policies is that they can perform specific automated actions – logging, restarting the device, or launching a script.

The alerting module isn’t as robust and customizable as the ones offered by the other monitoring tools listed, but it does get the job done.

Reports

The software comes with predefined reports about everything in the system.

You can add these in the dashboard and create different dashboards for a variety of audiences (stakeholders, for instance).

The reports are customizable, and you can export them to PDF. Also, the software can create them on a scheduled basis.

Although I liked the software, the reporting module didn’t impress me much. There are other network monitoring tools on this list that are levels above WhatsUp Gold in terms of reporting capabilities.

Ease of use

It may take some time to get used to the software. Overall it offers an intuitive and relatively easy to use interface. Even if you face any challenges, you can always consult the knowledge base (more on that in a bit).

The UI is functional, but it needs some polishing. There are several minor bugs, but nothing critical.

The thing that annoyed me the most was the speed. The software itself worked fine and didn’t crash, but switching through different tabs took some time. It’s not permanently like that, but I guess the company’s servers experience some difficulties during peak traffic hours.

Documentation and support

WhatsUp Gold’s website offers a rich library comprised of more than 3,000 documents that can help you get the most out of the software.

There are a few gaps in the knowledge base, but the same goes for all network monitoring tools.

Naturally, you can reach out to support if you face any challenges. You can contact the reps via the phone, or you can open a case.

Additionally, WhatsUp Gold has an active community, and you can get help in the forum as well.

WhatsUp Gold Free Trial

You can test this network monitor software for 14 days. No credit card is required.

Pricing

Until recently, you could view the software’s pricing options on the website. Today, following the industry’s standards, the company tailors the pricing according to the specific customer.

Simply put,  you have to request a quote. You can opt for an annual subscription or perpetual license.

Additionally, there are two bundles – for network and system admins.

Verdict

Although WhatsUp Gold isn’t flawless, it delivers what it promises and can compete with more sophisticated solutions. It’s an excellent tool for monitoring and can be a handy tool for businesses of all sizes.

Datadog is one of the top choices for hybrid cloud environments. It offers hundreds of integrations, a collaboration module, and a machine-learning algorithm to make your life easier and your work more efficient. It allows you to monitor the network traffic between objects, and you can visualize data flows via a map view. All in all, Datadog lets you keep track of all your devices and connections between them.

Overview

Datadog is one of the best cloud-based infrastructure monitoring tools on the market. It’s suitable for all-sized businesses and comes with an impressive amount of features. It’s suitable for companies working in hybrid cloud environments.

Datadog covers the entire monitoring spectrum – applications, networks, services, and deployments. Moreover, it comes with all the essentials, like analytics tools, alerts, API, and machine learning. It’s a great piece of software, and it’s no surprise that companies like DreamWorks, Samsung, and Ferrari are among Datadog’s notable clients.

Features

This network monitoring software offers a feature-rich environment.

Datadog has more than 350 built-in integrations, including the leading cloud service vendors – AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. You can also find many tools for collaboration, security, notifications, monitoring, etc. And if that’s not enough, you get full API access to integrate Datadog with any other systems and apps.

Performance monitoring

Secondly, the software offers application performance monitoring, and recently the company launched its networking performance monitor. It allows you to monitor the network traffic between objects, and you can visualize data flows via a map view. This feature reveals where network issues are causing connectivity problems.

All in all, you can monitor every service and device and all the connections between them.

Dashboards

One of the coolest (yet challenging for newcomers) features is that you can create custom real-time dashboards! That way, you can visualize all the metrics you need and put them in one place. You can slice the data by various tags and arrange metrics from different sources in one dashboard. You can create as many as you need.

Collaboration

Datadog’s network management tool also arrives with a built-in collaboration module. You and your teammates can share, comment, and notify each other about changes, issues, etc.

Monitoring and logs

Although it’s somewhat cumbersome, the dashboard offers you a complete view of your network. And if something caught your interest, you can drill down into related processes, hosts, or logs for more information.

With Datadog, you can monitor SLA, SLO, servers, uptime, performance, and more in real-time. The network monitor system lets you group the gathered data in any way you like – from datacenters to individual containers.

Datadog allows you to collect all your logs from all the sources. That way, you can analyze everything and use your records for future troubleshooting.

The software also offers a live tail of your logs, and you can apply various tags to keep track and inspect them quickly. Additionally, you can use your records to create automated alerts when Datadog detects any issues in your systems.

Alerts

Datadog can automatically alert you via email, Slack, or other third-party apps, integrated with the network monitoring program.

As mentioned above, Datadog uses machine learning (called Watchdog) to detect performance anomalies anywhere in your infrastructure. You get alerts based on events or metrics. You can also use custom metrics via StatsD.

Datadog can monitor and alert you about complete services or individual hosts. You can exclude any section from your infrastructure and get warned only about what matters, thus diminishing the noise.

And since you don’t want to receive hundreds of alerts, you can tune the software by applying logic to the warnings. You can mute or exclude some of them, and fine-tune Datadog to recognize acceptable failure levels.

Still, despite all these options, one of Datadog’s disadvantages is the significant number of alerts you are bound to get.

Analysis and reports

Although this network monitoring software focuses on real-time analysis, you’ll receive weekly reports.

The “Monitor Trends Report” will inform you about the last week’s issues, whether they are new or recurring, and if the alerts have patterns. You can also see which employees get notified most often.

Still, Datadog’s superpowers lie in the customizable dashboards. You can use the drag and drop interface to add any graphs you need to analyze quickly.

Ease of use

Datadog is one of those network monitoring tools that need some time to master. But once you get the hang of it – it’s relatively easy to use. The drag and drop UI allows you to tailor Datadog to fit your needs.

Support and resources

The Datadog website offers a rich knowledge base with hundreds of documents explaining the ins and outs of the software. Additionally, there are many videos and a couple of webinars that will help you with your Datadog journey.

You can contact customer support via email, the in-built chat, or you can join the company’s Slack channel.

Overall, the reps are helpful and will work towards resolving your issues.

Free Trial

You can test Datadog’s network monitor software for 14 days. No credit card required.

Datadog Pricing

The company offers three plans, which you can enhance by purchasing additional services. The following prices apply for annual billing.

• Free – For $0, you get the software’s core features, limited to up to five hosts. Also, you’ll get only one-day metric retention.
• Pro – For $15 per host, per month, you’ll unlock the alerting module, container monitoring, and custom metrics.
• Enterprise –  You’ll have to pay $23 each month for each host if you want to take advantage of Datadog’s full potential. This plan gives access to machine learning-based alerts, forecast monitoring, live processes, and advanced administrative tools. In a nutshell – all the features that guaranteed Datadog's spot on our list.

Now.

Everything else, including log management, APM and distributed tracing, network traffic monitor, and others, will cost you extra each month. In fact, that’s one of the most common complaints from Datadog customers – that the software’s price can escalate manifold.

Verdict

All in all, Datadog is a fantastic network monitoring solution. Despite the complicated pricing, some minor bugs, and the numerous alerts, the software offers some great features. The customizable dashboards, ML-based alerts, and hundreds of integrations make Datadog one of the best network monitoring software on the market.

Nagios is one of the well-known names throughout the industry. It's a robust network monitoring software that can help every savvy IT expert do their job more efficiently. With its help, you can monitor everything in your IT infrastructure – including apps, services, protocols, operating systems, system metrics, and devices. Nagios XI also comes with customizable dashboards and you can set rotations. That way, you'll never miss an anomaly or if a device isn't working as it's supposed to.

Nagios XI Overview

Nagios is one of the oldest network monitoring tools on the market. Ethan Galstad created the software’s forefather back in 1996 and renamed it to Nagios in 2002. At first, he named the app NetSaint, but due to trademark issues, he changed the name.

Okay, enough with the history lesson, let’s focus on Nagios today.

In 2022, companies like Airbnb, Cisco, and PayPal trust this tool to monitor their networks.

It’s a network monitoring software that monitors everything in your IT infrastructure – including apps, services, protocols, operating systems, system metrics, and devices. And because of the software’s massive community, there are hundreds of third-party apps that can help you keep your systems up and running.

Furthermore, you can complement Nagios XI’s superpowers with its sidekicks – Nagios Log Server and Nagios Network Analyzer. The latter offers a network traffic analyzer and a network bandwidth monitor.

Anyways, let’s focus on the star of the show and see what it can offer.

Features

There are two ways you can check your network elements – active and passive. Active checks mean that Nagios reaches out to a specific device, gathers metrics, and executes the required actions.

In the passive method, the object itself sends data to Nagios. That’s handy when you can’t get inbound permissions to access particular subnets.

Dashboards

This network monitoring software uses the Nagios Core 4 monitoring engine. It allows you to oversee the entire IT infrastructure, create maps, and view everything at a glance, thanks to the customizable dashboard.

And speaking of the latter, you can use the drag and drop interface to select the tabs you need, and you can even create multiple dashboards.

Hold!

Things get even better!

Rotation

Another excellent feature is the “views” tab. From there, you can create a slideshow of your dashboards. That way, you can keep track of various displays, without creating an overwhelming panel with dozens of monitors.

Sounds great, right?

Well, there’s more!

Role-based access

One of Nagios’ handy features is the ability to set up access roles. This comes in handy for large organizations, where different employees are in charge of various systems.

Community

There’s an active (and massive) Nagios community, and you’ll find many add-ons and third-party integrations.

Monitoring

Nagios XI offers 60+ monitoring wizards that cover a broad spectrum of systems, like various types of servers, environmental sensors, databases, and much more.

Keep in mind that using the wizards is straightforward and relatively easy, but if you need to add host and services groups, you’ll have to configure the Nagios Core. Unfortunately, this is far from easy and fast. Especially if you aren’t familiar with Linux.

There’s also an auto-discovery wizard that creates a list of IPs, thus mapping the subsystems.

You can set the time intervals for how often the net monitor reviews the endpoints.

For instance, you can configure Nagios to monitor a server every three minutes. In case it finds a problem, the software can perform multiple checks per minute before sending an alert. That way, if the issue is resolved or it’s a momentary spike within a specific timeframe, you won’t be notified.

You can keep track of specific metrics, like drive space, CPU load, memory utilization, temperature, etc.

All in all, it allows you to monitor devices at a granular level.

Additionally, you can view the network’s topology in Nagios’ maps tab. Several mapping views can give you a bird’s eye over the entire system. This is quite useful, especially when you are monitoring hundreds of nodes.

Alerts

When something needs your attention, you can configure Nagios to remind you at specified intervals.  You can also select the individual (or group) that needs to get notified. The network monitoring software can send alerts via SMS, email, or IM platforms. Also, you can customize the alert messages.

Additionally, Nagios XI can send an SNMP trap, which is useful for integrating with a ticketing system, for instance.

Naturally, you can see all alerts on your dashboard, and the numerous visualization options let you drill down into details.

Reports

You’d expect that one of the best monitoring software can create a variety of reports, right?

Well, Nagios delivers.

There’s a variety of reports, and they are all customizable. You can choose time intervals, host groups, hide warning states, and much more.

Additionally, you can download the reports as CSV, PDF, or JPG files. You can email them right from the software’s interface too. If you opt for the standard edition, you’ll have to generate reports manually, while the Enterprise one gives you the option to schedule them.

You can get reports on a variety of data, including top alert producers, and much more. Still, if you need a detailed network report, like bandwidth usage, network queries, and others, you’d have to purchase Nagios Network Analyzer. On the bright side, you’ll get a discount, seamless integration, and two powerful networking monitoring tools!

Another cool feature is the data visualizations tab. It lets you choose from several visualization options to transform the data into easy-to-digest visual information.

Ease of use

This network monitoring program comes with a functional, easy to use interface. It requires some time to get used to, but it’s quite intuitive considering the software’s many features.

Support and resources

First of all, the Nagios website has an impressive library with all the necessary documentation. Additionally, you can find many videos that explain all the software’s features.

Still, if you encounter any issues or have any additional questions, you can reach out to customer support. You can contact the reps via phone, email, ticket, and live chat.

All in all, the reps are friendly and helpful. So is the opinion of other Nagios customers.

Free trial

Nagios XI offers the most extended trial, compared to the other network monitoring tools listed. You can test the software free of charge for 60 days.

Nagios XI Pricing

Nagios XI is available in two editions – Standard and Enterprise. The network monitor software’s pricing depends on the number of nodes you want to monitor. Simple as that.

The prices for the “Standard Edition” are as follows:

• 100 Node $1,995
• 200 Node $3,495
• 300 Node $4,995
• 400 Node $5,995
• 500 Node $6,995
• 1,000 Node $11,995
• Unlimited Node+ $19,995

The prices above include a one-year license and maintenance. The Enterprise Edition costs an additional $1500 (for instance, it’s $3,495 for 100 nodes). It unlocks the SLA reports, business process monitoring, scheduled reports, and many other features.

Verdict

Undoubtedly Nagios is among the top network monitoring tools. Although it doesn’t offer so many features as other programs on the list, Nagios is a robust software that gets the job done.