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AirMagnet Survey PRO vs ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer vs Wireshark 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Network Troubleshooting category, the mindshare of AirMagnet Survey PRO is 8.4%, up from 5.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer is 2.7%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Wireshark is 13.3%, up from 11.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Troubleshooting
 

Featured Reviews

Mark Witherspoon - PeerSpot reviewer
A solution for site verifications and enhanced with adapters that provide more realistic readings, but needs to support Wi-Fi 6E
Ekahau and AirMagnet Survey have their own pros and cons, in my opinion. For example, the APs are not visible in Ekahau but AirMagnet Survey allows us to see what APs and channels are being used in a live view, which Ekahau lacks. In Ekahau, the signal from the AP it's capturing at that time is visible which is a bit of an inconvenience. The predictive planner of AirMagnet's is better. However, Ekahau has advantages over AirMagnet because it groups all the SSIDs into one AP, whereas with AirMagnet, one needs to group them manually. Ekahau also supports Wi-Fi 6E, but its licensing is restrictive and more costly.
Aneesh Mangla - PeerSpot reviewer
High cost-effectiveness and reliable alerting ensure proactive network management
Sometimes customers are unaware about their own network. For example, we need SMTP credentials for Layer 2 switches to do automatic discovery of network devices. Sometimes the network management teams are unaware of their SMTP credentials because the teams have been shuffled since the network was deployed. Or sometimes, when we support our government and defense customers, they don't have clearance to share these credentials with us. Some of the features, such as auto discoverability, get hampered if the customer is not aware of their own network or somehow can't share privileges and credentials with our tool for them to work properly. Not in ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer in particular, but there are other features of the OpManager suite that could afford to be updated. There is something called a CLI, command-line interface, that allows us to configure network devices such as switches. This is old technology. This product suite has CLI-based configurations, but as of last year, most network devices come with Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP). OpManager does not support this functionality, and we don't really have a timeline on when ZTP functionality will be available. In ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer, we have to set custom thresholds to get alerted if there is a problem in network connectivity. It would be helpful if we could automate the tool such that we don't have to set thresholds manually, and the tool automatically alerts us when it detects issues. When experts deploy this tool, we already know what thresholds should be normal. But customers in general may not have this skill set. For newer customers who need to adopt this product, an automated method of alerting would definitely be beneficial.
Vijay Duggal - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides detailed traffic analysis and helps troubleshoot issues
There is a disadvantage when it comes to sampling intervals. While the solution supports sampling as fine as one millisecond, it requires a copy at that interval. My Python script allows me to achieve a granularity of up to ten microseconds, but I can't go beyond that. When dealing with provisioning on both issues, it would be beneficial if I could go down to the microsecond level, if not the nanosecond. Additionally, I've heard from a colleague that Wireshark might be less effective in the voice domain.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I would like to rate the product as eight of ten."
"We use the solution for Wi-Fi and networks."
"The most valuable feature is the predictive survey. The antennas' RF patterns are reflected correctly on the drawing when preparing predictive heat maps."
"The most valuable features are the survey, spectrum analysis, and reporting."
"The benefit is with the ease of use of the software, I am able to show the customer, "Here is what your wireless coverage looks like." It is set up in a fashion that non-technical people can understand it."
"It is reliable and easy to use (user-friendly). The heat mapping, passive network surveying, and doing the heat mapping of a building's wireless network allows me to see what level of coverage an area has."
"The AirMagnet Survey allows you to see the list of APs in the live view. It only supports certain adapters, which can be limiting, but it's also beneficial because these adapters are more comparable to real-life devices like laptops. With Ekahau, Sidekick needs to be used for full features, but I find the Sidekick too strong, which can hamper results. Therefore, I prefer AirMagnet's approach because the adapters provide more realistic readings."
"The addition of the AirMapper software on the nXG and our AirCheck G2s has helped a lot because we're mostly not drilling down into the data. Local managers only need to see the coverage on their end and whether there are performance bottlenecks. These things are easy enough for us to ascertain with iPerf."
"I give this solution a rating of 10 out of 10 and absolutely recommend it based on our experience."
"ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer has detection capabilities for flow, event, and service flow."
"It has a good syntax to put the commands in and get information out of."
"Wireshark is very user-friendly; even someone with basic IT knowledge can use it."
"It helps in analyzing if something looks suspicious, such as a brute force attack or scanning from somewhere."
"The best part about Wireshark, in my opinion, is its ability to analyze packet capture files."
"The ability to decrypt traffic and the abundance of filters available are both valuable features."
"It's easy to troubleshoot issues because there's a large online community."
"The most valuable feature of Wireshark is the ability to choose a destination of flow that has not been working as expected."
"The drill-down available for packet analysis is great. It gives a network security engineer insight into what is going on at the packet level and enables better troubleshooting."
 

Cons

"It'd be nice if it was cheaper, however, you get value for your money."
"The throughput should be more advanced in the future. They need to add more versions of WiFi than just one."
"The surveying features are in need of improvement, along with general usability."
"Less time consumed doing the real surveys."
"But it's definitely a more expensive solution than other ones."
"AirMagnet Survey doesn't cover certain devices in the system."
"I would say some of our newer techs that are going out to job sites can be a little bit intimidated by the interface."
"AirMagnet Survey needs to support Wi-Fi 6E otherwise they can lose to the competition. They also need to allow better grouping of SSIDs to one AP, removing the need to filter manually. At the moment, you can filter by channel or SSID, but grouping all those SSIDs together is a difficult task."
"In ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer, we have to set custom thresholds to get alerted if there is a problem in network connectivity. It would be helpful if we could automate the tool such that we don't have to set thresholds manually, and the tool automatically alerts us when it detects issues."
"With Wireshark, you cannot download and utilize the packet in automation."
"I have not used Wireshark to an advanced point where I could provide a detailed opinion on improvements needed."
"Big trace files (more than 1,000,000 packets) can be slow, but then you can use "TraceWrangler" (also free) to help with slicing and dicing the data."
"A room for improvement in Wireshark is its ease of use for beginners. It could be better. Another room for improvement in the tool is for it to provide more details about the traffic load. At the moment, Wireshark is adequate for me, so there isn't anything I'd like added to it in its next version."
"The product has been using the same GUI for many years."
"This product needs to improve the UI."
"It would be better if they offered a hybrid version like My Cloud Control."
"I would like to see Wireshark improve the ease of application of the command. The command is very powerful, but not easy to apply."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is an annual cost of the solution. There are some additional charges, such as support and maintenance."
"The licensing of AirMagnet Survey is different when compared to Ekahu. It is a third of the cost of Ekahau but there are no dedicated laptops to the Sidekick. AirMagnet allows you to license an adapter and share that adapter."
"The moment we began needing more of the vendor's support, the cost became very high; we switched to another solution."
"The tool's pricing is medium."
"This product is very expensive."
"For technical support, you need an annual license, but it is not worth it."
"The pricing needs improvement."
Information not available
"Wireshark is free of charge, and there's no license involved."
"We're using the free version of Wireshark."
"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."
"Wireshark is an open-source product, so it's free to use."
"The tool is free."
"It's free."
"Wireshark is open-source and free of charge."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
8%
Retailer
7%
Educational Organization
7%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Energy/Utilities Company
14%
Educational Organization
13%
Construction Company
9%
University
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AirMagnet Survey?
We use the solution for Wi-Fi and networks.
What needs improvement with AirMagnet Survey?
AirMagnet Survey needs to support Wi-Fi 6E otherwise they can lose to the competition. They also need to allow better...
What is your primary use case for AirMagnet Survey?
We use AirMagnet Survey, for site verifications after the wireless system has been installed. We conduct pre and post...
What needs improvement with ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer?
ManageEngine's product has some performance issues. It runs very slowly when the system is large and does not support...
What is your primary use case for ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer?
I use ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer for detecting the root cause when the database and application run very slow. I h...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Wireshark?
Wireshark is priced at a medium range, not too high, not too low. The pricing could be more flexible, and they might ...
What needs improvement with Wireshark?
The speed of the Internet could be improved, especially its performance. Performance can sometimes be a challenge due...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Houston Methodist Hospital, Love's Travel Stops
Metro Rail, Micron21, Lotus F1 Team, Elizabeth Board of Education, Queen’s University Belfast, DHL, Praxair, Adventist Health, Wipro Infotech, Tropical Shipping USA
Comversion, ADP, Talbots
Find out what your peers are saying about Auvik, NetAlly, Wireshark and others in Network Troubleshooting. Updated: July 2025.
865,576 professionals have used our research since 2012.