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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

"Using the products to ensure the safety of our equipment that we have a lot invested in."
"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."
"It allows us to prepare more real designs. Later, we validate them with actual surveys."
"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 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."
"Clear and easy to use maps."
"The most valuable feature is the predictive survey. The antennas' RF patterns are reflected correctly on the drawing when preparing predictive heat maps."
"I would like to rate the product as eight of ten."
"ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer has detection capabilities for flow, event, and service flow."
"I give this solution a rating of 10 out of 10 and absolutely recommend it based on our experience."
"Wireshark's best feature is that it's adaptive, which means it's the go-to tool for network-related developers."
"It's easy to troubleshoot issues because there's a large online community."
"Packet-capture files can be hard to use due to their size. Wireshark has a tool called tshark that can parse the files with out opening them so that you can take large captures, say 2-10GB, and return only relevant information."
"The initial setup is simple."
"Wireshark is very user-friendly; even someone with basic IT knowledge can use it."
"The most valuable feature is the traffic gate, which shows which IPs are getting more bandwidth or traffic."
"The feature to incorporate Voice over IP (VoIP) incidents into network traffic analysis is valuable. Capturing voice or SIP communication allows for examination of interactions between SIP clients and SIP servers. This helps the team investigate or analyze issues related to call center servers and operators."
"It is a stable product. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten."
 

Cons

"But it's definitely a more expensive solution than other ones."
"I would say some of our newer techs that are going out to job sites can be a little bit intimidated by the interface."
"When you conduct an active survey and then want to use it for design work, it's actually not very useful."
"Less time consumed doing the real surveys."
"It'd be nice if it was cheaper, however, you get value for your money."
"It would be nice to have some more training resources for younger techs. We can use them if we need some assistance, but that usually requires one of us who knows what we're doing to calibrate the programs properly."
"The surveying features are in need of improvement, along with general usability."
"AirMagnet Survey doesn't cover certain devices in the system."
"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."
"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."
"It is not an easy program. You will need to study to use it to its full capabilities (follow a course)."
"Wireshark is similar to an OS defense tool, meaning that it runs on an OS such as Ubuntu and Fedora, but I'm unsure if it's compatible with Windows or if it's a straightforward process to run it on Windows. Right now, my team needs to run Wireshark from a dongle to use it, so it's an OS-dependable tool, and that's an area for improvement. I was unable to use Wireshark on Windows, and I couldn't capture it, as I'm unsure how to configure the wireless card into monitoring mode on Windows. The process was straightforward on Linux, but it wasn't the case on Windows OS. It seems Wireshark isn't compatible with all OS. For example, you can analyze the log, and you can analyze it on the Windows server, but you can't do a capture in Windows. Configuring Wireshark for Windows isn't as easy as configuring it for Linux."
"Wireshark could be improved by adding more monitoring features."
"There is a disadvantage when it comes to sampling intervals. Additionally, I've heard from a colleague that Wireshark might be less effective in the voice domain."
"I have not used Wireshark to an advanced point where I could provide a detailed opinion on improvements needed."
"Wireshark could be improved with a delay option when getting data automatically."
"The system could be improved upon by adding a better and more powerful data processing engine."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The moment we began needing more of the vendor's support, the cost became very high; we switched to another solution."
"There is an annual cost of the solution. There are some additional charges, such as support and maintenance."
"The pricing needs improvement."
"For technical support, you need an annual license, but it is not worth it."
"The tool's pricing is medium."
"This product is very expensive."
"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."
Information not available
"It's free."
"The solution is open source so is free."
"Wireshark is open-source and free of charge."
"It is free to download and install. It runs on multiple platforms, so how can you go wrong?"
"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."
"The tool is free."
"This is an open-source product that can be used 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.