AirMagnet Survey PRO vs Wireshark comparison

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AirMagnet Survey PRO

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 14, 2025

Wireshark and AirMagnet Survey PRO are direct competitors in network analysis and wireless infrastructure management. AirMagnet Survey PRO seems to hold an upper hand with its specialized tools for wireless network planning and analysis, valued for its comprehensive feature set, even though Wireshark is a more budget-friendly option.

Features: Wireshark allows for granular packet-level network diagnostics with support for numerous protocols, deep packet inspections, and export features for analysis. AirMagnet Survey PRO offers advanced tools for wireless site surveys, network planning, and RF measurements, along with predictive heat maps for efficient wireless network deployment.

Room for Improvement: Wireshark could benefit from improved GUI accuracy and enhanced insight into the wireless packet details. AirMagnet Survey PRO might enhance support for different radio types, expand its device compatibility, and streamline its user interface for a more intuitive experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Wireshark, being open-source, is easy to deploy with strong community support for troubleshooting. AirMagnet Survey PRO, while more complex, offers structured deployment options and professional customer support crucial for large-scale projects.

Pricing and ROI: Wireshark is a free tool with high ROI for budget-conscious users. AirMagnet Survey PRO requires significant investment, around $36,000, but offers specialized wireless analysis capabilities that enhance network performance, delivering strong ROI over time.

To learn more, read our detailed AirMagnet Survey PRO vs. Wireshark Report (Updated: February 2026).

AirMagnet Survey PRO vs. Wireshark

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Helped 883,011 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

AirMagnet Survey PRO

Ranking in Network Troubleshooting

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Modeling and Simulation (2nd)

Wireshark

Ranking in Network Troubleshooting

4th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Network Troubleshooting category, the mindshare of AirMagnet Survey PRO is 10.0%, up from 6.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Wireshark is 12.3%, down from 13.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Troubleshooting Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Wireshark	12.3%
AirMagnet Survey PRO	10.0%
Other	77.7%

Network Troubleshooting

Featured Reviews

Mark Witherspoon

Wireless Services Manager at Veritas Managed Solutions

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.

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DonniUgalde

Senior I.T. Systems Engineer at Pro Techs MSP

Provides visibility into the network, and the GUI is easy to use

I wish the filters were a little bit more prepopulated. It would have been easy to hit a drop-down and select a filter. If I only wanted to look at DCP, UDP, or IP, it would be easy to filter it out. Advanced network knowledge is required to get a lot out of the tool. However, it's very easy to install and deploy. It would be nice if there were some handheld Android devices with a Wireshark-specialized application that would allow us to mirror a Cisco port. Then, we can just plug into the port and click the green start button, and it will start ingesting the packet capture. Then, we won’t be using a laptop. The only downside is that we must have a laptop and connect a network cable. Some new laptops don't have network ports, so we have to get another adapter. Having an all-in-one device, like NetAlly or Fluke, and some of their network devices would be cool.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The heat maps are quite good, and some features are easy to use."

"We use the solution for Wi-Fi and networks."

"Customer service is great."

"The most valuable features are the survey, spectrum analysis, and reporting."

"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."

"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."

"Clear and easy to use maps."

"Using the products to ensure the safety of our equipment that we have a lot invested in."

More AirMagnet Survey PRO pros

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

"Wireshark's best feature is that it's adaptive, which means it's the go-to tool for network-related developers."

"If you're dealing with troubleshooting network, voice issues, or network operations, having a tool like Wireshark to dive into packet details is important. The initial setup is straightforward. Anyone starting out or looking to deploy it on your personal PC or machine can do it easily."

"What's best about Wireshark is that it doesn't require installation. It supports cards and monitoring permissions and is sufficient for appending and capturing activities. You won't need to install other tools to use Wireshark, so this saves you time. You can capture packets at any time from your laptop through Wireshark."

"The strongest feature of this solution, is the ability it gives us to carry out deep-packet inspections on our network, particularly when a function isn't performing as it should."

"You can use Wireshark to see the traffic packet format, the IP layers, the fields, and the enabled flags."

"The solution is easy to install and use."

"The options that are required to get the details for the packet drops are good."

More Wireshark pros

Cons

"Less time consumed doing the real surveys."

"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."

"The surveying features are in need of improvement, along with general usability."

"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."

"It'd be nice if it was cheaper, however, you get value for your money."

"But it's definitely a more expensive solution than other ones."

"When you conduct an active survey and then want to use it for design work, it's actually not very useful."

More AirMagnet Survey PRO cons

"Its user interface was a little less friendly. They can make its user interface a little bit more friendly. It is for technical people, and most of the technical people would be able to figure it out, but it would be good to improve its user interface. They can maybe build artificial intelligence into it. Currently, it takes a lot of manpower to analyze and dissect all the data."

"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."

"The initial setup depends upon the basics. You need to have a clear understanding of the basics."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"Wireshark could make the filtering rules easier to apply and offer a drag-and-drop option as opposed to type and text."

More Wireshark cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For technical support, you need an annual license, but it is not worth it."

"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 tool's pricing is medium."

"The moment we began needing more of the vendor's support, the cost became very high; we switched to another solution."

"This product is very expensive."

"The pricing needs improvement."

"There is an annual cost of the solution. There are some additional charges, such as support and maintenance."

"Wireshark is open-source and free of charge."

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

"Wireshark is free software, so you don't have to pay any licensing fee. Individual people can use it and then donate to Wireshark."

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

"It is free to download and install. It runs on multiple platforms, so how can you go wrong?"

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

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

"I've never personally had to pay for it, making it a highly valuable internet resource that's accessible for use. While they offer some paid versions, our firm has utilized the free version for the past three years."

More Wireshark pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Troubleshooting solutions are best for your needs.

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883,011 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

University

11%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	21
Midsize Enterprise	14
Large Enterprise	10

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	31
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	27

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 grouping of SSIDs to one AP, removing the need to filter manually. At the momen...

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-install surveys with it. We have reduced the use since now our customers requir...

What do you like most about Wireshark?

The GUI is easy to use.

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 make it more expensive. That said, compared to other products, it is competitive.

What needs improvement with Wireshark?

The speed of the Internet could be improved, especially its performance. Performance can sometimes be a challenge due to numerous factors.

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Product Reports

AirMagnet Survey PRO

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Overview

AirMagnet Survey PRO provides efficient wireless network surveying and design capabilities, optimizing access point placement with dual passive-active surveys, spectrum integration, and real-time analysis.

AirMagnet Survey PRO offers comprehensive tools for wireless coverage optimization. It facilitates accurate SNR/RSSI data collection and features multi-floor planning with robust reporting capabilities. The software enables efficient spectrum analysis, predictive mapping, and simultaneous 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz surveys, saving significant time. Users appreciate its intuitive interface, which aids technical assessments and visual displays. However, they suggest improvements in multi-floor integration, file import options, and a more dynamic license system. Enhanced cloud storage support, improved auto-placement features, and better device compatibility are also on the wishlist.

What are the key features of AirMagnet Survey PRO?

Dual Passive-Active Surveys: Streamline access point placement with dual survey types.
Antenna Customization: Tailor antenna parameters for optimal performance.
Predictive Mapping: Visualize potential coverage areas before deployment.
Spectrum Integration: Analyze interference and optimize signal paths.
Simultaneous 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Surveys: Conduct faster, comprehensive surveys across frequency bands.

What benefits should users look for in reviews of AirMagnet Survey PRO?

Accurate Data Collection: Highly precise SNR/RSSI measurements improve network assessments.
Time Efficiency: Reduce survey duration with dual-band simultaneous assessments.
User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies complex tasks with intuitive visual tools.
Comprehensive Reporting: Offers detailed analysis and insights into network performance.
Cost Savings: Efficient planning and troubleshooting lead to reduced deployment costs.

In industries like hospitality, education, and healthcare, AirMagnet Survey PRO is instrumental in wireless network surveying and design. These sectors rely on the software for precise Wi-Fi coverage assessments, spectrum analysis, and real-time signal checks, using heat maps to identify dead zones for pre and post-installation verifications. Some opt for alternatives to support newer technologies like Wi-Fi 6E.

NetAlly

Wireshark is the world's foremost network protocol analyzer.

Sample Customers

Houston Methodist Hospital, Love's Travel Stops

Comversion, ADP, Talbots

AirMagnet Survey PRO vs. Wireshark