Auvik Network Management (ANM) vs LinkRunner comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Auvik and NetAlly are both solutions in the Network Troubleshooting category. Auvik is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6, while NetAlly is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.0. Auvik holds a 4.7% mindshare in NT, compared to NetAlly’s 5.9% mindshare. Additionally, 99% of Auvik users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of NetAlly users who would recommend it.

Auvik Network Management (ANM)

Read 216 Auvik Network Management (ANM) reviews

18,973 Views
1,897 Comparison Views

99% willing to recommend

LinkRunner

Read 20 LinkRunner reviews

2,681 Views
2,654 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Auvik Network Management (ANM)

LinkRunner

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 11, 2024

LinkRunner and Auvik are two network management tools used to optimize IT environments. Auvik seems to have the upper hand due to its extensive network discovery functions and automated network mapping.

Features: LinkRunner's valuable features include its basic diagnostic tools, practical functionalities, and reliability in quickly identifying network issues. Auvik offers expansive network discovery functions, automated network mapping, and consistent network performance monitoring.

Room for Improvement: LinkRunner needs more advanced analytics, real-time monitoring capabilities, and in-depth network analysis tools. Auvik could benefit from enhanced user-friendliness, simpler interface, and reduced complexity for less technical staff.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: LinkRunner is straightforward in terms of deployment, with a plug-and-play nature. Auvik, requiring more initial configuration, provides comprehensive support which is often rated higher by users during deployment and beyond.

Pricing and ROI: LinkRunner is generally perceived as more cost-effective with a faster return on investment especially in smaller environments. Auvik tends to be pricier, but its extensive features and scalability make the investment worthwhile for users valuing comprehensive network management.

To learn more, read our detailed Auvik Network Management (ANM) vs. LinkRunner Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Auvik Network Management (ANM) vs. LinkRunner

September 2026

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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

Auvik Network Management (ANM)

Ranking in Network Troubleshooting

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

216

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (5th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (6th), Cloud Monitoring Software (6th), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (2nd)

LinkRunner

Ranking in Network Troubleshooting

5th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Network Troubleshooting category, the mindshare of Auvik Network Management (ANM) is 4.7%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of LinkRunner is 5.9%, down from 12.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Troubleshooting Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Auvik Network Management (ANM)	4.7%
LinkRunner	5.9%
Other	89.4%

Network Troubleshooting

Featured Reviews

AmanThakkar

Software Engineer at Titanslab Inc.

Network automation has reduced troubleshooting time and supports faster issue resolution

The biggest and best feature I have experienced with Auvik Network Management (ANM) is automatic network discovery, along with features such as topology map, instant alerts, real-time monitoring, easy remote access, and simple dashboards. Among those features, I find automatic network discovery to be the most useful because it gives a clear picture of the entire network without having to create manual diagrams. It is very easy to use Auvik Network Management (ANM), so even a new team member can quickly understand the network because everything is displayed in a very clear way. Auvik Network Management (ANM) has positively impacted our organization by reducing troubleshooting time, improving network visibility, providing a very clear picture, and helping us support multiple client networks and environments very efficiently. We have noticed a 35 to 40% improvement in troubleshooting speed, less manual work in documenting any network system, faster responses to network issues, and better uptime with the client networks.

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Jesse_B

Manager of networks and infrastructure at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees

Impressive ease of use, gives comprehensive results in seconds, and saves a lot of time and resources

I've found the VLAN test feature to be most valuable. That's because not many devices do VLAN tests. Normally, I have to send a center technician to check a line and see if it's alive. If it's working, then I have to send a network technician out to log into a switch and see which port it's on and on which VLAN that port is. That's two persons and two separate visits. This device does all of this in a matter of seconds, and that has saved me a lot of time, troubleshooting, and resources. Its ease of use is very impressive. LinkRunner allows me to have my technicians run tests that are normally too complex and require a network specialist. AutoTest works with just one click. AutoTest does a lot of testing that would normally require a network specialist to log in to a switch and check out VLAN based on a port. My technicians don't have to log in to the switch anymore. They can just do AutoTest and information is provided online. So, I no longer have to send a specialist. I can have my technician run these very complex tests. It saves me on resources, time, and site visits. When it comes to troubleshooting, based on my experience, it has given very useful and very helpful information, especially for my field technicians. It has reduced my visits and the amount of presence because it gives a very comprehensive report on your network tests. It tests multiple variables and multiple parameters and gives a very informative report that makes it easy to pinpoint what is the root cause. There are many tools in this one solution. It's basically a bunch of toolkits or tool sets in one device, which makes it very powerful testing equipment.

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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

"I like the feature that allows us to remote access and remote troubleshoot many of the devices, including terminal Windows."

"Among the most valuable features are the hardware life cycle and configuration backups, when applicable... When it does show you the hardware life cycle for, say, a Cisco device and the configuration backup, that's the most useful aspect for me as a network engineer."

"It's easy to get the information I need. I don't need to hunt for it or run queries to get it."

"The most valuable features of Auvik are the alerting and monitoring. Those functions mean it easily more than pays for itself. I have it integrated with Slack with multiple channels set up for our IT office. When just about any part goes down that I have assigned in the alerting portion, it will let the right people know within minutes."

"Auvik's features for monitoring device availability and bandwidth utilization have greatly helped us. From a cybersecurity perspective, bandwidth utilization tells us if we have a potential data exfiltration incident. It also helps us decide whether to increase the bandwidth for one of the links or if the current bandwidth is sufficient."

"The ability to put in individualized SNMP checks that might not be in the automated playbook is a valuable feature."

"Overall, I rate Auvik Network Management (ANM) a nine out of ten."

"The ability to map out the network topology is one of the top features I like about Auvik. It's one of the best on the market. They have a feature called Loopback Detection, which has helped us, in many scenarios easily detect that without having to physically go to the location to see if there is a loopback somewhere."

More Auvik Network Management (ANM) pros

"It's a great product and worth every penny if you calculate hours lost with personnel and downtime of equipment."

"AutoTest is very helpful. It's very streamlined and it's very easy to set up and very easy to identify what we want to achieve. It's probably the feature we use the most. It provides us with LLTD, which is very useful."

"In terms of documenting ad hoc additions and other changes to wired ethernet connections, this product is very good. It keeps the information in the cloud and I have the ability to name it. This makes it very nice and easy to see."

"The LLDP decoding is better than on some of the other devices that we've used. Specifically, it goes beyond the minimum of the LLDP data to decode, and it shows the LLDP port descriptions. That makes it vastly simpler to identify which port you're connecting to on a switch that's patched back to some other building, rather than having to figure out an SNMP index or something else."

"It is fast in providing results. It is pretty accurate."

"If I compare the time it takes me now, versus my old mindset of four years ago, to do a single job, LinkRunner has cut it down to about one-third of the time."

"It provides a way to test 10Gig connectivity. Previously, we had to hook up a switch. That was our only way. Now, with LinkRunner, we can test on the fly if an SFP is bad or if the switch has the right configuration on it."

"Before I joined the company and introduced the product to my manager, we were running around tracing cables and guessing what port or what VLAN is in that particular port in the field patch."

Cons

"In Auvik Network Management (ANM), there is one problem observed. Devices need to be unmanaged and managed when changes are desired, rather than applying changes on the live system and getting them applied immediately once changed."

"The reporting needs a little bit of improvement. Sometimes, I get too many reports. Or, I don't get reports when I should be getting reports. I don't know if this is Auvik's fault or the devices that the reporting is coming from, but I have noticed there have been some discrepancies."

"They can maybe provide some more best practices or guidance around how large a network should be. They can provide some cutoff points, such as, if you have 30 network devices, you might want to chunk that into a smaller subset or site. They can help you better plan and design how to create your Auvik sites, especially if you have a large environment."

"I would like to see more extensive syslog capabilities. It can ingest syslogs and I think it can alert based on quantities of messages. You can also look back at some of the messages, but it's not a forensics level syslog."

"I would like to use different network protocols that we could implement."

"We have government-related clients, and taking a screenshot of the current network mapping to send to them appears unprofessional."

"Auvik's UI, while informative, can be a hurdle for new users due to its complexity."

"I take off that one point for Auvik Network Management (ANM) due to the initial setup."

More Auvik Network Management (ANM) cons

"This is my second unit. I had issues with the first one, it just wouldn't turn on."

"I would like the ability to save screenshots for the switch and cable test."

"Having to go back up in a lift to use the interface and then go back down again can be cumbersome."

"The only thing that comes to mind is that it does take a little while to boot up if it's turned off."

"If it weren't for the battery, it would probably get an eight out of 10. But because of the battery, it's infuriating and it's not reliable."

"You will be disappointed if you're in the field for eight hours daily, expecting this product to be on six or seven of those hours."

"Unlike using an application like Wireshark, this device gives us no way to see network packets specifically to look at what's going on. It doesn't have the capability."

"It is very stable. That being said, there is one feature that is not quite as stable as the rest of the product. You can leave it plugged into a location where you're doing some work and connect to it remotely by a program called VNC... sometimes that function breaks down, if you've been running for a couple of days... if you're remotely controlling it, you're probably not right next to it. That can be modestly annoying."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's great for small businesses, but when you start reviewing the pricing model, depending on how many devices, and what sub-devices you decide to pull in, it can get tricky as far as the pricing goes."

"Its pricing is very reasonable. We had looked at other solutions where you pay based on the amount of traffic that was filtered through and analyzed. With Auvik, we pay by a billable device. We're not paying based on every single device we have. For one of the locations I have, one network element would likely be a billable device. So, every billable device has a network element, but not every network element is a billable device. If I have a location that has 50 network elements, then maybe 30 of them are billable devices. PCs, VoIP phones, and access points are monitored at no charge."

"While Auvik's pricing was attractive, we ultimately had to make budget cuts."

"It's absolutely worth the money. I would probably charge more if I were them. They don't charge you for anything that's not a router, switch, or firewall controller, or a network device. So, you can throw anything like servers and ESX hosts."

"It can get expensive quickly if we monitor a lot of devices, which is unfortunate because we have a lot of devices to monitor."

"Auvik is not cheap. They've done a great job, it's a developed product, but you pay for it. When you compare, it's definitely in the upper-tier of pricing."

"I don't work in the finance department, so I'm not familiar with the pricing details; however, I know some clients declined Auvik due to the pricing, so they found it expensive. Other clients have adopted it, so they think it's worth the cost."

"Auvik is a good product and worth the premium price tag for a lot of people."

More Auvik Network Management (ANM) pricing and cost advice

"The area where the product could be improved is by having a lower cost so that I could have more than one. The price is competitive, but everybody would always like to see the price go down. I'd buy another one if it were cheaper."

"They offer one price. I do like paying for support because I get software updates that way."

"We... decided to go with NetAlly for the price and the bang for the buck."

"The 10Gig ones are quite expensive, and we have only two of them, but I know that this option was cheaper than the other 10Gig option we looked at, and we're very happy with it."

"It's an expensive device. Don't expect it to be cheap. But the pricing is good. It certainly seemed in line with anything else I was looking at at the time."

"I would buy another one if I had a chance but they're too expensive. If they made it a bit cheaper, I think a lot of network engineers and network administrators would immediately jump onto it."

"I didn't have to buy it, but if I was going to have my choice, I wouldn't buy it just because of the price point. It works pretty well to do one thing. For the cost, it is definitely not worth it. There are other products out there that can do the same thing for probably 70% less. I am not aware of any additional costs."

"Its pricing is all right. Of course, from the business point of view, the cheaper it is, the better it is, but I prefer to spend a bit more money to get a quick response, which is helpful especially when we are onsite or in a very critical situation. We are not only paying for the product. We are paying for the people behind the product in terms of developers and technical support. When you need some help, they will be behind it, and they'll support you. There are no additional costs other than the standard licensing fee."

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

14%

Construction Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

15%

University

Comms Service Provider

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	156
Midsize Enterprise	32
Large Enterprise	25

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Auvik?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is average. The cost is typically higher for these kinds of tools, so it is moderate.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Auvik?

Auvik Network Management (ANM) can be improved with better reporting options. While there are options for reporting, having more clarity would be helpful, along with more advanced analytics and mor...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Auvik?

Our main use case for Auvik Network Management (ANM) is to monitor and manage the client networks, helping us to track the network devices and identify issues quickly to monitor the performance and...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Auvik Network Management (ANM)

October 2026

Download Auvik Network Management (ANM) product report

Buyer's Guide

LinkRunner

September 2026

Download LinkRunner product report

Overview

Auvik Network Management offers competitive pricing for essential network and infrastructure device management, providing robust features valued by enterprises.

Auvik Network Management delivers comprehensive network visibility and management through intuitive auditing, alerting, and discovery functionalities. It eases troubleshooting, automates configuration backups, and includes a user-friendly interface for effective monitoring and management. With real-time alerts and customizable notifications, IT operations are streamlined, while remote access capabilities enhance time efficiency. ANM supports integration with other platforms, effectively maintaining device inventories and visualizing network topology.

What are the key features of Auvik Network Management?

Auditing: Offers comprehensive network audits, ensuring accuracy and efficiency.
Network Discovery: Simplifies the process of identifying network components.
Alerting Modules: Provides real-time alerts and customizable notifications.
Configuration Backups: Automates backups, safeguarding configurations.
Remote Access: Streamlines network management from any location.

What benefits should users expect when evaluating Auvik Network Management?

Enhanced Network Visibility: Offers detailed insights into network operations.
Time Efficiency: Remote access and automated features save valuable time.
Proactive Issue Identification: Real-time monitoring aids in identifying issues quickly.
Integration Support: Works cohesively with other platforms, easing management.
Operational Efficiency: Automates management tasks for improved productivity.

In industries such as IT management and network administration, Auvik Network Management is predominantly utilized for overseeing and maintaining network infrastructures across multiple locations. It offers capabilities for monitoring network topology, receiving alerts on device downtimes, and managing performance metrics. Users employ its features for proactive issue identification, and auditing, helping maintain oversight of networks containing switches, routers, and firewalls. Auvik provides remote access and automated backups, which contribute to enhanced operational efficiency and network visibility.

Auvik

LinkRunner provides reliable network testing and validation, minimizing on-site visitations and enhancing network efficiency by simplifying troubleshooting and diagnostics.

Engineers utilize LinkRunner for efficient network operations, benefiting from its AutoTest, LLDP decoding, and VLAN identification capabilities. Its ease of use ensures fast result delivery, while the Link-Live Cloud Service automatically saves test results. Despite its utility, users note limitations in boot time, battery life, and lack of features such as touch screens and WiFi. Areas for upgrade include processing speed, better documentation, and improved real-time connectivity.

What are LinkRunner's key features?

AutoTest: Provides streamlined network verification.
LLDP decoding: Decodes protocols to display key device details.
VLAN identification: Identifies and verifies VLAN configurations.
Link-Live Cloud Service: Saves test results for easy access and sharing.

What benefits do users expect when evaluating LinkRunner?

Time Efficiency: Reduces troubleshooting and setup time.
Comprehensive Diagnostics: Offers all-in-one functionality for complete network analysis.
Resource Savings: Limits the need for extensive manpower and repeat site visits.

In industries, LinkRunner is widely implemented for network testing and validation, confirming connectivity and verifying installations for both fiber and copper. Commonly applied in network discovery and link verification, its usage extends to PoE power measurement and performance testing, enabling efficient workflow management across engineering teams.

NetAlly

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Philips Healthcare, HCA Healthcare, University of South Dakota, Memorial Hermann, Baltimore County Public Schools, Aaramrak.

Buyer's Guide

Auvik Network Management (ANM) vs. LinkRunner

September 2026

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