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Azure Bastion vs Packetbeat 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Bastion
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
52nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (12th), Microsoft Security Suite (26th)
Packetbeat
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
61st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
2.5
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Azure Bastion is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Packetbeat is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Azure Bastion0.4%
Packetbeat0.3%
Other99.3%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

AB
Lead Software Engineer at Glastechnische Industrie Peter LISEC GmbH
Have improved security with role segregation and accessibility
The most valuable feature of Azure Bastion is its security, which I find to be the best part. We use Azure AD integration to specify who has access and what they can do. We can segregate roles, allowing some to execute commands while others cannot. Additionally, we are using it internally to connect to our secured AKS Cluster.
Mohammed-Abdelalim - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant Vice President at QualityKiosk Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Network analytics have delivered lightweight, integrated visibility for search, observability, and security
Packetbeat analyzes specific protocols and is not suitable for full capture of all network traffic and network flows. I recall that Packetbeat can cover a limited number of protocols including ICMP, but not as deeply as other solutions. It covers NetFlows and these types of flows, but not at the level of a deep packet capture that you can find in the market where it taps every single packet in the network. Packetbeat is more about bringing statistics about the packets, but it doesn't capture these packets. The development intention of Packetbeat appears to be to provide a window for application monitoring and performance analytics, and for that purpose, it is doing sufficiently well. However, if the vendor has another goal to build a similar network monitoring solution that exists in the market, which is outside of Elastic's business nature, Packetbeat is a sensor that needs to be improved to the level of deep packet capture where it loses no packets in the network. That improvement would take Elastic to another level.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution's most valuable feature is that it is easy to use...It is modernized, so I can create complex infrastructures."
"Azure Bastion makes it easy to provide quick virtual machine access to our customers."
"The connection to virtual machines is very useful."
"It provides all the security to us. Without getting on the internet, we can access our servers. We can access our desktop through our web browser. We don't need to run the mstsc command and login to the VM. All those things are not required."
"Overall, I had a very positive experience."
"It is very easy to use as it's in the browser; it is on the menu of the virtual machine, so you just need to type your username and password and you will have a full RDP experience."
"The interface is available in the edit portal."
"The product's setup is easy."
"Elastic's scalability, in terms of cluster robustness, is definitely the most valuable feature."
"The beauty of Packetbeat is that it is easy, free, and lightweight, while other solutions are expensive and will accumulate a huge amount of data."
 

Cons

"Currently, Azure Bastion does not allow for direct data transfer between desktops. A storage solution must be created to transfer data, and this requires additional permissions like ACL or NFS."
"There is room for improvement with AI features. I would like to see integrated AI features with Azure Bastion, especially for connectivity issues."
"The protocol speed could be faster."
"Speaking of AI, having Microsoft Copilot in Azure Bastion would be good."
"When we retrieve that data from the cloud, they require some amount of money. That is the main drawback of this cloud solution. You are charged for retrieving your own data."
"When you have a boot issue on Windows, you cannot use Azure Bastion to fix it. You have to use the Azure console or the VM console, and it is very limited."
"The solution breaks down sometimes."
"Azure Bastion does its job. However, it would be nice to have the capability to cut and paste across desktops, similar to old-fashioned Remote Desktop emulation."
"Packetbeat analyzes specific protocols and is not suitable for full capture of all network traffic and network flows."
"The scalability of the agent itself could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It does not save money for us."
"The tool is cheaply priced. I would say that the product is free to use."
"The pricing is a lower decision point than high-quality security for our organization. Better security comes at a cost, but it's worth it, and that's what we tell our customers."
"Azure Bastion's pricing is good."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Educational Organization
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Bastion?
Microsoft's pricing is on the higher side and could be more competitive. Startups and small organizations often prefer AWS ( /products/amazon-aws-reviews ) or GCP due to their lower costs, while la...
What needs improvement with Azure Bastion?
Azure Bastion could be improved with more granular session monitoring, rich audit capabilities, and deeper integration with security operation workflows. We would also appreciate enhanced reporting...
What is your primary use case for Azure Bastion?
Azure Bastion serves as our primary solution for providing secure administrative access to Azure VPNs and VMs without exposing RDP or SSH ports to the internet. From a cybersecurity perspective, it...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Packetbeat?
Elastic is pretty cheap for large enterprises but unaffordable for small ones.
What needs improvement with Packetbeat?
Packetbeat analyzes specific protocols and is not suitable for full capture of all network traffic and network flows. I recall that Packetbeat can cover a limited number of protocols including ICMP...
What is your primary use case for Packetbeat?
I have dealt with all of them: Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, Beats, Elastic Agent, and Fleet, because I need to use all of them to achieve a solution for customers. These solutions are typically...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Bastion vs. Packetbeat and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.