Azure Network Watcher vs WhatsUp Gold comparison

Microsoft and Progress Software are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Microsoft is ranked #42 with an average rating of 8.5, while Progress Software is ranked #26 with an average rating of 8.7. Microsoft holds a 0.5% mindshare in NMS, compared to Progress Software’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Progress Software users who would recommend it.

Azure Network Watcher

Read 13 Azure Network Watcher reviews

1,006 Views
966 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

WhatsUp Gold

Read 25 WhatsUp Gold reviews

5,476 Views
3,176 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Azure Network Watcher

WhatsUp Gold

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

WhatsUp Gold and Azure Network Watcher are competing in the network monitoring space. Azure Network Watcher seems to have the upper hand due to its extensive range of monitoring features and platform integration options.

Features: WhatsUp Gold provides comprehensive network device monitoring, real-time alerts, and an intuitive dashboard that aids in identifying issues. Its flexibility in monitoring various network components is a key asset. Azure Network Watcher offers packet capture, network diagnostics, and seamless integration with Azure services, ideal for cloud environments.

Room for Improvement: WhatsUp Gold could expand its cloud integration capabilities and enhance scalability for large networks. Improving its data analytics features would also provide more insights. Azure Network Watcher could simplify its initial setup to appeal to non-technical users. Adding more user-friendly interfaces and enhancing offline monitoring capabilities would broaden its appeal.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: WhatsUp Gold is recognized for a straightforward installation process, beneficial for organizations seeking quick deployments. Its customer service is noted for rapid assistance. Azure Network Watcher's deployment can be complex due to its reliance on cloud configurations, although it benefits from extensive documentation and Azure's support.

Pricing and ROI: WhatsUp Gold generally offers a more accessible setup cost, providing favorable ROI for businesses seeking cost-effective monitoring. Azure Network Watcher might involve higher setup costs but delivers substantial ROI through advanced capabilities and integration, enhancing network visibility for organizations committed to the Azure cloud platform.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Network Watcher vs. WhatsUp Gold Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher vs. WhatsUp Gold

February 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

Azure Network Watcher

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

42nd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

WhatsUp Gold

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

26th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (29th), Server Monitoring (16th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (24th), Configuration Management (19th), Log Management (32nd), Cloud Monitoring Software (23rd), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Azure Network Watcher is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhatsUp Gold is 2.0%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
WhatsUp Gold	2.0%
Azure Network Watcher	0.5%
Other	97.5%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Bijoyendra Roychowdhury

Program Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

Network monitoring provides comprehensive analytics while the interface requires further development

The quality of Azure Network Watcher is quite good in terms of the in-depth analysis you can create from these matrices. There are other monitoring tools such as New Relic, AppDynamics, and Dynatrace which provide very detailed network tracing. Cloud providers such as Azure or AWS do not have that kind of GUI-based capability at this point, but using PowerShell or Python, you can develop it yourself. From the GUI perspective, it still needs to evolve in terms of quality and standard, though overall, it is quite good for troubleshooting. Regarding areas for improvement, when comparing to other network tools beyond Azure Monitor or Azure Network Watcher, those tools can identify single failed packets. This level of granularity is not currently possible with cloud providers as they only go to a certain level rather than the granular level needed for deep troubleshooting, though they do provide hints with available matrices.

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Erik Cheng

Technical Manager at Quan Hung Gourmet

Efficient monitoring with detailed customization, yet complexity remains

The best feature of WhatsUp Gold is the automatic generation of topology and its integration with virtualization and wireless. I have used the automated device discovery with this topology feature. The interactive map feature helps me manage the topology because sometimes we cannot draw the topology correctly, so we need to manually edit the connections. The alerting system is very tunable and customizable, but it's a little complicated to use. Many customers cannot manage it by themselves and need support from us, the provider. We always use the dashboards in the SOC, where we constantly display a dashboard or multiple dashboards. This allows us to know immediately if the connection or bandwidth is full or if the connection is broken.

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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 most valuable feature of Azure Network Watcher is the cloud-native application firewall. It is helpful for securing databases."

"The solution is stable."

"It provides good visibility."

"The solution is good for monitoring device behavior."

"What I like most about Azure Network Watcher is that it's focused more on the architecture. I also like that it has a packet capture feature that tells you how the packet travels and whether it's exiting Azure, etc."

"The most valuable feature of Azure Network Watcher is using the gateways with the connections. The monitoring is useful for the logs and application insights into the data. The traffic filtering issues when it comes to deploying those applications are helpful."

"We use the solution to monitor network services. It helps to capture any network issues."

"I like the visibility."

More Azure Network Watcher pros

"The most valuable feature is the auto-discovery function."

"Auto scanning is most valuable. It looks for rogue devices on your network."

"The most important features of WhatsUp Gold are the server health and uptime it provides. Additionally, WhatsUp Gold is a Windows-based solution which is a benefit."

"The documentation is very good."

"It is easy to access and discover devices, as well as monitor them automatically. The topology discover is also a useful feature."

"The solution effectively monitors network devices and servers."

"The tool's most valuable feature is the visibility it offers of everything in the network and infrastructure."

"The user interface is good enough."

More WhatsUp Gold pros

Cons

"There are some occasional downtimes, but these were based on Azure-specific issues."

"The initial setup and initial learning curve could be improved to be easier."

"Azure Network Watcher needs to have better documentation and it needs to capture information accurately."

"Technical support from Microsoft needs significant improvement compared to other product vendors."

"I still use Wireshark and Azure Network Watcher to get the required data. My team captures the traffic from Azure Network Watcher, downloads it, then imports that traffic into Wireshark to get more details on the number of hits and replies, for example. If you can do that on Azure Network Watcher and have Wireshark built-in, that would make Azure Network Watcher better. If Azure Network Watcher has that functionality where you won't need a third-party tool to get what you need, that would be helpful. I'm also expecting more from Azure Network Watcher. It's more complex than knowing how the IP flows from its source to the destination. The tool also needs more open-source features, such as having some built-in Wireshark that improves monitoring for customers. Sometimes, you encounter a VPN tunnel, network, or routing issue, but finding out more about the blockage is challenging. Is it one hundred percent an Azure issue? Is it a peer issue? You don't get complete information from Azure Network Watcher, so you must use other tools and depend on your strategies to resolve a specific issue. If more features could be added in the next release of Azure Network Watcher, specifically ones you can find on open-source tools, then that would be a plus point for the tool."

"The initial setup and deployment could be improved to be simplified."

"User experience could be improved."

"The solution could improve by limiting the need to clarify the logs. When the clarification is minimized, it is better for everyone involved."

More Azure Network Watcher cons

"I would like to see better integration with switches so that you can see what is connected to each port, what the traffic is, and have a network map automatically generated."

"The interface needs some work."

"The technical support does not bother to respond."

"The new release cadence needs to be improved. It takes a while for them to add new features and functionality. There should be a quicker turnaround with new versions."

"Pricing is too high relative to how many devices we use. The price list is not linear to number of devices."

"The point system is not clear and clarity around this would improve our understanding of the system."

"Adding on services increases the cost and on the version we have there is no option for ATM monitoring."

"One of the biggest things that made us start to look at another product is we're not able to have an end to end monitoring from a user perspective throughout the system and back to the user. All the monitoring is from inside out, we need something that also can give us from outside in."

More WhatsUp Gold cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Azure Network Watcher is a little bit expensive."

"Price-wise, I have no information on how much Azure Network Watcher costs."

"The pricing is good. It's not too expensive."

"The price of the solution is reasonable."

"The price of WhatsUp Gold is good."

"I'm not sure, but it's expensive. We don't pay any additional fees."

"There is a license needed to use WhatsUp Gold."

"The choice of version depends on the number of points, or devices, that you want to monitor, and this makes the product expensive."

"The pricing can be on the expensive side when considering competing products."

"There are some subscription charges that are quite heavy. I need to pay for support every year and these charges can be quite expensive. Aside from the initial cost for the tool, you need to pay additionally for support."

"The most valuable feature is the cost compared to other solutions."

"It is per device, per year. The pricing is very clear. If you have a service agreement, you get all of your major upgrades and minor upgrades. It was under $10,000 to go all-in with all of the different add-ons for it."

More WhatsUp Gold pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Government

11%

University

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

10%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	14

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Network Watcher?

Azure Network Watcher is affordable from the perspective of basic costing. It doesn't cost too much at this point unless you are requesting customizable detailed matrices. For the default configura...

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What needs improvement with Azure Network Watcher?

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What is your primary use case for Azure Network Watcher?

The purpose of using Azure Network Watcher is to observe the network flow logs during any kind of troubleshooting. If there is any performance issue or latency issue over the network, we check the ...

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What do you like most about WhatsUp Gold?

The interactive mapping interface for scrolling, zooming, and drilling down on an element to learn about a network issue is good. When we see a network there will sometimes be a spot that has one l...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for WhatsUp Gold?

Clients find the licensing calculator confusing, but we simplify this for them by collecting relevant information first. The licensing is based on devices, providing better cost-effectiveness than ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with WhatsUp Gold?

It would be great if WhatsUp Gold could add features that simplify management with AI, as it is currently too complicated to manage.

See all answers

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Compared 3% of the time

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Compared 3% of the time

ManageEngine OpManager vs WhatsUp Gold

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher

January 2026

Download Azure Network Watcher product report

Buyer's Guide

WhatsUp Gold

January 2026

Download WhatsUp Gold product report

Overview

Azure Network Watcher is a comprehensive network monitoring and diagnostic service offered by Microsoft Azure. It provides a range of tools and capabilities to help users monitor, diagnose, and gain insights into their Azure network infrastructure. With Network Watcher, users can capture and analyze network traffic, monitor network performance, troubleshoot connectivity issues, and gain visibility into network topology. It also offers features like packet capture, flow logs, connection monitoring, and VPN diagnostics to ensure the smooth operation of Azure networks. Network Watcher enables users to proactively identify and resolve network issues, optimize network performance, and enhance the overall reliability and security of their Azure network environment.

Microsoft

Explore and manage your entire network infrastructure effortlessly with WhatsUp Gold's robust layer 2/3 discovery, creating a detailed interactive map from the edge to the cloud. Monitor devices, wireless controllers, servers, virtual machines, applications, and traffic flows across various environments. Real-time alerts ensure optimal performance, allowing you to meet or exceed SLAs. The platform offers customizable maps, dashboards, and alerts for easy network management. Quickly resolve issues with intuitive workflows, reducing Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR). WhatsUp Gold's integrated log management provides easy visibility and control of device log data, allowing monitoring, filtering, searching, and alerting on syslogs or Windows logs. Archive logs to comply with regulatory requirements and preserve historical data, all through a user-friendly interface. Streamline network monitoring and issue resolution with WhatsUp Gold, making network management efficient and hassle-free.

Progress Software

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Artoni Trasporti, Austin Independent School District, Banca Marche, Burke County North Carolina, Cambridge University School of Clinical Medicine, Clayco, Community Integrated Care, Desca, Deutsche Bergbau, Flexi-Van, Gropper, Hamleys, Hammonds Furniture, Knowledge IT, Idras S.P.A., Sibeg, Swann Engineering, Trivium Lindenhof

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher vs. WhatsUp Gold

February 2026

Free Report: Azure Network Watcher vs. WhatsUp Gold

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