Azure Network Watcher vs Zenoss Cloud comparison

Microsoft and Zenoss are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Microsoft is ranked #42 with an average rating of 8.5, while Zenoss is ranked #75. Microsoft holds a 0.5% mindshare in NMS, compared to Zenoss’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Zenoss users who would recommend it.

Azure Network Watcher

Read 13 Azure Network Watcher reviews

1,082 Views
1,039 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Zenoss Cloud

Read 8 Zenoss Cloud reviews

2,607 Views
1,225 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Azure Network Watcher

Zenoss Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Zenoss Cloud and Azure Network Watcher compete in network performance management and monitoring. Azure Network Watcher leads with a comprehensive feature set, while Zenoss Cloud is favored for pricing and customer support.

Features: Zenoss Cloud delivers dynamic resource modeling for tailored network insights, predictive analytics for proactive issue prevention, and efficient performance metric collection. Azure Network Watcher offers packet capture for detailed network data analysis, connection troubleshooting to resolve connectivity issues, and flow logging for monitoring network traffic efficiently.

Room for Improvement: Zenoss Cloud could enhance reporting capabilities for more granular insights, expand integration options for broader compatibility, and improve UI intuitiveness for ease of use. Azure Network Watcher may refine setup processes to reduce technical expertise requirements, provide more flexible pricing options, and advance scalability features for varied network sizes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zenoss Cloud offers smooth, intuitive deployment with high-quality customer support noted for responsiveness. Azure Network Watcher's integration within the Microsoft ecosystem facilitates seamless Azure environment deployment, though it can demand more technical knowledge initially. Both deliver effective customer service tailored to different user needs.

Pricing and ROI: Zenoss Cloud is cost-effective, providing competitive pricing and attractive ROI through reduced operational costs. Azure Network Watcher presents pricing aligned with enterprise budgets, with ROI benefits tied to its comprehensive feature set and integration capabilities within Azure environments, offering value relative to investment with extensive features.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Network Watcher vs. Zenoss Cloud Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher vs. Zenoss Cloud

March 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

Zenoss Cloud

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

75th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Infrastructure (26th), Event Monitoring (13th), Server Monitoring (24th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (51st), Container Monitoring (7th), Cloud Monitoring Software (42nd), AIOps (25th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 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 Zenoss Cloud is 0.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Azure Network Watcher	0.5%
Zenoss Cloud	0.7%
Other	98.8%

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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ClaudiaChen

Cloud Architect - Senior Technology Architect at Telstra

Generates close to real-time alerts so users can resolve issues, but needs more integration and public cloud monitoring features

As Zenoss Service Dynamics is more for network-centric devices and you want to monitor, for example, a server, its services, IP addresses, and interfaces, if it's a network and you're going to monitor multiple items, you'll be charged multiple times. This is what Zenoss Service Dynamics needs to improve to make sure that customers pay just one fee to monitor the entire server. What I'd like to see in Zenoss Service Dynamics in the future is a public cloud monitoring feature, particularly for the Azure public cloud. Another additional feature I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is integration with the Azure public cloud because I know that there are some services from Azure that Zenoss Service Dynamics is currently unable to monitor.

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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

"This will help the company or the administrator, by helping them see how the traffic moves, to make sure that no entities are having any communication issues or different endpoints with task issues."

"The stability is very good. I rate it a ten out of ten."

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

"My advice to others looking into using Azure Network Watcher is to go for it, as you'll have the tool by default when you're subscribed to Azure VNet."

"It provides good visibility."

"Azure Network Watcher provides valuable features based on your specific requirements and use cases, helping you monitor network bandwidth, throughput, data flow consumption, and control costs by giving insight into egress and ingress traffic, total input and output operations, bandwidth, and threats through IP identification."

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

"The solution is good for monitoring device behavior."

More Azure Network Watcher pros

"It is the most flexible solution of this type, but it takes time to adapt."

"The custom built integration is one of the most valuable features because you can see all the especially critical items."

"Its Docker Container concept is mind blowing."

"It is very cost-effective compared to the tools I worked with in the past."

"The product offers good documentation that helps with initial training."

"They have also accommodated many state-of-the-art technologies like Docker and ZooKeeper."

"With this solution, they can have one million users at the same time with no crashes."

"Its Docker Container concept is mind blowing. It is the first monitoring tool which comes with Docker features."

More Zenoss Cloud pros

Cons

"Azure Network Watcher could improve by having other built-in applications, for example, an application to log activities for inbound and outbound traffic."

"It's not the most friendly or straightforward to set up. I don't see the value versus the way you have to set it up at first."

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

"Azure is good, however, the Fortinet GUI is more intuitive and I like it more than anything else."

"Lacks sufficient security features."

"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."

"Azure Network Watcher could improve by having other built-in applications. For example, an application to log activities for in and outbound traffic."

More Azure Network Watcher cons

"There is room for improvement with the administrative part. The administrative part, since they introduced Docker, etc., has become a little complex."

"The AI aspect needs to improve."

"Now it is stable, but they should design threshold parameters in percentage instead of raw values."

"It would be ideal if the product offered sound alerts."

"Technical support is 3/10, poor: Incomplete and poor documentation Undocumented processes Inconsistent solutions to problems depending on source"

"Now it is stable, but they should design threshold parameters in percentage instead of raw values."

"The AI aspect needs to improve."

"There was a problem with Zenoss and storage monitoring."

More Zenoss Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is reasonable."

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

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

"Azure Network Watcher is a little bit expensive."

"It is very cost-effective compared to the tools I worked with in the past. The company is gaining a lot with respect to the cost factor. It provides agentless monitoring and in a very cheap way."

"There are additional costs you'll have to pay apart from the license fee for Zenoss Service Dynamics. I can't remember exactly how much my company is paying because I don't handle the finance part, but the cost is paid annually. On a scale of one to five, with one being the cheapest and five being the most expensive, I'm rating the solution three out of five."

"The pricing depends on the environment, the number of services, and the size of the data center. It can go from $100,000 to a million dollars."

"It depends on the customer, what he wants."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Construction Company

10%

University

Comms Service Provider

Construction Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Transportation Company

Performing Arts

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	4
Large Enterprise	5

Questions from the Community

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

I do not have the exact setup cost information on hand, but it is available in the public Azure portal. You can access the calculator there to get detailed pricing information.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Azure Network Watcher?

The main area for improvement is AI-based features. Currently, many intelligent tools are coming from third parties, and Azure Network Watcher needs to improve in this area. The focus should be on ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Azure Network Watcher?

Azure Network Watcher is used for monitoring network traffic. It provides insight into egress and ingress traffic, which helps determine whether consumption can be controlled. Most Azure services c...

See all answers

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

In my experience, I worked with many monitoring software, but the one that gave me the most functionalities of a large-scale company is Zenoss, due to its ability to monitor completely hybrid and a...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 24% of the time

Nmap vs Azure Network Watcher

Compared 17% of the time

ExtraHop Reveal(x) for IT Operations vs Azure Network Watcher

Compared 8% of the time

Ixia Network Taps vs Azure Network Watcher

Compared 7% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Azure Network Watcher

Compared 7% of the time

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Zabbix vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 5% of the time

Nagios XI vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

SCOM vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

Microsoft System Center vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher

March 2026

Download Azure Network Watcher product report

Buyer's Guide

Zenoss Cloud

March 2026

Download Zenoss Cloud product report

Also Known As

No data available

Cloud Monitoring, Zenoss Service Dynamics

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

Zenoss Cloud revolutionizes IT infrastructure monitoring with a service-centric approach, prioritizing the overall health of services and applications. Harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AIOps), Zenoss Cloud offers end-to-end visibility across servers, networks, storage, and applications. Real-time monitoring, event correlation, and automated remediation ensure immediate insights and efficient issue resolution. The customizable dashboards empower users to tailor visualizations to their needs, while scalability accommodates diverse infrastructures. Zenoss Cloud guarantees improved application performance, reduced downtime, and enhanced IT efficiency, making it an ideal choice for businesses of all sizes, from small enterprises seeking simplicity to large corporations requiring advanced scalability. Experience unified monitoring and proactive management with Zenoss Cloud, a comprehensive solution that transforms IT infrastructure optimization in today's complex environments.

Zenoss

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

2degrees, Rackspace, State of North Dakota, El Paso Independent School District, NWN Corporation

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher vs. Zenoss Cloud

March 2026

Free Report: Azure Network Watcher vs. Zenoss Cloud

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