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Cisco Crosswork Network Insights vs Nmap 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.5
Cisco Crosswork Network Insights enhances automation, productivity, and efficiency, but users find functionality more important than its high cost.
Sentiment score
7.8
Nmap offers cost savings and efficiency for businesses, despite limitations, with users noting significant financial benefits like bug bounty earnings.
We have saved 70% of manual work, reduced the number of employees needed for this task, and saved significant time, which has improved our efficiency and productivity by around 50%.
Student at Rochester Institute of Technology
I have seen a return on investment because Cisco Crosswork Network Insights has enhanced automation for endpoint deployment, hence saving a lot of time.
Project Specialist at FedEx
Pricing wasn't the decisive factor; it was functionality.
Security Engineer at European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO)
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Cisco Crosswork Network Insights offers proactive, responsive support, with users rating it positively but noting areas for improvement.
Sentiment score
7.1
Nmap users benefit from community support and online resources, seldom needing formal technical support due to its robust functionality.
They are also very responsive during physical meetings, especially when RCA is required.
Solution Architect at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
The customer support is very proactive and responsive compared to other competitors.
Project Specialist at FedEx
I am satisfied with the technical support of Cisco.
Security Engineer at European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO)
I have never reached out to customer support because Nmap never gave me any troubles.
Student at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
5.8
Cisco Crosswork Network Insights excels in scalability and stability, supporting complex environments with consistent performance and reliable updates.
Sentiment score
8.2
Nmap is renowned for scalability, handling vast networks efficiently, praised for adaptability despite lacking cloud capabilities.
Cisco Crosswork Network Insights supports large and complex environments.
Project Specialist at FedEx
In terms of scalability, Cisco Crosswork Network Insights performs very well in both UAT and production.
Solution Architect at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
Nmap's scalability is of a gold standard.
Student at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
9.0
Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is praised for its stability, reliability, and excellent customer service, emphasizing its key strengths.
Sentiment score
8.1
Nmap is highly rated for stability and reliability, though some Windows users report issues after long-term use.
Nmap has never crashed, and it is an amazingly optimized tool.
Student at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Crosswork Network Insights needs improved usability, AI integration, simpler setup, better documentation, and cost-effective solutions for optimal performance.
Nmap requires a GUI, faster scans, enhanced reporting, vulnerability assessments, advanced features, and improved stability for better usability.
Cisco Crosswork Network Insights can improve in its setup complexity, as it has a very complex setup that requires skilled network engineers for deployment and tuning.
Solution Architect at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
It is not an easy-to-use product and thus requires some training to ensure that it can be used to the best of its capabilities.
Project Specialist at FedEx
The reason I did not give a nine or ten for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is integration and price, as that is what prevents me from giving the maximum points.
Security Engineer at European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO)
Nmap could potentially become a GUI and provide automatic reports with one-click downloads.
Student at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Crosswork Network Insights pricing could be costly for low usage but valuable within Cisco's ecosystem; AWS Marketplace offers options.
Nmap offers a free version and paid options for enterprises needing enhanced features and commercial support flexibility.
For higher usage, it may be less expensive, with retail offerings around $1000 and $10 per IP prefix for the first 100 prefixes.
Student at Rochester Institute of Technology
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is somewhat high compared to other network products similar to Cisco.
Senior system engineer at Honeywell
The prices are good.
Project Specialist at FedEx
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Crosswork Network Insights offers streamlined management, real-time analytics, automation, security, and AI insights, benefiting network reliability and efficiency.
Nmap's powerful features offer comprehensive network analysis, vulnerability identification, and flexibility, making it essential for security audits and bug bounty projects.
There is real-time network monitoring and analytics, multi-vendor and multi-domain support, scalable AI-driven insights to make data-driven decisions easy, and a modular application ecosystem with open APIs.
Project Specialist at FedEx
The best features Cisco Crosswork Network Insights offers include its effectiveness in alerting and automations, visualization dashboards, and its suitability for banking organizations, telecom providers, or any large enterprises that heavily work with networking and security needs.
Solution Architect at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
The real-time insights and analysis features are valuable to me because they alleviate worries about hijackings on routing by providing real-time updates if something unusual occurs on routing paths using machine learning.
Student at Rochester Institute of Technology
Nmap will be a little difficult for beginners because of the learning curve and the CLI-based system, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes very powerful.
Student at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Crosswork Network Ins...
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
33rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Nmap
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
20th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is 0.2%. The mindshare of Nmap is 1.1%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Nmap1.1%
Cisco Crosswork Network Insights0.2%
Other98.7%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

James  Scot - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Specialist at FedEx
Automation has transformed endpoint deployment and streamlines multi-vendor network operations
The best features that Cisco Crosswork Network Insights offers include a single pane of glass, multi-vendor comparison, and the ability to reduce engineer workload. The single pane of glass and multi-vendor comparison features help my team day-to-day because with the single pane of glass, we are able to manage everything at a single place, hence saving a lot of time, and the administration becomes very easy. Additionally, there is real-time network monitoring and analytics, multi-vendor and multi-domain support, scalable AI-driven insights to make data-driven decisions easy, and a modular application ecosystem with open APIs. Cisco Crosswork Network Insights has empowered our team to deploy network devices at customer locations more efficiently than ever before, and it also delivers critical network telemetry, streamlining troubleshooting and reducing reliance on manual processes. Cisco Crosswork Network Insights has positively impacted my organization by enhancing automation for endpoint deployment, hence saving a lot of time, and network usage statistics delivery to the end user's environment has been quicker.
Sai Aditya Panda - PeerSpot reviewer
Student at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Penetration testing has become efficient as I identify open ports and security risks with confidence
Nmap could potentially become a GUI and provide automatic reports with one-click downloads. For example, the report could show all the open ports for an IP address with a professionally formatted report. This is a far-fetched suggestion and not really required, but it could make the work a little better. On a scale of one to ten, I give Nmap a solid nine. I mean, how can you fix something that is not broken? Nmap is already the best, and I do not think there are any other features that can be added. Its job is reconnaissance, so I do not think there is more to add to it. However, if I get any ideas, I will let them know about this.
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
42%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
9%
Government
9%
University
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights?
Regarding my experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights, those aspects are handled by the accountant and TAM teams, so I am not too aware of those deta...
What needs improvement with Cisco Crosswork Network Insights?
Cisco Crosswork Network Insights can improve in its setup complexity, as it has a very complex setup that requires skilled network engineers for deployment and tuning. Additionally, the licensing a...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights?
My main use case for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is that it provides real-time network monitoring, BGP and internet route monitoring, and predictive analysis. For real-time network monitoring ...
What is your primary use case for Nmap?
My main use case for Nmap is reconnaissance, so identifying open ports or running services and ultimately finding the security risks or vulnerabilities in a system. OS detection is the most importa...
What advice do you have for others considering Nmap?
I think I should be learning more about the commands and how Nmap works so that it will be better for my career. I will do that. There is nothing else to add to it, except a huge thank you to the p...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Lockheed Martin, Eastern Bank Boston, Perspecta, Harris Corporation, Discovery Communication
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Crosswork Network Insights vs. Nmap and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.