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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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Crosswork Network Ins...
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
51st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Nmap
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
30th
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 May 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is 0.2%. The mindshare of Nmap is 0.9%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Nmap0.9%
Cisco Crosswork Network Insights0.2%
Other98.9%
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cisco Crosswork Network Insights has been very fundamental and robust and helpful in my organization, empowering our team to deploy network devices at customer locations more efficiently than ever, and it also delivers critical network telemetry, streamlining troubleshooting and reducing reliance on manual processes."
"Cisco Crosswork Network Insights has positively impacted us by securing our data, including customer data, and it secures our cybersecurity products while being excellent for security purposes."
"Cisco Crosswork Network Insights has impacted my organization positively as it has saved a lot of time, reduced management overhead, and simplified operations through a single pane of glass."
"Cisco Crosswork Network Insights has positively impacted my organization primarily through security and trust, as it provides monitoring of routing health, IP health, and protection from hijacks or leaks."
"From a functionality standpoint, it's robust and straightforward to comprehend."
"The initial setup was simple."
"It is a very user-friendly product."
"Nmap's performance is great, and I've never noticed any issues in this respect. It really doesn't put a heavy load on the machine when using it."
"It’s an excellent tool and allows its users a multitude of solutions to scan a network."
"The most important function, according to me, is the capability to use some arguments in the scanning. The solution's capability to go figure and do a deep dive, discovering information on specific aspects."
"We chose this solution because it supports several frameworks, including coding frameworks."
"It enables us to delve deeper and identify the services and open ports on the system and visualize this information on a dashboard automatically."
 

Cons

"Cisco Crosswork Network Insights 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."
"My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is somewhat high compared to other network products similar to Cisco."
"I have not seen a return on investment yet; we are still working on it."
"There are aspects of Cisco Crosswork Network Insights that I feel need improvement, such as faster data processing, as it currently takes too much time."
"Since I started using Nmap, it has been completely based on the command prompt and I think it would help other users if they implemented a decent GUI as well."
"The tool's license limits the number of scans it can perform. Improving the license model could benefit customers by allowing more scans for compliance and other purposes."
"The solution should increase the number of features under a free license."
"Nmap needs to improve its scanning speed."
"I would like something more user-friendly to use and export data to various software."
"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."
"The price is high and could be cheaper."
"One of the drawbacks of the standard Nmap utility is that it does not come with a graphical user interface, unlike a number of other open-source alternatives such as Zenmap."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"I am using the free version of Nmap."
"It's an open-source solution. Commerically, only the support service is available."
"The product's pricing is fine. The licensing options for Nmap include perpetual licenses and volume-based licenses. For perpetual licenses, once you purchase it, there's no need to invest in renewals. And for volume-based licenses, enterprise companies can use it multiple times based on the number of users or devices they need to scan. It's a pay-as-you-go model, similar to how you pay for what you use."
"Nmap is an open-source and free product."
"Nmap is an open-source product. You don't need a license to install it."
"The solution is free of cost."
"I am using the standard free version of Nmap."
"Nmap is open source software, which suits us well because we are a manufacturing company and not an IT company, for example. If we were an IT company, we would probably need to pay for extra support or instead go for another software solution. But as it is, we don't have any need for high-end troubleshooting tools."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
46%
Healthcare Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
University
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
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?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the prices are good.
What needs improvement with Cisco Crosswork Network Insights?
Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is not an easy tool to use. 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.
What is your primary use case for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights?
My main use case for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is that we deployed it to automate the workloads for our service provider environment, and we are going to eventually manage 700 plus endpoints...
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...
 

Comparisons

 

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: April 2026.
894,738 professionals have used our research since 2012.