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Cisco Crosswork Network Insights vs SolarWinds NPM 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
7.0
Cisco Crosswork Network Insights boosts efficiency by reducing manual work and enhancing network performance, offering time-saving benefits.
Sentiment score
6.8
SolarWinds NPM is praised for reducing costs, offering quick ROI, and enhancing network management with reliable alerts and reporting.
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
Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is quite a comprehensive product with very few errors and enhanced network performance.
Manager, Project Implementation at ibl-unisys
The return on investment is significant as the solution effectively reduces costs while being worth its expense.
Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
Cisco Crosswork Network Insights' customer support is praised for responsiveness, effectiveness, quick hardware fixes, and minimal disruption.
Sentiment score
6.9
SolarWinds NPM's customer service is praised, but technical support varies, with some users noting slow responses and availability issues.
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
It does not require too much analysis; if something is not working, it needs to be replaced, which makes it faster and easier.
Manager, Project Implementation at ibl-unisys
If there is no timely response, getting a resolution is more difficult.
Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Regarding technical support from SolarWinds, I find it excellent.
Assistant Manager at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
We had contact with SolarWinds regarding the implementation, and they were helpful.
Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
4.4
Cisco Crosswork Network Insights efficiently manages scalability, supporting complex environments with strong performance and helpful documentation for stability.
Sentiment score
6.9
SolarWinds NPM efficiently scales in large environments, but may require extra polling engines and face complex licensing challenges.
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
SolarWinds NPM is scalable and effective in handling large network infrastructures.
Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.6
Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is highly stable and dependable, with excellent customer service, leading to strong user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.5
SolarWinds NPM is praised for stability, with resource allocation and documentation adherence mitigating most upgrade-related issues.
For stability, I rate SolarWinds NPM as a ten, which is the best.
Assistant Manager at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
The NPM product is stable, particularly when used for simple network monitoring.
Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Users seek improved usability, AI enhancements, better third-party integration, cost efficiency, and more insightful documentation for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights.
SolarWinds NPM requires enhancements in analytics, scalability, UI, security, integration, customization, monitoring, automation, stability, and cost-effectiveness.
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
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.
Student at Rochester Institute of Technology
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
SolarWinds needs to upscale on observability and add full-fledged observability features, including security features.
Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited
Customers have given feedback about the delayed response times from the technical team.
Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
I would need a feature in SolarWinds in the future for some kind of malfunctioning detection, such as malware attacks or that type of environment.
Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise users find Cisco Crosswork Network Insights costly but worthwhile for high usage, with pricing starting at $1000.
SolarWinds NPM offers a flexible licensing model with competitive pricing, though costs may rise for extensive setups.
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
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
The prices are good.
Project Specialist at FedEx
The solution is considered expensive.
Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance
Pricing-wise, SolarWinds NPM is more expensive than PRTG.
Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited
It is not too pricey and is adequate.
Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Crosswork Network Insights enhances network management with AI-driven insights, real-time analytics, and robust security, improving efficiency and integration.
SolarWinds NPM provides intuitive network monitoring with advanced customization, scalability, and proactive alerts, suiting diverse business needs.
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.
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
Whenever any node is down in our network, whether it is a server or any network device, we receive information through email that the device is down.
Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The ability to customize the dashboard in SolarWinds NPM provides key benefits like saving time and money, and streamlining some processes.
Assistant Manager at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
The most valuable feature for us is the database performance analyzer, which we use a lot.
Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Crosswork Network Ins...
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
35th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds NPM
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
161
Ranking in other categories
IT Infrastructure Monitoring (6th), Cloud Monitoring Software (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is 0.2%. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 3.7%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SolarWinds NPM3.7%
Cisco Crosswork Network Insights0.2%
Other96.1%
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.
Vivek Jaiswal - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Central monitoring has improved outage alerts and now needs smarter detection and modern dashboards
Regarding the automated network topology and mapping feature in SolarWinds NPM, I am not satisfied with it. For static monitoring, it is acceptable. However, if it is possible, I would need a feature in SolarWinds in the future for some kind of malfunctioning detection, such as malware attacks or that type of environment. We did not have any facility to detect that in SolarWinds. I think it would be better to incorporate those types of features. Regarding customization options in SolarWinds, the ability to customize the dashboard has room for improvement. The dashboard is quite old, and we need some improvement in it. Nowadays, we have multiple tools with AI-based monitoring and web-based dashboards. SolarWinds also has a web-based dashboard, but I think there is scope for improvement in the UI. There may be other areas I would like to improve in SolarWinds NPM.
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Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
May 31, 2015
Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor
I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
39%
Outsourcing Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise33
Large Enterprise87
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights?
The purchasing of Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is managed by generating the PR and then the procurement team takes care of the pricing and purchasing, which are directly from Cisco or another m...
What needs improvement with Cisco Crosswork Network Insights?
In future updates of Cisco Crosswork Network Insights, I would like to see more integrated AI with such tools.
What is your primary use case for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights?
Currently, our infrastructure has very limited use of Cisco Crosswork Network Insights, so we haven't explored much of those technologies, and I'm not getting anything to improve from that perspect...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
It actually depends on the exact purpose or kind of devices (network devices, servers, something else). Some tools are better for only network devices while others are better for a cloud monitoring...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We are partners with SolarWinds and we sell a lot of Network management to large enterprises also because of scalability, products like Network Performance Monitor & Netflow Traffic Analyzer ar...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Crosswork Network Insights vs. SolarWinds NPM and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.