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Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs Zabbix 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
8.0
Cisco Secure Network Analytics boosts incident detection and recovery, offering cost savings and labor efficiency for enhanced security.
Sentiment score
4.7
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is time-saving, offers ROI but faces competition from cheaper alternatives, enhancing bandwidth cost management.
Sentiment score
7.7
Zabbix offers cost-effective, scalable monitoring with no fees, reducing downtime and commercial software expenses while increasing ROI.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Secure Network Analytics support is praised for technical expertise and responsiveness, despite occasional local support challenges and delays.
Sentiment score
7.0
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer's support has varying reviews, highlighting responsive yet inconsistent service with suggested premium support for efficiency.
Sentiment score
6.9
Zabbix support is praised for responsiveness, community resources, and expertise, though documentation and non-paid support need improvement.
There is a lack of adequate local support from the Indian side.
I am very satisfied with their technical support, rating it nine out of ten.
I would rate support eight out of ten.
They often say that only premium subscribers receive support within one or two hours.
It is so straightforward that I have never had to use the support.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.5
Cisco Secure Network Analytics excels in scalability and adaptability, though it can be costly and challenging in data management.
Sentiment score
7.3
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer scales efficiently for enterprises, but high licensing costs and hardware complexities limit expansion.
Sentiment score
6.9
Zabbix is praised for its scalability, distributed architecture, and efficiency, despite needing robust databases for larger deployments.
The license is based on the count of the ports.
Zabbix has high scalability.
Zabbix is very scalable and lightweight.
I would rate its scalability ten out of ten.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Cisco Secure Network Analytics is stable, reliable under complex conditions, but users seek less Java and better product integration.
Sentiment score
7.0
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is praised for stability, despite occasional SQL issues and slow performance with large databases.
Sentiment score
7.6
Zabbix is reliable and stable, with minimal issues; users value its low resource use and effective monitoring.
Cisco products are incredibly stable, boasting a 200% stability.
Zabbix is very scalable and lightweight.
Zabbix is quite stable, and we haven't had any problems with Zabbix itself.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Secure Network Analytics needs enhanced usability, integration, filtering, AI, reporting, training, cost-efficiency, and endpoint management for better security.
Users seek improved documentation, integration, pricing, visibility, monitoring, and better stability and responsiveness in support services.
Zabbix users seek UI improvements, better documentation, enhanced reporting, security, automation, integration, and modern workload adaptations.
The solution should have the ability to analyze security events not only at the network layer but also at the application and OS layers.
Deployment needs improvement; the process is complicated, requiring attention to infrastructure settings and installation of components like the origin application server, platform, close storage, and policy agents.
Ideally, NetFlow should have a robust alerting mechanism.
It should be like a Meraki cloud, where if you are familiar with Meraki devices, you can locate any device directly on the world map.
The only issue I can note is that it's Linux-based, and Linux documentation is not the best.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Secure Network Analytics pricing is high, influenced by network flow requirements, with mixed user experiences on cost and licensing.
Enterprise users find SolarWinds NetFlow pricing fair but costly when scaling, yet praise its value and return on investment.
Zabbix, a cost-effective open-source solution, offers free access without hidden fees, making it popular for enterprise adoption.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Secure Network Analytics enhances security with visibility, real-time anomaly detection, automation, and intuitive management for improved threat response.
SolarWinds NetFlow excels in traffic analysis, bandwidth monitoring, and vendor-agnostic management with a user-friendly, integrable interface.
Zabbix provides open-source monitoring with customizable features, strong scalability, and robust support, ideal for cost-effective IT infrastructure management.
The most valuable features include encrypted traffic analytics and the ability to fulfill requirements at the network level.
The bandwidth indicates the utilization of the devices; if any issue occurs, it triggers an alert for me.
This tool provides insights into top utilization applications or it identifies which circuit or application is consuming the most on the complete one-gig circuit traffic path.
The best feature is customizable reporting, which includes network diagrams and monitoring of various types of bandwidth usage and peak times.
If disk usage surpasses a threshold, say 70%, I receive alerts and can take proactive action.
Zabbix has a lot of features, including monitoring, status updates, and collecting information telemetry from storages and servers as well.
 

Mindshare comparison

Network Monitoring Software
Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

Sudhakar T - PeerSpot reviewer
Strong network security analytics with excellent encrypted traffic analysis features
Improvements are needed on the application layer for complete security analysis. The solution should have the ability to analyze security events not only at the network layer but also at the application and OS layers. There's a need for a more comprehensive licensing model where all necessary licenses are included by default.
DeepakVyas - PeerSpot reviewer
Utilization alerts enhance monitoring with good alerts
The tool itself is very complicated, so training is required to handle it effectively. Configuration and the streamlining process are very complex. In my view, it is a good product if properly configured and streamlined according to your IT infrastructure. For enterprise-level organizations, SolarWinds is more appropriate than for small and medium enterprises. I would rate the solution eight out of ten.
ASM Naushad Alam - PeerSpot reviewer
Allows any number of customizations but lacks functionality for finding root causes
We have not yet purchased the commercial version so have a lack of technical ability. We do not yet fully know the key points or key features of the solution. We just use what we use along with WhatsUp Gold. Based on our use only, stability is rated a seven out of ten.
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Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
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
Computer Software Company
28%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
63%
Computer Software Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Educational Organization
32%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Stealthwatch?
The most valuable feature of Cisco Secure Network Analytics is the Threat Intelligence integration.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Stealthwatch?
The organization experienced challenges with licensing as Cisco has multiple licensing factors, and there are concern...
What needs improvement with Cisco Stealthwatch?
Improvements are needed on the application layer for complete security analysis. The solution should have the ability...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
I have worked from 1973 with all kind of systems in large enterprises across the world. And have experience with all ...
What needs improvement with SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer?
The plotting of the device on the map is not appropriate. It should be like a Meraki cloud, where if you are familiar...
What do you like most about Zabbix?
The template system in Zabbix is very beneficial as it saves time in configuration.
What needs improvement with Zabbix?
For me, Zabbix is very straightforward. I cannot think of any improvements needed. It's a very mature product. The on...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Stealthwatch, Cisco Stealthwatch Enterprise, Lancope StealthWatch
Netflow Traffic Analyzer
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Edge Web Hosting, Telenor Norway, Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, Webster Financial Corporation, Westinghouse Electric, VMware, TIAA-CREF
Oceaneering International, Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, 335th Signal Command, Immofori
1. IBM 2. Dell 3. Cisco 4. HP 5. Oracle 6. Microsoft 7. Amazon 8. Google 9. Facebook 10. Twitter 11. LinkedIn 12. Netflix 13. Adobe 14. VMware 15. Salesforce 16. SAP 17. Intel 18. AT&T 19. Verizon 20. T-Mobile 21. Vodafone 22. Ericsson 23. Nokia 24. Siemens 25. General Electric 26. Honeywell 27. Philips 28. Sony 29. Samsung 30. LG 31. Panasonic 32. Toshiba
Find out what your peers are saying about Zabbix, Auvik, Datadog and others in Network Monitoring Software. Updated: April 2025.
850,349 professionals have used our research since 2012.