Cisco UCS Manager vs WhatsUp Gold comparison

Cisco and Progress Software are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Cisco is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.8, while Progress Software is ranked #24 with an average rating of 8.7. Cisco holds a 1.3% mindshare in IM, compared to Progress Software’s 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Progress Software users who would recommend it.

Cisco UCS Manager

Read 27 Cisco UCS Manager reviews

2,294 Views
2,088 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

WhatsUp Gold

Read 25 WhatsUp Gold reviews

5,476 Views
2,355 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Cisco UCS Manager

WhatsUp Gold

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

WhatsUp Gold and Cisco UCS Manager are competing in the network management solutions category. WhatsUp Gold offers more accessible pricing, while Cisco UCS Manager provides robust features that justify a higher cost.

Features: WhatsUp Gold offers comprehensive network monitoring, easy integration with various IT environments, and adaptability in diverse infrastructures. Cisco UCS Manager provides centralized management of data center resources, integrated server management, and enhanced server and resource oversight, making it ideal for large-scale operations.

Room for Improvement: WhatsUp Gold could benefit from enhanced server management capabilities, deeper data center resource integration, and more features for large-scale enterprises. Cisco UCS Manager might improve on providing simplified deployment options, increased adaptability in mixed IT environments, and cost-effective solutions for smaller businesses.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: WhatsUp Gold is known for straightforward deployment suitable for varied IT landscapes, with effective customer support. Cisco UCS Manager faces a more involved deployment process, especially for intricate server networks, but it offers extensive customer support for complex installations.

Pricing and ROI: WhatsUp Gold's accessible initial setup cost provides quicker returns on investment for smaller or medium-sized enterprises. Cisco UCS Manager demands a larger upfront investment, yet delivers significant long-term ROI through superior management capabilities for sophisticated data environments.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco UCS Manager vs. WhatsUp Gold Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager vs. WhatsUp Gold

January 2026

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Helped 882,961 peers since 2012

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 UCS Manager

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

19th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

WhatsUp Gold

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

24th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (29th), Network Monitoring Software (26th), Server Monitoring (16th), Configuration Management (19th), Log Management (32nd), Cloud Monitoring Software (23rd), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS Manager is 1.3%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhatsUp Gold is 2.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco UCS Manager	1.3%
WhatsUp Gold	2.1%
Other	96.6%

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Sidi Abdul

CTO at Next Technologies Ltd

Service profiles simplify management and streamline network and storage processes

The most valuable features are the service profiles and the unified management of both network and storage. With UCS, it's quite easy to deploy. Whenever there's a failure of any component, it's very easy to swap because you just disassociate that profile, remove the faulty blade, connect the new blade, and associate that profile, maintaining the same MAC address and worldwide port name. Everything remains the same, and it's only the hardware that you're replacing. This makes it very easy for me to manage and troubleshoot.

Read full review

Erik Cheng

Technical Manager at Quan Hung Gourmet

Efficient monitoring with detailed customization, yet complexity remains

The best feature of WhatsUp Gold is the automatic generation of topology and its integration with virtualization and wireless. I have used the automated device discovery with this topology feature. The interactive map feature helps me manage the topology because sometimes we cannot draw the topology correctly, so we need to manually edit the connections. The alerting system is very tunable and customizable, but it's a little complicated to use. Many customers cannot manage it by themselves and need support from us, the provider. We always use the dashboards in the SOC, where we constantly display a dashboard or multiple dashboards. This allows us to know immediately if the connection or bandwidth is full or if the connection is broken.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The hardware is very powerful and it is a stable solution."

"One of the valuable features is the user interface base."

"The most valuable features of Cisco UCS Manager include the visibility it provides and the ease of identifying issues within the Cisco environment."

"For the blade architecture and ease of use, I consider Cisco UCS Manager the best option on the market at the moment."

"The interface is ergonomic and native. We can use UCS Manager to do all the configurations for the servers, including storage, networking, and all the other components we need inside the fabric. It's simple and flexible."

"When one server fails, we can attach the service profile to a new server, which saves a lot of time."

"The management is one of the most valuable features of this solution."

"The flexibility and the ease in which the features can be expanded are the solution's most valuable aspects."

More Cisco UCS Manager pros

"The interface in the last few years it has been a lot greater, they are much more user-friendly. I like the interface."

"I use it on premises to monitor my network database. We monitor the link up/down and use the SNMP traps as well."

"The most valuable feature of WhatsUp Gold is NetFlow and the virtualized maps."

"The installation and configuration process are easy."

"The product is reasonably priced."

"The most important features of WhatsUp Gold are the server health and uptime it provides. Additionally, WhatsUp Gold is a Windows-based solution which is a benefit."

"The interactive mapping interface for scrolling, zooming, and drilling down on an element to learn about a network issue is good. When we see a network there will sometimes be a spot that has one link. You can go into a particular part of the topology map, scroll in, and see exactly which module it is."

"It is easy to access and discover devices, as well as monitor them automatically. The topology discover is also a useful feature."

More WhatsUp Gold pros

Cons

"The primary challenge we face is identifying the correct version to deploy during firmware upgrades or compute updates."

"Cisco UCS Manager is not a scalable solution because once you have 160 blades, it cannot be expanded more."

"I would like to see Cisco UCS optionally work as a hyper-converged system because right now, it only operates as a converged system."

"I found it a bit of a challenge to get training on UCSM. I've been trying to get that for some time now. I feel like I have to figure it out a lot of things myself. For years I've to log calls with support whenever I've got challenges that I cannot resolve. If I had some training or more manuals, I'd be better able to handle more things on my own."

"What's lacking in Cisco UCS Manager is the performance dashboard. If a blade has any performance issues, you should be able to create a dashboard on Cisco UCS Manager. Currently, this feature isn't present."

"Cisco UCS Manager should have a simplified deployment in the sense of not having multiple machines, demilitarized zones, and on-premise options."

"I would like to see improved visibility into the operating system, enabling us to identify issues directly from the operating system itself."

"The solution's pricing is high and could be reduced."

More Cisco UCS Manager cons

"I would like to see better integration with switches so that you can see what is connected to each port, what the traffic is, and have a network map automatically generated."

"WhatsUp Gold should work on real-time monitoring and configuration management. If they succeed in doing this, the solution will cover all the network troubleshooting aspects and will be a benefit."

"I would like to see them do an enhancement to the application monitoring. A lot of other products do better application monitoring so they should do some improvements to the application monitoring."

"One of the biggest things that made us start to look at another product is we're not able to have an end to end monitoring from a user perspective throughout the system and back to the user. All the monitoring is from inside out, we need something that also can give us from outside in."

"The new release cadence needs to be improved. It takes a while for them to add new features and functionality. There should be a quicker turnaround with new versions."

"Setting up WhatsUp Gold is complicated and not easy because it requires managing SNMP and many complex settings in the devices it's monitoring, and fine-tuning it to fit our needs is also not very easy."

"I might like to see a better interface in the future."

"I think there are a few bugs now. Although they give some resolution for this, we cannot share the network remotely because of our company policy."

More WhatsUp Gold cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cisco UCS Manager’s annual licensing fee is expensive."

"You buy the hardware and then you get Cisco UCS Manager for free."

"The pricing for Cisco UCS Manager is okay for its market, so it's a four out of five for me."

"Cisco UCS is more expensive than Dell and HP, but it is more reliable. I see less issues and it's quite stable."

"We need to take a license for each port, which amounts to a big sum."

"With product discounts which can be negotiated, the product is a great value."

"The price of WhatsUp Gold is good."

"This is a well priced solution."

"Pricing is reasonable compared to other products."

"There is a license needed to use WhatsUp Gold."

"The tool's price is reasonable. WhatsUp Gold is cheaper than SolarWinds."

"The choice of version depends on the number of points, or devices, that you want to monitor, and this makes the product expensive."

"There are some subscription charges that are quite heavy. I need to pay for support every year and these charges can be quite expensive. Aside from the initial cost for the tool, you need to pay additionally for support."

"The pricing can be on the expensive side when considering competing products."

More WhatsUp Gold pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

10%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	18

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	14

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco UCS Manager?

When one server fails, we can attach the service profile to a new server, which saves a lot of time.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco UCS Manager?

My experience with the pricing of Cisco UCS Manager ( /products/cisco-ucs-manager-reviews ) is that it is reasonable. Recently, we acquired an excellent bundle with significant discounts, with offe...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco UCS Manager?

For improvements, while the current graphical user interface is satisfactory, it could be further simplified for different tasks. While it has been improved from using Java to HTML, simplifying the...

See all answers

What do you like most about WhatsUp Gold?

The interactive mapping interface for scrolling, zooming, and drilling down on an element to learn about a network issue is good. When we see a network there will sometimes be a spot that has one l...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for WhatsUp Gold?

Clients find the licensing calculator confusing, but we simplify this for them by collecting relevant information first. The licensing is based on devices, providing better cost-effectiveness than ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with WhatsUp Gold?

It would be great if WhatsUp Gold could add features that simplify management with AI, as it is currently too complicated to manage.

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Intersight vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 61% of the time

Nutanix Prism vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 4% of the time

HPE OneView vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 4% of the time

Splunk Observability Cloud vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 3% of the time

Datadog vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 3% of the time

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LibreNMS vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 4% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 4% of the time

SCOM vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

NinjaOne vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

Nutanix Prism vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

More WhatsUp Gold Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager

February 2026

Download Cisco UCS Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

WhatsUp Gold

January 2026

Download WhatsUp Gold product report

Overview

Cisco UCS Manager helps significantly reduce management and administration expenses by automating routine tasks to increase operational agility. Customers can extend the benefits of Cisco UCS Manager globally across an enterprise to thousands of servers in multiple domains with Cisco UCS Central Software.

Cisco

Explore and manage your entire network infrastructure effortlessly with WhatsUp Gold's robust layer 2/3 discovery, creating a detailed interactive map from the edge to the cloud. Monitor devices, wireless controllers, servers, virtual machines, applications, and traffic flows across various environments. Real-time alerts ensure optimal performance, allowing you to meet or exceed SLAs. The platform offers customizable maps, dashboards, and alerts for easy network management. Quickly resolve issues with intuitive workflows, reducing Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR). WhatsUp Gold's integrated log management provides easy visibility and control of device log data, allowing monitoring, filtering, searching, and alerting on syslogs or Windows logs. Archive logs to comply with regulatory requirements and preserve historical data, all through a user-friendly interface. Streamline network monitoring and issue resolution with WhatsUp Gold, making network management efficient and hassle-free.

Progress Software

Sample Customers

Management Science Associates, Peak 10, Virtual Consulting Professionals

Artoni Trasporti, Austin Independent School District, Banca Marche, Burke County North Carolina, Cambridge University School of Clinical Medicine, Clayco, Community Integrated Care, Desca, Deutsche Bergbau, Flexi-Van, Gropper, Hamleys, Hammonds Furniture, Knowledge IT, Idras S.P.A., Sibeg, Swann Engineering, Trivium Lindenhof

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager vs. WhatsUp Gold

January 2026

Free Report: Cisco UCS Manager vs. WhatsUp Gold

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS Manager vs. WhatsUp Gold and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.

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