Corelight vs VMware NSX comparison

Corelight and Broadcom are both solutions in the Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) category. Corelight is ranked #6, while Broadcom is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.9. Corelight holds a 9.2% mindshare in NTA, compared to Broadcom’s 2.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Corelight users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

Corelight

Read 5 Corelight reviews

2,060 Views
1,463 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

VMware NSX

Read 106 VMware NSX reviews

6,667 Views
200 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Corelight

VMware NSX

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

VMware NSX and Corelight are two leading solutions in the network virtualization and network security analytics spaces. Based on user reviews, VMware NSX offers advantages in deployment and customer support, whereas Corelight stands out for its exceptional features and overall value.

Features: VMware NSX's robust network virtualization capabilities include micro-segmentation, automation, and comprehensive security measures. Corelight offers high-performance network visibility, detailed real-time analytics, and advanced threat detection.

Room for Improvement: VMware NSX could enhance scalability, reduce complexity, and improve user interface design. Corelight needs streamlined integration capabilities, a more intuitive management experience, and better reporting features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VMware NSX has a straightforward deployment process supported by responsive customer service. Corelight's deployment can be complex, but its support team is highly effective in resolving issues.

Pricing and ROI: VMware NSX has higher setup costs but delivers solid ROI through its extensive virtualization benefits. Corelight is worth its price due to the rich insight it offers, with competitive setup costs aligning with the robust value and insights provided, enhancing ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Corelight vs. VMware NSX Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Corelight vs. VMware NSX

September 2025

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Helped 869,566 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

Corelight

Ranking in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

6th

Ranking in Network Detection and Response (NDR)

13th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

VMware NSX

Ranking in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

7th

Ranking in Network Detection and Response (NDR)

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

106

Ranking in other categories

Network Virtualization (2nd), Cloud and Data Center Security (3rd), Network Automation (5th), Microsegmentation Software (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) category, the mindshare of Corelight is 9.2%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware NSX is 2.4%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Corelight	9.2%
VMware NSX	2.4%
Other	88.4%

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

Featured Reviews

HamadaElewa

Technical Sales Manager at Spire Solutions

An expensive solution to monitor internet traffic with multiple dashboards

The huge library especially the open source link, makes it the main engine for Corelight with some enhancements in the commercial version. It has a very powerful level, such as signature-based attacks or behavioral attacks, with enhancements in the design. It is very flexible for intelligent implementations like IPs, especially between big companies and banks. Corelight is easy to understand and monitor what is going on behind the team. The solution is already integrated with other systems like Suricata, Elastic, and Microsoft tools. It's very easy to integrate signature-based or behavior-based engines. You can use Elastic for the dashboards to get it from Corelight, along with all the benefits and expandability.

Read full review

TAIYAB HASAN

Windows Redhat Linux Vmware & Azure & Cloud & Nutanix Ahv-Vmware & Backup Senior System Administrator at Al Dawaa Medical Services

Has improved network visibility and security through micro-segmentation and SDN capabilities

This feature gives us flexibility and allows us to manage everything under one pane. We can see everything on one console, including network operations and behavior. Monitoring and security are among the best features for VMware NSX. For micro-segmentation, it's integrated with our endpoint security. If there are any issues with servers or VMs, it notifies us so we can isolate the servers and investigate. It provides distributed security features such as firewall and intrusion, IDS, IPS. The security level with IPS and IDS in VMware NSX is excellent. It also provides logical switching and routing which gives an extra layer for Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching requirements. The solution provides flexibility, automation, and self-service capabilities, resulting in cost savings as extensive expertise isn't required. Once automation and self-service are implemented, many tasks can be completed automatically. Load balancing is another excellent feature. Multiple servers can run on load balancing features, which is particularly useful since we have many application servers running. Sharing loads between servers provides the best performance.

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 most valuable feature is the embedded IDS from Suricata."

"It's an easy way for us to get visibility in a client's environment."

"It is easy to deploy and easy to handle."

"Corelight is easy to use."

"It's easy to create additional dashboards specific to supporting specific tasks."

"This is a good firewall and overall it is rich in features."

"The security offered by VMware NSX is the most valuable, plus it's a feature-rich product that's straightforward to install and configure."

"Their technical support is very good. They help us figure out solutions when we have problems."

"One significant advantage of VMware NSX is the ability to provide advanced security at the micro-level, focusing on securing applications and workloads rather than just the network structure or virtualization-based network security."

"It has reduced the number of people on the network team along with the system engineer involved in the security process. So, it is valuable."

"The most valuable feature of VMware NSX is the ability to set up virtual networking environments."

"VMware NSX is a very good solution. It's also a scalable solution."

"It's very important for them to have small footprints and have as much services in their servers, as possible."

More VMware NSX pros

Cons

"They can enhance the interface of the product. They can make it more interactive and also easier to use for feature access."

"Corelight hasn’t added features in a long time."

"In the next release, building a graphical user interface would be helpful."

"The solution’s architecture is complex and difficult to understand. There are multiple machines and VMs."

"Machine learning could be a good improvement, but it's very costly."

"Its licensing model could be VM based."

"I would like to see automation capabilities in the deployment process."

"The setup is complex and should be made easier."

"An area for improvement in VMware NSX is that it uses up more resources and is heavy on the network. What I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is more automation."

"I want to see the solution expand to more than just the network, for example, perhaps it could provide some VLAN technologies."

"They have to work more and more on the integration for public cloud services and have cyber security platform integration."

"VMware NSX should be able to scale for different customers, even the big ones. Its scalability needs improvement. Stability for it should also be improved."

"There were some issues with finance and other accounting."

More VMware NSX cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's a yearly fee and depends on what you are looking for."

"The subscription is on a yearly basis."

"We are using a perpetual license to use the solution and we have support."

"The price of this product is too high."

"You can scale NSX if you have the resources, but it's usually expensive and complex to scale up."

"There is a license required for this solution and there is also a support license available. The price of the solution could be better."

"If five is a good price and one is a high price, I would rate the price a one out of five."

"The licensing fees are expensive and we pay on a yearly basis."

"The price of VMware NSX is very good compared to other solutions."

More VMware NSX pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	33
Midsize Enterprise	23
Large Enterprise	69

Questions from the Community

What is the biggest difference between Corelight and Vectra AI?

The two platforms take a fundamentally different approach to NDR. Corelight is limited to use cases that require the eventual forwarding of events and parsed data logs to a security team’s SIEM or ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Corelight?

It's easy to create additional dashboards specific to supporting specific tasks.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Corelight?

The solution is too expensive compared to others. If you have the technical knowledge, it's good. Corelight is a very big gap between you and others if you’re new.

See all answers

What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?

There are some very major differences between both the Products and to name a few. -Cisco ACI have physical network gear (9K Switches) where the Code runs in ACI Policy Mode & the UCS server wh...

See all answers

What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?

Once you know your way around the Cisco ecosystem, using Cisco ACI is not so difficult. It is a global product, so when you change one interface, changes are automatically reflected on every switch...

See all answers

What do you like most about VMware NSX?

The product has valuable features for security and network extension.

See all answers

Comparisons

Vectra AI vs Corelight

Compared 32% of the time

Darktrace vs Corelight

Compared 26% of the time

ExtraHop Reveal(x) vs Corelight

Compared 21% of the time

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs Corelight

Compared 6% of the time

ExtraHop Reveal(x) 360 vs Corelight

Compared 5% of the time

More Corelight Competitors

Illumio vs VMware NSX

Compared 18% of the time

Nutanix Flow Network Security vs VMware NSX

Compared 16% of the time

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs VMware NSX

Compared 14% of the time

Cisco Secure Workload vs VMware NSX

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco ACI vs VMware NSX

Compared 6% of the time

More VMware NSX Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Network Detection and Response (NDR)

October 2025

Download Corelight product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware NSX

September 2025

Download VMware NSX product report

Also Known As

No data available

VMware Nicira, Lastline Defender

Overview

Corelight is the most powerful network visibility solution for information security professionals. We provide real-time data that organizations use to understand, detect, and prevent cyber attacks. Our solution is built on Zeek, the powerful and widely-used open source monitoring framework.

Corelight

VMware NSX is a comprehensive tool for network virtualization and security, offering advanced features like micro-segmentation and multi-cloud networking to enhance scalability and management efficiency within enterprises.

VMware NSX revolutionizes enterprise networking by integrating security and scalability into one streamlined platform. With capabilities like dynamic policy updates and automation, it simplifies complex configurations and provides robust API integration. Its support for Layer 4 and 7 load balancing, along with its seamless integration in multi-cloud environments, makes it a preferred choice among companies. Although deployment speed and management console features require refinement, NSX is an effective solution for private cloud and hybrid environments, enabling centralized orchestration and management of complex networks.

What are the key features of VMware NSX?

Micro-segmentation: Provides secure, granular network segmentation for enhanced security.
Distributed Firewall: Offers policy-driven firewall capabilities across all network endpoints.
Automation: Enables dynamic policy updates and simplifies network configurations.
API Integration: Facilitates seamless third-party integrations and improves configuration processes.
Multi-Cloud Networking: Supports seamless integration across various cloud environments.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Scalability: Offers significant improvements in network scalability and management efficiency.
Security: Ensures enhanced security through advanced features like micro-segmentation.
Cost-Effectiveness: Potential to reduce costs through network automation and efficiency improvements.
Flexibility: Supports various enterprise requirements with its comprehensive feature set.

In the tech industry, VMware NSX is instrumental in managing private and hybrid cloud environments, allowing companies to replace traditional networking with software-defined networks. In finance, it helps secure transactional data through micro-segmentation. Healthcare organizations leverage its flexibility for managing sensitive patient information securely and integrating cloud services.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Education First

City of Avondale, Lumeta, Kroll Ontrack, Heartland Payment Systems, Baystate Heallth, Exostar, Tribune Media, iGATE, NTT Communications, Synergent, California Natural Resources Agency, Bloomington Public Schools, Columbia Sportswear, Join Experience S.A, Schuberg Philis

Buyer's Guide

Corelight vs. VMware NSX

September 2025

Free Report: Corelight vs. VMware NSX

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