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DX Spectrum vs Wireshark comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 11, 2024

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

DX Spectrum
Ranking in Network Troubleshooting
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
117
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (7th), Network Monitoring Software (20th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (18th), DX NetOps (1st)
Wireshark
Ranking in Network Troubleshooting
4th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Network Troubleshooting category, the mindshare of DX Spectrum is 3.8%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Wireshark is 14.3%, up from 12.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Troubleshooting
 

Featured Reviews

DickBaker - PeerSpot reviewer
An all-inclusive monitoring solution that adapts to emerging technologies
The product helps to correlate events.  The solution's most valuable features are its integration with Broadcom tools and scalability. DX Spectrum needs better documentation on its complex features.  I have been using the product since 2005.  I rate DX Spectrum's stability an eight point five…
Vijay Duggal - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides detailed traffic analysis and helps troubleshoot issues
There is a disadvantage when it comes to sampling intervals. While the solution supports sampling as fine as one millisecond, it requires a copy at that interval. My Python script allows me to achieve a granularity of up to ten microseconds, but I can't go beyond that. When dealing with provisioning on both issues, it would be beneficial if I could go down to the microsecond level, if not the nanosecond. Additionally, I've heard from a colleague that Wireshark might be less effective in the voice domain.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I can use it to detect whenever things go wrong on my network."
"​Stability has been good. We really have not had any issues.​"
"The main thing is obviously notifications about alerts, getting ahead of the curve to make sure that we do not have system going down, or if it is down we get to know it earlier."
"Discovery: Scheduled, on-demand, synchronized with eHealth."
"Generally, I would recommend DX Spectrum because, despite its pricing issue, it is a valuable solution."
"Allows us to have a single console/notification point, with the alarms of all the tools that we use for monitoring."
"It does correlation so instead of producing 20 alarms if a site goes down, it only creates one."
"It's a good tool. It's simple to do the configuration."
"Packet-capture files can be hard to use due to their size. Wireshark has a tool called tshark that can parse the files with out opening them so that you can take large captures, say 2-10GB, and return only relevant information."
"If you're dealing with troubleshooting network, voice issues, or network operations, having a tool like Wireshark to dive into packet details is important. The initial setup is straightforward. Anyone starting out or looking to deploy it on your personal PC or machine can do it easily."
"Wireshark's best feature is that it's adaptive, which means it's the go-to tool for network-related developers."
"The ability to decrypt traffic and the abundance of filters available are both valuable features."
"The GUI is easy to use."
"Wireshark's best features are that it lets us see what traffic is in the network and what data should be encrypted."
"The initial setup is simple."
"I can save the traffic and analysis when I want to. Also, it's especially helpful to follow the stream (TCP, UDP, etc.)."
 

Cons

"The visual is a little archaic."
"I think the management or configuration of devices needs some improvement."
"If nobody else has said the documentation needs improvement, let's go there. I understand, you can either write about it or you can do it. And most of us would rather they do it, but now that they've done it, those of us that didn't do it, we need to go and find: "Where did they write about this to tell us how to do it?" That's always lacking."
"The solution's stability needs improvement."
"I would like to see better scalability, and maybe, a more intuitive user interface. ​"
"It doesn't really allow for multi-tenancy. If you're an ISP or an MSP and you want to use this tool to provide these types of fault management services to your customers, you would need a separate SpectroSERVER for each customer..."
"If they could interact with the MIBs of vendors better, and have a lot more pre-loaded ones, that would be amazing for us right now."
"Our consultant was four months on-site doing Spectrum setup and working through issues."
"Wireshark's UI isn't easy to handle and doesn't have as nice a view as Omnipeek."
"The initial setup depends upon the basics. You need to have a clear understanding of the basics."
"This product needs to improve the UI."
"A room for improvement in Wireshark is its ease of use for beginners. It could be better. Another room for improvement in the tool is for it to provide more details about the traffic load. At the moment, Wireshark is adequate for me, so there isn't anything I'd like added to it in its next version."
"In the future, it would be nice to see color coding. It is just black and white."
"I have not used Wireshark to an advanced point where I could provide a detailed opinion on improvements needed."
"I would like better control of bandwidth from the service provider."
"The product is great but I wish there were more of an emphasis on the command line tools."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is good enough to expect an ideal solution. It's expensive."
"Spectrum is expensive."
"DX Spectrum's pricing is neither expensive nor cheap."
"The price is very high."
"It is very pricey. With the current trend of enterprises moving towards cheaper and more modern looking solutions like ManageEngine, SevOne, ServicePilot, and Paesller."
"Since the acquisition by Broadcom, we have not had such a good experience with licensing and pricing. Since they were bought by Broadcom, every sales contract is getting complicated. It's very complicated, and it's much more expensive than before. It's not a good pricing strategy from Broadcom."
"It is expensive compared to other tools in the market."
"The solution's pricing could be better."
"The solution is open source so is free."
"I am using the free version of this solution."
"It is free."
"It is free to download and install. It runs on multiple platforms, so how can you go wrong?"
"It's a stand-alone tool. If there is a commercial license for it I am unaware of it."
"The tool is free."
"Wireshark is an open-source product, so it's free to use."
"Wireshark is free of charge, and there's no license involved."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
University
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about DX Spectrum?
The solution's most valuable features are its integration with Broadcom tools and scalability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DX Spectrum?
The price of DX Spectrum is not competitive when compared to other solutions, such as SolarWinds. The high price has caused us to lose many deals.
What needs improvement with DX Spectrum?
I would like to see improvements in making the interface more user-friendly. Many people find it not simple to use. One of the common customer complaints is about the alarm notifications. Currently...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Wireshark?
Wireshark is priced at a medium range, not too high, not too low. The pricing could be more flexible, and they might make it more expensive. That said, compared to other products, it is competitive.
What needs improvement with Wireshark?
The speed of the Internet could be improved, especially its performance. Performance can sometimes be a challenge due to numerous factors.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

CA Spectrum
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

National Informatics Centre India, Banese, Olympus, AlphaServe Technologies, Sicredi
Comversion, ADP, Talbots
Find out what your peers are saying about DX Spectrum vs. Wireshark and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.