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ExtraHop Reveal(x) for IT Operations vs SolarWinds NPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 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

ExtraHop Reveal(x) for IT O...
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
71st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Network Diagnostics (10th), IT Operations Analytics (13th), Network Packet Capture (6th)
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 ExtraHop Reveal(x) for IT Operations is 0.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. 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%
ExtraHop Reveal(x) for IT Operations0.7%
Other95.6%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

Out West - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager and IT Management Consultant at a integrator with 1,001-5,000 employees
Great for identifying application interdependencies with helpful support but needs better visualizations
We're just trying to identify the application interdependencies, which normally reside on different servers, including web servers, database servers, enterprise service bus, et cetera, up to your presentation layer before we start moving stuff around. Normally, the reason why we use these tools is to understand what assets we have, where they're deployed, and how they enter and operate before we decide to go move something from point A to point B. The solution is going to allow me to establish a wave or migration plan where you have different waves of migration and then you actually have move groups to try and get your application moved from A to B seamlessly. A to B could be on-premise to on-premise. It could be on-premise to cloud. Et cetera. The solution can tell me what components can I deploy, for example, into a cloud space, without having to refactor my applications since that can be quite time-consuming and costly.
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's a must-have solution for large IT Operations, providing the ability to analyze infrastructure and application-related performance and data from the wire perspective."
"Not only can you look at the protocol import level. It also has a live PCAP analysis."
"The most valuable features are security detections, perimeter detection, dashboards, and alerts."
"There are many valuable features in this product, but probably the biggest is the customization capability it has."
"This is a must-try product."
"We have been able to improve the mean time to resolution by several hours in some cases."
"You cannot hide from the wire; all truth lives in the packets, and ExtraHop gets them to talk!"
"ExtraHop is far ahead of anything comparable in the industry."
"Its GUI is very user-friendly."
"Solarwind NPM gives you a quick overview of the OT environment, which greatly improves response times on down equipment."
"SolarWinds is one of those tools that work across the spectrum with different products, such as Cisco HP, and it is very customizable."
"As we look to add more servers to our virtual environment and to understand the impact, the solution allows us to dig into the historical charts related to capacity planning."
"It is really very flexible, a flexible solution."
"The simplicity of this product is a valuable feature; everything you need is easily accessible and the maintenance is low."
"This solution offers a very good view of our network and allows us to effectively monitor performance."
"The most valuable feature is the graphical user interface."
 

Cons

"This solution would be improved if it had the ability to retain data longer."
"There is room for improvement in the security part. They have a new solution, ExtraHop Reveal(x), and I think it needs improvement."
"I would improve the Rule-Based Access Control (RBAC) by providing granular access control to the data."
"They either have to go broad or decide what their bread and butter is and get really good at that."
"Additional out-of-the-box solutions and use cases would be nice."
"The improvement that would make the most impact would be expanding on the new EXA big data back end."
"We've had some struggles getting it to see everything that we want to see. Network visibility is something that needs to be improved."
"The solution could get more aggressive in the discounting of the overall cost."
"The solution could be more secure."
"The root cause analysis and installation faults are not clear."
"A need for improvement is in the technical support provided by SolarWinds. Customers have given feedback about the delayed response times from the technical team, especially during application-level issues."
"I think the graphical environment, the GUI still has to be improved."
"I would say the NPM toolset has room for improvement."
"One of the challenges with SolarWinds is that in order to pull the data, we have to have a lot of false positives."
"There were some version releases that had stability issues but the support team was very good at letting us know what we needed to do to fix the issues."
"If we go for the NT license, then we have to purchase the NPM, Network Performance Monitor; that is a dependency."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is fair considering the value provided."
"The price of this solution for our environment is about £650,000 ($855,000 USD) for three years."
"The pricing is higher than other solutions, but with such good features, I think it's worth it."
"We pay for SolarWinds NPM yearly. We buy it and then we renew it, but it's not subscription-based. I don't remember the value exactly, because it's my manager who manages pricing, but we pay $60,000 per year for all the solutions. Pricing will also depend on the number of devices. We have a lot of devices."
"The NPM component of the system costs approximately $1,000 USD per year."
"SolarWinds is expensive. That's why it's primarily banks using the solution. Small businesses can't afford it. Due to its pricing, most smaller enterprises like manufacturing companies are not interested. For example, we have a client who is also interested in traffic monitoring, but they are not purchasing SolarWinds because of the cost."
"When I compare the cost of CA Spectrum to that of SolarWinds NPM, the cost of CA Spectrum is way too high, and the cost of SolarWinds NPM is pretty low."
"Licenses depend on the number of devices, but all license levels come with technical support."
"Price could be improved on"
"The standard licensing fees are what we're paying. It's about $20,000 a year for all our licensing."
"Some solutions are open source and free."
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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
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
12%
Healthcare Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
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 Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise33
Large Enterprise87
 

Questions from the Community

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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

Alaska Airlines, bet365, Concur, McKesson, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Practice Fusion, Seattle Children's Hospital, Steward Health Care System
Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard
Find out what your peers are saying about ExtraHop Reveal(x) for IT Operations vs. SolarWinds NPM and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,153 professionals have used our research since 2012.