Fortra&#39;s Intermapper vs Kentik comparison

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Fortra's Intermapper

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Kentik and Fortra's Intermapper are competing products in network monitoring. Kentik seems to have the upper hand in scalability and data analytics, while Intermapper holds an advantage in visual network management.

Features: Kentik offers advanced analytics for deep insights, scalability for large operations, and superior real-time data processing. Intermapper provides comprehensive network mapping, interactive visualization tools, and detailed network representation capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Kentik could benefit from simplifying its deployment process, enhancing customer support, and offering more competitive pricing. Intermapper might improve its analytics capabilities, scalability for larger networks, and integration with third-party tools.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Intermapper offers a straightforward installation with responsive customer service for quick deployment and ongoing support. Kentik's deployment may involve complex configurations due to its scalability, potentially requiring more effort for setup and support.

Pricing and ROI: Kentik's pricing reflects its advanced capabilities, providing substantial ROI for businesses needing extensive analytics. Intermapper's lower setup cost offers efficient network mapping at a competitive price, potentially delivering higher ROI for businesses prioritizing visualization.

To learn more, read our detailed Fortra's Intermapper vs. Kentik Report (Updated: August 2026).

Fortra's Intermapper vs. Kentik

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Helped 910,005 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

Fortra's Intermapper

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

80th

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Kentik

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

12th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Fortra's Intermapper is 0.5%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kentik is 1.7%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Kentik	1.7%
Fortra's Intermapper	0.5%
Other	97.8%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Andrian Lubimov

SVP of Networking and Operations at Skywire Networks

It tremendously cuts down our troubleshooting timeframe, but needs advanced SLA monitoring and reporting

They can do a better job with SLA reporting. It does some basic reporting, but it really doesn't offer the ability to monitor devices by groups, customers, or carrier to give an overall health performance of specifically-defined environments. That's where HelpSystems Intermapper could have done a better job. I would love to see advanced SLA monitoring and reporting in this solution. They already have a lot of ingredients. They already have SNMP polling. It is really about what people are looking for from SLA monitoring, especially someone who looks at the network topology. You want to see your endpoints. You want to see half of your endpoints by simply analyzing ICMP or SNMP-based availability of your endpoints. Having an ability to define your group and how you bring devices into your group would be a huge benefit.

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Gcecilio

Network Engineer at a media company with 51-200 employees

Traffic insights have reduced transit costs and support secure, direct connections with providers

The best features that Kentik offers are the ability to identify traffic end-to-end and to know which transit is used, if it goes through any other transit, to see the entire flow, from the subscriber to the content provider and vice versa, from the content provider to the subscriber.I can also determine whether it is symmetric or asymmetric traffic, and if it goes through any provider that has some kind of bottleneck. That is very important. Regarding the security part, which is also possible to handle through Kentik, you can configure it in a way that makes the network more secure and reduces the amount of dirty traffic or attacks received. Kentik has had a high positive impact on my organization. Besides the cost reduction, it has been possible to perform troubleshooting more effectively, and also regarding DDoS-related attacks. In addition to cost reduction, we had a more reliable connection. Since the moment we identified that it was possible to have a direct connection with content providers like CDN77, Cloudflare, and Akamai, we established a direct connection there through a PNI with these content providers, making the network less dependent on an IP transit provider.

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

"Put Intermapper in as your base to start from, hands-down."

"It's all today portal-based which is a good feature for us."

"What is really cool about HelpSystems InterMapper is that because of its SNMP base, you can integrate all different makes and models on the same map. You, of course, can have more than one map, but you have an option to have visibility into the entire network from one centralized system. You can monitor IPs, routers, radios, DC power plants, and UPS. You can do it all from one network management and monitoring solution. That's what really makes HelpSystems Intermapper great. Another great thing about HelpSystems InterMapper is that you can really bundle different probes under one device. You can have a bundled device. You can monitor the physical status of a host based on the IP availability. You can also monitor services and actually see if anything happens. You can quickly determine whether it is the application layer, host layer, or network layer. HelpSystems Intermapper gives such a unique representation of a network. Ever since we started using HelpSystems InterMapper, we don't have to document everything in a detailed format and store it somewhere. Right now, it is really a combination of network topology, network monitoring, and network analyzing. So, in my opinion, it is awesome. When you have your SNMP topology defined, you don't require a dedicated NMS engineer to manage your system, which is another great thing about HelpSystems InterMapper. I see how our operators get so excited by having the ability to map a device or interface and connect interfaces together. HelpSystems InterMapper is also very operator friendly; not just user friendly, but also operator friendly. This is a unique feature, and it works really great."

"The solution has a couple of features which are really interesting; it's not a fancy or expensive solution but we wanted to have a cost effective one and it's doing its job pretty well."

"The most valuable features are its: log history, real-time monitoring capabilities, accuracy - the number of false positives is very low, and the mapping features."

"Right now, it is really a combination of network topology, network monitoring, and network analyzing, so, in my opinion, it is awesome."

"It's a nice graphical interface, a nice map, that relates Layer 1 to Layer 3, virtually instantly, to the Helpdesk support staff. It provides a default place to get critical information so we can deploy our staff."

"The graphical alerting with the ability to obtain a quick overview of a monitored device is my favorite feature."

"Kentik has had a high positive impact on my organization; besides the cost reduction, it has been possible to perform troubleshooting more effectively, and also regarding DDoS-related attacks."

"Having the API access allows us to do a great deal of automation around a lot of our reporting and management tools."

"We have been extremely happy with the features; they were exactly what we were after."

"We're pretty happy with the API functionality. It's web, and it's very simple to set up queries. It has served us well and you don't need to be an expert on the API or the product to set these things up."

"It offers a simple yet powerful feature of classifying applications, going beyond basic statistics."

"I really love the Data Explorer. I use it all the time to go in and craft exactly what I need to see. I'm able to then take that story and explain it to the executives. I've done that a couple of times and it is helpful."

"Technical support is second to none."

"We haven't seen anything else that comes even close to Kentik's real-time visibility across our network infrastructure, and we've demo'ed everything under the sun."

More Kentik pros

Cons

"I'd love to see more of the network management side of it coming back into it. If we were able to run scripts to bounce ports on switches, that would be great. It's asking a lot, but it's actually very doable because I do it through scripting into other products. If we could incorporate that directly into Intermapper, that would be fantastic."

"I'd love to see more of the network management side of it coming back into it."

"It's a smaller solution so tools are not as advanced as you would find in a larger solution"

"They can do a better job with SLA reporting. It does some basic reporting, but it really doesn't offer the ability to monitor devices by groups, customers, or carrier to give an overall health performance of specifically-defined environments. That's where HelpSystems Intermapper could have done a better job. I would love to see advanced SLA monitoring and reporting in this solution. They already have a lot of ingredients. They already have SNMP polling. It is really about what people are looking for from SLA monitoring, especially someone who looks at the network topology. You want to see your endpoints. You want to see half of your endpoints by simply analyzing ICMP or SNMP-based availability of your endpoints. Having an ability to define your group and how you bring devices into your group would be a huge benefit."

"I have seen instances where Intermapper does not seem to recover from network changes."

"The only downside to Kentik, something that I don't like, is that it's great that it shows you where these anomalies lie, but it's not actionable. Kentik is valuable, don't get me wrong, but if it had an actionable piece to it..."

"I've checked out the V4 version of the interface and it's still a little bit clunky for me to use. I still go back to the old interface. That's definitely one that they still need to work on. It doesn't seem like everything that you get in the V3, the older interface, is there. For instance, I was trying to add a user or do the administrative tasks in V4, and I couldn't figure out where I was supposed to do that."

"I would like to see them explore the area of cost analysis."

"Kentik can be improved by enhancing the alerting system, especially the way templates work and the hierarchy of these alerts."

"Sometimes, the tool has complications, so we must deal with the additional support from the tool's end."

"In recent months, I've noticed that while the industry is trending towards AI, Kentik has room for improvement in this area."

"It also detects anomalies proactively, but the same is not so true when it comes to real network problems, since they tend to just happen."

"The product could strive for more improvements to become closer to perfect."

More Kentik cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"We have an annual contract with Kentik that we renew each year for a set number of licenses. We also have some burstable licenses which we can spin up and spin down, and those are paid as they are used."

"The tool is cheaply priced."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

12%

Construction Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

14%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Construction Company

Media Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	10

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kentik?

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing has been limited because I was not responsible for that in my company, but I have spoken with my boss, and he reported that the licensing mode...

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What needs improvement with Kentik?

I do not currently use Kentik's anomaly detection. I had communication with Kentik's technical support through a WhatsApp group. When I faced any issues or there were problems with my Kentik collec...

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What is your primary use case for Kentik?

I'm using Kentik for my own internal use. My primary use case is to monitor our equipment and to get a more detailed view of where our inbound and outbound traffic is going.

See all answers

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Product Reports

Network Monitoring Software

Download Fortra's Intermapper product report

Download Kentik product report

Also Known As

HelpSystems Intermapper

No data available

Overview

Fortra's Intermapper offers real-time network mapping and monitoring, ideal for IT teams seeking a reliable visualization and alerting tool to maintain uptime and connectivity.

Ideal for IT environments, Fortra's Intermapper provides dynamic and intuitive network mapping capabilities. Known for its ability to display an up-to-date graphical view of IT infrastructure, this solution enables proactive monitoring through instant alerts and performance insights. It helps IT teams swiftly address potential issues, ensuring consistent connectivity and performance.

What are the key features of Fortra's Intermapper?

Real-Time Network Mapping: Displays live network status for immediate infrastructure insight.
Customizable Alerts: Allows personalized notifications for targeted problem-solving.
Performance Monitoring: Tracks metrics to preemptively identify potential disruptions.
Cross-Platform Compatibility: Supports different operating systems for wider usability.
Historical Data Maintenance: Retains past network data for trend analysis and reporting.

Which benefits or ROI can users expect from Fortra's Intermapper?

Improved Network Visibility: Enhances understanding of network status and layout.
Faster Issue Resolution: Real-time alerts and monitoring minimize downtime.
Cost Efficiency: By reducing outages, operational costs decrease significantly.
Enhanced User Experience: Stable networks boost overall end-user satisfaction.

In industries such as healthcare, finance, and education, Fortra's Intermapper is a vital tool for maintaining high network performance and reliability. It plays a crucial role in environments where uptime is critical, ensuring that network issues are resolved swiftly to support essential operations.

Fortra

Kentik provides real-time visibility into network infrastructure, focusing on monitoring, data visualization, and flow analysis to manage traffic patterns efficiently.

With robust analytics capabilities, Kentik offers insights into BGP peering status, aids in DDoS detection, and allows for detailed telemetry through its intuitive interface. The platform's SaaS nature simplifies operations by eliminating server maintenance concerns. Multi-vendor support and synthetic testing enhance network security and performance by simulating customer scenarios, while its API offers automation for querying and reporting tasks.

What are the key features of Kentik?

Real-Time Visibility: Monitors network infrastructure effectively.
Data Visualization: Offers powerful tools for viewing complex data.
Flow Analysis: Analyzes traffic flow for optimal management.
BGP Peering Insights: Provides in-depth peering status checks.
DDoS Alerting: Notifies about potential DDoS threats.
Data Explorer: Aids in understanding traffic patterns.
Synthetic Testing: Simulates scenarios to enhance security and performance.

What benefits can be found in user reviews?

Automation: Users value the flexibility of its API for automating tasks.
Ease of Use: SaaS model streamlines user engagement, eliminating server maintenance.
Flexibility: Report customization and query settings are highly appreciated.
Enhanced Observability: Telemetry and multi-vendor support increase oversight.

Industries implement Kentik for network monitoring, traffic management, and flow data analysis across both on-prem and cloud setups. It proves valuable for detecting DDoS events, managing peering relationships, and optimizing costs, besides managing CDN configurations and performing synthetic tests in diverse environments.

Sample Customers

Greater Media Detroit, University of British Columbia, Don's Farm Supply

Pandora, Yelp, Neustar, Box, University of Washington, Zoom, Tata, and Cogent.

Fortra's Intermapper vs. Kentik