Ixia Hawkeye vs Plixer Scrutinizer comparison

Keysight Technologies and Plixer are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Keysight Technologies is ranked #34 with an average rating of 10.0, while Plixer is ranked #53 with an average rating of 8.0. Keysight Technologies holds a 0.2% mindshare in NMS, compared to Plixer’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Keysight Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Plixer users who would recommend it.

Ixia Hawkeye

Read 4 Ixia Hawkeye reviews

433 Views
287 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Plixer Scrutinizer

Read 15 Plixer Scrutinizer reviews

975 Views
383 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Ixia Hawkeye

Plixer Scrutinizer

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Ixia Hawkeye and Plixer Scrutinizer are competing products in the network performance monitoring market. Plixer Scrutinizer appears to have the upper hand due to its superior data analysis features, considered worth the investment.

Features: Ixia Hawkeye focuses on real-time network performance monitoring, automated testing, and proactive alerts. Plixer Scrutinizer offers comprehensive flow analysis, extensive drill-down options, and traffic visualization.

Room for Improvement: Ixia Hawkeye could benefit from enhanced flow analysis, more detailed traffic visualization, and additional customization options. Plixer Scrutinizer might improve its deployment process, offer more competitive pricing options, and simplify its initial setup.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Ixia Hawkeye is noted for its streamlined deployment and responsive customer service team, providing assistance throughout setup. Plixer Scrutinizer, despite a more intricate deployment, is supported by comprehensive documentation and knowledgeable technical support, making the complexity manageable.

Pricing and ROI: Ixia Hawkeye is recognized for lower upfront costs and rapid ROI, appealing to budget-conscious buyers. Plixer Scrutinizer, with higher initial costs, justifies the investment with high returns through enhanced capabilities and deeper insights.

To learn more, read our detailed Ixia Hawkeye vs. Plixer Scrutinizer Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Ixia Hawkeye vs. Plixer Scrutinizer

April 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 850,491 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

Ixia Hawkeye

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

34th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Unified Communications Monitoring (4th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (36th)

Plixer Scrutinizer

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

53rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Ixia Hawkeye is 0.2%, down from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Plixer Scrutinizer is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

José Enrique Cano Rodriguez

Assistant Consultant at Tata Consultancy

A valuable tool for optimizing network performance and security with comprehensive network monitoring capabilities, user-friendly interface, and flexibility for scripting

Distinguishing itself from network management systems like SolarWinds Orion and Dataminer, Hawkeye offers a distinctive feature. It empowers network administrators to access specialized and detailed views for specific tests, including video streaming and performance related to specific applications like video games. In contrast, SolarWinds and Dataminer typically offer a more general evaluation of network health. Hawkeye's unique capability enables a detailed analysis of network performance through specific tests, allowing administrators to identify areas in need of improvement and take precise actions to enhance network performance.

Read full review

Ronald Jansen

Owner/President at Abraxax

Reporting is extensive, flexible, and can be custom-made in just a short time

In terms of additional features I'd like to see in the next release of Plixer Scrutinizer, I can't think of any because you can do some integration with other monitoring tools that are not strong in NetFlow or don't have NetFlow at all. There are also some integration possibilities in the product, plus there are alerts, too. Plixer Scrutinizer is a pretty complete product. There was a price lift because previously the product was privately owned, and now there is some external capital in the organization, so pricing could be lower, though, for Plixer Scrutinizer, there is almost no competition at this price point.

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 deployment because it's very easy to deploy real flow through the network."

"Our customer was happiest with the price of this product."

"The ease of setup is the most valuable aspect of this solution. It's easy to set up and run tests."

"It empowers network administrators to access specialized and detailed views for specific tests, including video streaming and performance related to specific applications like video games."

"We didn't experience any bugs."

"As a network engineer, the ability to identify what traffic on the link is consuming all the bandwidth at any given time, and provide immediate feedback to the business, is the most valuable feature."

"The solution helps to enrich the data context of our network traffic. It allows me to see what applications are most in use on a slightly historical basis, going back a day or week at tops. It allows me to tune QoS or traffic shaping around what's being used. It saves me from having to unnecessarily upgrade, if I don't need to."

"There are other tools out there that will do what Scrutinizer does. But what I have found with Scrutinizer is that it does it very quickly. I've taken 25 million individual data fragments from the different sensors, and it has graphed that and mapped it and presented a picture within 30 seconds. It has a very efficient database algorithm that I am really impressed with."

"We have had many requests to understand in the network which devices are connected to others. Most people don't have this information or are able to establish a map of data flow everywhere around the network. Scrutinizer can really help with this. We are using it to understand who is talking to what, how, and which protocols can help us to improve security and analyze flow."

"One of the most valuable features of Plixer Scrutinizer is the reporting, particularly how easy it is to drill down into the reports. Another valuable feature of the solution is its overall visibility. It's great. I also liked Plixer Scrutinizer in terms of deployment time and that it's very simple to set up. Once you get the appliance set up and connected, the customer starts to see results immediately, versus other solutions where that could take a while."

"The most valuable features of Plixer Scrutinizer are its ease of use, accessibility, and UI."

"One feature I found most valuable in Plixer Scrutinizer is the very extensive reporting. Reporting is very flexible, though sometimes you need a little bit of support from Plixer Scrutinizer to create custom-made reporting in a very short time. Reporting is a very strong feature of the product."

More Plixer Scrutinizer pros

Cons

"Improvements in network performance are essential."

"You can't delete more than one thing at a time. It would be great to be able to highlight three out of five things and delete them, whether it's a test or an actual report."

"The customization of tests and even the results can be improved."

"Ixia has one flaw, which is that they do not print the license code on the paper licenses that are shipped to the customers."

"They're working on the security areas, so it can provide more insight. What they have is still pretty much IP-concentric. If they were to make it IP and URL, they'd be a little bit ahead on that."

"Knowing that they're coming out with a new user interface, that is an area where there is room for improvement. There are so many variables. They should limit the variables in the user interface and create some classes, like "simple," "novice," and "expert" to narrow down the variables within it."

"From what I understand it is that the solution is not very scalable in a high volume traffic environment with a large number of flows."

"In Plixer Scrutinizer, scalability is an area with minor concerns where improvements are required."

"The solution creates a visual map of a particular location and how the network flows. You need to spend time to generate all those maps. If they could figure out a way to reduce the time needed to generate the maps, that would be great."

"There was a price lift because previously the product was privately owned, and now there is some external capital in the organization, so pricing could be lower, though, for Plixer Scrutinizer, there is almost no competition at this price point."

"It would be useful if there was a way to back up the configuration information. E.g., if you wanted to deploy a new instance or disaster recovery, you could quite easily deploy and restore the config, as opposed to having to restore all the NetFlow data. If there was just a button that said "backup config information", that would be good."

"We couldn't get it set up properly."

More Plixer Scrutinizer cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It cost us approximately 25,000 for two years. This is cheaper than ThousandEyes."

"In larger networks, the costs for licenses tend to be more reasonable, but for smaller networks, it appears relatively costly."

"The license is per device. We have 50 devices."

"There are no extra costs. It's about $8,000 a year. The bang for the buck (cost) is definitely a plus."

"We recently bought a license upgrade, so we will integrate more exporters. We upgraded from a 25 exporter license to a 50 exporter license. Therefore, there will be more flows, and this will be an extension. I don't know when we will purchase a faster server, because the server that we have is quite new."

"Our entire solution, amortized over five years, is in the vicinity of $40,000 to $50,000 a year."

"Compared to some of the other tools we have, it's incredibly reasonably priced."

"We have increased the license over time. We have added more licenses as the network has grown."

"We pay our one-off cost for the licenses, per device, in blocks of 50. And then we pay an annual maintenance fee of about $15,000 Australian, which is, at this point in time, about $9,000 US, for those 250 devices. The upfront costs for the 250-license use, were about $50,000 Australian, which is about $32,000 US."

"There is a recurring maintenance fee after the initial purchase or if we want the license upgrade."

More Plixer Scrutinizer pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

850,491 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

13%

Energy/Utilities Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Ixia Hawkeye?

It empowers network administrators to access specialized and detailed views for specific tests, including video streaming and performance related to specific applications like video games.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Ixia Hawkeye?

Improvements in network performance are essential.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Ixia Hawkeye?

Our objective is to evaluate the performance of GPON and DOCSIS networks which involves considering factors such as pricing, sales, and the technical aspects of conducting tests. To achieve this, v...

See all answers

What do you like most about Plixer Scrutinizer?

Plixer Scrutinizer is an affordable product. Plixer Scrutinizer is a tool that allows for customization, especially in scenarios where customers need new product features.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Plixer Scrutinizer?

I rate Plixer Scrutinizer's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price or affordable, and ten is high price or expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Plixer Scrutinizer?

I don't have deep enough knowledge to comment on what requires improvements in Plixer Scrutinizer. In Plixer Scrutinizer, scalability is an area with minor concerns where improvements are required.

See all answers

Comparisons

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs Ixia Hawkeye

Compared 32% of the time

ThousandEyes vs Ixia Hawkeye

Compared 29% of the time

Gigamon Deep Observability Pipeline vs Ixia Hawkeye

Compared 24% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Ixia Hawkeye

Compared 14% of the time

More Ixia Hawkeye Competitors

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 26% of the time

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 25% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 18% of the time

Kentik vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 18% of the time

LogicMonitor vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 14% of the time

More Plixer Scrutinizer Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Network Monitoring Software

April 2025

Download Ixia Hawkeye product report

Buyer's Guide

Plixer Scrutinizer

April 2025

Download Plixer Scrutinizer product report

Overview

Hawkeye quickly and effectively validates network performance, isolates problems, and proactively detects issues by running scheduled verification tests. Using a combination of hardware and software agents called Performance Endpoints, Hawkeye simulates application traffic and sends key performance metrics to a central console for fast action.

Keysight Technologies

The Scrutinizer incident response system leverages network traffic analytics to provide active monitoring, visualization, and reporting of network and security incidents. The system quickly delivers the rich forensic data needed by IT professionals to support fast and efficient incident response.

Plixer

Sample Customers

EMA

Oxford Networks, Squaw Valley Ski Holdings, UltiSat, Wipro, West Aurora School District 129, SUNY Geneseo College, Bloomington Public Schools, First National Bank of Pennsylvania, Kitsap Credit Union, Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County Houston Texas, Carilion Clinic, Banner Health, IDEXX Laboratories, Phibro Animal Health Corporation, Goodwill Industries, Parmalat, Armstrong Coal Company, Flybe, James Walker

Buyer's Guide

Ixia Hawkeye vs. Plixer Scrutinizer

April 2025

Free Report: Ixia Hawkeye vs. Plixer Scrutinizer

Find out what your peers are saying about Ixia Hawkeye vs. Plixer Scrutinizer and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

850,491 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Ixia Hawkeye vs. Plixer Scrutinizer report.

See our list of best Network Monitoring Software vendors.

We monitor all Network Monitoring Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.