Kentik vs Pulseway comparison

Kentik and Pulseway are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Kentik is ranked #22 with an average rating of 9.0, while Pulseway is ranked #48 with an average rating of 8.0. Kentik holds a 1.9% mindshare in NMS, compared to Pulseway’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Kentik users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Pulseway users who would recommend it.

Kentik

Read 16 Kentik reviews

5,920 Views
5,269 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Pulseway

Read 6 Pulseway reviews

2,465 Views
1,528 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Kentik

Pulseway

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Kentik and Pulseway compete in the network management software category. Kentik seems to have the upper hand in network traffic analysis, relying on its comprehensive NetFlow visualization and analysis capabilities.

Features: Kentik provides real-time visibility and DDoS alarming, enhancing network monitoring efficiency. Its customizable dashboards offer critical insights for network planning, security, and troubleshooting. Kentik’s data explorer is especially beneficial for detailed traffic analysis. Pulseway features remote management with mobile app support, real-time notifications for timely alerts, and workflow automation that allows streamlined processes. It facilitates patching across various systems and is user-friendly, catering to IT administrators needing remote access.

Room for Improvement: Kentik users express the need for more granular user permissions and visual enhancements, particularly during the transition from V3 to V4. They also seek improved cost analysis and integrated network performance capabilities. Building in mitigation solutions could make its insights more actionable. Pulseway could improve speed and enhance its GUI, particularly for remote desktop on Mac. Increased scripting flexibility for individual customers and a desktop application complementing the mobile app would boost usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Kentik is known for robust support and proactive communication, ensuring a seamless experience with its hosted SaaS model. It boasts responsive help and technical guidance. Pulseway offers hybrid cloud deployment, known for user-friendly installation and setup. Its straightforward architecture ensures compatibility across diverse environments. Both receive positive feedback for technical support, with Kentik noted for problem-solving and Pulseway for ease of deployment.

Pricing and ROI: Kentik is a higher-cost solution aimed at large networks needing extensive flow analysis. It provides cost-saving benefits by optimizing traffic and strategic network decisions, tying ROI to efficient management. Pulseway offers competitive pricing with a simple licensing structure, recognized for high value across various devices. Its cost-effectiveness is appealing for businesses needing comprehensive IT management without hefty expenses.

To learn more, read our detailed Kentik vs. Pulseway Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Kentik vs. Pulseway

April 2026

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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

Kentik

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

22nd

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (16th)

Pulseway

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

48th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (18th), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (14th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Kentik is 1.9%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pulseway is 0.6%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Kentik	1.9%
Pulseway	0.6%
Other	97.5%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Shubham-Saxena

Network Engineer III at Fortanix

Integrating synthetic tests and network monitoring enhances traffic pattern visualization

The Kentik support team is good. If you want me to rate them on a scale, I would give them eight. I had a call with the Kentik support team for fifteen minutes, so I'm going to give them eight for now. The reason for giving them an eight is that they are good and address our issues. They have monthly calls and discuss the product roadmap with us, including what is needed and what is not. However, when we are working on some real issues with Kentik, I sometimes feel there's a delay due to the busyness of their teams. We faced some outages and were not able to get the desired results from Kentik tools, so that took a little time to resolve.

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Pieter Plas

Owner at Beerepoot Automatisering B.V.

A solution with a great monitoring system and ability to control access remotely

The initial setup was straightforward. Deployment depends on the size of a customer. We make the customer in the enterprise server, and there is a download per customer for the installation package. We can also roll it out very easily, and when we install it on one or two systems, it explores the network for more systems. We can then fire a deployment package on the other systems. So in one hour, we can do a lot. Most of the time, 90% of the work is very easy, and the last 10% are the business-critical systems from a customer. Also, we manually install important customer systems, like special applications where we like to monitor specific services in the server itself.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Honestly, it is one of those products that I would suggest to almost any network operator."

"Good NetFlow visualization and analysis tools are valuable to anybody who needs to understand the traffic that flows in and out the network."

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

"The biggest thing Kentik has given us is the amount of visibility we have into our own network now and knowing what's going on at a given time."

"Collecting that data and having those metrics first-hand, in real-time, allows us to make an educated decision, versus an uneducated guess."

"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."

"Kentik answers the flow question: what are my flows, where are they are going, and what can I do to better optimize my connectivity."

"In terms of overall vendor partnership, I'd give Kentik a nine out of 10; they're right up there as one of my best partners to work with, amongst all the contracts that I own, and they're very customer-centric, always available, with nothing too small or too big that I can't ask them to help with, and they seem to be willing and able to jump in no matter what."

More Kentik pros

"One of the applications I have used the most was to troubleshoot users and I've never faced difficulties or issues with the application itself."

"We like the patching of the window updates in the client's systems. You can automatically do updates with a single click."

"It has made life a lot easier for the administrators."

"It has been very helpful to get notifications about various issues with my servers and network to help me take action to resolve problems before they become major issues."

"Using this platform has allowed us to reach and assist our remotely based clients, regardless of their location provided they have an internet connection."

"The solution has great workflow and server modules."

"The setup is simple."

"So this solution allows for 24/7 support and is very handy."

More Pulseway pros

Cons

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

"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."

"I believe they're already working on this, but I would love for them to create better integrations from network flow data to application performance — tracing — so that we could overlay that data more readily. With more companies going hybrid, flow logs and flow data, whether it be VPC or on-prem, matched with application performance and trace data, is pretty important."

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

"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."

"Perhaps a better explanation would be to see how tagging is captured and a method of comparing my tagged interfaces on Kentik’s side."

"I've checked out the V4 version of the interface and it's still a little bit clunky for me to use."

"There is room for improvement around the usability of the API. It's a hugely complex task to call it and you need a lot of backing to be able to do it. I should say, as someone who's not in networking, maybe it's easier for people who are in networking, but for me that one part is not very user-friendly."

More Kentik cons

"Sometimes the speed is a problem. When I've been remote controlling people, from time to time, there were some issues with people in Hong Kong."

"However, the solution does not allow you to make a script for just one customer, so it would be great if that is improved."

"They have good technical support but it's not excellent."

"There are some bugs or glitches."

"It would be nice if it also had a desktop application, similar to the phone app, which would allow me to monitor and control computers from my desktop."

"GUI needs to be improved and the solution lacks a process for monitoring VOIP calls."

"Remote Desktop Assistance for Mac endpoints - not having this functionality is a major inconvenience in having to have two systems for clients using this platform."

"Support needs to be improved because we've sometimes had to wait 24 hours to get a response."

More Pulseway cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is cheaply priced."

"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."

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

Construction Company

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	8

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kentik?

I would say Kentik's pricing is not cheap. From my perspective as part of the technical team, I would not categorize it as expensive, but I know it is not cheap.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Kentik?

There's always room for improvements and better relations when using any kind of product. We faced some issues with Kentik UI and alerting, which we asked them to fix, and they succeeded. They have...

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What is your primary use case for Kentik?

We are using Kentik mostly for synthetic tests, and from one last year, network monitoring as well. We are using it for inter DC BGP tests and server monitoring as well.

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Kentik

May 2026

Download Kentik product report

Buyer's Guide

Pulseway

April 2026

Download Pulseway product report

Overview

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.

Kentik

Pulseway is a comprehensive IT management tool offering critical functionalities such as integrated dashboards, automation, and remote support. It supports seamless IT operations across multiple platforms, providing ease in monitoring and management.

Pulseway provides a robust platform for IT teams seeking to efficiently manage their infrastructure. With its capabilities in system monitoring, remote control, and mobile app accessibility, users can effectively oversee endpoint performance and receive timely alerts. It simplifies the management of server workflows, software deployment, and updates, catering to diverse IT environments. Its compatibility with multiple platforms ensures convenience in network monitoring, password updates, and administration access, allowing IT support to function across locations. There's room for improvement, particularly in enhancing remote session performance, graphical interface, and adding features like Remote Desktop Assistance for Mac.

What features does Pulseway offer?

Integrated Dashboard: Centralizes monitoring for better visibility.
Automatic Windows Updates: Ensures systems are up-to-date automatically.
Remote Script Execution: Facilitates task automation remotely.
Advanced Reporting: Provides detailed analysis for informed decision-making.
Mobile App: Offers 24/7 accessibility and support capabilities.

What benefits do Pulseway users experience?

Enhanced IT Efficiency: Streamlines operations and reduces manual tasks.
Cross-Platform Support: Adapts to diverse IT environments and needs.
Improved Remote Support: Facilitates responsive and effective help desk capabilities.
Scalable Management: Supports expanding IT infrastructures seamlessly.

Pulseway is utilized across industries like healthcare, finance, and education, providing essential IT support. It enables organizations to monitor critical systems, ensuring minimal downtime and optimal resource usage. Cybersecurity teams benefit from its deployment for tracking disk space, memory, CPU usage, and installed applications, enhancing overall network security and operational reliability.

Pulseway

Sample Customers

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

Dell, Canon, Siemens, Harvard University, Northwestern University

Buyer's Guide

Kentik vs. Pulseway

April 2026

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