Kentik vs Pulseway comparison

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Kentik and Pulseway are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Kentik is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.7, while Pulseway is ranked #77. Kentik holds a 1.5% mindshare in NMS, compared to Pulseway’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Kentik users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Pulseway users who would recommend it.

Kentik

Read 22 Kentik reviews

8,240 Views
7,086 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Pulseway

Read 6 Pulseway reviews

3,951 Views
2,450 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Kentik

Pulseway

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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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: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Kentik vs. Pulseway

September 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

13th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

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

Pulseway

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

77th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (28th), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (17th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Kentik is 1.5%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pulseway is 0.7%, 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	1.5%
Pulseway	0.7%
Other	97.8%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

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.

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reviewer2132892

Owner at Hogan's Systems Consulting, LLC

Great notifications, a wide variety of features, and excellent monitoring capabilities

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. It's nice to be able to do things remotely using my phone; however, in many cases, it would be very helpful to be able to do things from a desktop or laptop computer. This would be especially useful for things like remote access to computers. It's too hard to do much on a Windows computer using a tiny phone screen. Being able to do things from a desktop or laptop computer would be much more productive.

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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

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

"Kentik has had a positive impact on my organization in terms of our network visibility because we leave our dashboard on a display screen, where the entire engineering team can see it."

"Overall, the ease of use and the fact that it meets client expectations are major positives."

"I can say that I am so happy with this platform because it is very useful for us."

"The most valuable features have been anything around traffic engineering: being able to determine the source or destination of a surge of traffic, whether it's DDoS-related, or a customer just happened to have a sudden uptick in traffic. Being able to tell where that's coming from or where it's going to enables us to do things based on that."

"Kentik excels in telemetry within data centers and works well in multi-vendor environments."

"The most valuable feature is being able to pull traffic patterns; to and from destinations. We're able to understand where our traffic is going, our top talkers from an AS set, as well as where our traffic's coming from."

"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."

More Kentik pros

"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."

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

"The setup is simple."

"They provide a lot of features; it's good and easy software."

"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."

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

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

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

More Pulseway pros

Cons

"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..."

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

"We asked for a way, regarding the potential networks that exist, to hook Kentik up with external tools like peering DBs to correlate things together and see what we can do... This is all in the [next] beta now."

"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'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."

"We had faced some issues during an outage and were not able to get the desired results from Kentik tools. It took time to resolve these issues, which is why I give them eight points."

"There is a large difference between BGP and normal nodes. I don't think this plays out to the best for the customer or Kentik."

"Version 4 of the platform is good and going in the right direction."

More Kentik cons

"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."

"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."

"There are some bugs or glitches."

"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."

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

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

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

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

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Media Company

Construction Company

13%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

No data available

Questions from the Community

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?

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

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Kentik?

My main use case for Kentik is as a network monitoring system and flow analysis tool. A specific example of how I use Kentik for network monitoring is monitoring devices or services that go down an...

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Kentik

September 2026

Download Kentik product report

Buyer's Guide

Pulseway

September 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

September 2026

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