No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Kentik vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.2
Kentik users benefit from reduced costs, enhanced security, and efficiency, simplifying renewal decisions due to significant perceived value.
Sentiment score
4.0
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer offers ROI through bandwidth management, yet budget-conscious users consider cheaper alternatives with similar features.
If we had, for example, a contracted capacity from Vivo of 50 GB and we were using 40, with Kentik we reduced this usage from 40 to 20.
Network Engineer at a media company with 51-200 employees
In production environments, especially for service providers on IP networks and data centers, Kentik helps in reducing the time to identify and resolve issues.
BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
I believe the return on investment has been mainly time savings in performing troubleshooting.
Network Analyst at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
There is a return on investment when purchasing SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, as in the long run, there is a return on investments.
Technical Manager at APRAL
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Kentik's customer service is praised for proactive support, quick responses, strong communication, and effective issue identification and resolution.
Sentiment score
6.5
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer's customer service receives mixed feedback, with varying response times and expertise contributing to inconsistent experiences.
I have mostly used forums for any support needed because the setup is straightforward and the documentation is quite good.
BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
They have monthly calls and discuss the product roadmap with us to determine what is needed.
Network Engineer III at Fortanix
They often say that only premium subscribers receive support within one or two hours.
Technical Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I would rate support eight out of ten.
Global-Manager Network & communications at Secure Meters Limited
I received efficient responses to many questions.
Community Director at PeerSpot
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.6
Kentik is highly scalable, effectively manages diverse network sizes, and simplifies scaling with Kubernetes integration, despite credit dependencies.
Sentiment score
6.6
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is scalable but costly, with performance challenges in large infrastructures due to licensing and capacity limits.
Kentik's integration with Kubernetes makes scaling easier.
BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
Kentik's scalability is effective; the platform can handle these large volumes.
Network Analyst at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
Kentik's scalability depends on how it is contracted.
Network Engineer at a media company with 51-200 employees
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is a scalable solution, and by adding licenses, I can use the same deployment and instance to onboard more elements and nodes.
Technical Manager at APRAL
The license is based on the count of the ports.
Global-Manager Network & communications at Secure Meters Limited
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Kentik users enjoy stable performance and reliability, with quick resolutions to occasional minor outages and bugs.
Sentiment score
6.4
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is stable and reliable, though occasional performance issues exist, especially in demanding environments.
In production, however, dimensioning of the underlying platforms is something to be mindful of.
BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
Based on stability, I would give Kentik a nine.
Network Engineer III at Fortanix
I can say it is so great for us because if we configure it with Flowspec, the orchestration that we use, which is Kentik, makes the decision and automatically forwards the traffic to another position that we have in our network, or outgoing that we use.
Telecomm Analyst at a tech company with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Kentik users request better AI reliability, intuitive alerts, improved UX, simplified API, report customization, cost reduction, and detailed documentation.
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer needs improved integration, AI, documentation, performance, security, UI, and reduced licensing costs for better user experience.
More work is required to integrate AI for troubleshooting, simplifying root cause analysis, and providing suggested solutions for network issues.
BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
It needed to be a bit easier for new users and have slightly more customized reports.
Network Analyst at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
Currently, the way I'm configuring it uses reactive alerts, which means alerts are triggered when an issue occurs. I would prefer more proactive alerts in the future.
Epicor Engineer at Sunway Group
Ideally, NetFlow should have a robust alerting mechanism.
Technical Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It should be like a Meraki cloud, where if you are familiar with Meraki devices, you can locate any device directly on the world map.
Global-Manager Network & communications at Secure Meters Limited
Deployment needs improvement; the process is complicated, requiring attention to infrastructure settings and installation of components like the origin application server, platform, close storage, and policy agents.
Community Director at PeerSpot
 

Setup Cost

Kentik offers competitive pricing with flexible contracts, though costs may vary by enterprise size and usage, requiring substantial budgets.
Enterprise users find SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer valuable, though its pricing can be high compared to alternatives, especially when scaling.
The pricing is good and aligns with the market target.
Sales Manager at IFX NEtworks
Kentik’s pricing is competitive in the marketplace.
BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
Later, the prices are very high to maintain all the functionality blocks.
Network Engineer at a media company with 51-200 employees
provide a rating of nine out of ten
Community Director at PeerSpot
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer's model is quite costly compared to other brands.
Technical Manager at APRAL
 

Valuable Features

Kentik offers comprehensive network monitoring, real-time analytics, security insights, customizable dashboards, and automation for efficient network management.
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer provides traffic analysis, bandwidth monitoring, and customizable reporting for efficient network management and performance tracking.
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.
Network Engineer at a media company with 51-200 employees
This allows for better understanding of whether there is a critical ongoing case related to incoming traffic, such as a DDoS event, which is crucial for a service provider dealing with numerous customers.
Network Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Kentik has positively impacted our organization because when something happens, we use Kentik to analyze the problem and it brings us a faster solution to the problem, and the troubleshooting is clearer.
Telecomm Analyst at a tech company with 11-50 employees
It provides proactive monitoring, rather than waiting for applications to go down due to heavy bandwidth or latency.
Manager Observability at ICE
This tool provides insights into top utilization applications or it identifies which circuit or application is consuming the most on the complete one-gig circuit traffic path.
Technical Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The bandwidth indicates the utilization of the devices; if any issue occurs, it triggers an alert for me.
Global-Manager Network & communications at Secure Meters Limited
 

Categories and Ranking

Kentik
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (13th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (7th)
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic ...
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Management solutions, they serve different purposes. Kentik is designed for Network Monitoring Software and holds a mindshare of 1.5%, up 0.9% compared to last year.
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, on the other hand, focuses on Network Traffic Analysis (NTA), holds 6.6% mindshare, up 5.0% since last year.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Kentik1.5%
Zabbix3.7%
SolarWinds NPM3.7%
Other91.1%
Network Monitoring Software
Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer6.6%
Darktrace15.1%
Cisco Secure Network Analytics8.4%
Other69.9%
Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)
 

Featured Reviews

Gcecilio - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Raja Xabi - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Manager at APRAL
Improved bandwidth management and network visibility have resulted in financial benefits and streamlined operations
There is always room for improvement in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, such as implementing instant reporting based on business intelligence reports and more granular filters in their dashboard to improve the GUI view and reporting. The licensing model of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is always an issue for users because competitors offer unlimited and perpetual licenses, and SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer's model is quite costly compared to other brands. If users are comfortable with SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, they have to make the hard decision to invest, and it's suggested from a user's perspective that SolarWinds should improve their financial model and licensing to become competitive, especially for small to medium businesses.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.
916,212 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Media Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise26
 

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...
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.
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...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
I have worked from 1973 with all kind of systems in large enterprises across the world. And have experience with all kind of software in monitoring from infra to end to end, it depends on the funct...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer?
The licensing model of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is always an issue for users because competitors offer unlimited and perpetual licenses, and SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer's model i...
What needs improvement with SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer?
Regarding improvement, the application monitoring capabilities are not exceptional. If SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer could improve in that area, it would be helpful. It is less AIOps driven a...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Netflow Traffic Analyzer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Pandora, Yelp, Neustar, Box, University of Washington, Zoom, Tata, and Cogent. 
Oceaneering International, Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, 335th Signal Command, Immofori
Find out what your peers are saying about Zabbix, Datadog, SolarWinds and others in Network Monitoring Software. Updated: October 2026.
916,212 professionals have used our research since 2012.