Kentik vs SolarWinds Network Automation Manager comparison

Kentik and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Kentik is ranked #29 with an average rating of 9.0, while SolarWinds is ranked #95. Kentik holds a 1.8% mindshare in NMS, compared to SolarWinds’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Kentik users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 50% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

Kentik

Read 16 Kentik reviews

3,784 Views
3,368 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Network Automati...

Read 2 SolarWinds Network Automation Manager reviews

1,132 Views
657 Comparison Views

50% willing to recommend

Kentik

SolarWinds Network Automati...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Kentik and SolarWinds Network Automation Manager are competitors in the network monitoring and automation sector. SolarWinds has an edge in feature breadth and value for pricing, while Kentik is favored for pricing flexibility and efficient support.

Features: Kentik offers real-time network analysis, traffic visualization, and performance monitoring suited for DDoS detection. SolarWinds provides network automation features such as configuration backup, compliance management, and an extensive suite of network management capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Kentik could enhance response times in customer support, expand real-time analysis scope, and improve on-premise model flexibility. SolarWinds might refine its pricing structure, streamline feature integrations, and address initial setup complexities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds is noted for straightforward deployment and robust customer support, suitable for varied tech expertise. Kentik offers a flexible deployment model with both cloud and on-premise options but needs improvement in support response times.

Pricing and ROI: Kentik presents flexible pricing and lower setup costs appealing for budget-conscious organizations. SolarWinds justifies its higher cost with comprehensive features and greater long-term ROI, attracting larger organizations seeking network automation depth.

To learn more, read our detailed Kentik vs. SolarWinds Network Automation Manager Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Kentik vs. SolarWinds Network Automation Manager

March 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 885,376 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

Kentik

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

29th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

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

SolarWinds Network Automati...

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

95th

Average Rating

5.6

Reviews Sentiment

8.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Automation (14th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Kentik is 1.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Network Automation Manager is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Kentik	1.8%
SolarWinds Network Automation Manager	0.4%
Other	97.8%

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.

Read full review

Giulio Valeri

Owner at SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS SRL

Threat detection failures, poor technical support, and expensive

We use the solution to manage all of our customer's systems. We monitor and decide if everything is okay and if not, we do changes when needed. For example, if there is a need to change the antivirus software we can automate the process and install the new one. There are scripts within the software…

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 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."

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

"One of the valuable features is the intuitive nature of building out reports, and then triggering actions based on specific metrics from those reports. It has a really good UI and the ability to surface data through the reporting functions is pretty good. That's helped a lot in the security space."

"The most important feature is cybersecurity."

"Technical support is second to none."

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

"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."

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

More Kentik pros

"The solution offers so many great resources, it makes them a powerhouse in the market."

"The installation is easy."

"We are satisfied with the stability of the solution."

"The solution offers so many great resources, it makes them a powerhouse in the market."

Cons

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

"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."

"Sometimes it's difficult to order the dimensions correctly when trying to make Sankey flow diagrams."

"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..."

"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."

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

"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."

More Kentik cons

"The price could be a bit lower."

"We did not like SolarWinds because it was not able to communicate between UPSA and our accounting system. They should have better integration."

"We now use ConnectWise because while using SolarWinds we were attacked by ransomware. The solution did not protect us."

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."

"The price of SolarWinds Network Automation Manager is fair. However, it is more expensive than ConnectWise."

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

885,376 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Construction Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Performing Arts

10%

Computer Software 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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Comparisons

LogicMonitor vs Kentik

Compared 6% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Kentik

Compared 5% of the time

DX Spectrum vs Kentik

Compared 5% of the time

vRealize Network Insight vs Kentik

Compared 5% of the time

LibreNMS vs Kentik

Compared 5% of the time

More Kentik Competitors

NetBrain vs SolarWinds Network Automation Manager

Compared 32% of the time

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs SolarWinds Network Automation Manager

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) vs SolarWinds Network Automation Manager

Compared 10% of the time

WhatsUp Gold vs SolarWinds Network Automation Manager

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco DNA Center vs SolarWinds Network Automation Manager

Compared 7% of the time

More SolarWinds Network Automation Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Kentik

March 2026

Download Kentik product report

Buyer's Guide

Network Automation

March 2026

SolarWinds Network Automation Manager report

Download SolarWinds Network Automation Manager product report

Also Known As

No data available

SolarWinds NAM

Overview

Kentik's AIOps Network Traffic Intelligence platform unifies network operations, performance, security, and business intelligence.

With a purpose-built big data engine delivered as public or private SaaS, Kentik captures a high-resolution view of actual network traffic data and enriches it with critical application and business data, so every network event or analysis can be tied to revenue & costs, customer & user experience, performance & risk.

Kentik

Scale environments from 1,000 to tens of thousands of nodes with comprehensive performance, traffic, WAN, and switch port monitoring, automated change and configuration management, and IP address management in an integrated network automation software solution.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

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

Maalem Financing Company, School City of Hammond

Buyer's Guide

Kentik vs. SolarWinds Network Automation Manager

March 2026

Free Report: Kentik vs. SolarWinds Network Automation Manager

Find out what your peers are saying about Kentik vs. SolarWinds Network Automation Manager and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

885,376 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Kentik vs. SolarWinds Network Automation Manager 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.