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Keysight Oscilloscopes vs National Instruments (NI) Oscilloscopes comparison

 

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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Keysight Oscilloscopes
Ranking in Oscilloscopes
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
National Instruments (NI) O...
Ranking in Oscilloscopes
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Oscilloscopes category, the mindshare of Keysight Oscilloscopes is 12.7%, up from 12.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of National Instruments (NI) Oscilloscopes is 1.4%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Oscilloscopes Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Keysight Oscilloscopes12.7%
National Instruments (NI) Oscilloscopes1.4%
Other85.9%
Oscilloscopes
 

Featured Reviews

AC
The technical support ecosystem is what really makes it good.
Because they're such a big industry standard name, their products are standardized across many customers, which is why people own these products. The customer support is very good. If you need an application to do any measurement, you can easily get a hold of people to help you with it. This is a whole ecosystem. The user interface is top-notch in the industry.
AA
I have saved almost 50 percent of my total budget for a project by using their products
The use of this solution does require a specific mindset. Some people are not tailored for it. Try it. The learning curve is really fast, so it's easy to use. We are measuring RF signals, one-sided analog signals, and control loops for system controls. We are not using this product to support connected devices nor are we planning to going forward.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product's functionality makes things easier for my partner, who is doing the PCIe design. He is able measure the product's usage and bit error rate."
"It's a one-stop solution. It does everything we need. The combined functionality is the biggest benefit."
"The Keysight Ecal feature has made it very easy for me to do calibrations."
"Before silicon came back, our customers' performance was affected. Using these tools, we are able to deliver performance to our customers."
"The customer support is very good. If you need an application to do any measurement, you can easily get a hold of people to help you with it. This is a whole ecosystem."
"Its 4 port has true differential with quite a few de-embedding features. It goes up to 40 GHz with high performance."
"The user interface is very user-friendly. You can use a lot of functions in their scope and will provide them for you. You can update the scope's software by asking Keysight to update the software when you want."
"The most valuable features are its quality and reliability... The good thing about the GUI interface which is, of course, software-based, is that you can record and save your test setup."
"The user interface is absolutely great. It creates an easy working environment because it has well-integrated hardware and software. So, it is easy to use."
"Most of the features are on the screen itself. The naming convention makes it very easy to understand what is needed."
"It helps us to save on our investment with a lot of the stuff that we buy, as we can find defects quickly."
"The user interface is very good. Their boards are reliable. We buy boards from them, they are reliable, and we don't have problems with them."
"We haven't need technical support yet because all documentation is well done and there."
"The user interface is very good, easy to understand, and easy to operate."
"I can automate a lot of testing very quickly. With just a push of a button, I can test hundreds of different scenarios without having to do all that manual testing myself."
"The integrated lateral view makes it easier to develop your test systems and test software flow."
 

Cons

"The user interface can be buggy at times. But I'm an engineer, I figure out how to get around them pretty easily so that's not that much of a concern."
"Something I'd like to see is much better documentation and some good examples. That would be very helpful for a new user to get better at using the new test equipment."
"While the user interface is good with respect to instrumentation, but with respect to documentation, I do not like it. Its documentation is slightly bad. It was not organized properly. The way it's organized is very difficult to understand, so it takes lot of time to search for one thing in particular."
"There is room for improvement in the upgradeability of the products. When we buy a platform, we would like that platform to survive two or three generations, because it is very expensive. If they could provide a more modular type of design, so if we want to upgrade one functionality then we could upgrade that module, rather than all the equipment, that would be helpful. That modularity is something we would like to see."
"The user interface is not that good. It's not very intuitive. It's functional, but it's not designed for ease of operation. It's designed for functionality."
"I would like them to build in more high-speed functions, such as FEC or PCIe, built into the array. PERT to be built-in for more specific product call. These would make our lives much easier."
"Their GUI is not the best. They need to improve on that. I think their software team needs to put in a little bit more work on how they are presenting the application on the scope."
"I would like more accuracy, particularly for multiport measurements."
"I would like more speed and a reduction in size."
"The software has room for improvement."
"It took a good year until I felt proficient using the product, as It is a complex program. Their newest version has a less steep learning curve, but back closer to 15 years ago, it was a lot less user-friendly."
"There is a learning curve. It might take a year if you're not well-versed with it."
"I would like to see more of a tasking user base and documentation inside the instrument itself, rather than having to go online for it."
"I would like to have more RF. They're going that way, but still there is some work that they have to do."
"National Instruments needs to be focusing on its 5G RF applications. They are aware of this, and that's where most of their R&D is going."
"There is a learning curve. It takes one to two months to get acclimated to the tool."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If we rented the product, it would be more affordable than buying new."
"Our solution is upgradable. However, upgrading depends on how much money the company is willing to spend, because each upgrade will take a million dollars."
"The major factor influencing the decision-makers is the price."
"The pricing is on the high side."
"The pricing is very expensive."
"Pricing always is very expensive. There's no free lunch."
"The pricing is always high."
"The price is affordable for us, but for smaller companies, probably not."
"The cost of the equipment has room for improvement. The pricing could improve."
"The price is a little steep. A lot of people, like our customers, use a different machine because of the price. The price has to come down a bit so we can do other tests without paying the equipment's high costs."
"I would like more competitive pricing."
"The pricing was good. Compared to the others, it was very good."
"These products are a very low-cost, effective alternative to traditional Big Iron ATE hardware."
"I have saved almost 50 percent of my total budget for a project by using their products."
"It's a bit expensive. However, you get the entire package, not just the box. It's a box which supports older releases."
"It's reasonably priced for what we spend our money on in the lab. It's one of the lower-end purchases."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
University
9%
Legal Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise18
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Large Enterprise7
 

Also Known As

InfiniiVision Series, Infiniium Series
NI Oscilloscopes
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Nokia Bell Labs
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Keysight Oscilloscopes vs. National Instruments (NI) Oscilloscopes and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
872,846 professionals have used our research since 2012.