N-able N-central vs Spiceworks comparison

Read 47 Spiceworks reviews

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86% willing to recommend

N-able N-central

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between N-able N-central and Spiceworks based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about NinjaOne, Kaseya, TeamViewer and others in Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM).

To learn more, read our detailed Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) Report (Updated: May 2025).

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)

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Helped 856,873 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

N-able N-central

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (5th)

Spiceworks

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Help Desk Software (17th), IT Asset Management (12th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (45th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Systems Management solutions, they serve different purposes. N-able N-central is designed for Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) and holds a mindshare of 10.6%, down 11.3% compared to last year.
Spiceworks, on the other hand, focuses on IT Infrastructure Monitoring, holds 0.4% mindshare, down 0.5% since last year.

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Q&A Highlights

Stephen Kane

Technical Solutions Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Nov 01, 2017

Solarwinds vs Spiceworks vs Airwatch

Unfortunately pricing is never that simple with each product having a multi-tiered offering. Also with vastly different feature sets between vendor products it can be impossible to make side-by-side comparisons. Before even looking at pricing or referring to the good book of Gartner you should put together a list of: 1. Everyday tasks at a functional level 2. How your team perform them today 3. Issues associated with the processes used 4. Your vision of how it could be done Without having properly defined your requirements will set you up for the typical scenario where the project scope slowly creeps away from what is the vest fit for your use-case and spiral out of control.

Optimizes device management and has an easy deployment

Featured Reviews

Jallad Ahmad

Senior Manager, Cloud at a media company with 10,001+ employees

Customers that we manage do not have IT, but they still want to manage the PCs if they have any issues or any patches. They want to keep the operating system up to the latest version. They need support for their employees on the device itself. We use N-central to get access to the device, and we…

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Rohit Samel

Account Manager Enterprise Sales at Navdeep Technologies Pvt.Ltd

Cloud storage with no hardware needed and great comprehensive reports

The software is cloud-based, so I do not need to store any data locally. It is a fully software-based solution, eliminating the need for investment in hardware. We have the capability to create reports as needed. It is good software to use, as there were no incidents where I needed to contact technical support. Additionally, it is free 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

"It's a very robust product. They're continuing to invest and put new enhancements into the product. They're very open about what their roadmap is, which is very good for us because then as a business, we can plan."

"N-able N-central has numerous good features. The asset tracking capability is powerful, allowing you to track hardware and software on devices connected to your network. The remote control is smooth, securely enabling remote access to servers and routers. It can be integrated with ticketing systems and other tools like CrowdStrike and N-able EDR for comprehensive network monitoring and security. The automation feature is handy, allowing you to schedule tasks, respond to system triggers, and automate problem resolution, such as handling disk space issues automatically."

"N-able N-central is an easy tool to implement with customers."

"I like the remote connectivity, reporting suite, and patch management module."

"The most valuable feature of N-able N-central is the many options it has."

"The support is at a good level. So normally, we can always get to a solution when we are stuck with some monitoring problems that we encounter."

"The solution's service is good."

"The most valuable features of N-central are its ease of deployment and ease of use."

More N-able N-central pros

"The most valuable features are the inventory and personalization."

"Spiceworks' dashboard allows you to drill down to the notes, where I can take an inventory of the network and see the devices I need to monitor."

"The nice thing about Spiceworks is always it's free. Monitoring of printers for low toner. Finding machines that have low memory or low hard disk space."

"It shows the users that are currently logged in, which is not something that Active Directory by default will ever let you know up front."

"If you're in the market for a low-cost service desk system, Spiceworks is a good software solution to start out with, especially when it comes to startups and those organizations that don't currently have any existing service desk software in place."

"Helpdesk and inventory are both equally valuable, and they form the true core of the product."

"The solution can find all asset details automatically, whether it's a Mac address, computer name, IP address, models, etc. It's very helpful."

"The software is cloud-based, so I do not need to store any data locally."

More Spiceworks pros

Cons

"The support from our direct team is very good, but the support from their day-to-day ongoing help desk isn't that good. They have still got some work to do on that, but they have been focusing on that a lot over the last number of years. So, it has gotten a lot better than it was."

"N-able N-central could improve the remote access, my technicians have complained about it. They have used other free tools instead to compensate, such as TeamViewer. Additionally, when using remote access on the web, it is lacking reports."

"At this moment, we encounter stability issues with N-able N-central from time to time."

"The integration with other applications could be better."

"Involving AI in the platform could improve it further."

"N-central has limited mobile device management (MDM) support, specifically for Android devices. This limitation affected a deal with a client who had numerous Android devices to manage. It would be beneficial if N-central could expand its MDM support to include Android devices."

"The solution's overall integration should be improved."

"There is room for improvement in the development of custom monitoring services."

More N-able N-central cons

"The customer service is okay, however, I would appreciate much more clarity on what I want to know exactly."

"Since Spiceworks is a free tool, it's not very scriptable or customizable."

"I would like the solution to allow for more direct interaction with computers. I can open tickets and I can see their status, but I can't interact directly with the computers themselves."

"Once a device was recognized on the network, Spiceworks never got rid of it even after you took it off the network. You had to go in and manually remove it."

"There are a lot of disadvantages to Spiceworks because it's not an agent-based solution."

"The GUI must be improved."

"One of the biggest ways in which Spiceworks could improve is by developing better and more automated workflows. For example, in another solution called ServiceDesk by ManageEngine, you can have levels of approval in the event that there is a request for new software, or when someone requests a VPN or WiFi connection. This kind of multi-stage approval feature provided by ServiceDesk does not appear to exist in Spiceworks, and it is one of their main shortcomings for me."

"I would like to see more information when drilling down into access permissions, assignments management, or tagging. When I click a note or a device, I should be able to see more details about the router and modem. For example, I want to see the version, downtime, availability, latency, etc. I should have easy access to everything about our assets at a glance."

More Spiceworks cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing and licensing are average, almost six out of ten."

"N-able N-central is not an expensive solution."

"The tool is cheap."

"Seeing that it is a low-cost solution, I would advise you to go ahead with Spiceworks and experiment with it to see if you can get things working properly, especially if you currently don't have any existing service desk software in place."

"It's free."

"The product is free! Get it now."

"It might be about $300 annually for a bigger company. If you pay annually, it's better and cheaper."

See which vendors are best for you

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Comparison Review

it_user174738

IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

May 31, 2015

Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor

I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…

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Answers from the Community

Stephen Kane

Technical Solutions Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Nov 1, 2017

Solarwinds vs Spiceworks vs Airwatch

2 out of 9 answers

it_user719895

Diretor de Sistemas de Informação at a transportation company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Oct 30, 2017

You are comparing 3 different products. Solarwinds play in the major league of NMS. Spiceworks is adware and plays in the minor league. Airwatch is an MDM/MAM product. What is your goal?

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it_user357969

Managing Partner at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Oct 30, 2017

Agree with Antonio. Plus, if you’re talking about client desktop management, I think you might be missing better players.

Read full answer

See all 9 answers

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Performing Arts

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

University

11%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about N-able N-central?

The solution's service is good.

What needs improvement with N-able N-central?

One of my personal challenges with N-able N-central is the monitoring of services for server hardware. The industry has moved towards Redfish for out-of-band and in-band monitoring, yet N-able N-ce...

What is your primary use case for N-able N-central?

Our primary use case for N-able N-central is monitoring. As an administrator, I frequently work with N-able N-central for monitoring, spending approximately fifty percent of my time on it.

What do you like most about Spiceworks?

The solution is easy to use and easy to manage.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Spiceworks?

The tool is cheap.

What needs improvement with Spiceworks?

I am unable to provide suggestions for improvement at this moment, however, I can provide feedback later. Currently, there do not seem to be any issues.

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Compared 33% of the time

Zabbix vs Spiceworks

Compared 29% of the time

Lansweeper vs Spiceworks

Compared 18% of the time

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs Spiceworks

Compared 8% of the time

Freshdesk vs Spiceworks

Compared 8% of the time

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Product Reports

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)

Download N-able N-central product report

Download Spiceworks product report

Also Known As

SolarWinds N-central, SolarWinds MSP N-central

No data available

Overview

N-able N-central is a comprehensive tool for monitoring networks, managing assets, automation, remote access, patch management, and ensuring system security. It is predominantly used by managed services providers to manage systems, servers, routers, and firewalls.

N-able N-central provides robust remote management and monitoring functionalities. It offers a user-friendly GUI and strong asset tracking capabilities. Integration with ticketing systems, CrowdStrike, and N-able EDR enhances monitoring and security. Automation features allow scheduling tasks, responding to system triggers, and automating problem resolution. Users appreciate ongoing enhancements and transparency about its roadmap.

What are the key features of N-able N-central?

Remote Connectivity: Provides smooth remote control for troubleshooting and support.
Reporting Suite: Offers comprehensive reporting tools for network insights.
Patch Management: Efficiently manages system updates to maintain security.
Intuitive GUI: User-friendly interface backed by solid support.
Asset Tracking: Powerful tracking of all managed devices.
Integration: Supports ticketing systems and security tools like CrowdStrike and N-able EDR.
Automation: Schedules tasks and automates problem resolution.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in the reviews?

Enhanced Efficiency: Automation and integration streamline workflows.
Improved Security: Robust monitoring and security features protect networks.
Cost Savings: Comprehensive tool reduces the need for multiple solutions.
Ease of Use: Intuitive interface and strong support simplify management.
Scalability: Grows with business needs, managing a large number of devices.

N-able N-central is widely implemented across various industries, providing essential network management and security functionalities. It is particularly useful for managed services providers in sectors such as healthcare, finance, and education, where robust monitoring, remote access, and asset management are critical for operational efficiency.

N-able

From network inventory and network monitoring to help desk software, and mobile device management (MDM) to cloud services detection, Spiceworks helps you manage everything about your IT workday from one easy place.

Sample Customers

Premier Technology Solutions

Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Symantec, Webroot, EMC, Pertino

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)