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NetFort LANGuardian vs SolarWinds NPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

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

NetFort LANGuardian
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
97th
Average Rating
10.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds NPM
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
160
Ranking in other categories
IT Infrastructure Monitoring (5th), Cloud Monitoring Software (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of NetFort LANGuardian is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 3.6%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SolarWinds NPM3.6%
NetFort LANGuardian0.3%
Other96.1%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

it_user172854 - PeerSpot reviewer
Research Special Projects Lead at a university with 501-1,000 employees
Cost effective but when we originally purchased LANGuardian, some features needed further development.
The ability to detect and decipher torrent traffic for the purpose of identifying what some refer to as "copyright violators" Our CIO asked us to track down the source of undesired uploads, which trigger e-mails received by outside bodies regarding what they refer to as "copyright violations",…
Vivek Jaiswal - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Central monitoring has improved outage alerts and now needs smarter detection and modern dashboards
Regarding the automated network topology and mapping feature in SolarWinds NPM, I am not satisfied with it. For static monitoring, it is acceptable. However, if it is possible, I would need a feature in SolarWinds in the future for some kind of malfunctioning detection, such as malware attacks or that type of environment. We did not have any facility to detect that in SolarWinds. I think it would be better to incorporate those types of features. Regarding customization options in SolarWinds, the ability to customize the dashboard has room for improvement. The dashboard is quite old, and we need some improvement in it. Nowadays, we have multiple tools with AI-based monitoring and web-based dashboards. SolarWinds also has a web-based dashboard, but I think there is scope for improvement in the UI. There may be other areas I would like to improve in SolarWinds NPM.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"If you are looking for a solid solution that can be easily deployed then I'd recommend considering Netfort solutions."
"Our CIO asked us to track down the source of undesired uploads, which trigger e-mails received by outside bodies regarding what they refer to as "copyright violations", and Languardian was the most efficient and effective tool for the job."
"With SolarWinds, it’s easy to monitor everything and, with a little setup, everyone can help out."
"Solarwind NPM gives you a quick overview of the OT environment, which greatly improves response times on down equipment."
"Technical support is very helpful with our upgrades."
"The most valuable features in SolarWinds NPM are the network search and diagnostic tools."
"The alerting system in SolarWinds NPM aids in proactive network management."
"SolarWinds is user-friendly with a manageable console."
"It is considerably cheaper compared to other tools and available technologies in terms of LMS or EMS."
"The simplicity of this product is a valuable feature; everything you need is easily accessible and the maintenance is low."
 

Cons

"Sure, at the time we bought the product, the GUI and graphs/reports/pie charts etc ... were not fully developed."
"It takes a long time to load results. I think it would be great if they fix the slowness issue in the next release."
"GUI needs improvement with a more graphical dashboard."
"The user should be able to customize the dashboard to their own requirements."
"Having more technical and support resources available in Saudi Arabia would be helpful."
"An area for improvement in SolarWinds NPM is the short retention period. Currently, it's just for seven days of data, which is very low, making it hard for my organization to keep that data. SolarWinds recommended a seven-day retention period, but my organization needs a fourteen-day data retention period. Hence, I'd like an increase in the retention period or the database limit in SolarWinds NPM because you can't go back to the data for any investigation if seven days have passed. Another area for improvement in SolarWinds NPM is the database, which needs to be a bit more mature. I want a modified database in the next release of SolarWinds NPM. I'd also like more options added to groups because, currently, it's very limited."
"Better support and integration for vendors other than Cisco."
"Yes, plenty of those that our systems team has spent hours on the phone with Solarwinds support with trying to rectify."
"It needs group views with performance metrics."
"One of the problems that SolarWinds has is when the data becomes too big, it will start getting slower."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"We have a multi-year license for the use of this solution. There are additional costs for recourses in the environment."
"There's standard licensing, and then it depends on the size of the customer."
"The licensing model is such that you can purchase only what you need; and then grow into the next level by paying only the difference in price and the associated maintenance costs."
"Most of the licenses are perpetual, and the annual maintenance charges are not high."
"The solution can become very expensive and commercially not viable in countries, such as India."
"Excluding the costs of running VMs and physical blade servers, our licensing costs run around US$200,000/year for over 60 polling engines."
"The cost is based on the number of nodes, so it is expensive when you have a lot of them."
"The pricing is very expensive for SolarWinds. That's a huge disadvantage for it."
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Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Healthcare Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise33
Large Enterprise85
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
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What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
It actually depends on the exact purpose or kind of devices (network devices, servers, something else). Some tools are better for only network devices while others are better for a cloud monitoring...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We are partners with SolarWinds and we sell a lot of Network management to large enterprises also because of scalability, products like Network Performance Monitor & Netflow Traffic Analyzer ar...
 

Also Known As

LANGuardian
Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

City of Armadale, NCG Group, King Faisal Hospital
Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard
Find out what your peers are saying about NetFort LANGuardian vs. SolarWinds NPM and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
885,880 professionals have used our research since 2012.