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NetMaster Network Intelligence vs SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager comparison

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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

NetMaster Network Intelligence
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.8
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (18th)
SolarWinds Network Configur...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (14th), Network Automation (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Management solutions, they serve different purposes. NetMaster Network Intelligence is designed for Network Management Applications and holds a mindshare of 3.1%, up 1.0% compared to last year.
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager, on the other hand, focuses on Configuration Management, holds 3.2% mindshare, up 1.5% since last year.
Network Management Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NetMaster Network Intelligence3.1%
Cisco DNA Center7.3%
OpenText Network Node Manager5.3%
Other84.3%
Network Management Applications
Configuration Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager3.2%
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform9.9%
HashiCorp Terraform7.8%
Other79.1%
Configuration Management
 

Featured Reviews

it_user558525 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Systems Analyst at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Streamlines quick and effective drill-down into the network stack for better troubleshooting
I would like to see a web-based interface that mimics the ease of doing data traces, similar to something like a Wireshark which is a Windows-based network monitoring tool. Wireshark is fast. I'm an old Windows guy, it's what I know. I think the liability of NetMaster is having to do things through the panels. It's slow to generate traces, and when you're doing a real-time troubleshooting call - when you have to wait 30 seconds for a process to spawn and fire up in order to give data back - 30 seconds is a long time when there's an issue. The user interface is probably the biggest impediment to my success with it.
reviewer1327239 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Automated configuration management has improved monitoring, backups, and policy control
I do not think there is anything I would like to improve at this point in time because SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager compares almost perfectly to what it is supposed to do. I think it is one of the best products in its category. Regarding the automation capabilities of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager, I think that is an area they will need to explore in making it more autonomous. Discovery happens through IP address scanning, but building out automation is something they need to focus on. I absolutely believe in providing automation for SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. It is essential to address how to deploy, discover, and remediate wherever possible. I think that is something they should already be looking at because AAFS is currently something everybody is focused on, and storage also needs to consider it.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Otherwise, I think it is one of the better network products out there."
"The most valuable features are SNA and IP monitoring, and it has been very easy to define many thresholds, including self-defining baselines."
"Stability-wise, the whole product runs great, especially with the automation; that's where it really shines."
"The support has been excellent. It is far and away the best among the products that our team supports."
"I consider NetMaster to be the best-of-breed for network."
"What's nice with NCM is you can set up policies that you can then check against the configs to ensure that your device configs adhere to a baseline or standard that you've set in place."
"This solution has helped our organization by allowing us to store all the device configurations for the various network devices in NCM and making it easy for us to retrieve and look them over."
"We push all our configurations to the servers with ease and the logs capture almost all the transactions needed for an internal audit."
"The most valuable features the solution offers are compliance, reliability, and information about reliability."
"The tool is useful for security purposes."
"SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager can be used for backing up network device configuration, which helps you be more secure because when you have a system failure, you can get the information back."
"It's perfect for network configuration management, and it's easy to use."
"The most valuable Real-time fault detection is beneficial as it enables the identification of changes made to a device's configuration through the SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. This makes it easy to pinpoint which configurations were added or removed, potentially causing network issues. Such changes are saved in logs for future reference."
 

Cons

"I think the liability of NetMaster is having to do things through the panels."
"The automation part could use improvement, but I do not do that much with it."
"I would like to see new release migrations made easier."
"I didn't think the SNMP function was easy to set up. That caused some problems with the address space."
"I would like to see a web-based UI (major effort now in progress)."
"Improvements are needed in the automatic network mapping function."
"The Network Configuration Manager needs to improve the access control list compliance."
"We do health checkups for the network devices. However, compared to NetBrain, the NCM health checkup is getting very bad."
"Its look and feel can be improved. They can also put in more effort into building the THWACK community and use the information about various customer issues and requests to build the new releases."
"I will email them and I won't see the response for another two or three hours. I have to give them a call and it's a pain, it's a nightmare."
"For each device, when you open the network performance monitor, it will give you all of the information about the device, but many of the natural configuration management features are not on that page."
"The AI features do not work well."
"There is room for improvement in automation."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Pricing is reasonable and competitive."
"Additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee are inevitable."
"We have to pay additionally for its support and maintenance."
"There is a license needed to use SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager."
"The price of the solution is high compared to other solutions."
"With a minimal bundle, we pay about $3000 a year in licensing costs. If you have multiple devices in your network, you must buy the bundle, which is 100% identical for your infrastructure. If you have 15 devices, you need 15 licenses, for example. That's one bundle. You don't pay for anything over and above that."
"I have a yearly subscription."
"There is a license for the use of this solution and it is priced well, there is a lot of value for the money."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise9
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager?
On pricing, I would rate SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager as one of the best in its segment among leading products and competitors. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is positioned as...
What needs improvement with SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager?
I do not think there is anything I would like to improve at this point in time because SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager compares almost perfectly to what it is supposed to do. I think it is...
What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager?
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is used for managing a large number of IPs, distributing them within my enterprise, and addressing issues related to them. People typically manage this thro...
 

Also Known As

CA NetMaster Network Management. CA NetMaster, CA NetMaster Network Management for TCP/IP, CA NetMaster Network Management for SNA, CA NetMaster Network Management for TCP/IP
SolarWinds NCM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Tieto
United Lincolnshire Hospitals, Air Rarotonga, NetSuite, Thai AirAsia, REA Group, 335th Signal Command, Agilisys, Marine Expeditionary Force
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Fortinet, Skyline Communications and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: September 2026.
915,287 professionals have used our research since 2012.