NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG vs Packetbeat comparison

NETSCOUT and Elastic are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. NETSCOUT is ranked #77, while Elastic is ranked #61 with an average rating of 8.0. NETSCOUT holds a 0.5% mindshare in NMS, compared to Elastic’s 0.2% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of NETSCOUT users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Elastic users who would recommend it.

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Read 13 NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG reviews

1,249 Views
1,187 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Packetbeat

Read 2 Packetbeat reviews

479 Views
474 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Packetbeat

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG and Packetbeat based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Network Monitoring Software solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG vs. Packetbeat Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG vs. Packetbeat

March 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 885,667 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

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

77th

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Packetbeat

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

61st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

2.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG is 0.5%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Packetbeat is 0.2%, 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 (%)
Packetbeat	0.2%
NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG	0.5%
Other	99.3%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Michael Gideon Genita

Associate System Engineer at SMS Global Technologies, Inc.

Easy to set up with good documentation and helpful support

I'm using it for a customer The packet flow switch is the most valuable aspect of the solution. It's an easy product to set up. We can scale the solution if we need to. It's stable. The documentation is well-written and quite useful. It's compatible with other products. Under the pocket flow…

Read full review

Mohammed-Abdelalim

Assistant Vice President at QualityKiosk Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Network analytics have delivered lightweight, integrated visibility for search, observability, and security

Packetbeat analyzes specific protocols and is not suitable for full capture of all network traffic and network flows. I recall that Packetbeat can cover a limited number of protocols including ICMP, but not as deeply as other solutions. It covers NetFlows and these types of flows, but not at the level of a deep packet capture that you can find in the market where it taps every single packet in the network. Packetbeat is more about bringing statistics about the packets, but it doesn't capture these packets. The development intention of Packetbeat appears to be to provide a window for application monitoring and performance analytics, and for that purpose, it is doing sufficiently well. However, if the vendor has another goal to build a similar network monitoring solution that exists in the market, which is outside of Elastic's business nature, Packetbeat is a sensor that needs to be improved to the level of deep packet capture where it loses no packets in the network. That improvement would take Elastic to another level.

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

"We have seen a lot of return on investment: We have been able to recover radios in the field, we know exactly what is going on, we cut down fines from the service commission, and we have seen a measurable decrease in mean time to know, cutting troubleshooting down by days as we can now see the issues."

"It has cut our group's troubleshooting time down significantly, e.g., depending on the issue, what would normally take maybe a couple of hours will now take minutes."

"It is very rock solid. We hardly have any hardware issues."

"It has cut our troubleshooting down by days. Once we have a product in place, we show people examples of how it can streamline their troubleshooting process."

"Because we are doing proactive monitoring instead of reactive, the end users don't even see that there is something wrong."

"Go with NETSCOUT."

"The most valuable feature is utilization."

"The solution has helped to increase application and network uptime, reduced our mean time to repair significantly for application and network issues, and cut our overall troubleshooting time from an hour down to five minutes."

More NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG pros

"The beauty of Packetbeat is that it is easy, free, and lightweight, while other solutions are expensive and will accumulate a huge amount of data."

"Elastic's scalability, in terms of cluster robustness, is definitely the most valuable feature."

Cons

"Being able to manage the packet flow switches in nGeniusONE would be great."

"It's not able to communicate with our probes."

"The monitoring and reporting tool needs improvement."

"The single pane of glass feed still needs work."

"I'd like them to make the product more user-friendly."

"I would like to see an improved level of stitching between IPs."

"The scalability has some limitations and quirks to it. I would like to be able to upgrade rather than replace the whole thing."

"The solution is not great, but it is not bad."

More NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG cons

"The scalability of the agent itself could be improved."

"Packetbeat analyzes specific protocols and is not suitable for full capture of all network traffic and network flows."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It can be scalable. It just costs too much. With a company as big as ours, it gets too expensive to accommodate every single site."

"The scalability is good, but it comes at a cost. E.g., if you need 100 InfiniStream because you are sending gigs or terabytes of data to one InfiniStream, then you will have to purchase another InfiniStream, which are not cheap."

"I would like it to be more scalable with less spend."

"To capture more with the solution that we bought, you have to buy another InfiniStreamNG, and there are only four ports in the back."

"The price is a little high."

"This product could be cheaper."

Information not available

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

885,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Construction Company

10%

Educational Organization

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	8

No data available

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Packetbeat?

Elastic is pretty cheap for large enterprises but unaffordable for small ones.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Packetbeat?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Packetbeat?

I have dealt with all of them: Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, Beats, Elastic Agent, and Fleet, because I need to use all of them to achieve a solution for customers. These solutions are typically...

See all answers

Comparisons

Riverbed NPM+ vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Compared 17% of the time

Flowmon vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Compared 15% of the time

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Compared 13% of the time

NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Compared 12% of the time

cPacket cClear vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Compared 10% of the time

More NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG Competitors

Ixia Network Taps vs Packetbeat

Compared 57% of the time

ManageEngine IT360 vs Packetbeat

Compared 43% of the time

More Packetbeat Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

March 2026

Download NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG product report

Buyer's Guide

Network Monitoring Software

March 2026

Download Packetbeat product report

Also Known As

InfiniStreamNG, NETSCOUT ISNG, Infinistream

No data available

Overview

NETSCOUT’s new ISNG platform harnesses the power of IP intelligence by mining traffic in real-time to deliver accurate and actionable data for service assurance, cybersecurity and business intelligence applications. The InfiniStreamNG platform fully supports the nGeniusONE and Iris application suites.

NETSCOUT

Packetbeat is an open-source real-time application monitoring tool designed to capture network packets and provide insights into application performance and network congestion.

Packetbeat allows IT professionals to monitor network traffic efficiently by collecting and analyzing packets. It provides valuable insights into network latency and helps identify performance issues. It is part of the Elastic Stack, making it easy to integrate with Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana for sophisticated data analysis and visualization. Its open-source nature adds flexibility for customization, catering to specific monitoring needs.

What are the crucial features of Packetbeat?

Real-time packet capture: Enables immediate analysis and monitoring of network packets.
Protocol analysis: Supports analysis of various protocols like HTTP, DNS, and MySQL.
Seamless integration: Works efficiently with other Elastic Stack components.
Open-source: Offers customization and adaptability for IT requirements.

What benefits or ROI should be expected?

Cost efficiency: Leveraging open-source software reduces license costs.
Enhanced visibility: Provides detailed insights into network operations.
Scalability: Can be scaled to monitor expansive networks as needs grow.

In industries like finance and healthcare, where network uptime and data integrity are crucial, Packetbeat is implemented to monitor network performance and troubleshoot issues promptly. Its ability to analyze traffic in real-time ensures that potential bottlenecks are addressed swiftly, maintaining operational efficiency.

Elastic

Sample Customers

U.S. Department of Defense

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG vs. Packetbeat

March 2026

Free Report: NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG vs. Packetbeat

Find out what your peers are saying about NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG vs. Packetbeat and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

885,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG vs. Packetbeat 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.