NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE vs Plixer Scrutinizer comparison

NETSCOUT and Plixer are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. NETSCOUT is ranked #31 with an average rating of 10.0, while Plixer is ranked #53 with an average rating of 8.0. NETSCOUT holds a 0.4% mindshare in NMS, compared to Plixer’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of NETSCOUT users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Plixer users who would recommend it.

NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE

Read 6 NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE reviews

636 Views
401 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Plixer Scrutinizer

Read 15 Plixer Scrutinizer reviews

975 Views
383 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE

Plixer Scrutinizer

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Plixer Scrutinizer and NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE compete in the network monitoring and management category. NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE holds the upper hand due to its broader feature set and real-time capabilities.

Features: Plixer Scrutinizer provides powerful network traffic visualization, detailed threat detection, and compliance analytics. NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE delivers comprehensive application performance monitoring, real-time network health insights, and extensive application coverage.

Room for Improvement: Plixer Scrutinizer could enhance its application monitoring scope, improve real-time analytics, and broaden its advanced feature offerings. NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE might simplify its deployment process, reduce initial setup costs, and improve user interface intuitiveness.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Plixer Scrutinizer offers straightforward deployment and responsive customer service that supports implementation and troubleshooting. NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE, despite its more complex deployment due to extensive features, benefits from a strong support team that aids in the comprehensive setup process.

Pricing and ROI: Plixer Scrutinizer is recognized for cost-effective pricing and satisfactory ROI, especially for mid-sized organizations. NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE has a higher setup cost reflecting its expansive capabilities, offering a positive return for enterprises prioritizing feature depth over upfront cost.

To learn more, read our detailed NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE vs. Plixer Scrutinizer Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE vs. Plixer Scrutinizer

April 2025

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Helped 850,236 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 nGeniusPULSE

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

31st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Plixer Scrutinizer

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

53rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE is 0.4%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Plixer Scrutinizer is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Leandro Di Maria

Gerente De Ventas at internet winds ag

Offers real-time monitoring capabilities, which help businesses optimize their operations

The tools are part of managed environments, but when the capabilities of the routers need to be increased, we use NETSCOUT to manage things at an international level. The tool's user interface is okay. It would be great if the tool could provide alerts during attacks in Spanish. In the next release, if the traffic analysis could send our company an alert before an attack starts, it would be even better. Before an attack starts, seeing the traffic behavior and activities would be great. The tool should also share alerts since it is an area where the product has certain shortcomings.

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Ronald Jansen

Owner/President at Abraxax

Reporting is extensive, flexible, and can be custom-made in just a short time

In terms of additional features I'd like to see in the next release of Plixer Scrutinizer, I can't think of any because you can do some integration with other monitoring tools that are not strong in NetFlow or don't have NetFlow at all. There are also some integration possibilities in the product, plus there are alerts, too. Plixer Scrutinizer is a pretty complete product. There was a price lift because previously the product was privately owned, and now there is some external capital in the organization, so pricing could be lower, though, for Plixer Scrutinizer, there is almost no competition at this price point.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like the single pane of glass view. I like being able to go to one place instead of having to hunt around for everything."

"The most valuable features of this solution are monitoring and maintaining traffic queuing, as well as seeing who is using the bandwidth."

"The solution's technical support team consists of good engineers and technicians."

"The most valuable feature of NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE is the network troubleshooting analysis. You can pinpoint an issue before it could shut down the network."

"This is a very reliable and complete solution for troubleshooting and monitoring environments."

"I like the single pane of glass view because it presents everything in one window, obviously. You can see it all. With a quick glance, you get a pretty good snapshot of what's going on in a particular situation."

"One of the most valuable features of Plixer Scrutinizer is the reporting, particularly how easy it is to drill down into the reports. Another valuable feature of the solution is its overall visibility. It's great. I also liked Plixer Scrutinizer in terms of deployment time and that it's very simple to set up. Once you get the appliance set up and connected, the customer starts to see results immediately, versus other solutions where that could take a while."

"We have had many requests to understand in the network which devices are connected to others. Most people don't have this information or are able to establish a map of data flow everywhere around the network. Scrutinizer can really help with this. We are using it to understand who is talking to what, how, and which protocols can help us to improve security and analyze flow."

"The ability to view the status of the top-10 at a glance is helpful. We immediately know which link is over-utilized or heavily used... and it's all in real-time."

"Plixer Scrutinizer is an affordable product. Plixer Scrutinizer is a tool that allows for customization, especially in scenarios where customers need new product features."

"One feature I found most valuable in Plixer Scrutinizer is the very extensive reporting. Reporting is very flexible, though sometimes you need a little bit of support from Plixer Scrutinizer to create custom-made reporting in a very short time. Reporting is a very strong feature of the product."

"The reporting and generating troubleshooting reports would be the best feature; our host-to-host conversation reporting."

"The solution helps to enrich the data context of our network traffic. It allows me to see what applications are most in use on a slightly historical basis, going back a day or week at tops. It allows me to tune QoS or traffic shaping around what's being used. It saves me from having to unnecessarily upgrade, if I don't need to."

"We didn't experience any bugs."

More Plixer Scrutinizer pros

Cons

"The GUI interface and dashboards could be more attractive to the customer."

"In terms of additional features, I would like to see better event notification. Right now, we put in an email address to receive an alert and it receives every event and every alert that comes out. We need something a little more granular."

"They require a lot of manual effort as traffic flows, networks, and formal times change."

"Usability is the area with the biggest room for improvement. We've found that with NETSCOUT, while it's a fantastic product, the usability is a major factor because there are just way too many clicks. It's obvious, from our experience, that the people who are developing the product aren't using it."

"Before an attack starts, seeing the traffic behavior and activities would be great. The tool should also share alerts since it is an area where the product has certain shortcomings."

"The price of the solution could be reduced."

"There is room for improvement around the data that they have on the website about solutions... they should have more templated solutions on their website. Going out and identifying how to do RTP performance with a Cisco router, or how to do application response times in an Arrista data center deployment was where most of the work was... They should spend some more time documenting solutions and putting together white papers."

"The solution creates a visual map of a particular location and how the network flows. You need to spend time to generate all those maps. If they could figure out a way to reduce the time needed to generate the maps, that would be great."

"From what I understand it is that the solution is not very scalable in a high volume traffic environment with a large number of flows."

"The reporting structure, the front-end GUI, also needs some work. It needs some getting used to. It works fairly well, but it's a technical tool rather than a user tool. You have to understand the structure of the databases before you can really use it."

"We couldn't get it set up properly."

"Data retention needs improvement. Data retention is a thing where we are looking for a better way to collect flow data for a longer time to do forensic research on security incidents. By default, data retention is quite low. We need detailed data in safe storage for a longer time, e.g., for a couple of months. An improvement would be a way to export data into a secure long-term storage."

"They're working on the security areas, so it can provide more insight. What they have is still pretty much IP-concentric. If they were to make it IP and URL, they'd be a little bit ahead on that."

"I wish the reporting side was easier to work with, but it does a decent job. I also wish the reporting side was a little more intuitive or they offered more reporting examples."

More Plixer Scrutinizer cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's price is okay. On a scale of one to ten, I rate it as a five, where one means it is not expensive, and ten means it is the most expensive."

"The price of NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE is high. The other solutions are less expensive but we cannot depend on the other solutions, they are not as stable."

"Cost is contracted on a yearly basis. There is no additional cost beyond the standard licensing."

"Our entire solution, amortized over five years, is in the vicinity of $40,000 to $50,000 a year."

"The license is per device. We have 50 devices."

"We just renewed. The pricing is 5,000 euro per year. This is the final price. All tax (20 percent) is included."

"Currently, the license for Plixer Scrutinizer is subscription-based and at a yearly fee. The price would depend on the amount of traffic you pull in. For example, there are several blocks from a 10K flow, a 40K flow, and a 100K flow, and based on the number of devices that you receive the flows from, that's the license, and it is not a per-interface pricing model, so that is a very strong, very competitive pricing feature of Plixer Scrutinizer. Licensing for the product is also not based on the number of storage, compared to some competing products that are priced based on the amount of storage you need, particularly based on the retention and the amount of data. Plixer Scrutinizer licensing is based on the device, and it's more in the direction of $10,000 because, with just $1,000, you don't have anything."

"We have increased the license over time. We have added more licenses as the network has grown."

"There are no extra costs. It's about $8,000 a year. The bang for the buck (cost) is definitely a plus."

"The licensing cost for Plixer Scrutinizer is in the middle. It's not the cheapest, but it's not the most expensive. Its licensing model is based on how many exporters, how many devices export information to the system. Plixer Scrutinizer has different modules you could add such as the security module which would cost extra."

"It's about €10,000 a year for initial license and yearly maintenance costs. In addition, the hardware costs are about €10,000 once every five years."

More Plixer Scrutinizer pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

16%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE?

The tool's price is okay. On a scale of one to ten, I rate it as a five, where one means it is not expensive, and ten means it is the most expensive.

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What needs improvement with NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE?

I use the solution in my company to analyze international traffic.

See all answers

What do you like most about Plixer Scrutinizer?

Plixer Scrutinizer is an affordable product. Plixer Scrutinizer is a tool that allows for customization, especially in scenarios where customers need new product features.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Plixer Scrutinizer?

I rate Plixer Scrutinizer's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price or affordable, and ten is high price or expensive.

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What needs improvement with Plixer Scrutinizer?

I don't have deep enough knowledge to comment on what requires improvements in Plixer Scrutinizer. In Plixer Scrutinizer, scalability is an area with minor concerns where improvements are required.

See all answers

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Compared 23% of the time

Checkmk vs NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE

Compared 15% of the time

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Compared 26% of the time

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Compared 25% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 18% of the time

Kentik vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 18% of the time

LogicMonitor vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 14% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE

April 2025

Download NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE product report

Buyer's Guide

Plixer Scrutinizer

April 2025

Download Plixer Scrutinizer product report

Also Known As

nGeniusPULSE

No data available

Overview

NETSCOUT’s nGeniusPULSE delivers the visibility needed into today’s evolving IT eco-system to ensure the availability, reliability, and performance of your mission-critical business services across your multi-cloud environment, from wherever users need access.

NETSCOUT

The Scrutinizer incident response system leverages network traffic analytics to provide active monitoring, visualization, and reporting of network and security incidents. The system quickly delivers the rich forensic data needed by IT professionals to support fast and efficient incident response.

Plixer

Sample Customers

Banco Votorantim

Oxford Networks, Squaw Valley Ski Holdings, UltiSat, Wipro, West Aurora School District 129, SUNY Geneseo College, Bloomington Public Schools, First National Bank of Pennsylvania, Kitsap Credit Union, Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County Houston Texas, Carilion Clinic, Banner Health, IDEXX Laboratories, Phibro Animal Health Corporation, Goodwill Industries, Parmalat, Armstrong Coal Company, Flybe, James Walker

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE vs. Plixer Scrutinizer

April 2025

Free Report: NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE vs. Plixer Scrutinizer

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