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NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs vRealize Network Insight comparison

NETSCOUT and VMware are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. NETSCOUT is ranked #81, while VMware is ranked #35 with an average rating of 8.8. NETSCOUT holds a 0.3% mindshare in NMS, compared to VMware’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of NETSCOUT users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of VMware users who would recommend it.
NETSCOUT vSTREAM
Read 3 NETSCOUT vSTREAM reviews
  • 419 Views
  • 213 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
vRealize Network Insight
Read 46 vRealize Network Insight reviews
  • 1,328 Views
  • 541 Comparison Views
89% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

vRealize Network Insight and NETSCOUT vSTREAM are competitors in the network performance management space. vRealize Network Insight has an advantage in terms of pricing and support, whereas NETSCOUT vSTREAM is preferred for its extensive feature set, which justifies a higher cost.

Features: vRealize Network Insight offers comprehensive network visualization, analytics for cloud environments, and application performance insights. NETSCOUT vSTREAM provides robust traffic analysis, real-time monitoring, and precise troubleshooting insights for complex networks.

Room for Improvement: vRealize Network Insight could enhance its traffic analysis capabilities, provide more in-depth real-time monitoring features, and improve its troubleshooting tools for large-scale networks. NETSCOUT vSTREAM may benefit from an improved cloud compatibility, streamlined onboarding process, and more user-friendly interfaces.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: vRealize Network Insight's cloud-based model ensures simplified onboarding, reducing initial complexity. NETSCOUT vSTREAM's on-premises deployment requires more time and effort, but it provides excellent ongoing support.

Pricing and ROI: vRealize Network Insight is noted for its competitive pricing and lower initial setup costs, resulting in a quicker ROI. NETSCOUT vSTREAM offers a significant ROI thanks to its advanced functionalities but at a higher initial investment.

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To learn more, read our detailed NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. vRealize Network Insight Report (Updated: June 2025).
Buyer's Guide
NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. vRealize Network Insight
June 2025
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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 vSTREAM
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
81st
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
vRealize Network Insight
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
35th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
IT Infrastructure Monitoring (40th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of NETSCOUT vSTREAM is 0.3%, down from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vRealize Network Insight is 0.6%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

KL
A user-friendly solution that is easy to install and improves visibility
I would like to see improvements made to the user guide. From my personal experience, it is helpful to see a list of steps describing what to do next in different situations. An example is what to do and what to back up in the case of certain types of failure. There are also cases where a customer can't understand specific features. Enhancements to the user guide would be helpful for this. More features for network fragmentation would be helpful.
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NiteshKumar1 - PeerSpot reviewer
The tool's configuration is easy and artifacts are easily accessible through professional services and the web
The product is highly regarded, and many customers have been using it along with other VMware products like vSphere and VMware vCloud Usage Insight. However, recently, there's been a trend among customers, especially those using VMware for a considerable period, to explore the potential of migrating to the public cloud. The common concern among these customers is how the VMware products will perform in the public cloud environment. Migrating instances from VMware to different platforms is not easy, especially when dealing with many instances across multiple customers. Customers are keen to maintain the functionality of their existing VMware products but prefer to run them on the public cloud instead of on-premise servers. Our clients for vRealize Network Insight are enterprise businesses. I rate it a nine out of ten.
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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

"vSTREAM gives us better visibility and reporting about our network infrastructure, allowing for cost-optimization."
"One of the valuable features is the packet decoding."
"Also, the ability to troubleshoot all the way across the NSX part of it to the physical and actually watch the packets go through and then see where the bottleneck is or where the interruption is. We run queries on the network flows within the application to find where they are in it and it graphically tells us how the packets are actually going through the system."
"The gradual way the Network Insight shows you all the relevant information about your networks. It's pretty good. You can really dig deep deep inside and see where the problem is, where it comes from, what you have inside, how did you configure it. Also, it has alerts so you can have pretty much quite a big overview about your network. This is really something good."
"It has definitely helped us to meet compliance rules by assuring that all traffic is going to where it's supposed to go. It can be used to report that you are in compliance, as well as helping you get into compliance."
"One of the most valuable features is the ability to look at the traffic flows, to look at NetFlow data."
"The initial was straightforward. You can have it up and running in one hour."
"It allowed us to set up NSX and to do microsegmentation, without all of the pain points of having to determine each port and each IP address that needed to have access, and which ones needed to be blocked."
"It helps a lot because, until now, we didn't have the tools to figure out the micro level, VM-to-VM kind of traffic; that was not in the current environment. We could not figure out VM-to-VM communication from the other tools. This is the tool which gives us end-to-end transparency."
"compare-to-competition; I would recommend the product. I don't think there is any other product like this on the market right now."
More vRealize Network Insight pros
 

Cons

"Room for improvement exists in filtering in the packet decode."
"I would like to see improvements made to the user guide."
"I would like for it to have a smaller footprint of the virtual appliance and better performance."
"I would like to see more interoperability on the firewall and low balancer sides."
"I'd like to see better support for being able to search the hardware NetFlow data. It ingests fairly well, but you can't tell, in a lot of cases, what source the data came from. I'd like to see more support for picking specific sources. That way you could really make a compelling use case. There are also some difficulties where it can't exactly trace the path between source and destination but if you hit the reverse flow on the same search it shows the entire path."
"Support could be much better."
"While it's not exactly a feature, what normally happens when we are trying to look at the VM flow portion is - although Network Insight does have options to integrate a few physical switches into it - we can't really get an end-to-end flow of the network. We might be using a few switches that are not supported by Network Insight. That is where they can improve, in the support for more physical switches and network devices."
"I would like to see application identification. That would be cool."
"If it had some kind of plugins with vSphere, more effective plugins with Horizon View or other VMWare products, if it had interconnectivity, I think it would be more effective than it is today."
"The only real improvement they can make is to add more third-party vendors into the environment, mostly switch manufacturers, because it's really limited to Cisco equipment and there are a lot of companies out there other than Cisco."
"The solution can be improved by making it more compatible with other brands, allowing for better integration."
More vRealize Network Insight cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing is quite expensive."
"It's an expensive product because we have a lot of nodes."
"The solution has reduced the time that we spend on other products. For example, with NSX, we were able to quickly find things that we would normally spend days trying to figure out."
"It's a little expensive, but for what you're getting out of the product, you often see the trade-off. It depends on the type of licensing you have. It might be a little too pricey for some."
"It reduces costs. It takes something that may be challenging and makes it more usable and visual by being able to bring in tools, seeing what their impact is, such as microsegmentation and application rationalization, and seeing it quickly."
"Cost always has room for improvement, you could always make it cheaper. But I think it's a good value for what you pay for it."
"vRealize Network Insight is expensive."
"It has brought more money into our company."
"They should include the product in NSX because it's important to have it for deployment."
More vRealize Network Insight pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
12%
Energy/Utilities Company
11%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about vRealize Network Insight?
The tool's ease of configuration and use and the availability of information and artifacts through professional services and the web are key factors that customers find valuable.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vRealize Network Insight?
Broadcom is known for increasing product prices, making them expensive compared to what people used to pay. I liken the subscription model to not truly owning what you pay for.
See all answers
What needs improvement with vRealize Network Insight?
Right now, I do not see a specific area for improvement. My main concern is understanding the intentions of Broadcom, which has acquired VMware. Broadcom should improve by going back to what was wo...
See all answers
 

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Compared 10% of the time
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More vRealize Network Insight Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Network Monitoring Software
May 2025
NETSCOUT vSTREAM reportDownload NETSCOUT vSTREAM product report
Buyer's Guide
vRealize Network Insight
June 2025
vRealize Network Insight reportDownload vRealize Network Insight product report
 

Also Known As

vSTREAM
Arkin
 

Overview

The vSTREAM virtual appliance complements existing Adaptive Session Intelligence (ASI)-based instrumentation to provide the same level of visibility within virtualized and cloud infrastructures that is already possible in physical environments. The vSTREAM virtual appliance is ideal for monitoring service-critical traffic running within virtualized or cloud infrastructures, either locally on a host or as an aggregation point for multiple hosts. With complete visibility across physical, virtual and cloud networks, the vSTREAM virtual appliance presents real-time views of end-to-end call trace data and network-wide KPIs, to protect the reliability and availability of networks and application services.

NETSCOUT
VMware vRealize Network Insight delivers intelligent operations for software-defined networking and security. It helps customers build an optimized, highly-available and secure network infrastructure across multi-cloud environments. It accelerates micro-segmentation planning and deployment, enables visibility across virtual and physical networks and provides operational views to manage and scale VMware NSX deployments.
VMware
 

Sample Customers

Metropolitan Police Agency, Banpara, PropertyRoom.com
NTTi3, VCIX-NV, VMware Networking and Security Business Unit, Illumio, CompuNet
Buyer's Guide
NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. vRealize Network Insight
June 2025
Free Report: NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. vRealize Network Insight
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