NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs vRealize Network Insight comparison

NETSCOUT and Broadcom are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. NETSCOUT is ranked #85, while Broadcom is ranked #34 with an average rating of 8.3. NETSCOUT holds a 0.4% mindshare in NMS, compared to Broadcom’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of NETSCOUT users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

NETSCOUT vSTREAM

Read 3 NETSCOUT vSTREAM reviews

677 Views
643 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

vRealize Network Insight

Read 47 vRealize Network Insight reviews

2,191 Views
1,556 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

NETSCOUT vSTREAM

vRealize Network Insight

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

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.

To learn more, read our detailed NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. vRealize Network Insight Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. vRealize Network Insight

December 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 880,745 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 vSTREAM

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

85th

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

vRealize Network Insight

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

34th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (38th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of NETSCOUT vSTREAM is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vRealize Network Insight is 0.7%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
vRealize Network Insight	0.7%
NETSCOUT vSTREAM	0.4%
Other	98.9%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Keval Lodaya

Network Engineer at Inniti Network Solution

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.

Read full review

Shaijith KB

Senior System Specialist at General Directorate of Residence and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA)

Comprehensive management and detailed reports benefit operations while improvements are needed in support and maintenance

We have Tanzu and OpenShift. We have OpenShift, Canonical, and the Tanzu one. The Tanzu platform from VMware is a Kubernetes platform. We haven't completely installed Tanzu yet; we installed the vROps part. vRealize Network Insight is beneficial because you can control the East-West traffic. vRealize has a component called NSX, which has East-West traffic controlling and micro-segmentation, that is one of the best options, and we have the layer extension, layer 2 extension possible through NSX. If you have anything accountable in any business, even in a candy business, having proper accountability on what you are selling and buying will save a lot. If you don't know what you're selling and buying, you will end up with a loss. My team does not use the flow analytics feature; we have a security and network monitoring team, which is a different SOC team. I am using it as an administrator internally. We perform different tasks including costing analysis, capacity management, and many other things. vRealize Network Insight has a concern about the maintenance part, as it requires a person to monitor it completely. It's not something you install and your report will be generated automatically. You have to work on this properly to get the insights. vRealize Network Automation, vRealize Operations, and vRealize Network Insight are completely related to the network. I cannot say much about these network aspects because I am on the operations side, but overall, the vRealize suite is good for reporting perspective or any ISO-related documentation; this is very helpful. The product is called vRealize Operations Manager, and now it is referred to as Aria or vAria. I am now a Senior System Specialist. We use different metrics because we have multiple departments, and we can monitor utilization and comparisons with the previous year. On a scale of one to ten, I rate this solution a seven.

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

"One of the valuable features is the packet decoding."

"vSTREAM gives us better visibility and reporting about our network infrastructure, allowing for cost-optimization."

"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."

"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."

"What's valuable to us is the ability to get a view into the virtual space, which is something we haven't had before. Before, it was done by collecting from network endpoints and extrapolating into the virtual environment. Now it's coming directly from the virtual environment."

"It allows you to see traffic that you couldn't otherwise see, which is traffic within your Layer 3-bounded network, meaning east-west traffic. It's hard to get that any other way."

"The initial was straightforward. You can have it up and running in one hour."

"It has enabled us to set up and do application discovery, as far as network traffic is concerned, and set up the appropriate rules that we need to make sure we're compliant with our security frameworks."

"The graphical interface of this environment is so good with all the views, the graphics, and everything in them. It's really easy for me. It doesn't need an engineer to work on it. It's easy enough that anyone can get into the environment and look for issues or look at how communication is going on across the VMs. It's pretty much straightforward."

"I find that the interface of most VMware products is very similar, which I consider an advantage due to its ease of use compared to other tools like Splunk."

More vRealize Network Insight pros

Cons

"I would like to see improvements made to the user guide."

"Room for improvement exists in filtering in the packet decode."

"I would like for it to have a smaller footprint of the virtual appliance and better performance."

"If it were more application-aware, more descriptive; if it were able to determine the application that is actually doing the communication, that would be easier. More application information: which user or account it's accessing, is it accessing this application, doing these calls, if it is accessing a script, what script is it accessing. Things like that would provide deeper analytics so I can track what's going on. It would not just be, "These people shouldn't be talking," but who is actually doing these calls."

"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 issue we have is that the solution does not always capture the host names."

"The virtual appliance has rebooted."

"I would like to see more reporting features, more dashboards."

"There is room for improvement as not all cases are getting resolved, and we often do not get L3 support directly, having to go through L1 and L2, resulting in delays that usually are a headache for us."

"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."

"The compatibility with each and every component of the infrastructure is the main thing that I am looking for. I would like them to make sure that it's compatible with different kinds of storage systems, etc. I have seen the compatibility list. I feel it can be more compatible than it is right now."

More vRealize Network Insight cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing is quite expensive."

"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."

"The solution has helped us to reduce time, increase performance, reduce costs, and even easily manage networks. We are probably seeing 10 to 20 percent labor savings because we are able to be very specific and focused on what we want to do. It ends up saving the customer money and makes us be more efficient on our cost deliveries."

"It has brought more money into our company."

"vRealize Network Insight is expensive."

"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."

"It's an expensive product because we have a lot of nodes."

"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."

"They should include the product in NSX because it's important to have it for deployment."

More vRealize Network Insight pricing and cost advice

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

880,745 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Energy/Utilities Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

11%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

Healthcare Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	41

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

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?

In VMware you have to buy a separate license for it. We have VVF and VCF-type of licenses, and if you want to go with this NSX and sort of higher-end professional services, you need to go with VCF....

See all answers

What needs improvement with vRealize Network Insight?

There is room for improvement as not all cases are getting resolved, and we often do not get L3 support directly, having to go through L1 and L2, resulting in delays that usually are a headache for...

See all answers

Comparisons

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG vs NETSCOUT vSTREAM

Compared 26% of the time

NetMon vs NETSCOUT vSTREAM

Compared 23% of the time

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs NETSCOUT vSTREAM

Compared 21% of the time

More NETSCOUT vSTREAM Competitors

Kentik vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 11% of the time

Alluvio AppResponse vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 8% of the time

ManageEngine OpManager vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 6% of the time

Nmap vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 6% of the time

Cisco Intersight vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 3% of the time

More vRealize Network Insight Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Network Monitoring Software

January 2026

Download NETSCOUT vSTREAM product report

Buyer's Guide

vRealize Network Insight

December 2025

Download 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.

Broadcom

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

December 2025

Free Report: NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. vRealize Network Insight

Find out what your peers are saying about NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. vRealize Network Insight and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

880,745 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. vRealize Network Insight 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.