NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs vRealize Network Insight comparison

NETSCOUT and VMware are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. NETSCOUT is ranked #82, while VMware is ranked #40 with an average rating of 8.3. NETSCOUT holds a 0.2% 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

455 Views
414 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

vRealize Network Insight

Read 47 vRealize Network Insight reviews

1,734 Views
1,248 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

NETSCOUT vSTREAM

vRealize Network Insight

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.

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

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. vRealize Network Insight

July 2025

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Helped 865,164 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

82nd

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

vRealize Network Insight

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

40th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (42nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of NETSCOUT vSTREAM is 0.2%, down from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vRealize Network Insight is 0.6%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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.

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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.

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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."

"A lot of time is saved when you use this type of software solution for the network. We have moved systems into the new data center and the servers and systems are much faster because of the very low latency between virtual machines."

"The most valuable features are the packet trace flow and that the view of the whole environment is deep."

"It gives the visibility that was either broken or there in pieces only. This solution provides a unified view of the whole system, back and forth. It has helped to reduce time to value, increase performance, more easily manage networks, and provide deep visibility."

"The solution helps reduce time to value, increase performance, provide deep visibility, and easily manage networks."

"If we deploy NSX it shows us how the workflow will flow in the organization, what the roadblocks are, and what we need to do to overcome those hurdles. When we run this product, it gives us reports which describe problems with physical switches. We work with the network team to get them all resolved."

"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."

"As a troubleshooting tool, it's a level-3 troubleshooting-skills tool and it's very easy to use and very easy to find the information that you need."

"I find it user-friendly and intuitive. With the GUI interface that we do use on a regular basis, it's easy to navigate, it's easy to see, easy to query. We get reports. It's easy to use."

More vRealize Network Insight pros

Cons

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

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

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

"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."

"There's enough information there, especially in the visualizations, but I would love to see this in a kiosk mode, where I could have a dashboard for interested stakeholders to see and appreciate what's going on. Then, moving on to a more practical level for our Help Desk, our operations team could benefit by seeing, in real-time, a visual view of the network."

"I want to be able to monitor a network flow that is approximately two weeks back, but I haven't found an easy way to do this."

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

"Since Broadcom acquired VMware, it has been experiencing challenges. Many sales processes are not well defined."

"It needs to be a little easier to use and to understand the information it's putting out. That would make it more helpful. If you're not a network person you need to understand things like network policies and concepts. If you gave it to a regular admin, it would be nice if it were easier for them to pick up what is going on, understand the flows and whether or not stuff should be talking to each other, as opposed to just port groups and IP addresses."

"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."

"vRNI needs more remediation where it hooks into NSX."

More vRealize Network Insight cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing is quite expensive."

"It has brought more money into our company."

"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."

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

"We have spent less time investigating network flows, so it is absolutely cost-effective."

"I rate vRealize Network Insight's pricing a seven point five out of ten."

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

"vRealize Network Insight is expensive."

"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."

More vRealize Network Insight pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Energy/Utilities Company

13%

Government

11%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Healthcare Company

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.

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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....

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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...

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Network Monitoring Software

August 2025

Download NETSCOUT vSTREAM product report

Buyer's Guide

vRealize Network Insight

July 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.

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

July 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: July 2025.

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