Nmap vs Plixer Scrutinizer comparison

Nmap and Plixer are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Nmap is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.8, while Plixer is ranked #75. Nmap holds a 0.7% mindshare in NMS, compared to Plixer’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Nmap users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Plixer users who would recommend it.

Nmap

Read 22 Nmap reviews

1,820 Views
1,638 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Plixer Scrutinizer

Read 15 Plixer Scrutinizer reviews

1,610 Views
1,191 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Nmap

Plixer Scrutinizer

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Nmap and Plixer Scrutinizer compete in the network analysis category. Nmap seems to have the upper hand in cost-effectiveness and deployment, while Plixer Scrutinizer offers advanced analytics justifying its pricing for robust monitoring.

Features: Nmap provides comprehensive network discovery, security auditing capabilities, and versatile scanning options. Plixer Scrutinizer offers in-depth traffic analysis, flow data visualization, and detailed security insights.

Room for Improvement: Nmap could improve its user interface, offer enhanced visualization options, and increase its analytics depth. Plixer Scrutinizer could simplify its deployment process, make its interface more intuitive, and offer more flexible pricing options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nmap benefits from a simple deployment process appealing to users familiar with open-source tools. Plixer Scrutinizer, although more complex in deployment, provides extensive customer service to assist users with its rich features.

Pricing and ROI: Nmap's open-source nature leads to negligible setup costs, providing significant returns in security. Plixer Scrutinizer, with higher initial costs, offers substantial ROI for detailed network analysis needs, aligning its price with its capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Nmap vs. Plixer Scrutinizer Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Nmap vs. Plixer Scrutinizer

December 2025

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Helped 881,176 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

Nmap

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

9th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Plixer Scrutinizer

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

75th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (12th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nmap is 0.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Plixer Scrutinizer is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Nmap	0.7%
Plixer Scrutinizer	0.5%
Other	98.8%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

MoshiurRahman Khan

CEO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Improves network monitoring and offers insights into traffic, including VPNs

The real-time reporting feature of Nmap is particularly valuable. It generates detailed reports on the source and destination IP addresses, the protocols used, and the types of traffic. This feature is crucial for law enforcement agencies to monitor and analyze network connectivity effectively. It also has traffic analysis. For example, assessing bandwidth usage and configuring the tool to track specific types of traffic is crucial. Unlike SolarWinds, which requires configuration for this, Nmap has built-in functionality that allows it to check all 4,000 computer ports. It identifies the type of traffic each port is using and can easily generate reports on network communications between computers, whether there are 100 or 1000 in the network.

Read full review

Ira Mulyanti

Sales Director at ARGA SOLUSI

An affordable product with great integration capabilities

Plixer Core Platform is a valuable feature and a good software. Plixer Scrutinizer uses NetFlow analysis to monitor whatever is there in a network. Price-wise, Plixer Scrutinizer is not an expensive product. Basically, Plixer Scrutinizer is an affordable product. Plixer Scrutinizer is a tool that allows for customization, especially in scenarios where customers need new product features. Plixer Scrutinizer is a tool that can integrate with any other brand or product in the market, so it is not an area of concern.

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

"Nmap is mostly helpful during compliance checks. We run the scanner to see how many devices are on our network and find vulnerabilities in those that aren't compliant. We also use it monthly to scan our network and identify devices that aren't connected properly. This helps us detect any issues related to the operating systems of these devices."

"From a functionality standpoint, it's robust and straightforward to comprehend."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its scripts. These scripts prove beneficial when security features may obscure or block connections. Nmap helps identify vulnerabilities across different systems, including web servers and various server types."

"Nmap is easy to use. It's a command-line interface, and the output is quite good."

"The most important function, according to me, is the capability to use some arguments in the scanning. The solution's capability to go figure and do a deep dive, discovering information on specific aspects."

"The solution detects the operating systems, which makes testing the software much easier before making the payload."

"It helps us secure the network infrastructure."

"It enables us to delve deeper and identify the services and open ports on the system and visualize this information on a dashboard automatically."

More Nmap pros

"The most valuable features of the solution are the ability to track what a device is doing and to go back historically. It is also able to go down to, and identify, very low levels of traffic."

"Visualization of the network traffic is the most valuable feature. It allows you to drill into information quite quickly."

"We didn't experience any bugs."

"The most valuable features of Plixer Scrutinizer are its ease of use, accessibility, and UI."

"It helps us determine what is going on with our Internet and who is hogging it all up. If we get a real high throughput or a throughput that's going over and getting dropped fairly quickly, we can tell who (or what device) is consuming that traffic."

"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."

"As a network engineer, the ability to identify what traffic on the link is consuming all the bandwidth at any given time, and provide immediate feedback to the business, is the most valuable feature."

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

More Plixer Scrutinizer pros

Cons

"Nmap needs to improve its scanning speed."

"One of the drawbacks of the standard Nmap utility is that it does not come with a graphical user interface, unlike a number of other open-source alternatives such as Zenmap."

"There could be a specific option to check non-pingable endpoints for the product."

"Nmap major operates through the CLI; there's no GUI component, and that's where the challenge is."

"There are concerns with the stability of the product, making it an area where improvements are required."

"The solution should increase the number of features under a free license."

"The tool's license limits the number of scans it can perform. Improving the license model could benefit customers by allowing more scans for compliance and other purposes."

"There is room for improvement in the design, the GUI. It looks a bit odd. Maybe Nmap should improve it or add more widgets to make it more attractive, but the basic functionality is good and provides what we need."

More Nmap cons

"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."

"Knowing that they're coming out with a new user interface, that is an area where there is room for improvement. There are so many variables. They should limit the variables in the user interface and create some classes, like "simple," "novice," and "expert" to narrow down the variables within it."

"In Plixer Scrutinizer, scalability is an area with minor concerns where improvements are required."

"The visual acuity of how it presents data can sometimes be confusing. It takes a bit for people to spin up how to look at the graphs."

"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."

"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."

"It would be useful if there was a way to back up the configuration information. E.g., if you wanted to deploy a new instance or disaster recovery, you could quite easily deploy and restore the config, as opposed to having to restore all the NetFlow data. If there was just a button that said "backup config information", that would be good."

More Plixer Scrutinizer cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Nmap is an open-source product. You don't need a license to install it."

"The solution is open source so it is free."

"The solution is free of cost, but there are specific services that we have to buy."

"I am using the free version of Nmap."

"The product's pricing is fine. The licensing options for Nmap include perpetual licenses and volume-based licenses. For perpetual licenses, once you purchase it, there's no need to invest in renewals. And for volume-based licenses, enterprise companies can use it multiple times based on the number of users or devices they need to scan. It's a pay-as-you-go model, similar to how you pay for what you use."

"The solution is free of cost."

"It's an open-source product, and I haven't seen any premiums. Options are available for those who purchase, but for my use case, everything I need is available in the community and forums."

"It's an open-source solution. Commerically, only the support service is available."

More Nmap pricing and cost advice

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

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

"There is a recurring maintenance fee after the initial purchase or if we want the license upgrade."

"Compared to some of the other tools we have, it's incredibly reasonably priced."

"We recently bought a license upgrade, so we will integrate more exporters. We upgraded from a 25 exporter license to a 50 exporter license. Therefore, there will be more flows, and this will be an extension. I don't know when we will purchase a faster server, because the server that we have is quite new."

"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."

"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."

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

More Plixer Scrutinizer pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

14%

Government

University

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	11

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Nmap?

Nmap is mostly helpful during compliance checks. We run the scanner to see how many devices are on our network and find vulnerabilities in those that aren't compliant. We also use it monthly to sca...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nmap?

I am using the free version of Nmap.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Nmap?

Nmap is used for network scanning to map the network, identify devices, and assess their status. It helps determine open ports and services running on a particular endpoint or server within an ente...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Nmap

January 2026

Download Nmap product report

Buyer's Guide

Plixer Scrutinizer

January 2026

Download Plixer Scrutinizer product report

Overview

Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free and open source (license) utility for network discovery and security auditing. Many systems and network administrators also find it useful for tasks such as network inventory, managing service upgrade schedules, and monitoring host or service uptime. Nmap uses raw IP packets in novel ways to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are running, what type of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens of other characteristics. It was designed to rapidly scan large networks, but works fine against single hosts. Nmap runs on all major computer operating systems, and official binary packages are available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. In addition to the classic command-line Nmap executable, the Nmap suite includes an advanced GUI and results viewer (Zenmap), a flexible data transfer, redirection, and debugging tool (Ncat), a utility for comparing scan results (Ndiff), and a packet generation and response analysis tool (Nping).

Nmap

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

Lockheed Martin, Eastern Bank Boston, Perspecta, Harris Corporation, Discovery Communication

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

Nmap vs. Plixer Scrutinizer

December 2025

Free Report: Nmap vs. Plixer Scrutinizer

Find out what your peers are saying about Nmap vs. Plixer Scrutinizer and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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