Observer GigaStor vs WhatsUp Gold comparison

Viavi Solutions and Progress Software are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Viavi Solutions is ranked #86, while Progress Software is ranked #24 with an average rating of 8.7. Viavi Solutions holds a 0.4% mindshare in NMS, compared to Progress Software’s 2.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Viavi Solutions users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Progress Software users who would recommend it.

Observer GigaStor

Read 7 Observer GigaStor reviews

1,238 Views
780 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

WhatsUp Gold

Read 25 WhatsUp Gold reviews

6,518 Views
3,911 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Observer GigaStor

WhatsUp Gold

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

WhatsUp Gold and Observer GigaStor compete in network monitoring and analysis. Observer GigaStor has the upper hand due to its powerful feature sets, including advanced analytics and long-term storage capabilities, although WhatsUp Gold is preferred for its cost-effectiveness and ease of use.

Features: WhatsUp Gold offers network detection, mapping, and performance monitoring, simplifying network management. Observer GigaStor provides detailed packet capture, protocol analysis, and access to historical data necessary for in-depth analysis and troubleshooting.

Room for Improvement: WhatsUp Gold could enhance its packet-level analysis and expand its storage options. Additional integration capabilities with third-party tools would also be beneficial. Observer GigaStor might improve ease of use for less technical staff, reduce deployment complexity, and offer more competitive pricing plans for simplified features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: WhatsUp Gold is known for its straightforward deployment and user-friendly interface, with quick setup support. Its customer service is accessible and responsive. Observer GigaStor, while offering comprehensive technical support, involves a more complex deployment process due to its extensive features and capabilities.

Pricing and ROI: WhatsUp Gold is budget-friendly, offering high ROI for essential monitoring needs without the premium cost. Observer GigaStor requires a higher investment due to sophisticated features but provides significant value for enterprises that need exhaustive network insights.

To learn more, read our detailed Observer GigaStor vs. WhatsUp Gold Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor vs. WhatsUp Gold

March 2026

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Helped 885,376 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

Observer GigaStor

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

86th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Troubleshooting (14th), Network Packet Broker (NPB) (9th)

WhatsUp Gold

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

24th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (26th), Server Monitoring (15th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (19th), Configuration Management (20th), Log Management (35th), Cloud Monitoring Software (21st), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Observer GigaStor is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhatsUp Gold is 2.3%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
WhatsUp Gold	2.3%
Observer GigaStor	0.4%
Other	97.3%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Jeroen-Dubbelman

Director at Bitrate

Aids significantly in the threat-hunting process and provides a score-based evaluation of user experience

There are many valuable features, but understanding end-user response times stands out. It provides a score-based evaluation of user experience, helping customers quickly pinpoint whether issues originate from the network, server, client, or application. Additionally, it facilitates in-depth analysis of application dependencies. The retrospective network analysis capability of Observer GigaStor has been beneficial. It's a pivotal feature for network performance solutions. However, I prefer to consider the entire solution suite - GigaStor, along with GigaFlow and Apex - for comprehensive network visibility and monitoring. So, I prefer to integrate all three solutions to provide the best visibility. They complement each other well, with Apex aggregating and correlating data from both GigaStor and GigaFlow to enhance environmental understanding and troubleshooting efficiency.

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Erik Cheng

Technical Manager at Quan Hung Gourmet

Efficient monitoring with detailed customization, yet complexity remains

The best feature of WhatsUp Gold is the automatic generation of topology and its integration with virtualization and wireless. I have used the automated device discovery with this topology feature. The interactive map feature helps me manage the topology because sometimes we cannot draw the topology correctly, so we need to manually edit the connections. The alerting system is very tunable and customizable, but it's a little complicated to use. Many customers cannot manage it by themselves and need support from us, the provider. We always use the dashboards in the SOC, where we constantly display a dashboard or multiple dashboards. This allows us to know immediately if the connection or bandwidth is full or if the connection is broken.

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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

"It can help to write your rules, organize firewalls, your block, and also your protocols and IP address to come in or out of your network."

"If you have the opportunity, I would strongly encourage you to get it, because it makes the IT experience easier and more flexible, by providing the ability to see things in your networks like the directory packet label."

"The ability to capture packets. It is not only for monitoring. That is very important for a company that wants to keep an eye on the packets, the transactions, the flows..."

"There are many valuable features, but understanding end-user response times stands out. It provides a score-based evaluation of user experience, helping customers quickly pinpoint whether issues originate from the network, server, client, or application. Additionally, it facilitates in-depth analysis of application dependencies."

"I also have the ability to see an application's performance, to see what's going on, why a network is slow, why this program for this user is experiencing a delay or some network issue"

"Go take a look at it. It's a great product and has great capabilities."

"Industry-leading line rates, packet-capture technology and data-mining capabilities are the most valuable features."

"Enables us to go back in time to capture an issue and analyze it for a solution, and this after the fact analysis is key to overcoming the bump in the night issues."

More Observer GigaStor pros

"The most valuable feature is the monitoring of resources."

"You have to invest a few days to become an expert in this solution, but after that, it's possible to do almost anything with it."

"It handles the basics of monitoring."

"In terms of pricing, I'd say that the pricing is nice and the product is good."

"The best feature of WhatsUp Gold is the automatic generation of topology and its integration with virtualization and wireless."

"We primarily use the solution to check the state of the network, monitoring thousands of devices and all of the internal network, and it is the first tool we use to see the state of the network for real-time monitoring."

"The solution effectively monitors network devices and servers."

"It is very good at monitoring the network and keeps us up to date on the status of internal devices."

More WhatsUp Gold pros

Cons

"GigaStor feeds into Apex. So, the area where there could be improvement would be in artificial intelligence. For example, the incorporation of more advanced machine learning or AI capabilities could enhance its functionality."

"Maybe the graphical user interface could be simplified to allow people to use it more easily. It's already good, but they can work more on it to make it even easier."

"The interface is pretty complex, so for the average user, it takes a while to get up to speed with it. I would like it to be more user-friendly."

"I would like to have more than 4TB of storage available in the portable version of this solution."

"The Observer Console UI is consistent and stable, but could use some updating to be more modern."

"There are some issues, in our environment that puts processing restraints on the Gigastor when turning on trending data to be sent to APEX."

"Maybe the graphical user interface could be simplified to allow people to use it more easily."

"Graphics need improvement. Because a lot of the information there you have to input first in some case to have full potential. It could be more automated."

More Observer GigaStor cons

"WhatsUp Gold should work on real-time monitoring and configuration management. If they succeed in doing this, the solution will cover all the network troubleshooting aspects and will be a benefit."

"The new release cadence needs to be improved. It takes a while for them to add new features and functionality."

"Sometimes it's a little bit slow."

"The licensing model could be improved. Right now, the levels are too far apart. This causes the solution to be more expensive than it needs to be."

"The new release cadence needs to be improved. It takes a while for them to add new features and functionality. There should be a quicker turnaround with new versions."

"The tool should focus on increasing its market share, as it is the only area of concern where improvements are needed."

"I might like to see a better interface in the future."

"We can never achieve or get a good picture of the network topology."

More WhatsUp Gold cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It depends on the requirements you have. There are three types of license. There's the updates license, the work group license, and the workstation license."

"It's quite expensive."

"Pricing is reasonable compared to other products."

"There is a license needed to use WhatsUp Gold."

"The tool's price is reasonable. WhatsUp Gold is cheaper than SolarWinds."

"I'm not sure, but it's expensive. We don't pay any additional fees."

"The price of WhatsUp Gold is good."

"This is a well priced solution."

"The pricing can be on the expensive side when considering competing products."

"The choice of version depends on the number of points, or devices, that you want to monitor, and this makes the product expensive."

More WhatsUp Gold pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Wholesaler/Distributor

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	14

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Observer GigaStor?

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Observer GigaStor?

I would rate the pricing a ten out of ten. It's quite expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Observer GigaStor?

GigaStor feeds into Apex. So, the area where there could be improvement would be in artificial intelligence. For example, the incorporation of more advanced machine learning or AI capabilities coul...

See all answers

What do you like most about WhatsUp Gold?

The interactive mapping interface for scrolling, zooming, and drilling down on an element to learn about a network issue is good. When we see a network there will sometimes be a spot that has one l...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for WhatsUp Gold?

Clients find the licensing calculator confusing, but we simplify this for them by collecting relevant information first. The licensing is based on devices, providing better cost-effectiveness than ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with WhatsUp Gold?

It would be great if WhatsUp Gold could add features that simplify management with AI, as it is currently too complicated to manage.

See all answers

Comparisons

Wireshark vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 14% of the time

Viavi Observer Platform vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 8% of the time

Gigamon Deep Observability Pipeline vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 8% of the time

IxChariot vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 7% of the time

NetBeez vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 6% of the time

More Observer GigaStor Competitors

LibreNMS vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 4% of the time

SCOM vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

ScienceLogic vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

NinjaOne vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

More WhatsUp Gold Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor

March 2026

Download Observer GigaStor product report

Buyer's Guide

WhatsUp Gold

March 2026

Download WhatsUp Gold product report

Overview

Observer GigaStor is a network analysis tool that comes in a variety of form factors, including rack mount, portable, and virtual. Capable of storing up to a petabyte of traffic for later analysis, GigaStor helps ensure optimal network and application performance.

Viavi Solutions

Explore and manage your entire network infrastructure effortlessly with WhatsUp Gold's robust layer 2/3 discovery, creating a detailed interactive map from the edge to the cloud. Monitor devices, wireless controllers, servers, virtual machines, applications, and traffic flows across various environments. Real-time alerts ensure optimal performance, allowing you to meet or exceed SLAs. The platform offers customizable maps, dashboards, and alerts for easy network management. Quickly resolve issues with intuitive workflows, reducing Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR). WhatsUp Gold's integrated log management provides easy visibility and control of device log data, allowing monitoring, filtering, searching, and alerting on syslogs or Windows logs. Archive logs to comply with regulatory requirements and preserve historical data, all through a user-friendly interface. Streamline network monitoring and issue resolution with WhatsUp Gold, making network management efficient and hassle-free.

Progress Software

Sample Customers

Cisco Systems, Hawaiian Telecom, Renown Health, State of Nevada, U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Allstate Insurance, Jack Henry & Associates, United States Airforce, US Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Chicago Board Options Exchange

Artoni Trasporti, Austin Independent School District, Banca Marche, Burke County North Carolina, Cambridge University School of Clinical Medicine, Clayco, Community Integrated Care, Desca, Deutsche Bergbau, Flexi-Van, Gropper, Hamleys, Hammonds Furniture, Knowledge IT, Idras S.P.A., Sibeg, Swann Engineering, Trivium Lindenhof

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor vs. WhatsUp Gold

March 2026

Free Report: Observer GigaStor vs. WhatsUp Gold

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