Observer GigaStor vs WhatsUp Gold comparison

Viavi Solutions and Progress Software are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Viavi Solutions is ranked #83, while Progress Software is ranked #23 with an average rating of 8.0. Viavi Solutions holds a 0.5% 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

2,083 Views
1,312 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

WhatsUp Gold

Read 25 WhatsUp Gold reviews

10,003 Views
5,802 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: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor vs. WhatsUp Gold

April 2026

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Helped 894,807 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

83rd

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Troubleshooting (13th), Network Packet Broker (NPB) (8th)

WhatsUp Gold

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

23rd

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (30th), Server Monitoring (15th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (18th), Configuration Management (21st), Log Management (41st), Cloud Monitoring Software (22nd), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Observer GigaStor is 0.5%, 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	0.5%
Other	97.2%

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

"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."

"This solution allows us to see exactly what is going on in the network and we can very quickly solve issues with users."

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

"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..."

"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."

"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."

"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."

More Observer GigaStor pros

"It handles the basics of monitoring."

"Overall, we have been satisfied with the functionality of the product."

"The most valuable features are network bandwidth monitoring and monitoring device health."

"The threshold alerting is the most valuable feature."

"The new version has a lot of improved features."

"It is stable."

"Their tech support is very good."

"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 link. You can go into a particular part of the topology map, scroll in, and see exactly which module it is."

More WhatsUp Gold pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

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

"As of this moment, the graphics might need some improvement, because a lot of the information there must be input first to have full potential."

"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."

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

"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."

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

More Observer GigaStor cons

"The pricing for this solution has gone up quite recently, which has led some of our customers to buy an alternative product."

"Integrations with other devices. I want to have a product that has full integration with my active directory so I can track user activity."

"The price could be improved. When we first started using this product, the company was new. The prices were very low then, in comparison with HP OpenView or IBM, but now the policy is too high, relative to the number of devices we have."

"There is a very big gap in the support."

"I would like to see them do an enhancement to the application monitoring. A lot of other products do better application monitoring so they should do some improvements to the application monitoring."

"Users want SMS available via Whatsapp Gold. They don't want to go through third party SMS servers. The solution should work to make this possible."

"There are some subscription charges that are quite heavy. I need to pay for support every year and these charges can be quite expensive."

"Adding on services increases the cost and on the version we have there is no option for ATM monitoring."

More WhatsUp Gold cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's quite expensive."

"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."

"The price of WhatsUp Gold is good."

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

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

"There are some subscription charges that are quite heavy. I need to pay for support every year and these charges can be quite expensive. Aside from the initial cost for the tool, you need to pay additionally for support."

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

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

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

"The most valuable feature is the cost compared to other solutions."

More WhatsUp Gold pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Government

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Comms Service Provider

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

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Earn 20 points

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 ...

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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

What is your primary use case for WhatsUp Gold?

My use case for WhatsUp Gold includes all device availability checks, bandwidth usage, CPU, and memory usage, as well as alarm notifications.

See all answers

Comparisons

Wireshark vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 14% of the time

Gigamon Deep Observability Pipeline vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 8% of the time

IxChariot vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 7% of the time

Viavi Observer Platform vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 6% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 6% of the time

More Observer GigaStor Competitors

LibreNMS vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

SCOM vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

ScienceLogic vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor 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

April 2026

Download Observer GigaStor product report

Buyer's Guide

WhatsUp Gold

April 2026

Download WhatsUp Gold product report

Overview

Observer GigaStor provides detailed network visibility and data capture for efficient troubleshooting and analysis. It's a robust tool designed to manage today’s complex network environments, offering reliability and performance insights.

Observer GigaStor specializes in long-term network traffic capture, delivering comprehensive forensic analysis capabilities. It stands as a trusted resource for IT departments aiming to resolve network performance issues swiftly. By capturing and storing packets with high precision, it aids in identifying both current and past anomalies, ensuring network health and performance continuity through proactive monitoring.

What are the key features of Observer GigaStor?

Long-term Data Capture: Enables storage of vast amounts of data for extensive historical analysis.
Comprehensive Protocol Support: Offers support for diverse protocols, enhancing troubleshooting accuracy.
Retrospective Analysis: Provides the ability to trace issues back to their origin point, improving issue resolution speed.
Scalability: Adapts to network growth without sacrificing performance capabilities.

What benefits and ROI can be expected from reviews?

Increased Troubleshooting Efficiency: Provides quicker resolution times, reducing network downtime.
Enhanced Network Visibility: Improves understanding of network performance and traffic patterns.
Reduced Operational Costs: Limits the need for manual troubleshooting, saving on labor costs.
Improved Decision Making: Data insights aid in strategic planning for infrastructure improvements.

Observer GigaStor's implementation spans across various industries, from telecommunications to finance, where maintaining robust and secure network performance is crucial. Its ability to analyze and retrieve historical network data supports compliance and operational stability demands in these sectors.

Viavi Solutions

WhatsUp Gold stands out with its comprehensive network monitoring, dynamic mapping, and real-time alerts, offering essential tools for managing extensive IT infrastructures.

WhatsUp Gold provides robust capabilities in network visibility through dynamic mapping and NetFlow analysis. The platform's interactive topology aids in pinpointing issues effectively. Auto-discovery ensures complete network device tracking. While offering an intuitive interface and integration with Cisco ServiceNow, users find server performance monitoring useful for incident handling. However, improvements are anticipated in application monitoring and Active Directory integration. The pricing model and customization options leave room for enhancement. Despite these, users benefit from its integrated dashboards for immediate device health checks and network updates, making it beneficial for large-scale infrastructure management.

What features does WhatsUp Gold offer?

Network Monitoring: Provides continuous oversight of network components
Dynamic Mapping: Offers visual representation of network topology
NetFlow Analysis: Delivers insights into bandwidth utilization
Threshold Alerts: Notifies users upon reaching set performance thresholds
Auto-Discovery: Detects devices automatically for complete network coverage

What benefits should users expect from reviews?

Comprehensive Visibility: Enhanced understanding of network elements
Real-Time Monitoring: Immediate insights into network and device status
Cost-Effectiveness: Competitive solution suitable for expansive networks
User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies the management of complex networks

Organizations in sectors like telecommunications, education, and healthcare utilize WhatsUp Gold for their network monitoring needs. Telecom companies track switches and routers, educational institutions manage bandwidth usage, and healthcare facilities monitor device availability to ensure seamless operations.

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

April 2026

Free Report: Observer GigaStor vs. WhatsUp Gold

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