Plixer Scrutinizer vs SCOM comparison

Plixer and Microsoft are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Plixer is ranked #53 with an average rating of 8.0, while Microsoft is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.3. Plixer holds a 0.4% mindshare in NMS, compared to Microsoft’s 1.8% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Plixer users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Plixer Scrutinizer

Read 15 Plixer Scrutinizer reviews

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383 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

SCOM

Read 82 SCOM reviews

3,859 Views
2,353 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Plixer Scrutinizer

SCOM

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

SCOM and Plixer Scrutinizer compete in IT monitoring, with SCOM excelling in Microsoft environments and Plixer Scrutinizer leading in network traffic analysis.

Features: SCOM offers robust capabilities in monitoring Microsoft applications, extensive management packs, and integration with other Microsoft tools. It provides flexible monitoring solutions and comprehensive dashboards with automated alerts. Plixer Scrutinizer specializes in network traffic analysis, delivering detailed traffic insights and extensive reporting capabilities. It integrates with various flow technologies, making it valuable for network monitoring.

Room for Improvement: SCOM needs a more intuitive interface and improved reporting functionalities, with challenges in customizing management packs and handling non-Microsoft environments. Plixer Scrutinizer users report complexity in updates and scalability issues. Both products could enhance the user interface and documentation for configuration processes, with these improvements more pronounced in Plixer.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SCOM is mainly deployed on-premises and in hybrid cloud settings, benefiting from Microsoft's support infrastructure, with positive sentiments when a Premier Support agreement exists. Plixer Scrutinizer is predominantly on-premises, with both products receiving commendable technical support. Microsoft's broader ecosystem often benefits larger enterprises.

Pricing and ROI: SCOM, linked to Enterprise Agreements, offers favorable terms for Microsoft ecosystem users, providing good ROI through minimized downtime and improved monitoring. Plixer Scrutinizer employs a device-based licensing model, competitively priced for network traffic analysis, though additional modules may incur extra costs. Both products deliver significant value, with SCOM being more cost-effective in Microsoft environments.

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

Buyer's Guide

Plixer Scrutinizer vs. SCOM

April 2025

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Helped 850,236 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

Plixer Scrutinizer

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

53rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (10th)

SCOM

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

16th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Event Monitoring (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Plixer Scrutinizer is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SCOM is 1.8%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Ronald Jansen

Owner/President at Abraxax

Reporting is extensive, flexible, and can be custom-made in just a short time

In terms of additional features I'd like to see in the next release of Plixer Scrutinizer, I can't think of any because you can do some integration with other monitoring tools that are not strong in NetFlow or don't have NetFlow at all. There are also some integration possibilities in the product, plus there are alerts, too. Plixer Scrutinizer is a pretty complete product. There was a price lift because previously the product was privately owned, and now there is some external capital in the organization, so pricing could be lower, though, for Plixer Scrutinizer, there is almost no competition at this price point.

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MarcMermuys

ICT System Administrator at College of Europe

Has efficient monitoring with robust integration capabilities

We use SCOM to configure different monitors using several management packs. It integrates systems like Active Directory and correlates them, and it is used for monitoring and managing systems SCOM allows integration of several systems, providing correlation between different systems such as…

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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

"Plixer Scrutinizer is an affordable product. Plixer Scrutinizer is a tool that allows for customization, especially in scenarios where customers need new product features."

"One of the most valuable features of Plixer Scrutinizer is the reporting, particularly how easy it is to drill down into the reports. Another valuable feature of the solution is its overall visibility. It's great. I also liked Plixer Scrutinizer in terms of deployment time and that it's very simple to set up. Once you get the appliance set up and connected, the customer starts to see results immediately, versus other solutions where that could take a while."

"One feature I found most valuable in Plixer Scrutinizer is the very extensive reporting. Reporting is very flexible, though sometimes you need a little bit of support from Plixer Scrutinizer to create custom-made reporting in a very short time. Reporting is a very strong feature of the product."

"It's agnostic as far as what your network gear is. As long as it supports an sFlow, JFlow, NetFlow, some kind of flow monitoring, Plixer will support it very well."

"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."

"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."

"We didn't experience any bugs."

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

More Plixer Scrutinizer pros

"The stability has been great."

"It works better than other products I’ve used – namely SolarWinds, which is cumbersome and error prone for web app monitoring. SCOM is not."

"The product’s auto-remediation feature helps with automation."

"It can send messages to our ticketing system."

"The tool helps to monitor Windows servers. It offers alerts from a central location."

"The solution's reporting engine has given me detailed information on which applications or services I've either failed or about to fail in terms of the predictive makeup on Azure cloud."

"Being able to make and customize management packs and send out notifications is very valuable."

"It is very good at monitoring Microsoft Server."

More SCOM pros

Cons

"Though Plixer Scrutinizer has network detection and response, it's an area that needs just a little more rounding out. Another room for improvement in the solution is its lack of SaaS offering which some customers were looking for. My company deals in small to medium businesses, mid-market, and some customers wanted the SaaS feature which Plixer Scrutinizer doesn't offer. What I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is for it to have a SaaS offering because my company also deals with educational spaces and smaller businesses that just don't have the staff that can implement this. If there's either a managed service or SaaS-based offering to just make it a little easier for those types of customers, it would be a great addition to Plixer Scrutinizer."

"I wish the reporting side was easier to work with, but it does a decent job. I also wish the reporting side was a little more intuitive or they offered more reporting examples."

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

"There was a price lift because previously the product was privately owned, and now there is some external capital in the organization, so pricing could be lower, though, for Plixer Scrutinizer, there is almost no competition at this price point."

"Data retention needs improvement. Data retention is a thing where we are looking for a better way to collect flow data for a longer time to do forensic research on security incidents. By default, data retention is quite low. We need detailed data in safe storage for a longer time, e.g., for a couple of months. An improvement would be a way to export data into a secure long-term storage."

"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."

"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."

"There is room for improvement around the data that they have on the website about solutions... they should have more templated solutions on their website. Going out and identifying how to do RTP performance with a Cisco router, or how to do application response times in an Arrista data center deployment was where most of the work was... They should spend some more time documenting solutions and putting together white papers."

More Plixer Scrutinizer cons

"The end-user components, including the dashboards, the administration console, and the web console, need to be improved."

"The configurations could be better. There are multiple tests where you can do something, but they can be a trigger as well. The overriding methodologies are not that easy. The configurations are difficult. The configuration and thorough day-to-day operations to get them to the level you want takes some time. It's very difficult."

"The solution’s initial setup is difficult."

"It'll help if they can provide real-time or closer to real-time monitoring."

"In a future release, they should add email notification alerts."

"I would like to better be able to monitor Oracle processes."

"It would be a much better product if Microsoft provided management packs with the product."

"Stability and some performance issues exist and they need improvement."

More SCOM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"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."

"Our entire solution, amortized over five years, is in the vicinity of $40,000 to $50,000 a year."

"I rate Plixer Scrutinizer's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price or affordable, and ten is high price or expensive."

"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."

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

"There are no extra costs. It's about $8,000 a year. The bang for the buck (cost) is definitely a plus."

More Plixer Scrutinizer pricing and cost advice

"We have an EA with Microsoft, and it comes as part of the EA."

"The pricing is good, and it's part of their system center suite."

"If you have a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, then this is part of the agreement."

"I don't know the exact cost because it's managed by our sales team, but Microsoft is on the higher side."

"The platform is cost-effective due to our existing Microsoft support."

"We have to pay for a license and the price is fine for us."

"Two customers bought the enterprise agreement with Microsoft and paid for Software Assurance. But few customers don't buy it for Software Assurance. They just buy it and deploy it, and they think that we will be using it for the next five years."

"There is a license needed to use this solution and it is paid annually."

More SCOM pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Plixer Scrutinizer?

Plixer Scrutinizer is an affordable product. Plixer Scrutinizer is a tool that allows for customization, especially in scenarios where customers need new product features.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Plixer Scrutinizer?

I rate Plixer Scrutinizer's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price or affordable, and ten is high price or expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Plixer Scrutinizer?

I don't have deep enough knowledge to comment on what requires improvements in Plixer Scrutinizer. In Plixer Scrutinizer, scalability is an area with minor concerns where improvements are required.

See all answers

What do you like most about SCOM?

The tool helps to monitor Windows servers. It offers alerts from a central location.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SCOM?

I am not aware of the exact pricing as it is managed by my supervisor. As an academic institution, we receive substantial discounts.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SCOM?

SCOM is likely to be phased out in favor of more compatible tools like Icinga ( /products/icinga-reviews ) for application monitoring or when moving to cloud solutions like CloudWatch and Azure ( /...

See all answers

Comparisons

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 26% of the time

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 25% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 18% of the time

Kentik vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 18% of the time

LogicMonitor vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 14% of the time

More Plixer Scrutinizer Competitors

Dynatrace vs SCOM

Compared 21% of the time

Zabbix vs SCOM

Compared 12% of the time

Datadog vs SCOM

Compared 7% of the time

LogicMonitor vs SCOM

Compared 6% of the time

Checkmk vs SCOM

Compared 5% of the time

More SCOM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Plixer Scrutinizer

April 2025

Download Plixer Scrutinizer product report

Buyer's Guide

SCOM

April 2025

Download SCOM product report

Also Known As

No data available

System Center Operations Manager, SCOM 2012

Overview

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

SCOM (System Center Operations Manager) is a cross-platform data center monitoring and reporting tool that checks the status of various objects defined within the environment, such as server hardware, system services, etc. The solution allows data center administrators to deploy, configure, manage, and monitor the operations, services, devices and applications of multiple enterprise IT systems via a single pane of glass. It is suitable for businesses of all sizes.

SCOM Features

SCOM has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Application monitoring
Database monitoring
Threshold alerts
IT Asset Discovery
Predictive capabilities
Server usage monitoring and capacity forecasting
Application performance management console
Server availability and performance monitoring
Collaboration tools
Virtualization monitoring
Patch management
Out-of-the box templates to monitor applications
Application dependency mapping and thresholding

SCOM Benefits

There are several benefits to implementing SCOM. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Management and monitoring of Windows as well as Unix/Linux platforms
Remotely connect to Windows machines and perform administrative tasks from the console itself
Custom dashboard creation to help monitor the datacenter with ease
Agent based monitoring
Integrates well with other Microsoft products
Easy to use and reliable

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the SCOM solution.

A Manager at a financial services firm says, “The feature I like most about SCOM is that it is easy-to-use. I find it very user-friendly. I also like the knowledge base which it has. You can find the resolution to questions or issues directly within the SCOM itself. It will alert you with a recommendation of what you need to do at the same time. This sort of self-diagnosis or prompting is one of the great values you get from SCOM compared to other solutions.”

PeerSpot user Zahari Z., Information Technology Auditor at a financial services firm, mentions, “Availability monitoring is the feature I have found most valuable, as well as the capacity and ability to send notifications. There is a mechanism to set up a notification from the SCOM and whenever there is a drop in the availability the notification alerts not only for availability but for other issues as well. You can align thresholds according to the speed of your environment and you can have a threshold related notification, which is one of the useful features.”

Bill W., Sr. Systems Engineer at Arapahoe County Government, comments, “ I like some of their newer features, such as maintenance schedules, because SCOM records SLA and SLO time. When we patch, things are automatically put into maintenance mode so that the numbers for our systems being down, do not count against us.”

A Project Manager at a tech services company explains, “The feature I have found most valuable is the book feature. While we run the Sprint one we can add some setups for multiple sprints.”

A Systems Engineer at an educational organization states, “Because it's Windows-based, it actually reports quite well. It reports everything you can think of on the Windows server and allows you to monitor anything. It's excellent for those in the Windows world as it's very good at it.”

Microsoft

Sample Customers

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

Dialog Telekom

Buyer's Guide

Plixer Scrutinizer vs. SCOM

April 2025

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