Plixer Scrutinizer vs SolarWinds Network Automation Manager comparison

Plixer and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Plixer is ranked #75, while SolarWinds is ranked #95. Plixer holds a 0.5% mindshare in NMS, compared to SolarWinds’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Plixer users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 50% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

Plixer Scrutinizer

Read 15 Plixer Scrutinizer reviews

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1,191 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Network Automati...

Read 2 SolarWinds Network Automation Manager reviews

890 Views
507 Comparison Views

50% willing to recommend

Plixer Scrutinizer

SolarWinds Network Automati...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Plixer Scrutinizer and SolarWinds Network Automation Manager compete in the network performance monitoring and management sector. SolarWinds Network Automation Manager has the upper hand with its robust feature set and perceived value.

Features: Plixer Scrutinizer includes in-depth traffic analysis, network visualization, and a focus on security and incident response. SolarWinds Network Automation Manager offers automated configuration management, extensive network mapping, and advanced automation for larger networks.

Room for Improvement: Plixer Scrutinizer can enhance its installation process, expand automation capabilities, and improve integration with third-party tools. SolarWinds Network Automation Manager could lower the initial setup cost, simplify user interface complexity, and provide more flexible pricing options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds Network Automation Manager offers a streamlined setup with strong technical support, making deployment straightforward for larger enterprises. Plixer Scrutinizer requires a more hands-on installation but provides superior post-deployment support with a personalized service approach.

Pricing and ROI: Plixer Scrutinizer is noted for competitive pricing, offering substantial returns on investment through network operation and security cost savings. SolarWinds Network Automation Manager, though carrying a higher initial setup cost, justifies its pricing with higher ROI via its advanced features and automation efficiency.

To learn more, read our detailed Plixer Scrutinizer vs. SolarWinds Network Automation Manager Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Plixer Scrutinizer vs. SolarWinds Network Automation Manager

December 2025

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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

75th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (12th)

SolarWinds Network Automati...

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

95th

Average Rating

5.6

Reviews Sentiment

8.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Automation (14th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Plixer Scrutinizer is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Network Automation Manager is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Plixer Scrutinizer	0.5%
SolarWinds Network Automation Manager	0.4%
Other	99.1%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

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.

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Giulio Valeri

Owner at SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS SRL

Threat detection failures, poor technical support, and expensive

We use the solution to manage all of our customer's systems. We monitor and decide if everything is okay and if not, we do changes when needed. For example, if there is a need to change the antivirus software we can automate the process and install the new one. There are scripts within the software…

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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

"The ability to view the status of the top-10 at a glance is helpful. We immediately know which link is over-utilized or heavily used... and it's all in real-time."

"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."

"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."

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

"It shows us the saturation of the network of devices. It gives us a clear view of the flows in the network to understand, for instance, planning upgrades in the network to get an idea of what's going on the network on traffic flows. It gives us insight, for instance, on what's going on on our VPN Client. There are a lot of things where it provides very helpful information. It also gives us our security reports with quite detailed information on what's going on in the network, and whether there are data exfiltrations and so on."

"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 solution helps to enrich the data context of our network traffic. It allows me to see what applications are most in use on a slightly historical basis, going back a day or week at tops. It allows me to tune QoS or traffic shaping around what's being used. It saves me from having to unnecessarily upgrade, if I don't need to."

More Plixer Scrutinizer pros

"The installation is easy."

"The solution offers so many great resources, it makes them a powerhouse in the market."

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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"We couldn't get it set up properly."

"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."

"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

"The price could be a bit lower."

"We did not like SolarWinds because it was not able to communicate between UPSA and our accounting system. They should have better integration."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"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."

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

"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."

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

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

More Plixer Scrutinizer pricing and cost advice

"The price of SolarWinds Network Automation Manager is fair. However, it is more expensive than ConnectWise."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

University

Government

13%

Performing Arts

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

No data available

Comparisons

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 14% of the time

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 14% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 13% of the time

Kentik vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 11% of the time

WhatsUp Gold vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 9% of the time

More Plixer Scrutinizer Competitors

NetBrain vs SolarWinds Network Automation Manager

Compared 53% of the time

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) vs SolarWinds Network Automation Manager

Compared 13% of the time

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs SolarWinds Network Automation Manager

Compared 11% of the time

Cisco DNA Center vs SolarWinds Network Automation Manager

Compared 8% of the time

Nuage Networks vs SolarWinds Network Automation Manager

Compared 8% of the time

More SolarWinds Network Automation Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Plixer Scrutinizer

January 2026

Download Plixer Scrutinizer product report

Buyer's Guide

Network Automation

January 2026

SolarWinds Network Automation Manager report

Download SolarWinds Network Automation Manager product report

Also Known As

No data available

SolarWinds NAM

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

Scale environments from 1,000 to tens of thousands of nodes with comprehensive performance, traffic, WAN, and switch port monitoring, automated change and configuration management, and IP address management in an integrated network automation software solution.

SolarWinds

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

Maalem Financing Company, School City of Hammond

Buyer's Guide

Plixer Scrutinizer vs. SolarWinds Network Automation Manager

December 2025

Free Report: Plixer Scrutinizer vs. SolarWinds Network Automation Manager

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