Plixer Scrutinizer vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor comparison

Plixer and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Plixer is ranked #74, while SolarWinds is ranked #27 with an average rating of 7.9. Plixer holds a 0.5% mindshare in NMS, compared to SolarWinds’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Plixer users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

Plixer Scrutinizer

Read 15 Plixer Scrutinizer reviews

1,916 Views
1,437 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Network Device M...

Read 23 SolarWinds Network Device Monitor reviews

1,914 Views
1,876 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Plixer Scrutinizer

SolarWinds Network Device M...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor and Plixer Scrutinizer compete in the network monitoring space. Plixer Scrutinizer arguably holds the upper hand with its advanced features and data insights, potentially justifying its higher cost, while SolarWinds is noted for pricing and customer support.

Features: SolarWinds Network Device Monitor offers straightforward device monitoring, alerting, and ease of use, ideal for basic network oversight. Plixer Scrutinizer provides detailed traffic analysis, comprehensive reporting features, and enhanced threat detection, making it suitable for networks requiring deeper insights and robust performance.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds could enhance its features by offering more advanced traffic analysis, improved reporting capabilities, and increased threat detection accuracy. Plixer Scrutinizer would benefit from simplified deployment processes, reduced learning curve, and more competitive pricing strategies.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is known for quick deployment and effective customer support, making it accessible for less complex networks. Plixer Scrutinizer involves a more intricate deployment process but provides comprehensive support and guidance during setup.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is cost-effective with a lower initial setup cost, suitable for basic network needs, offering decent ROI. Plixer Scrutinizer, though requiring a higher upfront investment, delivers significant ROI through its detailed analytics and advanced functionalities, targeting enterprises requiring in-depth network visibility.

To learn more, read our detailed Plixer Scrutinizer vs. SolarWinds Network Device Monitor Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Plixer Scrutinizer vs. SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

March 2026

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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

74th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (12th)

SolarWinds Network Device M...

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

27th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 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 Device Monitor is 1.0%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SolarWinds Network Device Monitor	1.0%
Plixer Scrutinizer	0.5%
Other	98.5%

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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Sorin Gogean

IT Infrastructure Senior Network Technician at Autoliv

Offers some features but needs better customization and analysis tools

There are solutions that can perform better, but due to pricing for our corporate implementation, we had to stay with this solution. It accomplishes the necessary tasks, but there is room for improvement. The features are not as customizable as we would prefer, but they are workable. If configured properly, you can perform a drill-down analysis. However, I have not used this feature much for our infrastructure on the network side.

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

"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."

"We didn't experience any bugs."

"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."

"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."

"I really feel, after reviewing three at one time and knowing some other ones, the bang and performance for the dollars, and the capacity and the flexibility; it's really second to none in those situations."

"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, and 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."

More Plixer Scrutinizer pros

"The most valuable features of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor are the reports. We are configuring the reports, and the first reports are only about the devices. We are configuring the thresholds in order to monitor all the devices."

"In terms of general network monitoring features, I find SolarWinds Network Device Monitor very flexible and comfortable to use. The software itself is extremely useful when it comes to monitoring how our data moves between different networks and environments."

"There are vital features of auto-plugin core ports"

"Link monitoring is the most valuable feature of this solution."

"The most valuable features of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor are the reports, as we are configuring the thresholds in order to monitor all the devices."

"Overall, it is a good user experience and the dashboards are very usable."

"The product is useful for switches and IP phones."

"We are doing more with SolarWinds Network Device Monitor than we were doing in the past with WhatsApp Gold; when we moved to SolarWinds Network Device Monitor, the whole observability part started to grow."

More SolarWinds Network Device Monitor pros

Cons

"From what I understand it is that the solution is not very scalable in a high volume traffic environment with a large number of flows."

"For updating the Scrutinizer platform, when we have the actual data, it never happens in one day. Every time we have the data, we are obliged to install a new server in order to integrate the old data, and every time it has a problem. Most of the time, we were obliged to scrap all the data because we couldn't transfer it to the new server. So, it would be very good if they could improve this part."

"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."

"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."

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

"The reporting structure, the front-end GUI, also needs some work."

"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."

"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."

More Plixer Scrutinizer cons

"SolarWinds Network Device Monitor could improve by being more user-friendly. The network has so many features which make it difficult to find how to configure how to use it."

"It should provide user-friendly page"

"SolarWinds Network Device Monitor could improve the features. We don't have the complete model for the database, and the monitoring for the database is up and down."

"The main disadvantage of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is the licensing cost, which is expensive."

"Although I haven't explored all of the features available, I wouldn't mind if the software were made to be a bit more customizable."

"There is no mobile version of this product, and our team should be able to access it using a mobile device."

"Technical support needs to respond to its customers faster. We are not 100% satisfied with the level of support we get."

"The solution should have AI-powered issue-resolving capabilities"

More SolarWinds Network Device Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The licensing cost for Plixer Scrutinizer is in the middle. It's not the cheapest, but it's not the most expensive. Its licensing model is based on how many exporters, how many devices export information to the system. Plixer Scrutinizer has different modules you could add such as the security module which would cost extra."

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

"We pay our one-off cost for the licenses, per device, in blocks of 50. And then we pay an annual maintenance fee of about $15,000 Australian, which is, at this point in time, about $9,000 US, for those 250 devices. The upfront costs for the 250-license use, were about $50,000 Australian, which is about $32,000 US."

"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."

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

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

More Plixer Scrutinizer pricing and cost advice

"When compared with other solutions SolarWinds is more expensive."

"Thankfully, it doesn't take a lot of manpower to install and deploy."

"The enterprise license is good for the SolarWinds Network Device Monitor. However, it is expensive, they should reduce their price."

"SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is not an expensive solution."

"I rate the product's price as three to three and a half or on a scale of one to ten, where one means low price, and ten means high price."

"Well, we had a perpetual license and the renewal was $20 to $25,000."

"The product is expensive."

"The price of the SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is good."

More SolarWinds Network Device Monitor pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Manufacturing Company

University

Manufacturing Company

14%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	14

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

What do you like most about SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?

I rate the product's initial setup process a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one means it is a difficult phase and ten is an easy process.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?

I am not a positive person regarding SolarWinds Network Device Monitor.

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What needs improvement with SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?

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Comparisons

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Compared 11% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 7% of the time

Flowmon vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 6% of the time

LiveNX vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

ScienceLogic vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

Compared 11% of the time

OpenNMS vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

Compared 8% of the time

FortiMonitor vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

Compared 7% of the time

Entuity vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

Compared 7% of the time

More SolarWinds Network Device Monitor Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Plixer Scrutinizer

March 2026

Download Plixer Scrutinizer product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

March 2026

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor report

Download SolarWinds Network Device Monitor product report

Also Known As

No data available

Network Device Monitor

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

Network Device Monitor is a free tool that makes it easy to monitor the real-time performance and health of a single device on your network with a desktop dashboard that alerts you when your device is in trouble.

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

Air Rarotonga

Buyer's Guide

Plixer Scrutinizer vs. SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

March 2026

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