Plixer Scrutinizer vs VMware NSX comparison

Plixer and VMware are both solutions in the Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) category. Plixer is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.0, while VMware is ranked #8 with an average rating of 7.6. Plixer holds a 2.5% mindshare in NTA, compared to VMware’s 2.2% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Plixer users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Plixer Scrutinizer

Read 15 Plixer Scrutinizer reviews

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85 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

VMware NSX

Read 104 VMware NSX reviews

160 Views
19 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Plixer Scrutinizer

VMware NSX

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

VMware NSX and Plixer Scrutinizer compete in network management. VMware NSX takes the lead in pricing and support, while Plixer Scrutinizer stands out for its features.

Features: VMware NSX integrates well with existing VMware infrastructure, provides robust security features, and is beneficial for virtualization environments. Plixer Scrutinizer offers powerful traffic analysis, forensic capabilities, and detailed traffic insights.

Room for Improvement: VMware NSX users suggest better scalability options, easier configuration processes, and refined usability materials. Plixer Scrutinizer users desire enhanced documentation, improved reporting functionalities, and more intuitive user interfaces.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VMware NSX deployment is somewhat complex, but customer service is responsive. Plixer Scrutinizer has a straightforward deployment process, although customer service experiences are mixed.

Pricing and ROI: VMware NSX has high setup costs with satisfactory long-term ROI due to its extensive features. Plixer Scrutinizer also has a high initial investment, but its analytics provide significant ROI value.

To learn more, read our detailed Plixer Scrutinizer vs. VMware NSX Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Plixer Scrutinizer vs. VMware NSX

June 2025

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Helped 859,129 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 Traffic Analysis (NTA)

11th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (54th)

VMware NSX

Ranking in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

104

Ranking in other categories

Network Virtualization (2nd), Cloud and Data Center Security (2nd), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (9th), Network Automation (6th), Microsegmentation Software (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) category, the mindshare of Plixer Scrutinizer is 2.5%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware NSX is 2.2%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

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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DanielBass

Senior IT Strategy Consultant at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Improves network security with micro-segmentation but setup is complex

I value the ability to dynamically configure our network on the fly using VMware NSX. This flexibility is a huge advantage because it allows us to avoid static configurations that come with traditional hardware setups. Additionally, the micro-segmentation feature is beneficial for adhering to strict security regulations from our security department.

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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."

"We didn't experience any bugs."

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

"It helps us determine what is going on with our Internet and who is hogging it all up. 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."

"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."

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

"There are other tools out there that will do what Scrutinizer does. But what I have found with Scrutinizer is that it does it very quickly. I've taken 25 million individual data fragments from the different sensors, and it has graphed that and mapped it and presented a picture within 30 seconds. It has a very efficient database algorithm that I am really impressed with."

"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."

More Plixer Scrutinizer pros

"I have found the solution to be stable."

"I have found the system to be very intuitive, functional, and they have great technology."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"The best part is the blueprint creation where I can create their things and then move on to the target environment."

"The migration methods are the most valuable aspect of this solution."

"We like that everything is integrated."

"Overall, I would say the solution has been quite stable."

"The solution is robust as it covers everything we want to do and is stable, so we're happy enough with it. We have had no problems so far. Everything is great."

More VMware NSX pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"Knowing that they're coming out with a new user interface, that is an area where there is room for improvement. There are so many variables. They should limit the variables in the user interface and create some classes, like "simple," "novice," and "expert" to narrow down the variables within it."

More Plixer Scrutinizer cons

"Nowadays, NSX supports the KVM and ESXi hypervisors only. It should also support Hyper-V and Citrix hypervisors."

"They could do more with cloud management."

"Just being more knowledgeable about the different functions."

"Despite being somewhat behind in the cybersecurity field, VMware should develop a cloud and a red team to continuously monitor for new malware and ransomware."

"They need to enhance their technical support."

"The technical support could use some improvement."

"We have been satisfied with the technical support. They were able to solve our problems. However, they could be faster."

"It takes time to do the initial setup. It is a bit slow, which is surprising."

More VMware NSX cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

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

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

"It's about €10,000 a year for initial license and yearly maintenance costs. In addition, the hardware costs are about €10,000 once every five years."

More Plixer Scrutinizer pricing and cost advice

"We haven't had to hire a dedicated network engineer because NSX handles 90 percent of it. The reduced overhead in terms of managing networks has been the biggest plus."

"The price of VMware NSX is optimal. Additionally, the price of the solution can be negotiated with the vendor. Many areas of the solution can impact the cost, such as features, time for onboarding, and support needed."

"The pricing is higher than other options from Palo Alto, Fortinet, and Cisco because it is sold in a bundle."

"You can scale NSX if you have the resources, but it's usually expensive and complex to scale up."

"The solution is free and the price for the support can be expensive."

"All the institutions have to pay monthly for the services in the cloud. They have to pay $30,000 every month for this service every three years."

"The solution is reasonable at the local level."

"VMware NSX isn't cheap."

More VMware NSX pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Government

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 are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?

There are some very major differences between both the Products and to name a few. -Cisco ACI have physical network gear (9K Switches) where the Code runs in ACI Policy Mode & the UCS server wh...

See all answers

What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?

Once you know your way around the Cisco ecosystem, using Cisco ACI is not so difficult. It is a global product, so when you change one interface, changes are automatically reflected on every switch...

See all answers

What do you like most about VMware NSX?

The product has valuable features for security and network extension.

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 26% of the time

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 25% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 19% of the time

Kentik vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 17% of the time

LogicMonitor vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 13% of the time

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Illumio vs VMware NSX

Compared 20% of the time

Nutanix Flow Network Security vs VMware NSX

Compared 18% of the time

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs VMware NSX

Compared 16% of the time

Cisco Secure Workload vs VMware NSX

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco ACI vs VMware NSX

Compared 7% of the time

More VMware NSX Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Plixer Scrutinizer

June 2025

Download Plixer Scrutinizer product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware NSX

May 2025

Download VMware NSX product report

Also Known As

No data available

VMware Nicira, Lastline Defender

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

VMware NSX is a sophisticated solution utilized for micro-segmentation, network security, software-defined networking, and private cloud construction. It aids in the transition from physical to virtual infrastructure, ensuring efficient network virtualization and security of production workloads.

VMware NSX empowers organizations to manage network functions, implement distributed firewalls, and enhance security within virtual environments. Crucial for disaster recovery and load balancing, it supports cloud-native application development and enterprise clients. Its ease of use, scalability, and seamless integration with existing VMware solutions ensure streamlined network management and swift deployment. Despite its extensive features, areas like pricing, routing functionality, and compatibility with certain platforms require attention.

What are the key features of VMware NSX?

Ease of Use: Simplifies network management with an intuitive interface.
Scalability: Adapts to growing infrastructure needs seamlessly.
Micro-Segmentation: Enhances security by dividing networks into smaller, manageable segments.
Integration: Seamlessly works with existing VMware solutions and third-party applications.
Dynamic Routing: Optimizes network traffic efficiently.
Security Options: Offers robust firewall features and security measures.
Automation: Facilitates quick deployment through comprehensive automation capabilities.
High Bandwidth: Ensures high-performance network operations.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Enhanced Network Security: Superior protection for virtual environments.
Efficient Disaster Recovery: Reliable support for business continuity.
Reduced Deployment Time: Fast implementation and configuration.
Improved Network Management: Centralized and streamlined control of network resources.

VMware NSX is widely implemented across industries such as finance, healthcare, and manufacturing. Organizations in these sectors utilize it to bolster security, enhance network efficiency, and support cloud-native applications. By extending on-premise networks into provider spaces and managing virtual access networks, VMware NSX significantly optimizes infrastructure operations.

VMware

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

City of Avondale, Lumeta, Kroll Ontrack, Heartland Payment Systems, Baystate Heallth, Exostar, Tribune Media, iGATE, NTT Communications, Synergent, California Natural Resources Agency, Bloomington Public Schools, Columbia Sportswear, Join Experience S.A, Schuberg Philis

Buyer's Guide

Plixer Scrutinizer vs. VMware NSX

June 2025

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