SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs WhatsUp Gold comparison

SolarWinds and Progress Software are both solutions in the Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) category. SolarWinds is ranked #3 with an average rating of 7.6, while Progress Software is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.0. SolarWinds holds a 6.3% mindshare in NTA, compared to Progress Software’s 3.4% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of SolarWinds users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Progress Software users who would recommend it.

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic ...

Read 43 SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer reviews

3,965 Views
1,784 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

WhatsUp Gold

Read 25 WhatsUp Gold reviews

13,110 Views
524 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic ...

WhatsUp Gold

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer and WhatsUp Gold based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs. WhatsUp Gold Report (Updated: June 2026).

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs. WhatsUp Gold

June 2026

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Helped 908,877 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

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic ...

Ranking in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

3rd

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

WhatsUp Gold

Ranking in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

11th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (34th), Network Monitoring Software (21st), Server Monitoring (14th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (17th), Configuration Management (20th), Log Management (39th), Cloud Monitoring Software (25th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) category, the mindshare of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is 6.3%, up from 5.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhatsUp Gold is 3.4%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer	6.3%
WhatsUp Gold	3.4%
Other	90.3%

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

Featured Reviews

Raja Xabi

Technical Manager at APRAL

Improved bandwidth management and network visibility have resulted in financial benefits and streamlined operations

There is always room for improvement in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, such as implementing instant reporting based on business intelligence reports and more granular filters in their dashboard to improve the GUI view and reporting. The licensing model of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is always an issue for users because competitors offer unlimited and perpetual licenses, and SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer's model is quite costly compared to other brands. If users are comfortable with SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, they have to make the hard decision to invest, and it's suggested from a user's perspective that SolarWinds should improve their financial model and licensing to become competitive, especially for small to medium businesses.

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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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Essentially, it gives us a tool where we can manage our business proactively instead of reactively."

"The most valuable feature is the alarm that is set up to trigger based on bandwidth utilization."

"I find this tool very helpful in identifying the top traffic paths from source to destination, and determining which routes are consuming the most resources."

"The product is a great experience to use and I never experienced any problems with this software application."

"What the network team found most valuable in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is that it helps them to troubleshoot or analyze the issue. For example, traffic that comes from our location: India, goes to the US, so for the network team to analyze where the traffic comes from and where it is directed, and whether the packets are being dropped, they use SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer. The network team also likes that through the solution, they can analyze the complete traffic utilization and how they're going to use it. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is user-friendly. The team finds it comfortable to use."

"For stability, I would give SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer a rating of ten out of ten."

"I rate the support in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer as 10 out of 10 because whenever I open a tech ticket, they respond instantly, and their engineer is well-equipped to resolve the issues."

"Visibility in the network is huge. Using the NetFlow analyzer, along with their NPM and NCM modules, are key for keeping our network up to date and for visibility."

More SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer pros

"NetFlow monitoring, real-time monitoring, and surveys have been the most valuable features for our business."

"The most valuable aspects of the solution are the application monitors that allow for discreet roaming on network devices."

"We no longer have to manually search for problems because we are alerted when something in the network goes down."

"The visual map and email alerts are very useful to have in real time so we always know the state of our network."

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

"It is stable."

"Their tech support is very good."

"It is very good at monitoring the network and keeps us up to date on the status of internal devices."

More WhatsUp Gold pros

Cons

"There is room for improvement when it comes to the traffic generated by the analyzer and the analysis of that traffic."

"If your network is on SolarWinds, and you notice that the traffic is bad because it says "user downloading a heavy file," it doesn't indicate which endpoint is downloading those heavy files."

"The licensing model of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is always an issue for users because competitors offer unlimited and perpetual licenses, and SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer's model is quite costly compared to other brands."

"The solution should improve its automation feature. It's quite limited compared to other products."

"Customer Support is quite complex."

"The solution needs better log management and log coordination with tools."

"It is scalable, but it could be simplified because it is not completely easy. The price could be reduced to make this product more competitive."

"Technical support is fine but they need to improve their response time."

More SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer cons

"Honestly, I do not particularly like WhatsUp Gold. I think we should get rid of it."

"The tool should focus on increasing its market share, as it is the only area of concern where improvements are needed."

"This product should add other options for monitoring. It does not currently meet the broader needs of the banking industry in the version we have deployed."

"The point system is not clear and clarity around this would improve our understanding of the system."

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

"Integrations with other devices. I want to have a product that has full integration with my active directory so I can track user activity. I want to track my complete user activity, so I'm looking for a product to implement in the near future, which will have full integration with my network and active directory users. It became very difficult to track user activity."

"I might like to see a better interface in the future. It's not necessarily easy to integrate the product with other vendors."

"I would like to see better integration with switches so that you can see what is connected to each port, what the traffic is, and have a network map automatically generated."

More WhatsUp Gold cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For our environment, we pay approximately $25,000 USD yearly."

"The price of this solution is exceptional."

"We pay yearly, and we are happy with its price."

"NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is reasonably priced."

"We have licenses for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer. In terms of pricing, its license is not that expensive versus other tools such as HP."

"The solution's licensing is high-priced."

"The pricing is really good."

"The pricing is reasonable."

More SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer pricing and cost advice

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

"This is a well priced solution."

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

"Pricing is reasonable compared to other products."

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

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

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

"It is per device, per year. The pricing is very clear. If you have a service agreement, you get all of your major upgrades and minor upgrades. It was under $10,000 to go all-in with all of the different add-ons for it."

More WhatsUp Gold pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Outsourcing Company

11%

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Construction Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	26

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	14

Questions from the Community

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

I have worked from 1973 with all kind of systems in large enterprises across the world. And have experience with all kind of software in monitoring from infra to end to end, it depends on the funct...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer?

The licensing model of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is always an issue for users because competitors offer unlimited and perpetual licenses, and SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer's model i...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer?

Regarding improvement, the application monitoring capabilities are not exceptional. If SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer could improve in that area, it would be helpful. It is less AIOps driven a...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

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

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Compared 6% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

Compared 6% of the time

Darktrace vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

Compared 6% of the time

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LibreNMS vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

SCOM 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

ScienceLogic vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

July 2026

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer report

Download SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer product report

Buyer's Guide

WhatsUp Gold

July 2026

Download WhatsUp Gold product report

Also Known As

Netflow Traffic Analyzer

No data available

Overview

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer provides comprehensive bandwidth analysis and traffic visibility, offering real-time insights and proactive alerting to manage networks effectively.

Renowned for its extensive monitoring capabilities across diverse devices, SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer integrates seamlessly with other SolarWinds tools, enhancing network visibility and troubleshooting. Users benefit from customizable dashboards, detailed application tracking, and historical performance analysis. The tool is pivotal in managing network issues and ensuring network stability, although it faces some challenges in improving automation, third-party integration, and pricing flexibility.

What are the key features of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer?

Bandwidth Analysis: Provides detailed insights into bandwidth consumption.
Traffic Visibility: Offers extensive monitoring of devices across vendor types.
Customizable Dashboards: Users can create tailored dashboards for specific needs.
Application Tracking: Delivers in-depth tracking of application performance.
Historical Performance Analysis: Allows thorough investigation of past network issues.

What benefits or ROI should users consider?

Real-Time Insights: Enables prompt detection of network issues.
Proactive Alerting: Alerts facilitate quick response to potential problems.
Enhanced Troubleshooting: Tools integration aids in faster problem resolution.
Capacity Planning: Assists in forecasting and managing bandwidth needs.
Comprehensive Reporting: Generates detailed reports for informed decision-making.

In industries requiring extensive network management, SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is widely implemented for monitoring network performance and traffic analysis. Organizations use it to supervise bandwidth consumption and assess site connections, aiding in bandwidth-heavy application analyses. It is crucial for generating reports and maintaining network stability, supporting capacity planning and endpoint monitoring to manage infrastructure proactively.

SolarWinds

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

Oceaneering International, Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, 335th Signal Command, Immofori

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

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs. WhatsUp Gold

June 2026

Free Report: SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs. WhatsUp Gold

Find out what your peers are saying about SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs. WhatsUp Gold and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.

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