VMware vCenter vs WhatsUp Gold comparison

Broadcom and Progress Software are both solutions in the Server Monitoring category. Broadcom is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.6, while Progress Software is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.7. Broadcom holds a 1.3% mindshare in SM, compared to Progress Software’s 1.7% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Broadcom users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Progress Software users who would recommend it.

VMware vCenter

Read 37 VMware vCenter reviews

619 Views
619 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

WhatsUp Gold

Read 25 WhatsUp Gold reviews

3,144 Views
503 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

VMware vCenter

WhatsUp Gold

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

WhatsUp Gold and VMware vCenter are established tools for network monitoring and virtualization management respectively. Users are generally happier with WhatsUp Gold's pricing and customer support, but VMware vCenter often stands out due to its comprehensive feature set, which users find worth the investment.

Features: WhatsUp Gold is valued for its simplicity, ease of configuration, and accessibility for small to medium enterprises. VMware vCenter is praised for advanced functionalities such as extensive monitoring capabilities, deep integrations, and a robust, feature-rich environment.

Room for Improvement: WhatsUp Gold users suggest enhancing reporting capabilities, adding more third-party integration options, and improving scalability. VMware vCenter users desire improvements in scalability, interface enhancements, and more intuitive configuration options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: WhatsUp Gold has a straightforward deployment process, allowing quick setup and ease of use. Customer service is frequently responsive and helpful. VMware vCenter's deployment is more complex, reflecting its advanced feature set but requires extensive planning. Users appreciate VMware’s depth of support resources available, although immediate customer service satisfaction can vary.

Pricing and ROI: WhatsUp Gold tends to have a lower initial setup cost, making it attractive for smaller budgets and offering rapid ROI. VMware vCenter, while more costly upfront, is deemed a worthwhile investment due to its extensive features and strong long-term ROI track record, particularly in larger, more complex environments.

To learn more, read our detailed VMware vCenter vs. WhatsUp Gold Report (Updated: November 2025).

Buyer's Guide

VMware vCenter vs. WhatsUp Gold

November 2025

Download the complete report

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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

VMware vCenter

Ranking in Server Monitoring

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

WhatsUp Gold

Ranking in Server Monitoring

16th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (29th), Network Monitoring Software (31st), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (31st), Configuration Management (19th), Log Management (32nd), Cloud Monitoring Software (23rd), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (11th)

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of VMware vCenter is 1.3%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhatsUp Gold is 1.7%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Server Monitoring Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
VMware vCenter	1.3%
WhatsUp Gold	1.7%
Other	97.0%

Server Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Hoang Long Nguyen

IT Infrastructure and Architect Specialist at a transportation company with 201-500 employees

Automation and technical support impress with seamless migration and high availability management

We are in the process of implementing Zerto, which is currently in the purchase order phase. While we haven't fully implemented it yet, we have completed the POC. We use VMware vCenter and ESXi. The solution manages high availability effectively, with excellent automation for migration and patch management. The support is good, though the recent license change after the Broadcom acquisition has significantly increased costs. Patch management is controllable and can be managed individually, with automatic downloads available. We use it primarily for managing hosts and updates, without any integration. The performance is excellent, running very smoothly. I rate VMware vCenter a 9 out of 10.

Read full review

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

"The product is scalable."

"The most valuable features are DRS, cluster management, vCenter management, and logs management."

"It is easier to manage a larger number of nodes per cluster. Currently, if we are managing a minimum of 64 nodes in a single cluster, that capacity can be increased."

"I usually use the DRS, distributed resource scheduling, to balance resources between mini ESXi and CPU."

"It's a very good tool for centralized management."

"The initial setup is easy."

"VMware vCenter is the best from a management perspective, scoring ten on a scale of one to ten."

"The tool is helpful because it gives us excellent control, maximizing server usage and resources. We can create numerous virtual machines and servers that host many services. Overall, we have had a very good experience. The most valuable feature for us is its elasticity. We can easily ramp up resources and bring in more processes for specific workloads, which was a nightmare earlier. This ability to extend resource availability for virtual users is particularly beneficial."

More VMware vCenter pros

"The best feature of WhatsUp Gold is the automatic generation of topology and its integration with virtualization and wireless."

"The product is reasonably priced."

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

"The most valuable feature of WhatsUp Gold is NetFlow and the virtualized maps."

"The most valuable features are network bandwidth monitoring and monitoring device health."

"The solution effectively monitors network devices and servers."

"The most valuable feature is the auto-discovery function."

"It is stable."

More WhatsUp Gold pros

Cons

"The protocol interface or web page is not easy to use, and the personal portal is difficult to navigate."

"The monitoring features are limited."

"The product should improve its storage. It's not necessarily about needing more storage but improving how it handles technology. We believe there could be more effective ways to manage it in our user environment. It should also look into network management."

"The protocol interface or web page is not easy to use, and the personal portal is difficult to navigate."

"There is a feature called Fault Tolerance (FT), which has been part of vCenter servers since the product's inception. However, it has a lot of complexity, and when my team tested it, we found it difficult to manage. It also has some bugs. Consequently, we decided not to offer any fault tolerance features to our customers."

"One notable area for enhancement revolves around cost considerations, as introducing features such as DDoS protection or data compression could reduce expenses."

"Consolidating these plugins into a unified environment with customizable options to enable or disable features would be highly beneficial."

"We have to buy more VMware products to leverage the centralized management."

More VMware vCenter cons

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

"Pricing is too high relative to how many devices we use. The price list is not linear to number of devices."

"We can never achieve or get a good picture of the network topology."

"Improvements are needed in integration, especially for WhatsApp call and messages."

"Regional product team support is not very good."

"The product is old and not updated."

"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."

"Users want SMS available via Whatsapp Gold. They don't want to go through third party SMS servers. The solution should work to make this possible."

More WhatsUp Gold cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product's three-year license package is inexpensive."

"The tool used to be worth the money, but after Broadcom acquired it and changed the pricing structure to subscription-only, it became too expensive for us to continue using. Unfortunately, we haven't found any alternative solutions that meet our needs, so this is a significant drawback for us as we explore other options."

"The platform is highly-priced."

"The platform is expensive."

"The solution is expensive."

"The licensing model was a bit complex, but thanks to the vCenter product usage program, which VMware introduced, it's kind of easy for us to use a pay-as-you-go model."

"We utilize the basic licenses of the product."

"The solution is pretty expensive for small businesses because there are few lower-scale VMware vCenter solutions."

More VMware vCenter pricing and cost advice

"The price of WhatsUp Gold is good."

"This is a well priced solution."

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

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

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

"The choice of version depends on the number of points, or devices, that you want to monitor, and this makes the product expensive."

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

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

More WhatsUp Gold pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Performing Arts

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

11%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	18

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

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about VMware vCenter?

The filtering capabilities also enhance scalability by optimizing resource allocation.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware vCenter?

The initial package for VMware vCenter is not less than $10,000, which can be prohibitive for smaller organizations. The licensing model now requires purchasing 96-core solutions, even if fewer cor...

See all answers

What needs improvement with VMware vCenter?

The main concern is the license change following the sale to Broadcom. The license cost has increased significantly, which is the primary negative aspect of VMware vCenter. While technical support ...

See all answers

What do you like most about WhatsUp Gold?

The interactive mapping interface for scrolling, zooming, and drilling down on an element to learn about a network issue is good. When we see a network there will sometimes be a spot that has one l...

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

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Lenovo XClarity Controller vs VMware vCenter

Compared 12% of the time

ServiceNow Discovery vs VMware vCenter

Compared 10% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

Grafana vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 5% of the time

LibreNMS vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 5% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 4% of the time

ManageEngine OpManager vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

VMware vCenter

December 2025

Download VMware vCenter product report

Buyer's Guide

WhatsUp Gold

December 2025

Download WhatsUp Gold product report

Overview

VMware vCenter provides centralized management for virtual machines, offering enhanced resource control, high availability, and data protection. Its integration with NSX and vSAN simplifies infrastructure management, although improvements in pricing, licensing, and technical support are needed.

VMware vCenter streamlines the management of virtual infrastructures, facilitating scalability and elasticity through features like DRS, vMotion, and snapshot capabilities. While users appreciate its centralized control and extensive integration options, complexities in interface and upgrades are seen as challenges. Issues like fragmented licensing, difficult Fault Tolerance management, and high resource demands have been highlighted, alongside the need for enhanced security, monitoring, and seamless cloud integration. vCenter is widely used in data centers for overseeing large virtual environments, integrating cloud services, and providing infrastructure as a service.

What are the main features of VMware vCenter?

Centralized Management: Enables efficient control of virtual infrastructures.
High Availability: Ensures minimal downtime for critical applications.
DRS and vMotion: Enhances resource scheduling and migration capabilities.
Data Protection: Offers robust backup and recovery tools.
Integration: Seamlessly works with NSX and vSAN for simplified management.
Snapshot Capabilities: Facilitates quick recovery and testing scenarios.

What benefits and ROI should users expect?

Resource Efficiency: Optimizes CPU and memory usage within the infrastructure.
Operational Efficiency: Streamlines management tasks, reducing manual efforts.
Scalability: Supports growing enterprise needs through flexible infrastructure management.
Cost Management: While improvements are needed, centralized control can lead to reduced operational costs.

Industries such as IT, finance, healthcare, and government deploy VMware vCenter to manage their extensive virtual environments. Users rely on its automation and centralized management capabilities to ensure high performance and uptime in data center operations, often leveraging it to integrate with cloud services.

Broadcom

Explore and manage your entire network infrastructure effortlessly with WhatsUp Gold's robust layer 2/3 discovery, creating a detailed interactive map from the edge to the cloud. Monitor devices, wireless controllers, servers, virtual machines, applications, and traffic flows across various environments. Real-time alerts ensure optimal performance, allowing you to meet or exceed SLAs. The platform offers customizable maps, dashboards, and alerts for easy network management. Quickly resolve issues with intuitive workflows, reducing Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR). WhatsUp Gold's integrated log management provides easy visibility and control of device log data, allowing monitoring, filtering, searching, and alerting on syslogs or Windows logs. Archive logs to comply with regulatory requirements and preserve historical data, all through a user-friendly interface. Streamline network monitoring and issue resolution with WhatsUp Gold, making network management efficient and hassle-free.

Progress Software

Sample Customers

1. Amazon 2. Apple 3. ATT 4. Bank of America 5. Cisco Systems 6. CocaCola 7. Dell 8. ebay 9. Facebook 10. Google 11. HP 12. IBM 13. Intel 14. JPMorgan Chase 15. LinkedIn 16. Microsoft 17. Netflix 18. Oracle 19. PayPal 20. SAP 21. Siemens 22. Tesla 23. Toyota 24. Twitter 25. Visa 26. Walmart 27. WeWork 28. World Bank

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

VMware vCenter vs. WhatsUp Gold

November 2025

Free Report: VMware vCenter vs. WhatsUp Gold

Find out what your peers are saying about VMware vCenter vs. WhatsUp Gold and other solutions. Updated: November 2025.

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