TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

FireMon vs. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    FireMon

    Score7.9 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    FireMon is a real-time security policy management solution built for today’s complex multi-vendor, enterprise environments. Supporting the latest firewall and policy enforcement technologies spanning on-premises networks to the cloud, FireMon delivers visibility and control across the entire IT landscape to automate policy changes, meet compliance standards, to minimize policy-related risk. Since creating their policy management solution in 2004, FireMon states they've helped…N/A

    SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds Netflow Traffic Analyzer is a network monitoring tool within the broader SolarWinds ecosystem. It includes core traffic monitoring features, as well as customizable traffic reports and alerts.N/A
    Pricing
    FireMonSolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    FireMonSolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    FireMonSolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    Considered Both Products
    FireMon
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    94%
    Would buy again
    16 Answers
    95%
    Would buy again
    42 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    13 Answers
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    37 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    16 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    42 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    36 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    15 Answers
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    37 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    FireMonSolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)
    Score9 out of 10
    Darktrace
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco IOS Security
    Score9.6 out of 10
    Darktrace
    Score8.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    FireMonSolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.9
    (69 ratings)
    9.0
    (62 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    6.8
    (7 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    7.3
    (3 ratings)
    10.0
    (11 ratings)
    Availability
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.7
    (17 ratings)
    8.0
    (49 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    7.9
    (48 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    FireMonSolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    FireMon
    FireMon is best used in a large environment (for example, I have >100
    firewalls in my environment). It's best used when trying to improve
    security posture and showing changes in firewall security over time. It
    might not be the best choice for smaller environments or those that aren't concerned about security management.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    We use and depend on it for status state of our network gear, switches and routers. It does an excellent job of getting you the details you need to confirm all devices and products are working at the level needed. At times, it does tend to flag network switch ports and/or switches themselves as exceeding their rated capacity when frequently it was a quick blip of high traffic due to downloads, or uploads causing the max'ing of the device. Again, you can adjust the settings but then you adjust it too high and miss real activity. It can become nuisance alerting when you tend to then ignore
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    FireMon
    • Give good real time reporting for anyone making a change to any of our firewalls
    • Provides good reporting tools that are out of box
    • Provide good customization tools that is specific to our needs
    • Upgrades are a simple process and support does relatively well with assisting us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • The level of customization possible with Network Bandwidth Analyzer is very valuable. Rather than being stuck with a "one-size-fits-all" presentation, an administrator can easily create customized views, reports, and alerts so that users can have a more tailored view of the data provided by Network Bandwidth Analyzer. This has the effect of making the tool more attractive to the end user.
    • The NetFlow Traffic Analyzer piece of Network Bandwidth Analyzer provides the details on bandwidth usage on the network. More than knowing how much bandwidth is being used, one is provided with detailed information on how that bandwidth is being used. This provides invaluable information for capacity planning and even certain forensic tasks faced by the network engineer.
    • The ability to produce network maps provides an easy way to create an attractive and functional NOC/SOC view of the entire network. Both technician and the occasional passerby can quickly determine if there are issues to be addressed. The ability to customize a map with background images and custom icons and stencils can make these maps really pop.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    FireMon
    • Some features could be added to the existing functionality which include NAT rules usage
    • Rule expiration normalization from firewalls rather than entering them in rule documentation
    • .csv exports of the files from the firewall pane only gives usage for 30 days by default and that should be increased
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • The ability to intuitively and quickly serve up specified information up to a dashboard for general “public” consumption, that cycles through several pages of information.
    • The ability to intuitively set up alerting on bandwidth levels, instead of having to dig through all types of alerts available to find the one needed.
    • Provide a pricing model based on different support levels: if I want only available update installations, don’t make me pay the same amount as those wanting full support.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    FireMon
    The shell is locked out and we can't run any general centos commands. The implementation and maintainence of the arch is very complex. Even with the right identifiers on log messages the log collection keeps failing. The warning messages on the device are ambiguous. The log messages on firemon are a bit confusing and don't show the exact issue.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    FireMon
    It save me time and I'm able to have the review - review the rule independently with using my time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    As far as rating for usability is concerned I would give 10/10 as NTA is very easy to use. All you need to do is install that module and ask network Team to configure the Netflow towards Server IP. [The] rest is pre-configured and reports are pre-built. Moment you receive the flows from Network all you will have is information about traffic.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    FireMon
    FireMon has been relatively stable overall. However, there have been a handful of times where we had issues with the console. For example, we couldn't update which devices to include in a security assessment. The initial suggestion from support was to just reboot it. It seems like there weren't many other options available such as to restart services before going to the extreme of a complete reboot.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    FireMon
    I'm not sure we have the largest implementation of FireMon out there but we do have a few 1000 devices being probed by FireMon. Overall, the system's performance has been rock solid. The console refreshes quickly and reports are generated within an expected timeframe.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    FireMon
    FireMon technical support is awesome! They respond quickly to our requests and they are well trained and very knowledgeable about the tool. Some issues have to be referred to the development team, but technical support largely provides solutions for any issues that we may have.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    I know we could probably pay for it, but it would be nice if we could get to a tier 2 technician faster. Spending a couple of hours on the phone with the level 1 technician, when we have already tried the troubleshooting they are walking us through, is just a waste of time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    FireMon
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    The training offered by SolarWinds is some of the best out there. They have several different videos that go into great detail from initial setup to advanced configurations. In addition to the view at your own pace video, they also have live training for customers that focus on a single product and you can ask questions with the folks who develop the software. I have had good success with their live sessions and getting questions answered.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    FireMon
    Implementation is fairly simple. Most issues can be resolved by referencing manuals.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    FireMon
    I has worked with AlgoSec and while they are very similar product, I find the FireMon is easier to understand and get rolling with. While both require some learning, FireMon is by far the easier one. Once you have an understanding of how things are arranged and labeled you can easily import firewalls and begin to work on them to improve them
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer compared to Wireshark and PRTG Network Monitor beats it by just the simple interface. Though all are manual setup, NTA takes it a step further with graphs and reports that analyze the data for you. In comparing to Extrahop from a bandwidth comparison, Extrahop wins but Extrahop is a lot more than just a bandwidth monitoring and cost.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    FireMon
    Firemon Is easily scalable and maintainable with any size team. Although it requires some tech debt, it is well worth the time to invest to ensure compliance is visible and reports are accurate. Although our environment is very large we do not fully utilize the scalability of the Firemon product.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    FireMon
    • FireMon's Compliance Reporting provided an immediate and tangible benefit
    • FireMon helps identify egregious or erroneous rules quickly across multiple platforms
    • FireMon took our audit process from an Excel spreadsheet into a far more advanced process with readily available context for reviewers
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Be prepared to answer lots of questions. When people see the data in NTA they are going to want to know why App A is talking to App B. Be ready to explain!
    • Hand the keys to the NTA kingdom to the network team. They will thank you. Everyone wants to have friends on the network team, right?
    • Be prepared to invest in some significant compute and storage performance to keep up with your NTA monitoring
    • Running the latest firmware for your network gear is (often) required to take advantage of all the flow-monitoring. You upgrade regularly, right??
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots