Nmap vs SolarWinds NPM

Likelihood to Recommend

NMap is well suited to just about any situation, network size, or complexity. Some have brought up the point that NMap's proxy settings need work. I haven't used NMap with a proxy. NMap is my "go to" tool for a cursory security sweep. Once a problem is found, I can perform a deeper dive scan on a system or a network. I wouldn't, and don't, use NMap as my only security tool. No single tool has all the answers. For example, it is not a Wireshark in that it does not capture packets or analyze them. It is basically a port scanner, host discovery, OS detection tool.

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Kenneth Hess

Senior Systems Analyst

CymSTAR, LLCDefense & Space, 201-500 employees

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SolarWinds NPM is well suited for monitoring nodes and mapping them. My only major complaint is that it seems to be too comprehensive for our applications. We have a relatively small network that we are monitoring and the features of NPM are not fully utilized in the application. Also, management of the licenses could be more intuitive.

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Brian Rafferty

Systems Engineer

BoeingDefense & Space, 10,001+ employees

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Feature Rating Comparison

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Automated network device discovery

Network monitoring

Baseline threshold calculation

Alerts

Network capacity planning

Packet capture analysis

Network mapping

Customizable reports

Wireless infrastructure monitoring

Hardware health monitoring

Pros

Nmap has a unique process of fingerprinting applications/devices to help us identify their communications patterns quicker.
Nmap can be used for network auditing by specifying whole subnets that you would like to scan for open/closed ports.
Nmap has a diverse presence and can be used from most operating systems.

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Roger Mialkowski

Sr. IT Systems Administrator

Zombie ComputersGovernment Administration, 1001-5000 employees

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Using SNMP to automatically discover my network devices, while collecting the network information to produce a detailed network inventory.
The automatic discovery of the connection between L2 and L3 devices.
Using NetPath across the hybrid clouds is a time saver and pinpoints where to focus resources to fix issues.

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JAMEY TITONE

Sr. Director Information Technology

Media CompanyBroadcast Media, 10,001+ employees

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Cons

Maybe take some of the features of Zenmap and bake them in?
Include fancy extra graphical results charts or graphs or something to show people who you want to convey info too but have no idea what Nmap is actually doing.
I don't really think I'd change a lot actually.

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Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology

Retail Company, 51-200 employees

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Upgrades can be tricky and time-consuming (especially if you have other Orion products installed along with NPM). It seems like SolarWinds is really focusing on improving this.
It's Windows-only (which may or may not be an issue for your organization).
Some menus don't take advantage of modern screen resolutions (e.g., on a 1080p or higher screen, a particular menu section will be locked at a very small size, wasting a lot of real estate).

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Matthew A. Osmond

System Administrator

Tucson Electric PowerUtilities, 1001-5000 employees

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Likelihood to Renew

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

SolarWinds NPM 9.2

Based on 22 answers

Low maintenance cost and great support on problems and issues. SolarWinds has been used here for over 10 years and we are able to have minimal down time and has been solid on monitoring and alerting on our network setup. They are constantly adding new and improving the product and making it better to use all around.

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Bill Rieger

Network Engineer

Herman MillerFurniture, 5001-10,000 employees

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Usability

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

SolarWinds NPM 8.5

Based on 10 answers

It's easy to use at first. But, when you would either like to go technical OR trying to add a custom monitor the ease of use goes out the door and requires a lot of time to learn its SDK / Back-end tools.Way too much emphasis on user to user support via their Thwack site. Skimping on support cost much? It's slightly disheartening to get better support from other customers then from the "success center" or calling support. Really hurts the ease of use for the product, because its fine until things don't work out of the box, then it gets frustratingly difficult.

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Greg Richards

Infrastructure Operations Support Manager

Glidewell DentalMedical Devices, 1001-5000 employees

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Support Rating

Nmap 7.9

Based on 18 answers

There is a very large support community and a robust selection of add-ons and scripts. Once you get the use down this is one of the most powerful tools and you can find anything you are looking for as far as examples on the web. While not having official support its not lacking by any means.

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Alan Matson, CCNA:S, MCP

Sr. Network Security Engineer

InsightInformation Technology and Services, 5001-10,000 employees

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SolarWinds NPM 8.6

Based on 34 answers

In all of the times that we called support, someone at SolarWinds had the answer for us in a timely manner. Through thwack and other internet searching, we have been able to resolve all of our issues that arose to our satisfaction. The support staff have always been knowledgeable of their products or had a fellow support staff member to rely on to get the needed answers.

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Jim Arendt

IT Technician / Application Specialist

Casino FandangoEntertainment, 201-500 employees

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Alternatives Considered

NMap usually lacks the features of the other network scanners, but for a good reason: most of the other network scanners out there are using NMap as part of their system. The nature of NMap (being open-source) is that it is available for use in other applications; as a result, these other applications make use of the NMap source code.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Other products I've used (Spiceworks, Mikrotik's The Dude) are good at their jobs but ultimately don't have the scalability of NPM or the more advanced network visibility features that make NPM so great. Other products (like Spiceworks especially) are also built as several products shoved into one -- an asset management platform, ticketing system, a network monitor, etc. -- and can be slow in performance or limited in their potential as a result.

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Ted Sadler

Network Engineer

Integral BlueTransportation/Trucking/Railroad, 51-200 employees

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Return on Investment

Positive return as it's open-source (free) on all OS's.
If a person is not used of the command line there are a ton of front ends that make it point-and-click so the learning curve is good. That cuts down on time and manpower.

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Verified User

Technician in Information Technology

Oil & Energy Company, 11-50 employees

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NPM has had a positive impact on the Network Health.
NPM has provided additional visibility into the network traffic.
Remote monitoring has cut down on our cost to maintain the devices by identifying the root cause of issues before deploying technicians to the sites.

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Mike Mozola

Senior Systems Engineer

Integral BlueTelecommunications, 51-200 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

Optional

Rating Summary

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Likelihood to Recommend

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Feature Rating Comparison

Automated network device discovery

Network monitoring

Baseline threshold calculation

Alerts

Network capacity planning

Packet capture analysis

Network mapping

Customizable reports

Wireless infrastructure monitoring

Hardware health monitoring

Pros

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Cons

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Likelihood to Renew

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Usability

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Support Rating

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Alternatives Considered

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Return on Investment

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Screenshots

Nmap

SolarWinds NPM

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

Rating Summary

Add comparison