What users are saying about

Nmap vs SolarWinds NPM

Nmap
45 Ratings
SolarWinds NPM
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Top Rated
561 Ratings
Learn more about NPM

Nmap

45 Ratings
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Score 9.4 out of 100

Based on 45 reviews and ratings

SolarWinds NPM

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Top Rated
561 Ratings
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Score 8.7 out of 100

Based on 561 reviews and ratings

Learn more about NPM

Feature Set Ratings

  • SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) ranks higher in 1 feature set: Network Performance Monitoring

Network Performance Monitoring

8.1

Nmap

81%
8.2

SolarWinds NPM

82%
Nmap ranks higher in 6/10 features
Nmap ranks higher in 6/10 features

Automated network device discovery

8.5
85%
13 Ratings
8.2
82%
207 Ratings

Network monitoring

9.0
90%
13 Ratings
9.0
90%
229 Ratings

Baseline threshold calculation

9.9
99%
7 Ratings
7.8
78%
199 Ratings

Alerts

9.2
92%
4 Ratings
8.9
89%
226 Ratings

Network capacity planning

7.0
70%
7 Ratings
7.8
78%
186 Ratings

Packet capture analysis

7.0
70%
6 Ratings
7.2
72%
129 Ratings

Network mapping

9.5
95%
18 Ratings
7.9
79%
188 Ratings

Customizable reports

4.7
47%
11 Ratings
8.5
85%
210 Ratings

Wireless infrastructure monitoring

9.9
99%
8 Ratings
7.4
74%
150 Ratings

Hardware health monitoring

6.0
60%
5 Ratings
8.8
88%
213 Ratings

Attribute Ratings

  • Nmap is rated higher in 1 area: Likelihood to Recommend
  • SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is rated higher in 1 area: Support Rating

Likelihood to Recommend

9.7

Nmap

97%
20 Ratings
9.0

SolarWinds NPM

90%
233 Ratings

Likelihood to Renew

Nmap

N/A
0 Ratings
8.9

SolarWinds NPM

89%
23 Ratings

Usability

Nmap

N/A
0 Ratings
9.8

SolarWinds NPM

98%
17 Ratings

Availability

Nmap

N/A
0 Ratings
8.2

SolarWinds NPM

82%
2 Ratings

Performance

Nmap

N/A
0 Ratings
5.5

SolarWinds NPM

55%
2 Ratings

Support Rating

8.7

Nmap

87%
18 Ratings
9.5

SolarWinds NPM

95%
40 Ratings

Online Training

Nmap

N/A
0 Ratings
6.4

SolarWinds NPM

64%
1 Rating

Implementation Rating

Nmap

N/A
0 Ratings
7.3

SolarWinds NPM

73%
16 Ratings

Product Scalability

Nmap

N/A
0 Ratings
7.3

SolarWinds NPM

73%
1 Rating

Likelihood to Recommend

Nmap

If you're a sysadmin, or anyone who's had to deploy network services, you've almost certainly had to use Nmap at some point or other. Need to see what devices are on your LAN? Nmap can tell you that. Want to check which ports your web server has open to the internet? Nmap is your friend.
Nmap is a powerful command-line tool and has many options that require some reading of documentation to get the best out of (although generally straightforward). If the thought of working at the command-line scares you (presumably not if you're reading this review), then you may want a much simpler tool, or at least check out Zenmap GUI.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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SolarWinds NPM

NPM is well suited for small to medium-sized organizations. It does the basic functions of a network monitoring suite very well however some of the more advanced features aren't as straightforward. Basic up/down email alerts work well but there are obviously many solutions that do this as well. I wouldn't recommend NPM for very large organizations because the server needed to support that many devices.

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Curt Sminkey | TrustRadius Reviewer
Curt Sminkey
View all 233 answers on this topic

Pros

Nmap

  • NMap provides a very fast and a very thorough network "sweep" that allows you to quickly map out exactly what's on your network.
  • NMap is highly configurable. The "canned" choices are very good in most instances, but using various switches and options, you can create a very specific scan and get exactly the results you're looking for.
  • NMap is easy to use. Even a new administrator will be able to use the graphical version (Zenmap) with efficiency right away.

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Kenneth Hess | TrustRadius Reviewer
Kenneth Hess
View all 20 answers on this topic

SolarWinds NPM

  • Out of the Monitoring of almost all Network Devices.
  • Build custom pollers to monitor which is not supported out of the box.
  • Further you can alert on these custom metrics and Out of the box metrics.
  • It provides you great dashboards, Reports features.
  • You can integrate it with any MoM layer tools either using its API or sending out traps.
  • Out of the box Integration with Service Now ITSM Tool.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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Cons

Nmap

  • exporting, There's a serious lack of ability to export the information in a readable format to present to VPs and such. I always find myself doing a lot of data massaging to get it in a pretty format
  • some scans can trigger sensitive IDS/IPS
  • SYN scans can be particularly aggressive and cause problems on remote systems.

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Mike Nostrom | TrustRadius Reviewer
Mike Nostrom
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SolarWinds NPM

  • Configuring thresholds for your alerts can be a little cumbersome.
  • Getting additional details onto the alerts is not as easy as it could be.
  • You need to have two servers to run SolarWinds NPM, one for the service and a separate one for the database.

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Matthew Harper | TrustRadius Reviewer
Matthew Harper
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Pricing Details

Nmap

General

Free Trial
—
Free/Freemium Version
—
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—
Entry-level set up fee?
No

Starting Price

—

Nmap Editions & Modules

—
Additional Pricing Details
—

SolarWinds NPM

General

Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
—
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—
Entry-level set up fee?
Optional

Starting Price

$0 Starting Price

SolarWinds NPM Editions & Modules

Edition
NPM$1,5831
  1. Starting Price
Additional Pricing Details
—

Likelihood to Renew

Nmap

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

SolarWinds NPM

SolarWinds NPM 8.9
Based on 23 answers
The entire IT staff relies on NPM in its daily operations. It would be impossible for us to maintain our level of service without it. If SolarWinds gets to proud of their product and begins to over charge for it, we would be forced to reconsider and use a different product. But as it stands it is worth the price to renew it.

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Dwain Erhart | TrustRadius Reviewer
Dwain Erhart
View all 23 answers on this topic

Usability

Nmap

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

SolarWinds NPM

SolarWinds NPM 9.8
Based on 17 answers
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is quite an extensive product, covering all our bases and requirements. There are a lot of customizable options and features which you can work with for their alerting which is really useful. I haven't found anything yet which I thought SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) could do, but it actually couldn't so overall it works nicely and does the job.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
View all 17 answers on this topic

Reliability and Availability

Nmap

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

SolarWinds NPM

SolarWinds NPM 8.2
Based on 2 answers
Has never failed me

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
View all 2 answers on this topic

Performance

Nmap

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

SolarWinds NPM

SolarWinds NPM 5.5
Based on 2 answers
Pages load slow, especially the bettors map. Could be that my server is old.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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Support Rating

Nmap

Nmap 8.7
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 | TrustRadius Reviewer
Alan Matson, CCNA:S, MCP
View all 18 answers on this topic

SolarWinds NPM

SolarWinds NPM 9.5
Based on 40 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 | TrustRadius Reviewer
Jim Arendt
View all 40 answers on this topic

Online Training

Nmap

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

SolarWinds NPM

SolarWinds NPM 6.4
Based on 1 answer
Would like an in person course

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
View all 1 answers on this topic

Implementation Rating

Nmap

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

SolarWinds NPM

SolarWinds NPM 7.3
Based on 16 answers
Make sure your inventory is accurate. Stand up some virtual machines for testing prior to installation. Make sure your database and its credentials are setup. Think about things you want to monitor that may not be obvious - UPS units, Door hardware, PBX systems, Fabric Channel switches, firewalls, routers, switches. Try to setup SNMP on these devices and have an IP that you will assign to the new server. If you do that it will go well.

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Dwain Erhart | TrustRadius Reviewer
Dwain Erhart
View all 16 answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

Nmap

Alternatives to Nmap (other IP scanners) are often much more limited in what they can do; They often only allow you to scan a specific subset of ports or a limited number of IP addresses in one command. Nmap is unrestricted in that regard. What makes Nmap stand out above the rest, is the complete network analysis package you get with it. It allows IP scanner, network deep-dives, hardware analysis, vulnerability analysis, encryption detailing, and so much more, in one free application

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Dylan Eikelenboom | TrustRadius Reviewer
Dylan Eikelenboom
View all 20 answers on this topic

SolarWinds NPM

We selected SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor because of the capabilities of the product versus the price. The tools also work well with their other products and support is fairly good. We have never had a problem when we needed to make a call.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
View all 233 answers on this topic

Scalability

Nmap

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

SolarWinds NPM

SolarWinds NPM 7.3
Based on 1 answer
From the direction and information I have been given it is very flexible and scalelable

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
View all 1 answers on this topic

Return on Investment

Nmap

  • 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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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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SolarWinds NPM

  • The impact is largely on the positive side as ROI figures are on the rise.
  • The licensing model is appropriately designed to meet every need. We have an XLS license and with the addition of an APE license, we can easily extend our scope.
  • SolarWinds has helped in the creation of business use cases for network equipment or bandwidth investments. With capacity planning, we can accurately size our Infra.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
View all 233 answers on this topic

Screenshots

Nmap

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