OpenSSL is a toolkit for the Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocols. It is also a general-purpose cryptography library.
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Wireshark
Score 9.2 out of 10
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Wireshark is a free and open source network troubleshooting tool.
I would recommend OpenSSL for just about any kind of cryptographic operations that you may need. I can't think of a particular situation where it would not be appropriate to use OpenSSL for a cryptographic function of some sort or another. If you are going to provide some sort of encryption service in a product, OpenSSL is probably the best way to get it off the ground and going. With other competitors, you may get it working, but I fear long term support and interoperability will be an issue.
I don't know of any other tool that works as well as Wireshark for packet capture an inspection. It's extremely easy to get up and running, and even with little to no knowledge of how to use the tool, you can be looking at all the traffic coming off a network interface.
A more user-friendly interface would be nice, but then again it is not really designed for those who are not quite comfortable with this type of software.
Changes to functionality on updates - this can sometimes happen unexpectedly and can be an annoyance.
I give Wireshark a 10 for usability because it is very usable. Just about anyone can capture packets within a few seconds of opening the program. The analysis is a science but as far as just using Wireshark; it's very easy.
I don't believe Wireshark has "true" support as the software is open source. However, there is an active & friendly community around Wireshark that are more than happy to help answer questions. From a comprehensive Wiki and FAQ section on the site to the Ask a Question forum and bug tracker section, there's plenty of support options to make sure your questions and issues are addressed.
LibreSSL is another option to OpenSSL, however, the sheer volume of other applications using OpenSSL and the wide support for it makes OpenSSL a compelling product.
Wireshark is a free tool that came highly recommended by one of our former network security consultants. Using the tool he was able to resolve all of our higher tier network tickets, so we observed first hand why we needed to add Wireshark into our toolset. We received in-depth instruction and training scenarios that demonstrated the effectiveness and power of the product, so we didn't spend any time reviewing competing products.
roi is hard to measure for openssl. It's not that it doesn't provide a significant roi, but it is in the background of an application, not the foreground.
