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Progress WhatsUp Gold vs. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Progress WhatsUp Gold

    Score8.2 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    WhatsUp Gold developed by Ipswitch (acquired by Progress Software May 2019) offers network performance monitoring and mapping. It supports core monitoring features, including automated workflows and network capacity planning, and monitors across hybrid environments.N/A

    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is network diagnostics and troubleshooting technology, from Austin-based SolarWinds.N/A
    Pricing
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Considered Both Products
    Progress Software
    Chose Progress WhatsUp Gold
    Ease of deployment and use the product. Friendly user interface and quick network discovery with a large number of monitors.
    Incentivized
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) was by far the easiest to implement and it just started working right out of the box. Within a few hours were we populating our config backup repository and soon after that, we were writing scripts to audit our configurations. …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    SolarWinds NCM was much more dynamic and full featured than WhatsUpGold.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager provides better discovery and integration of our Cisco devices.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    For the last 8 years, SolarWinds has been our solution in network management and monitoring. We run Network Performance Monitor, NetFlow Analyzer and Engineers Toolset. We evaluated WhatsUp Gold, ManageEngine and Service Desk. We use Nagios for our alerting system and Service …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    83%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    92%
    Would buy again
    34 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    89%
    Delivers good value for the price
    31 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    83%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    35 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    31 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    5 Answers
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    32 Answers
    Features
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Network Performance Monitoring
    Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of Progress WhatsUp Gold and SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Feature
    Progress WhatsUp Gold
    6.6
    10 Ratings
    18% below category average
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Automated network device discovery8.08 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network monitoring7.49 Ratings00 Ratings
    Alerts8.710 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network capacity planning4.37 Ratings00 Ratings
    Packet capture analysis5.13 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network mapping6.86 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable reports6.46 Ratings00 Ratings
    Wireless infrastructure monitoring4.26 Ratings00 Ratings
    Hardware health monitoring8.98 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
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    Auvik
    Score8.8 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    PingPlotter
    Score9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    Nmap
    Score8.7 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.3
    (13 ratings)
    8.0
    (142 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.1
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (9 ratings)
    Support Rating
    4.2
    (2 ratings)
    7.7
    (9 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Progress Software
    [Progress WhatsUp Gold (formerly Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold)] is good for what it is. An inexpensive but accurate monitor for alerting on systems and services. However, it is time consuming to configure, The GUI leaves a lot to be desired and the formatting for txt alerts stinks (I just use it now as an alert to check my email to view the actual alert.)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    Network Configuration Manager is well suited for backing up configurations of all your devices. It also has a great comparison tool for seeing only the differences in config. Another great feature is it's ability to push a script to any number of devices. This is very handy for pushing changes to one, 10 or multiple devices. There are also some great reports that you can run against the devices in inventory
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Progress Software
    • Monitoring the connection; performance, switching, and issues. We use a broadband connection for our primary and a cellular backup for the secondary. While we use routing protocols to make this switch and WhatsUp isn't used for Syslog monitoring. it alerts us within seconds.
    • Backup configurations and archiving. WhatsUp does this particularly well. I use it for both Cisco routers and switches.
    • The diagram feature is nice. Though I don't use it as much because of the size of our structure, it does come in handy for mapping routes of all traffic.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Integrates with Network Performance Management for Alerting and Reporting.
    • NetPath and detects issues due to Configuration Change.
    • Keeps a record of which user made the change.
    • Which devices are not being backed up, devices where backups are failing, dashboard and alerting available.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Progress Software
    • Navigating the new WhatsUp Gold 2018 is a bit complicated and not user-friendly. The best part about using a software is the user's ability to use it with ease.
    • You cannot click sites being monitored from Map Dashboard View. This feature was previously possible in the older version.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • For our use case, it does everything great and some of the features we underutilize but I would like to be able to set a configuration baseline when initially adding a node instead of after the configuration is pulled but it's not a particularly big deal to let it pull the configuration then set it as the baseline.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Progress Software
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Medium complexity to set up in the beginning if using any non-standard devices or configurations, else fairly easy (e.g. Cisco Nexus or IOS-based devices). Reports are fairly straightforward to set up. Updates to the platform are fairly straightforward and don't take a major effort. Easy to add or remove devices.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Progress Software
    The web interface is really good, there are a few areas that could use a bit of polish but overall it is well designed and easy to navigate and use, even for a new user.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    The user interface is lacking. It is difficult to navigate at times and things can be done multiple ways. Quite often I am confused by how their notification structure works. It is not very intuitive. They do offer a free Academy. They also offer a community of other technical folks. I have enjoyed both.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Progress Software
    We have never had an issue with support. It has always been quick and understandable
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    To be fair, I have not had to involve Support in a number of years, but when I did, I was greeted with enthusiastic engineers who wanted to understand and solve the issue. It was a fairly complex scenario and I have discovered in my most recent implementation that engineering included that option as a standard now.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Progress Software
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Solarwinds has actually produced new training since I last used it that is available on their site at any time. Their previous training was more than enough to get us started but now there is significantly more content. Since I'm comfortable with the Orion platform and the products we use I haven't checked the new training out yet but we have new staff go through portions of that training and they always come away with an understanding of the platform and ready to use it
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Progress Software
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    it was a fairly easy implementation and everything was pretty straightforward. only challenge we had was getting all the snmp communities updated on the networking equipment
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Progress Software
    Progress WhatsUp Gold (formerly Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold) is more network focused than some of the other products we looked at, which had basic capabilities but were not as strong on the reporting or programmatic resolution of issues. Progress WhatsUp Gold (formerly Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold) is cost effective compared to some of the other upmarket solutions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    At the time SolarWinds was the biggest player in the space and their whole portfolio was very comprehensive. As time progressed and newer technologies came about (i.e. SDWAN) their products couldn't keep up with the consumer demands and changing market. Security became such a big focus that once Solarwinds got hacked we had to remove all their products from our environment
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Progress Software
    • Alerts IT team members when things go down after regular business hours. IT team is able to fix the issue before users arrive the next day.
    • Saves on system downtime and lost productivity
    • Remote monitoring means less staff hours spent checking for potential problems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Saves 100s of hours a year in man hours over manual configuration.
    • Saved easily 50k in lost revenue when a switch rebooted with months old unsaved configuration. NCM let us quickly restore a snapshot of the running config from the previous day.
    • Saves us several man hours per week of config auditing by reducing all changes to a summary email.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Progress WhatsUp Gold Screenshots

    Screenshot of WhatsUp Gold Alert CenterScreenshot of WhatsUp Gold Cloud InfrastructureScreenshot of WhatsUp Gold Configuration ManagementScreenshot of WhatsUp Gold Custom MapScreenshot of WhatsUp Gold DashboardScreenshot of WhatsUp Gold Device Properties

    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) Screenshots

    Screenshot of Network Automation -  manage rapid change across complex and multi-vendor networks, reduce time needed to complete repetitive tasks, and maintain standards and service levels for uninterrupted ITScreenshot of Config Backup - rest easy knowing you can locate the most current configuration and quickly apply it to a replacement spare, or to roll back a blown configuration.Screenshot of Vulnerability Scanning - Take the hassle out of vulnerability scanning using NCM's integration with the National Vulnerability Database and access to the most current CVE’s to identify vulnerabilities in your Cisco devices.Screenshot of Inventory Management - Be able to know what devices are connected to your network, their hardware and software configurations, and when they approach end-of-service and end-of-life, with NCM device configuration management tool.Screenshot of User Management - Use NCM's integrated console to lock down devices from unauthorized access, delegate who can view device details and make configuration changes, and determine when network changes can occur.Screenshot of Baselines and Diffs - IT professionals can get a more comprehensive view by leveraging baselines across multiple nodes. Diff view in NCM’s network configuration management tool is designed to highlight only those lines that changed.