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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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

    Spotlight

    Score8 out of 10
    N/ASpotlight from Quest Software is a database performance monitoring option.N/A
    Pricing
    SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)Spotlight
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)Spotlight
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)Spotlight
    Considered Both Products
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    Quest Software
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    42 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    37 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    42 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    36 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    37 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)Spotlight
    SQL Performance Monitoring
    Comparison of SQL Performance Monitoring features of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA) and Spotlight
    Feature
    SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    -
    Ratings
    Spotlight
    7.7
    3 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Performance dashboard00 Ratings8.83 Ratings
    Intelligent alerting00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
    Top SQL00 Ratings6.62 Ratings
    Historical trend data00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Virtualization support00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)Spotlight
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Darktrace
    Score8.3 out of 10
    SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Darktrace
    Score8.3 out of 10
    SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)Spotlight
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (62 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (11 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (49 ratings)
    8.8
    (2 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)Spotlight
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
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    Quest Software
    Spotlight’s ability to consolidate data from various entities and provide insightful reports is highly beneficial. It streamlines financial reporting, allowing professionals to focus on advisory services and strategic decision-making.Small businesses, nonprofits, and organizations that need regular board packs or executive summaries find Spotlight useful. Less Appropriate: Certain industries (e.g., specialized manufacturing, healthcare, or research) have unique reporting needs. Spotlight’s generic templates may not cover all industry-specific metrics or compliance requirements.
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    Pros
    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.
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    Quest Software
    • Great SQL server monitoring
    • Rewind and playback of previous times
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    Cons
    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.
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    Quest Software
    • My only complaint was the cost.
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    Usability
    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.
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    Quest Software
    the platform offers a clean, easy to use interface. You can customize reports and dashboard. Integration is also pretty good, you can integrate to Xero, QBO and MYOB and excel spreadsheets. It also offers very broad supporting documents and webinars. There are only two downside of Spotlight; learning curve (it could be a bit difficult at the beginning to learn the system) and price point (For small businesses, Spotlight Reporting can be seen as relatively expensive compared to other reporting tools)
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    Support Rating
    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.
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    Quest Software
    I've never had to contact support, as of yet I have had no issues or problems with the tool. This is after 5 years of use.
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    Online Training
    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.
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    Quest Software
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    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.
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    Quest Software
    I think Dell is better with its dashboard and ease of use, but SQL Sentry is better at customization. We used Spotlight at my previous company, and SQLSentry at my current company.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    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??
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    Quest Software
    • Spotlight is reasonably inexpensive, and any one of the multiple things we use it for more than justifies the cost.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots