Nmap

Score8.4 out of 10

47 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Nmap are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Extensiveness and Advanced Networking Features: Many users have praised NMap for its extensive range of advanced networking features. These reviewers found the tool to be highly comprehensive, allowing them to perform specific scans and obtain desired results.

Lightweight and Easy to Use: NMap's lightweight nature and ease of use have been highlighted by a significant number of users. They appreciated how quickly they could start up the tool without experiencing any performance issues.

Speedy Network Mapping: Several users have expressed their appreciation for NMap's speed and thoroughness in network mapping. They found the tool's network 'sweep' feature to be quick and efficient in providing an accurate map of their networks.

Reviews

18 Reviews

Nmap is the best of breed for network mapping tools

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

January 7, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Nmap to help troubleshoot networking issues, run internal purple team events, and identify operating systems and open ports. During purple team events we use Nmap to run some exploits on systems to make sure they are not suspectable to the particular exploits. Externally, we perform scans to verify ports that are exposed to the internet. Sometimes we use it to see what systems are on a particular segment of our network.

Pros

Nmap is very good at discovering systems on your network.
Nmap is very good at guessing a systems operating system with a high degree of accuracy.
Nmap is good at validating externally facing systems to make sure that unauthorized access is not allowed.

Cons

The GUI version on Nmap could use some improvement with the options that are available to do scans. For example, they could make it easier to select options for the different types of scanning for people who are beginners
There are no abilities to schedule a scan in the Nmap tool.
An intensive scan sometimes takes too much time to complete.

Likelihood to Recommend

Nmap is well suited for network discovery and finding open ports on systems. Nmap can also been used to discover some vulnerabilities or verify vulnerable systems. It is a good reconaissance tool for performing penetration test. The downside to Nmap I think is the ability to be stealthy for some scanning options. It can be a little bit noisy.

Verified User

Contributor in Information Technology (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

One of those essential tools every sysadmin should have to hand

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

May 1, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Nmap is one of those long-standing tools that everyone turns to when they need to scan a network for devices, services, open ports, etc. In our company, it gets used regularly for troubleshooting, auditing, and general tinkering. I'm not sure what we would use in place of it, because there's never been a reason to look elsewhere. It's been around since the 90's and it's always to hand!

Pros

Comprehensive port scanning of both TCP and UDP ports.
Clever 'interrogation' of services listening on open ports. It will use all sorts of techniques to try and work out what service is listening on a port, and potentially even version and host information, etc.
Very configurable. You can choose exactly what you want to scan for, limit to port ranges, protocols, IPs, etc.
Very scriptable. Being a command-line utility (check out Zenmap if you want a GUI), you can call it from your own scripts, automation pipelines, etc.

Cons

Not a problem with Nmap, per se, but the related Zenmap GUI could do with some love! It does the job perfectly well so I shouldn't complain, but it would benefit from a modern makeover.

Likelihood to Recommend

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.

Verified User

Employee in Information Technology (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

15 years of experience

Complete networking tool for any sysadmin or network tester

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

April 30, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

For our organisation, we use Nmap on a weekly basis, especially in the technical departments (IT development, technical support), primarily for network troubleshooting purposes; We use it to identify network problems, see the route our network messages take geographically, and more. It is quite extensive, and I can say that after a couple of years of use, I am still sometimes surprised about new features I didn't know existed. Lately I have used it quite alot for verifying the encryption settings of our websites (TLS versions, ciphers, SSL certificates), to make sure it is up to our cybersecurity standards.

Pros

It is open source, so you can verify how it works
It is very extensive, with lots of advanced networking features
It is very lightweight and easy to start up

Cons

The learning curve is quite steep
On Windows, not all functions are available
If you do not limit your scan range, a command can take a really long time to complete

Likelihood to Recommend

Nmap is the ideal solution if you are working alot in network environments. If you come to grips with the syntax and the most-used features (the online community helps alot), you will be able to much more quickly and thoroughly troubleshoot networks or check for security vulnerabilities, for instance. It is free to use and is available for Windows and Linux, so I would say it is very much warrented for any network administrator or sysadmin to take it out for a spin.

Dylan Eikelenboom

Security Officer in Information Technology at IXON Cloud (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

View profile

Security and Network Engineer multitool. Core tool for most paid products.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

April 30, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Nmap is pivotal in anyone in the networking and security space. This works on all operating systems and is very simple, but versatile. In my area, we use this often to see what ports and protocols are being used, what are open, auditing, testing, etc. Every vulnerability tool has Nmap built into it for the product. Often, when I have minimal time or access, Nmap is very useful.

Pros

Scanning multiple IPs for open ports
very lightweight and not heavy
First step in auditing, pentesting, etc.

Cons

Bit of a learning curve
Syntax can be confusing

Likelihood to Recommend

Often, when we get a new service or api or endpoint created, we like to check it out and verify network settings upon creation. Especially if there are ports open that we don't need or want depending on internal classification.
Also, when we set up a new product or do a proof-of-concept of a software we're looking into, we like to scan it and see what ports may be used and open and then bring it up with our sales engineers.

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

General review of Nmap

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

April 30, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are generally using Nmap to scan our network segments for lost machines, open ports and vulnerabilities. There are several others that have used it but I am generally the only one to perform large scans.

Pros

Nmap is fast and flexible, It allows me to perform custom scan across my network(s)
Nmap provides crucial OS information when possible
comes in GUI and command-line versions
allows me to scan individual IP, ranges and full subnets
The ability to throttle the scan progress helps me to avoid triggering alarms

Cons

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.

Likelihood to Recommend

Nmap has helped us perform scans of our network to track down lost computers. In this virtual world it is easy to lose a physical box. Nmap has helped up find these lost machine and add appropriate monitoring tools on them. Nmap has also been crucial to find machines for Windows Operating system end of life project. Scanning machine and obtaining OS version is crucial for our Windows decom project.

Exporting the results from these scans do not always format nicely when imported into spreadsheet programs. much data manipulation is required.

Mike Nostrom

Senior Systems Software Specialist in Information Technology at Delaware Department of Health & Social Services (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

View profile

Nmap, best network discovery tool.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

April 30, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Nmap in our CyberSecurity department to detect different machines and software version in our clients' networks. It helps us to analyze easily the network topology of the network and detect misconfigurations or deprecated software. In that case, we can conduct remediations to patch the machines and improve security.

Pros

Ease of use
Completeness
Good interface
Lots of options

Cons

Curve of learning
Fluent design
Better docs

Likelihood to Recommend

Nmap is well suited to analyze a new network of which you don't have info, because you can find configurations, OS and software versions, and moreover. Nevertheless, I wouldn't use Nmap in certain environments, like OT, because you can interact with the processes. Besides, if you have a full knowledge of the nerwork, it won't be useful.

Verified User

Engineer in Engineering (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Nmap is the basis for all other scanners

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

April 14, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Nmap to do internal vulnerability testing and identifying holes in network security. The most common use case for me is to use Nmap to identify running services on devices to spot potential weaknesses in firewall rules or router rules. Many employees are familiar with Nmap and use it as well. It helps us identify problems quickly in new environments before we move to vulnerability scanning.

Pros

Nmap is great at finding live hosts on the network
Nmap is great for teaching new cyber specialist how network reconnaissance works
Nmap is built into every major recon tool on the market, it just works when it comes to scanning

Cons

There could be more built in tools for further vulnerability scanning
command line Nmap should store recent scans automatically
More detail in the help menu for what some of the triggers actually do

Likelihood to Recommend

One of Nmaps strongest skills is the ability to gather initial evidence about networks to begin narrowing down target windows. Nmap can scan entire subnets and find only live hosts and then more intensively scan the live hosts to help identify which ones have the most vulnerable services or open ports. It is not suited for actual exploitation, just the initial steps

Greg Madden, CISSP

Cybersecurity Consultant in Information Technology at Kraken Security Consulting (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

View profile

The best hacking tool you will ever need!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 13, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Nmap to both scan our network from time to time as well as to validate scan results from other platforms such as NESSUS or Nexpose. One of the perks of NMAP is the built-in scrips that not only will look for weaknesses but also validate them by performing the exploit to see if the vulnerability can be exploited or not.

Pros

Very user-intuitive.
Built-in scripts allow for vulnerability testing.

Cons

Better GUI for ZenMap.
Can be difficult to learn and master.

Likelihood to Recommend

As a blue/red team member, NMAP is crucial to my day and I would highly recommend it to other users needing the same type of tool for scanning. This tool is a key program to use for enumeration and port-scanning a network. One of the caveats though is if you do not have network connectivity then this tool will not be able to provide any results.

Alan Matson, CCNA:S, MCP

Sr. Network Security Engineer in Information Technology at Insight (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

8 years of experience

View profile

Brilliant tool for occasional network scanning.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

November 5, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Nmap is THE tool to use for network monitoring. Though as a Technical Security Officer I do not do any penetration tests myself, I do the occasional scan with Nmap to check for servers and/or services. With its huge amount of options you can scan your network in any way you like.

Pros

It's quick (and depending on the options and your preferences for scanning can be made to run even quicker)
Huge amount of options
User community support is ubiquitous

Cons

Hardly anything to mention

Likelihood to Recommend

Very well suited for anyone wanting to scan their network (with permission if required!). Being a command line tool you need some knowledge, so not for a beginner.

Verified User

Professional in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

NMAP is an absolute MUST for any sysadmin!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

October 9, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Nmap in our IT operations for troubleshooting network issues and improving network performance. It's great for security testing and mapping your network infrastructure.

Pros

Open port scanning is a great tool to ensure your internal and external networks are secured.
being able to identify endpoints and ensuring they are configured correctly.
Great to be able to script within NMAP. It truly can be tailored to your exact needs

Cons

Wish it had a gui and a better UI experience.
Even though it's free an enterprise support option would be great.

Likelihood to Recommend

Nmap is great at finding out the weak points within your internal and external network. Being able to find out exactly what devices are on your internal network is a great asset to securing your network from internal threats.

Verified User

Executive in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

11 years of experience

Loading Reviews List....

One of those essential tools every sysadmin should have to hand

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

May 1, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Comprehensive port scanning of both TCP and UDP ports.
Clever 'interrogation' of services listening on open ports. It will use all sorts of techniques to try and work out what service is listening on a port, and potentially even version and host information, etc.
Very configurable. You can choose exactly what you want to scan for, limit to port ranges, protocols, IPs, etc.
Very scriptable. Being a command-line utility (check out Zenmap if you want a GUI), you can call it from your own scripts, automation pipelines, etc.

Cons

Not a problem with Nmap, per se, but the related Zenmap GUI could do with some love! It does the job perfectly well so I shouldn't complain, but it would benefit from a modern makeover.

Likelihood to Recommend

Verified User

Employee in Information Technology (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

15 years of experience