The 28 Best Network Performance Monitoring Tools for 2023

Solutions Review’s listing of the best network performance monitoring tools is an annual sneak peek of the top tools included in our Buyer’s Guide for Network Monitoring Tools. Information was gathered via online materials and reports, conversations with vendor representatives, and examinations of product demonstrations and free trials.

The editors at Solutions Review have developed this resource to assist buyers seeking the best network performance monitoring tools to meet their organization’s needs. Choosing the right vendor and tool can be a complicated process — one that requires in-depth research and often goes beyond the tool’s technical capabilities. To make your search a little easier, we’ve profiled the best network performance monitoring tools providers all in one place. We’ve also included platform and product line names, as well as introductory software tutorials, straight from the source, so you can see each solution in action.

Note: Companies are listed in alphabetical order.

The Best Network Performance Monitoring Tools

Accedian

Description: Accedian Skylight is a unified enterprise network, cloud, and application performance management solution. The product combines network flow monitoring, real-time application transaction decoding, and end-user experience tracking to generate performance data. With Skylight, users can monitor traffic from both physical or virtual environments (including the cloud) and analyze OSI Layer 2 through Layer 7 network traffic in real-time. Skylight can be deployed through either a virtual or hardware-based appliance.

AppNeta

Description: AppNeta Performance Manager allows IT teams to monitor end-user experience across their cloud, network, and applications. It operates on a four-dimensional approach to monitoring, with capabilities working together to analyze usage and performance across networks and applications. AppNeta offers a wide range of graphics and reporting to deliver greater analytical insights to users. The vendor also provides specialized monitoring solutions for VoIP, UCaaS, and DNS systems, as well as monitoring for cloud deployments.

Auvik

Description: Auvik is cloud-based network monitoring and management software built for IT teams and MSPs that need clear visibility across distributed networks. The platform automatically discovers, maps, and monitors network devices, giving teams a live view of network health, connected assets, and performance issues. Auvik helps network admins and lean IT teams troubleshoot faster, reduce manual documentation work, and automate configuration backups without adding hardware.

Broadcom

Description: DX NetOps by CA Technologies, a Broadcom-owned company, is a network monitoring and analytics software that unifies traditional systems monitoring with full-stack analysis. The solution gathers intelligence on inventory, topology, device metrics, faults, flow, and packet analysis for traditional, software-defined, and cloud-based network architectures. DX NetOps is augmented by Broadcom’s AIOps platform, which brings NetOps and AIOps together to proactively resolve network issues through automated remediation.

Catchpoint

Description: Catchpoint Network Insights provides network engineers and operations teams with full visibility into the OSI stack from Layer 3 to Layer 7. Network Insights consists of four primary capabilities: DNS monitoring, traceroute monitoring, BGP monitoring, and endpoint monitoring. Each of these capabilities provides visibility into different components of the delivery chain, enabling proactive detection and triage of problems that arise across network layers — endpoint, enterprise LAN/WAN, DNS, CDN, ISP, and cloud.

Cisco

Description: Cisco Prime Performance Manager is a network monitoring application that pulls actionable information from the entire network, including core, aggregation, and access networks. This product features a web-based interface that provides access to performance reports with flexible options and detailed search capabilities. Cisco Prime also allows network administrators to keep track of all devices on the network. Prime sends alerts when the network is bogging down and collects device and connectivity data on a user-defined schedule.

Dynatrace

Description: Dynatrace offers network monitoring, application performance management, and digital experience monitoring capabilities through its solution. Its network tools can be correlated with app performance metrics to provide insights into how network performance affects end-user experience. Dynatrace provides visibility that enables IT teams to quickly identify services and processes experiencing network connectivity issues. In addition to identifying bottlenecks, Dynatrace analytics can help businesses plan for network and server resources.

Exoprise

Description: Exoprise is a leading provider of SaaS and cloud monitoring with support for Office 365, Azure, Salesforce, and more. Exoprise CloudReady is the platform for total digital experience management, providing users with end-to-end network and application visibility via real user monitoring or synthetic transaction monitoring. With Exoprise CloudReady, cloud and network administrators can quickly identify and resolve issues, manage changes, monitor trends, and improve performance and operations across the entire business.

ExtraHop

Description: ExtraHop Reveal(x) is a cloud-based network detection and response platform that gives organizations real-time visibility into their network from the inside out. With ExtraHop, IT teams can maintain a comprehensive view of their entire ecosystem with auto-discovery and auto-classification capabilities. ExtraHop enables users to mitigate performance issues immediately through continuous, real-time end-user monitoring. Empirical metrics across defendant systems can also be used to accelerate troubleshooting.

FirstWave

Description: FirstWave NMIS Professional is an intelligent network management and infrastructure monitoring tool. It is the enterprise version of Opmantek’s suite of open-source network management solutions. In addition to its core product, FirstWave offers a number of commercial add-on modules, managed service provider solutions, and customizable support and assistance packages. NMIS Professional contains the vendor’s Network Management Information System for network monitoring as well as charting (opCharts) and reporting (opReports) tools.

Flowmon by Progress

Description: Flowmon is a network visibility vendor that offers a flow-based network monitoring product. Its solutions provide IT teams with an array of tools for network visibility and control, cloud operations, security operations, and DDoS protection. Flowmon probes and collectors help organizations gather, analyze, and store critical network information. The solution features modules that extend and streamline the functionality of the Connector and Probes, delivering more advanced flow-statistics analysis to network administrators.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Description: Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s network monitoring suite consists of Aruba AirWave and HPE Intelligent Management Center. AirWave provides granular visibility for wired and wireless networks and is designed to detect mobile devices and applications in addition to traditional sensors. Intelligent Management Center manages data centers and core networks while providing clearly defined network data for IT teams. IMC features a modular platform with tools that cover traffic analysis, remote network management, and intelligent reporting.

Infovista

Description: Infovista VistaInsight is a network monitoring and service assurance solution that gives users full visibility over their network activity. The product supports digital transformation initiatives by simplifying hybrid NFV network operations and monitoring SD-WAN edge performance. Infovista diagnoses network and service performance and delivers insights to administrators through a scalable, open, cloud-ready platform. InfoVista’s tools (including VistaInsight) support cloud and SSL-based applications, VXLAN, and several other features.

Kentik

Description: Kentik provides full network visibility through its network monitoring and AIOps capabilities. The solution combines NetFlow network monitoring with tools for ingesting data, such as VPC Flow Logs, business context, and application context. Kentik’s machine-learning-driven solution also advises on network and security performance, troubleshooting, planning, and cost management. Kentik provides visibility and insights wherever your traffic flows, including networks, applications, the Internet, and the cloud — all in real-time on one screen.

LiveAction

Description: LiveAction LiveNX is a network performance and analytics platform that eases network monitoring and configuration. The LiveNX interface provides comprehensive insight into a network’s topology, with in-depth views of devices, interfaces, and network flows. LiveNX enables IT teams to access performance metrics and take appropriate action to address issues. LiveNX includes User Experience, Insight, and Endpoint Agent features that enable users to analyze connectivity, detect network patterns, and monitor endpoints.

LogicMonitor

Description: LogicMonitor is an agentless SaaS-based network monitoring solution that gives organizations the ability to discover all network devices and interfaces. Through alerts and interface metrics, users receive greater visibility into error rates, network usage, and throughput. With support for a variety of different technologies, IT teams can collect and analyze network performance data from all of their networking gear. In addition to switches, routers, and firewalls, LogicMonitor can also cover cloud and hybrid IT environments.

LogRhythm

Description: LogRhythm NetworkXDR detects network-borne threats in real-time with SOAR capabilities. It offers ease of use without requiring sophisticated network forensics expertise. Using purpose-built, versatile sensors that generate advanced network details, LogRhythm NetworkXDR incorporates multiple machine learning analytics approaches to expose evolving threats more effectively. The result is full coverage against security threats, both known and unknown, without requiring extensive tuning or lengthy supervised machine learning training.

ManageEngine

Description: ManageEngine OpManager Plus is an integrated monitoring tool that allows for full visibility into networks, applications, and infrastructure. OpManager is written in Java and uses a local Tomcat instance for its interface. A local database stores collected information and serves as a communication channel between the OpManager and plug-ins. The OpManager Applications Manager plug-in supports commercial applications (including IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle databases) as well as other open-source products.

NETSCOUT

Description: NETSCOUT nGeniusONE is a monitoring and service assurance platform that offers full visibility into infrastructure, interdependencies, and applications. The tool uses adaptive service intelligence technology to enable continuous monitoring and analysis of network traffic data. NETSCOUT, whose customers are largely enterprise organizations, combines network and application performance management to provide macro-level insights into performance, enabling the identification of capacity and network shortfalls.

Paessler

Description: Paessler PRTG Network Monitor allows administrators to stay ahead of IT infrastructure issues. The product primarily offers fault and flow analysis and packet sniffing, though other services, such as cloud, database, and bandwidth monitoring, are also supported. The company continues to release a consistent stream of vendor-agnostic network monitoring sensors. Paessler also includes unified monitoring via a powerful dashboard that gives network administrators complete visibility of their entire IT suite.

Pico

Description: Corvil Analytics, a Pico product, is a network monitoring and analysis suite designed for financial institutions. Analytics is one of three main offerings that Pico provides, the others being Corvil Center (for collecting and timestamping data) and Corvil Intelligence Hub (for applying machine learning and intelligent anomaly detection). The provider offers over 500 analytics plug-ins bundled in solution packs; each helps financial businesses extract information from specific network protocols and applications.

Plixer

Description: Plixer Scrutinizer is a network monitoring and network traffic analysis system that gathers network flow data and metadata from every network conversation. Scrutinizer also provides network forensics and security capabilities. The product alerts network teams to traffic patterns, integrates with DNS, and provides full visibility into network information that is typically hidden. Scrutinizer also allows administrators to peer deep into their network to see where threats are originating and how the network is being used.

Riverbed

Description: Riverbed SteelCentral is a network monitoring and application performance monitoring tool that offers full network visibility, analytics, troubleshooting, and user monitoring. The solution is divided into two platforms based on company size. Riverbed also provides its customers with four distinct levels of support based on how quickly they need replacement equipment shipped in the event of a network failure. Riverbed’s network performance management solution acts as a repository for its complete suite of related products.

SevOne by IBM

Description: The SevOne Data Platform is a network monitoring and analytics solution that provides a collection of comprehensive performance metrics. SevOne is best suited for infrastructure, flow, and log monitoring. The tool also supports live network maps, infrastructure orchestration, SD-WAN, hybrid cloud, and carrier network virtualization. SevOne’s Data Insight provides customizable visualizations and reports on a network’s performance, along with flexible workflows for configurable delivery.

Statseeker

Description: Statseeker offers a monitoring product that monitors every physical, virtual, and logical interface across an organization. The product offers quick, simple deployment and can scale horizontally and vertically. Statseeker touts three distinct licensing options based on budget, user persona, and required functionality. Statseeker scales from 10,000 to 1,000,000 interfaces on a single server with minimal requirements.

ThousandEyes

Description: ThousandEyes Network Intelligence is a cloud-based monitoring solution that allows IT teams to diagnose performance issues with networks, infrastructure, and applications. ThousandEyes can identify problems across an organization by collecting topology information and using it to depict the paths network traffic takes from source to destination. The product uses agents to generate synthetic traffic to probe network patterns and flows. ThousandEyes has raised more than $110 million in funding since its founding in 2010.

VIAVI Solutions

Description: The VIAVI Solutions Observer platform, consisting of Apex, GigaStor, and GigaFlow, delivers network visibility to NetOps and SecOps teams to help manage daily IT operations, mitigate risks, and solve performance and security issues. VIAVI is a veteran monitoring vendor that delivers wire data capture via its GigaStor appliance. Recently, VIAVI has also added flow-based analysis with GigaFlow to help organizations gain insights into network infrastructure devices and corresponding IP addresses, MAC addresses, and usernames.

Zabbix

Description: Zabbix is an open-source monitoring solution available as a software and virtual appliance download. Zabbix is designed to scale from small businesses to large enterprises with ease. This scalability is enabled by intelligent algorithms that leverage modern hardware and software modularity. Zabbix is optimized for high-performance monitoring of operating systems and application-specific metrics. Zabbix also offers server, cloud, application, and service monitoring.