Corelight vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer comparison

Corelight and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) category. Corelight is ranked #6, while SolarWinds is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.8. Corelight holds a 9.2% mindshare in NTA, compared to SolarWinds’s 5.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Corelight users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

Corelight

Read 5 Corelight reviews

2,060 Views
1,463 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic ...

Read 43 SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer reviews

1,825 Views
584 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Corelight

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic ...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer and Corelight compete in the network analysis and monitoring category. Corelight appears to have the upper hand due to its superior features, despite its higher price.

Features: SolarWinds users highlight its strong reporting and traffic monitoring capabilities. Corelight's users value its robust security features and comprehensive visibility. The primary difference is SolarWinds focuses on traffic analysis, while Corelight emphasizes security and network visibility.

Room for Improvement: Users suggest SolarWinds could enhance its scalability and integration capabilities. Corelight users seek improvements in its user-friendliness and reporting options

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds is praised for its straightforward deployment and responsive customer service. Corelight, while also straightforward, tends to require more initial configuration and users note varying customer support experiences.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds users find it reasonably priced with good ROI. Corelight, despite higher costs, is considered worth the investment due to its advanced features.

To learn more, read our detailed Corelight vs. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Corelight vs. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 871,358 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Corelight

Ranking in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

6th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Detection and Response (NDR) (13th)

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic ...

Ranking in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

4th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) category, the mindshare of Corelight is 9.2%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is 5.1%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer	5.1%
Corelight	9.2%
Other	85.7%

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

Featured Reviews

HamadaElewa

Technical Sales Manager at Spire Solutions

An expensive solution to monitor internet traffic with multiple dashboards

The huge library especially the open source link, makes it the main engine for Corelight with some enhancements in the commercial version. It has a very powerful level, such as signature-based attacks or behavioral attacks, with enhancements in the design. It is very flexible for intelligent implementations like IPs, especially between big companies and banks. Corelight is easy to understand and monitor what is going on behind the team. The solution is already integrated with other systems like Suricata, Elastic, and Microsoft tools. It's very easy to integrate signature-based or behavior-based engines. You can use Elastic for the dashboards to get it from Corelight, along with all the benefits and expandability.

Read full review

Raja Xabi

Technical Manager at APRAL

Improved bandwidth management and network visibility have resulted in financial benefits and streamlined operations

There is always room for improvement in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, such as implementing instant reporting based on business intelligence reports and more granular filters in their dashboard to improve the GUI view and reporting. The licensing model of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is always an issue for users because competitors offer unlimited and perpetual licenses, and SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer's model is quite costly compared to other brands. If users are comfortable with SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, they have to make the hard decision to invest, and it's suggested from a user's perspective that SolarWinds should improve their financial model and licensing to become competitive, especially for small to medium businesses.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It's an easy way for us to get visibility in a client's environment."

"It is easy to deploy and easy to handle."

"The most valuable feature is the embedded IDS from Suricata."

"Corelight is easy to use."

"It's easy to create additional dashboards specific to supporting specific tasks."

"The program is scalable enough for our usage."

"The software management tools are very useful for our customers."

"They have instructional videos and other information available on the site to assist you with learning it."

"It provides proactive monitoring, rather than waiting for applications to go down due to heavy bandwidth or latency."

"It is great at telling you if your devices are working and it keeps an eye on your network's overall performance."

"The dashboard alerts me when a critical device goes off the network."

"We conduct network traffic analysis for a couple of key reasons. First, we look for traffic anomalies, such as unexpected increases or decreases in network traffic within specific segments. This helps us determine if the network needs to be re-architected."

"What the network team found most valuable in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is that it helps them to troubleshoot or analyze the issue. For example, traffic that comes from our location: India, goes to the US, so for the network team to analyze where the traffic comes from and where it is directed, and whether the packets are being dropped, they use SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer. The network team also likes that through the solution, they can analyze the complete traffic utilization and how they're going to use it. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is user-friendly. The team finds it comfortable to use."

More SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer pros

Cons

"Corelight hasn’t added features in a long time."

"In the next release, building a graphical user interface would be helpful."

"The solution’s architecture is complex and difficult to understand. There are multiple machines and VMs."

"Machine learning could be a good improvement, but it's very costly."

"They can enhance the interface of the product. They can make it more interactive and also easier to use for feature access."

"Currently, it shows only the top ten applications or ports in use, while the remaining data appears as 'remaining traffic,' causing confusion."

"What needs improvement in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is performance because sometimes, my team struggles too much for the solution to perform correctly for a specific deployment in my organization. Having a more detailed view in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is another area for improvement, but that's more part of the protocol than the actual solution."

"An area for improvement in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is application visibility because some applications aren't being recognized correctly. You can see applications such as Facebook and YouTube, but SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer needs to have more visibility into more applications. Currently, SolarWinds fails to detect more powerful applications, such as Zoom and Teams. If SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer can recognize every application and be able to report on each in terms of bandwidth, then that would be good. This is what I'd like to see in the next release of the solution."

"There is a lack of documentation ......as well as a lack of dashboards."

"The licensing should be more realistic so that we can adjust the number of nodes according to my needs, rather than in fixed increments."

"SolarWinds' technical support is ok, but it could be faster and more knowledgeable."

"This solution would benefit from having more security-based communications between the actual devices and the software itself."

"This solution does not do a very good job when I am trying to look deeper into my internal network, in particular with respect to individual ports."

More SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's a yearly fee and depends on what you are looking for."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"The price of this solution is exceptional."

"Pricing for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is very high. I have a customer that needs the solution but doesn't have the budget for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer because the problem is that you can't use the solution only. You have to buy requirements such as the SolarWinds NPM first, and some companies don't have the budget for all the required components and modules. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer can cost up to $10,000, and some customers don't have that budget. Another product has all the modules that SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer has, with a very low price, that can be a replacement, which is ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer. PRTG is another solution that can replace SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer."

"While the pricing is fair, it could be better."

"The solution's licensing is high-priced."

"For our environment, we pay approximately $25,000 USD yearly."

"Licensing for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is paid yearly, and there are no additional costs that you need to pay apart from the standard licensing fees because you don't need to purchase another solution to make SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer work. Pricing for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is more expensive than other solutions."

"The licensing for this solution is based on the number of nodes."

More SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

871,358 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	26

Questions from the Community

What is the biggest difference between Corelight and Vectra AI?

The two platforms take a fundamentally different approach to NDR. Corelight is limited to use cases that require the eventual forwarding of events and parsed data logs to a security team’s SIEM or ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Corelight?

It's easy to create additional dashboards specific to supporting specific tasks.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Corelight?

The solution is too expensive compared to others. If you have the technical knowledge, it's good. Corelight is a very big gap between you and others if you’re new.

See all answers

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

I have worked from 1973 with all kind of systems in large enterprises across the world. And have experience with all kind of software in monitoring from infra to end to end, it depends on the funct...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer?

The licensing model of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is always an issue for users because competitors offer unlimited and perpetual licenses, and SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer's model i...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer?

Regarding improvement, the application monitoring capabilities are not exceptional. If SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer could improve in that area, it would be helpful. It is less AIOps driven a...

See all answers

Comparisons

Vectra AI vs Corelight

Compared 32% of the time

Darktrace vs Corelight

Compared 26% of the time

ExtraHop Reveal(x) vs Corelight

Compared 21% of the time

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs Corelight

Compared 6% of the time

ExtraHop Reveal(x) 360 vs Corelight

Compared 6% of the time

More Corelight Competitors

Zabbix vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

Compared 16% of the time

Darktrace vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

Compared 13% of the time

Wireshark vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

Compared 10% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

Compared 9% of the time

Plixer Scrutinizer vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

Compared 9% of the time

More SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Network Detection and Response (NDR)

October 2025

Download Corelight product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

September 2025

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer report

Download SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer product report

Also Known As

No data available

Netflow Traffic Analyzer

Overview

Corelight is the most powerful network visibility solution for information security professionals. We provide real-time data that organizations use to understand, detect, and prevent cyber attacks. Our solution is built on Zeek, the powerful and widely-used open source monitoring framework.

Corelight

SolarWinds Netflow Traffic Analyzer enables you to capture data from continuous streams of network traffic and convert those raw numbers into easy-to-interpret charts and tables that quantify exactly how the corporate network is being used, by whom, and for what purpose.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Education First

Oceaneering International, Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, 335th Signal Command, Immofori

Buyer's Guide

Corelight vs. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

September 2025

Free Report: Corelight vs. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

Find out what your peers are saying about Corelight vs. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

871,358 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Corelight vs. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer report.

See our list of best Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) vendors.

We monitor all Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.