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ExtraHop Reveal(x) vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

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

ExtraHop Reveal(x)
Ranking in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Network Detection and Response (NDR) (7th)
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic ...
Ranking in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)
5th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) category, the mindshare of ExtraHop Reveal(x) is 21.1%, up from 15.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is 7.7%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)
 

Featured Reviews

Jordan Swanson - PeerSpot reviewer
It helps you visualize how data moves across your network
I rate ExtraHop Reveal(x) 10 out of 10. This is more of a nice-to-have rather than a must-have solution. Something like a CrowdStrike or a next-gen AV is an essential product, whereas NDR is more of a nice-to-have thing. If you only have a little bit of traffic, you're probably not going to get anything out of it. It's better for a medium-to-large enterprise. It's more appropriate for companies wh a massfootprints or industrial applications using use nonstandard devices. It's helpful for things that use SCADA, the Internet of Things, somethingings that don't fit neatly into other management categories. Itty common for industrial, construction, or maintenance devices to be a little lackluster in their security. Major breaches like the Colonial Pipeline hack and attempted hacks on nuclear power plants all went through Internet of Things vulnerabilities and other devices where security wasn't part of their plan. This helps you cover yourself by monitoring the traffic. With something like CrowdStrike, you need to put the CrowdStrike sensor on it, but Reveal(x) looks at everything on the network.
Dr. SureshHungenahally - PeerSpot reviewer
Used for capacity planning and handles a variety of protocols with easy setup
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. We also analyze peak bandwidth and bandwidth consumption across various network segments, which is crucial if someone is planning to transition to software-defined networks. The network traffic analyzer tool allows us to simulate scenarios and compare before-and-after results. Additionally, it supports traffic sources like NetFlow and SFlow, and we regularly check the quality of service using NetFlow. The tool handles a variety of protocols, such as NetFlow version 5 and version 9, JFlow, and SFlow, making it independent of the underlying technology.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution works well for sending sensors."
"Setting up the solution is relatively easy."
"With ExtraHop Reveal(x), it gives me more visibility into the packets. It doesn't provide the entire packet capture, but it offers more information on how connections are made at the network layer. This can be helpful for detecting network attacks. Additionally, I really like the customizable dashboards and reports. The incident dashboard and alerts provide a good summary initially, and diving deeper into them gives more detailed information. It's also great for analyzing specific attacks and victim logs. The feature that tracks the full attack chain makes it easier to monitor the progress of attacks. Plus, it's connected to the Netria.com app, which I find useful for certain tasks."
"We had useful information within the hour of deployment. The ability to trace back for historical analysis, as well as the behavioral analysis done with the security information, puts the user in a position to make an informed decision to mitigate the performance or security incidents. Regarding the security incidents, Reveal (x) is able to create incident cards that guide your teams through the incidents and gives you the option to delve into the transaction detail to potentially view payloads as well."
"The solution's initial setup process is easy."
"ExtraHop Reveal(x) is one of the tools that works out of the box when it comes to threat hunting."
"It's a wire analytics tool. We use it for isolating and determining issues on our network or applications. It does a lot for crediting the network as opposed to discrediting the network. A lot of people come along and say that it's a network issue. It's always considered to be a network issue, but by using ExtraHop, we can quickly tell them that it's not a networking issue. It's something to do with your application or something at the other end. It could be a database issue. This tool gives us the ability to pinpoint with great accuracy the comings and goings on our network."
"ExtraHop Reveal(x) is highly recommended and very good."
"It allows us to pinpoint which protocol is overloading the link."
"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."
"The integration with other SolarWinds products is good."
"The solution's most valuable feature is its traffic analysis."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to look for any increases in bandwidth over time so that we can plan before it becomes critical."
"For stability, I would give SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer a rating of ten out of ten."
"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."
"The performance analysis is a valuable feature. With the performance analyzer, we can see the realtime monitoring, the realtime performance, and historical performance on specific components like virtualization storage, CPU, servers and network equipment."
 

Cons

"Currently, we have to check manually as we do not receive any notifications about new patches, maintenance, or firmware releases."
"Netflow - Processing Netflow can be cumbersome as it requires triggers to truly gain value and insight. This in turn can add a bit of load to the hardware. The focus of ExtraHop Reveal (x) is live packet data."
"The solution is expensive and gets more expensive if a company needs to scale it."
"It needs integration with more security vendors."
"I think the tuning capabilities could be improved. We're working on minimizing false positives. Apart from that, everything seems fine to me."
"Currently, we have to check manually as we do not receive any notifications about new patches, maintenance, or firmware releases."
"The solution's reporting part and GUI are areas with certain shortcomings where improvements are required."
"The solution should include more support protocols."
"It's scalable, but it could be simplified because it's not completely easy."
"The solution needs better log management and log coordination with tools."
"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."
"There is room for improvement when it comes to the traffic generated by the analyzer and the analysis of that traffic."
"The analysis can utilize algorithms like K-means clustering or associative neural networks for predictions rather than relying on generative AI, which is more suited for text."
"There is a lack of documentation ......as well as a lack of dashboards."
"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."
"The pricing is expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the price of ExtraHop Reveal(x) a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low price."
"The solution is based on an annual subscription model and is expensive."
"I rate ExtraHop Reveal(x) six out of 10 for affordability. We pay for an annual license. It's always one of those trade-offs. You get a lot of value, but ExtraHop isn't exorbitantly priced. You can pay extra for additional features like the ability to decode HL7 traffic, which is crucial for EMR environments."
"I would rate the price a three out of five. It could be less expensive."
"We pay yearly, and we are happy with its price."
"The solution's licensing is high-priced."
"We have licenses for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer. In terms of pricing, its license is not that expensive versus other tools such as HP."
"While the pricing is fair, it could be better."
"For our environment, we pay approximately $25,000 USD yearly."
"The price of this solution is exceptional."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"SolarWinds' pricing structure is the primary reason why some customers opt for another solution such as ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer. In NTA, you are charged per port, meaning that if you have a 24-port switch you will be charged for 24 individual nodes. ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer, on the other hand, charges per switch, such that if you add a switch, the entire switch will count as one single node."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
14%
Healthcare Company
7%
Government
6%
Educational Organization
71%
Computer Software Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
3%
Government
2%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We just did an assessment for our 47 datacenters around North America. The top two enterprise-level network monitoring solutions were ExtraHop first, Riverbed SteelCenter second. Their negotiated c...
What open source tool can one use to measure bandwidth from one's upstream service provider?
One I am looking closely at is AppNeta. They have an appliance that can digest the flow and do a better job than Netflow. The other one we are using is ExtraHop. This has both a Datacenter Hig...
What do you like most about ExtraHop Reveal(x)?
With ExtraHop Reveal(x), it gives me more visibility into the packets. It doesn't provide the entire packet capture, but it offers more information on how connections are made at the network layer....
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer?
The product is expensive. I rate the product’s pricing as one out of ten, where one is expensive, and ten is cheap.
What needs improvement with SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer?
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer could improve its flexibility and integration with AI to provide analytics beyond just showing up/down statuses and traffic volumes.
 

Also Known As

Reveal(x), Revealx
Netflow Traffic Analyzer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Wood County Hospital
Oceaneering International, Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, 335th Signal Command, Immofori
Find out what your peers are saying about ExtraHop Reveal(x) vs. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.