IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) vs Wireshark comparison

IBM SevOne Network Performa...

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) and Wireshark based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Zabbix, Auvik, Datadog and others in Network Monitoring Software.

To learn more, read our detailed Network Monitoring Software Report (Updated: March 2026).

Network Monitoring Software

March 2026

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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

IBM SevOne Network Performa...

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (39th), Server Monitoring (17th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (42nd), Log Management (41st), Cloud Monitoring Software (31st)

Wireshark

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Troubleshooting (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Management solutions, they serve different purposes. IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) is designed for Network Monitoring Software and holds a mindshare of 1.0%, up 1.0% compared to last year.
Wireshark, on the other hand, focuses on Network Troubleshooting, holds 15.0% mindshare, up 13.3% since last year.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM)	1.0%
Zabbix	4.3%
SolarWinds NPM	3.6%
Other	91.1%

Network Monitoring Software

Network Troubleshooting Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Wireshark	15.0%
AirMagnet Survey PRO	9.8%
LinkRunner	7.2%
Other	68.0%

Network Troubleshooting

Featured Reviews

Grzegorz Nowak

Solution Architect at Wingu

Improves infrastructure planning by helping us analyze network traffic

We use SevOne to collect and report on network flows SevOne improves infrastructure planning by helping us analyze network traffic. We can look at bandwidth for specific endpoints on the customer's network and analyze traffic to identify issues. For example, maybe some connectors are unavailable.…

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Vijay Duggal

Network Specialist at Squarepoint Capital

Provides detailed traffic analysis and helps troubleshoot issues

There is a disadvantage when it comes to sampling intervals. While the solution supports sampling as fine as one millisecond, it requires a copy at that interval. My Python script allows me to achieve a granularity of up to ten microseconds, but I can't go beyond that. When dealing with provisioning on both issues, it would be beneficial if I could go down to the microsecond level, if not the nanosecond. Additionally, I've heard from a colleague that Wireshark might be less effective in the voice domain.

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

"One of the benefits is that we've been able to leverage one tool to do a lot of things."

"SevOne's ability to report metrics on specific objects very quickly, whether it is a week, a month, or a year's worth of data points, has improved by leveraging short-term vs. long-term memory to provide necessary statistics so we can alleviate network impacts quickly."

"One of the most valuable features is the graphs, which you can build instantly. I have used some open-source platforms in the past, but they are not as good. With SevOne, the sampling in the graph can be every few seconds, not just every few minutes, and that's really helpful. It's really fast."

"Fantastic – for money laid out vs. what you’re getting back, it's been great."

"SevOne NPM helps our customers detect performance issues faster and, once it's properly configured, it will help you address some issues right away, cutting troubleshooting time by one to three hours and enabling you to proactively address potential performance issues before a failure occurs."

"The most valuable feature as of late has been the API integration with ServiceNow."

"SevOne is one of the biggest strategic investments we've made; it just works, it just does what we want with no fuss about it."

"The automation feature is good because if your CMDB is OK and it is already in sync, then the automation part is good to go."

More IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) pros

"Wireshark is the world's most powerful network protocol analyzer tool."

"What's best about Wireshark is that it doesn't require installation, supports cards and monitoring permissions, and is sufficient for appending and capturing activities, so you won't need to install other tools and can capture packets at any time from your laptop through Wireshark."

"This is a tool that gives you a clear-cut idea about where the issue is, and where the packs are dropping."

"The ability to decrypt traffic and the abundance of filters available are both valuable features."

"Wireshark saves a lot of time, especially with network troubleshooting."

"Wireshark's best features are that it lets us see what traffic is in the network and what data should be encrypted."

"Wireshark is a network analytic tool which provides such intelligent information in a network."

"The options that are required to get the details for the packet drops are good."

More Wireshark pros

Cons

"Although it is a very good monitoring tool, it can be confusing when you try to add devices and they don’t appear correctly."

"The reporting of NMS is good, but it could be better."

"When I started using it, I tried adding one of the BroadWorks application servers into SevOne... it created thousands and thousands of objects from that one application server and we immediately ran out of license... It would help, when new objects are discovered, if there were a way to categorize those objects and to pick the part of the object you need..."

"This product needs a lot of handholding and close collaboration with network design resources, in terms of choosing the appliance and the number of licenses."

"We need to be thinking about streaming telemetry protocols. They already have the port for enhanced visualization, which they already have through Data Insight."

"I'm not really sure if this was the software's fault or a server issue, but a couple of years back the disks were failing on our SevOne physical server every month and the server would go down."

"The one area with room for improvement is probably administration. They added data insights to make a better user experience, but I'd like to see some improvements in the way the system's administered."

More IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) cons

"The only thing that I don't like is sometimes there is an update, and something that I was using is either no longer there or it has changed."

"Big trace files (more than 1,000,000 packets) can be slow, but then you can use "TraceWrangler" (also free) to help with slicing and dicing the data."

"Great scalability, but they are beginning to sacrifice ease of use for complexity."

"I wish the filters were a little bit more prepopulated."

"The product is great but I wish there were more of an emphasis on the command line tools."

"It’s helpful only if you have the basic knowledge of networking."

"Its user interface was a little less friendly. They can make its user interface a little bit more friendly."

"Wireshark gets stuck when it is a larger file."

More Wireshark cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For the value that you get from SevOne, it's worth the price. There are a lot of cheaper alternatives on the market, and even free options. But they require more staff, more resources, and engineers with more advanced knowledge of monitoring. That's what makes SevOne worth the price."

"Choose a SevOne partner who can provide SevOne as a service and can deliver professional services and maintenance."

"The pricing has not evolved with the market, which is one of the reasons we are moving to a new product."

"A blocking point is the high upfront cost because it is challenging to get it accepted and the purchase approved."

"Have a bank of licenses, because it is about the number of objects (RAM, ports, CPU, etc.)."

"There are different options available for licensing, with the per-device option being more expensive but more flexible."

"It is inexpensive compared to other monitoring tools."

"Prices per license are not huge, but they exist."

More IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) pricing and cost advice

"Wireshark is open source and gives great value and functionality to the network investigation."

"Wireshark is free software, so you don't have to pay any licensing fee. Individual people can use it and then donate to Wireshark."

"It is free."

"It is free to download and install. It runs on multiple platforms, so how can you go wrong?"

"Wireshark is free of charge, and there's no license involved."

"This is an open-source product that can be used free of charge."

"We're using the free version of Wireshark."

"The solution is open source so is free."

More Wireshark pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Construction Company

10%

Computer Software Company

University

10%

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	45

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	31
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	27

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with SevOne Network Data Platform?

There is room for improvement in the integration with different vendors and the reporting capabilities. It would be beneficial to have out-of-the-box integration with third-party vendors and improv...

What is your primary use case for SevOne Network Data Platform?

The primary use case of IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) ( /products/ibm-sevone-network-performance-management-npm-reviews ) is network monitoring. It helps to maintain the infrastru...

What advice do you have for others considering SevOne Network Data Platform?

To compete with custom-built tools, IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) should accommodate the desired features and be timely in the delivery of feature updates. I would rate the overal...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Wireshark?

Wireshark is priced at a medium range, not too high, not too low. The pricing could be more flexible, and they might make it more expensive. That said, compared to other products, it is competitive.

What needs improvement with Wireshark?

The speed of the Internet could be improved, especially its performance. Performance can sometimes be a challenge due to numerous factors.

What is your primary use case for Wireshark?

We are using Wireshark for inspecting the vertical line to know the data flow in and out of the cables. This is to determine if there is real traffic flow through the physical connections or not. A...

Zabbix vs IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM)

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Microsoft Network Monitor vs Wireshark

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SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs Wireshark

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM)

April 2026

IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) report

Download IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) product report

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March 2026

Also Known As

SevOne

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Overview

The IBM® SevOne Network Performance Management (IBM SevOne NPM) solution helps you spot, address, and prevent network performance issues early with machine learning-powered analytics from a single source. Boost network performance and improve your user application experience by proactively monitoring your multivendor end-to-end network across enterprise, communication, and managed service provider networks.

Transform raw network performance data into intelligent and actionable insights. The IBM SevOne NPM solution goes beyond detection, combining industry-leading expertise and advanced technology to help your IT team plan and optimize your network and act on what matters: improving network performance to provide an exceptional customer experience.

For further information, please visit www.ibm.com/cloud/sevo...

IBM

Wireshark is the world's foremost network protocol analyzer.

Sample Customers

ATOS, Devereux, Spark New Zealand, Access4, Rogers Communication, Lumen (formerly known as CenturyLink)

Comversion, ADP, Talbots