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IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) vs Wireshark comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
54
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (37th), Server Monitoring (17th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (43rd), Log Management (40th), Cloud Monitoring Software (29th)
Wireshark
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Network Troubleshooting (2nd)
 

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 1.1%, up 1.0% compared to last year.
Wireshark, on the other hand, focuses on Network Troubleshooting, holds 17.1% mindshare, up 13.9% since last year.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM)1.1%
Zabbix4.1%
SolarWinds NPM3.7%
Other91.1%
Network Monitoring Software
Network Troubleshooting Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Wireshark17.1%
AirMagnet Survey PRO9.4%
DX Spectrum6.6%
Other66.9%
Network Troubleshooting
 

Featured Reviews

Grzegorz Nowak - PeerSpot reviewer
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.…
Vijay Duggal - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"SevOne has improved my organization by taking us to a single pane of glass for alerting on the network reports."
"It has been a godsend and has brought us 11 months of stability, the likes of which I'd never seen before in 15 years with the company."
"One of the solution's biggest strengths is its capacity management performance, with out-of-the-box reports through NMS, as well as its ability to collect NetFlow-related data from devices. The collection of network performance and flow data is important because we have many critical business applications."
"Based on my experience, the stability of IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) is excellent."
"SevOne enables us to look at the data and see that the customer has disconnected so we can stop billing and reimbursing them."
"It is a very efficient and highly recommended solution."
"The feature that I have found most valuable is the scale-up and scale-down, where the CPU boosts up and then the memory boosts up, and that works awesomely."
"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."
"This is a tool that gives you a clear-cut idea about where the issue is, and where the packs are dropping."
"Wireshark's best features are that it lets us see what traffic is in the network and what data should be encrypted."
"The solution is easy to install and use."
"It helped in the sense that it allowed the team to troubleshoot networks faster."
"I have found the most valuable feature you can design your sniffer the way you want to."
"The initial setup is simple."
"The transmission and reception issues are valuable."
"Wireshark does exactly what I want and leaves me with no need to look elsewhere."
 

Cons

"Every upgrade we've done -- and we've done them all -- have been highly disruptive and extraordinarily difficult."
"There are some tweaks and enhancements that I've already requested. One is to be able to make changes per device rather than as a global setting."
"If you want one tool for everything this should not be considered."
"Some of the services and functionality are adapted for SevOne via open-source, and the cost is very high. For the price that they are asking, it cannot be justified."
"We previously have had discussions on some reporting enhancements. So, we raised a feature request, which was delivered from SevOne."
"It needs a platform to add portals."
"With the administrative management of the appliance, if some object appears from SevOne because something changed in the network or whatever, then as an administrator you will not be aware."
"The UI is a little dated, but it doesn’t cause any features to fall short of what they need to do."
"Wireshark could be improved with a delay option when getting data automatically."
"Wireshark could be improved with a delay option when getting data automatically. It could also work faster."
"Wireshark's UI isn't easy to handle and doesn't have as nice a view as Omnipeek."
"The volume of data on a typical TCP segment is so large that it can be challenging to capture and find the right data."
"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."
"The product is great but I wish there were more of an emphasis on the command line tools."
"The speed of the Internet could be improved, especially its performance."
"It is not an easy program. You will need to study to use it to its full capabilities (follow a course)."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Choose a SevOne partner who can provide SevOne as a service and can deliver professional services and maintenance."
"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."
"A blocking point is the high upfront cost because it is challenging to get it accepted and the purchase approved."
"The tool is not expensive. We were able to negotiate with SevOne on pricing."
"The pricing has been fair."
"Many tools price things based on the number of KPIs that you're collecting around a device. In many cases, there could be hundreds of metrics that you need to collect. SevOne provides device-level pricing. That gives us the flexibility to turn on, and expand on, the metrics that we're collecting around those devices, without taking a financial hit."
"There are different options available for licensing, with the per-device option being more expensive but more flexible."
"Have a bank of licenses, because it is about the number of objects (RAM, ports, CPU, etc.)."
"It is free."
"This is an open-source product that can be used free of charge."
"Wireshark is free of charge, and there's no license involved."
"I am using the free version of this solution."
"It is an open-source solution."
"The solution is open source so is free."
"It's free."
"We are using a freeware version of this solution, so there are no licence costs involved."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Construction Company
10%
Computer Software Company
6%
University
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise45
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise27
 

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...
 

Also Known As

SevOne
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ATOS, Devereux, Spark New Zealand, Access4, Rogers Communication, Lumen (formerly known as CenturyLink)
Comversion, ADP, Talbots
Find out what your peers are saying about Zabbix, Auvik, SolarWinds and others in Network Monitoring Software. Updated: April 2026.
892,678 professionals have used our research since 2012.