Kentik vs NetBrain comparison

The compared Kentik and NetBrain solutions aren't in the same category. Kentik is ranked #39 in NMS , with an average rating of 9.0, and holds a 0.8% mindshare in the category. NetBrain is ranked #14 in NT , and holds a 2.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Kentik users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 75% of NetBrain users who would recommend it.

Kentik

Read 14 Kentik reviews

1,158 Views
826 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NetBrain

Read 6 NetBrain reviews

121 Views
70 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

Kentik

NetBrain

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Kentik and NetBrain based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Network Monitoring Software solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Kentik vs. NetBrain Report (Updated: May 2020).

Buyer's Guide

Kentik vs. NetBrain

May 2020

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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

Kentik

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (39th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (21st)

NetBrain

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Troubleshooting (14th), Network Automation (6th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Management solutions, they serve different purposes. Kentik is designed for Network Monitoring Software and holds a mindshare of 0.8%, up 0.7% compared to last year.
NetBrain, on the other hand, focuses on Network Troubleshooting, holds 2.4% mindshare, up 1.7% since last year.

Network Monitoring Software

Network Troubleshooting

Featured Reviews

Ahmad Mohd Fahmin

Consultant at Finther Tecnologica

Makes monitoring of operational efficiency an easy process

If there is any integration, it will apply back to the source of information that was creating the delay, for example, a legacy system or because the network's configuration is not correct. My company has not yet used any AI features of the product, but we do plan to use it in the future. I recommend the tool to others. I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

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Deborah Gamelin

Vice President at Asset Track for Cloud, LLC

Good monitoring and troubleshoot capabilities, improves overall network traffic visibility

In my organization, we had 130,000 network devices that needed to be brought into the solution and mapped. NetBrain can handle the scale but the engineers that manage those devices have to go in and update all of them to allow NetBrain permission to poll them. It can get a little stressful for everybody when you're trying to roll out new stuff when you've got other issues that have to be addressed with other devices. In some cases, our devices had no automation at all. One example is the Cisco 3650. Right now, if you went through the inventory list, you see that we have different versions running. Some are on one version, whereas others are on another version. The problem with upgrading them is that they need to be done overnight because we don't want to disrupt any network traffic during business hours. Consequently, it could take us years to upgrade the versions before we can even get them onto these new tools. This may be an internal issue but it's a big one when you have a lot of devices. Even if you had 10,000 devices, it's still an issue. You have to consider the compatibility of the device against the tool, and being able to use certain commands to upgrade it.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It offers a simple yet powerful feature of classifying applications, going beyond basic statistics."

"In terms of the solution’s real-time visibility across our network infrastructure, I have not been able to find any other monitoring or netflow visualization tool that gives me the kind of information I get from Kentik. If I need to take a deep-dive into something that I see, it's really easy for me to do that. Whereas with most other things, I have to use five or six other tools to get that kind of data, with Kentik, I have it all in one place."

"The most valuable features have been anything around traffic engineering: being able to determine the source or destination of a surge of traffic, whether it's DDoS-related, or a customer just happened to have a sudden uptick in traffic. Being able to tell where that's coming from or where it's going to enables us to do things based on that."

"I am able to do a lot of work on the visualization end to create different visualizations and different ways to get information out of it."

"The most valuable feature is being able to pull traffic patterns; to and from destinations. We're able to understand where our traffic is going, our top talkers from an AS set, as well as where our traffic's coming from."

"Overall, the ease of use and the fact that it meets client expectations are major positives."

"I really love the Data Explorer. I use it all the time to go in and craft exactly what I need to see. I'm able to then take that story and explain it to the executives. I've done that a couple of times and it is helpful."

"We're pretty happy with the API functionality. It's web, and it's very simple to set up queries. It has served us well and you don't need to be an expert on the API or the product to set these things up."

More Kentik pros

"A reliable, time-saving tool for providing accurate layer 2 and layer 3 network mappings."

"NetBrain is a very simple tool."

"Enables maps to be drawn out."

"Chain management is a good feature. I don't get it on other solutions."

"This product has good network monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities."

Cons

"I've checked out the V4 version of the interface and it's still a little bit clunky for me to use. I still go back to the old interface. That's definitely one that they still need to work on. It doesn't seem like everything that you get in the V3, the older interface, is there. For instance, I was trying to add a user or do the administrative tasks in V4, and I couldn't figure out where I was supposed to do that."

"I consider the pricing model as an area for improvement."

"Sometimes, the tool has complications, so we must deal with the additional support from the tool's end."

"The only downside to Kentik, something that I don't like, is that it's great that it shows you where these anomalies lie, but it's not actionable. Kentik is valuable, don't get me wrong, but if it had an actionable piece to it..."

"They're moving more in a direction where they are saying, "Hey, here's information that you may be interested in or may a need," before the question has to explicitly be asked. Continuing to move in that direction would be a good thing."

"The product could strive for more improvements to become closer to perfect."

"We asked for a way, regarding the potential networks that exist, to hook Kentik up with external tools like peering DBs to correlate things together and see what we can do... This is all in the [next] beta now."

"I would like to see them explore the area of cost analysis."

More Kentik cons

"Support needs to improve for the installed product and some of the reporting could be more flexible to provide more complete cataloging."

"It would be nice if the setup was a little simpler. Also, if the solution could provide more training materials for new people coming into our company so they can quickly learn how to use the functionalities."

"The solution could integrate more automation."

"The IP interface brief isn't consistent."

"Each device needs to be configured to allow NetBrain to poll for the information it needs, which can be very time-consuming for a large network."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have an annual contract with Kentik that we renew each year for a set number of licenses. We also have some burstable licenses which we can spin up and spin down, and those are paid as they are used."

"The tool is cheaply priced."

"Licensing is based on a per-device basis, which means that it can get very expensive if you have a large number of devices."

"The product is expensive, but less expensive than some of the competition and worth the price."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Kentik?

It offers a simple yet powerful feature of classifying applications, going beyond basic statistics.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kentik?

The tool is cheaply priced.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Kentik?

Sometimes, the tool has complications, so we must deal with the additional support from the tool's end. We have the L3 and L4 support, but we have to get expertise in a different time zone, which i...

See all answers

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Compared 17% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

Forward Enterprise vs NetBrain

Compared 9% of the time

Auvik Network Management (ANM) vs NetBrain

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Kentik

January 2025

Download Kentik product report

Buyer's Guide

NetBrain

January 2025

Download NetBrain product report

Overview

Kentik's AIOps Network Traffic Intelligence platform unifies network operations, performance, security, and business intelligence.

With a purpose-built big data engine delivered as public or private SaaS, Kentik captures a high-resolution view of actual network traffic data and enriches it with critical application and business data, so every network event or analysis can be tied to revenue & costs, customer & user experience, performance & risk.

Kentik

Managing today’s networks with yesterday’s manual processes is no longer a viable solution. NetBrain’s network automation platform provides actionable insights into your network to help you make better and faster decisions - particularly when you’re troubleshooting, securing, and making changes to the network.

NetBrain

Sample Customers

Pandora, Yelp, Neustar, Box, University of Washington, Zoom, Tata, and Cogent.

CompuCon, TD Ameritrade, Move Inc.

Buyer's Guide

Kentik vs. NetBrain

May 2020

Free Report: Kentik vs. NetBrain

Find out what your peers are saying about Kentik vs. NetBrain and other solutions. Updated: May 2020.

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