N-able N-central vs Spiceworks comparison

Read 48 Spiceworks reviews

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508 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

N-able N-central

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between N-able N-central and Spiceworks based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about NinjaOne, Kaseya, Atera and others in Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM).

To learn more, read our detailed Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) Report (Updated: February 2025).

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)

February 2025

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Helped 838,713 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

N-able N-central

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (5th)

Spiceworks

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Help Desk Software (15th), IT Asset Management (11th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (39th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Systems Management solutions, they serve different purposes. N-able N-central is designed for Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) and holds a mindshare of 12.6%, up 9.9% compared to last year.
Spiceworks, on the other hand, focuses on IT Infrastructure Monitoring, holds 0.5% mindshare, down 0.5% since last year.

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Q&A Highlights

Stephen Kane

Technical Solutions Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Nov 01, 2017

Solarwinds vs Spiceworks vs Airwatch

Unfortunately pricing is never that simple with each product having a multi-tiered offering. Also with vastly different feature sets between vendor products it can be impossible to make side-by-side comparisons. Before even looking at pricing or referring to the good book of Gartner you should put together a list of: 1. Everyday tasks at a functional level 2. How your team perform them today 3. Issues associated with the processes used 4. Your vision of how it could be done Without having properly defined your requirements will set you up for the typical scenario where the project scope slowly creeps away from what is the vest fit for your use-case and spiral out of control.

Optimizes device management and has an easy deployment

Featured Reviews

Jallad Ahmad

Senior Manager, Cloud at a media company with 10,001+ employees

Customers that we manage do not have IT, but they still want to manage the PCs if they have any issues or any patches. They want to keep the operating system up to the latest version. They need support for their employees on the device itself. We use N-central to get access to the device, and we…

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Fernando Cezario

Level 2 Support at Tigs

Allows for separate accounts for different enterprises, enabling efficient management of computers across various sites and clients

One area of improvement is the user-friendly interface for the website. With Spiceworks, like, when I open the websites, I have to Zoom in. I need to zoom in on those websites sometimes because it makes it horrible to use. Previously, Spiceworks required server installation for enterprise use. Now, Spiceworks promotes its own cloud solution through the RCM, which is both good and bad. While I preferred the old, on-premise version, the current cloud option requires less technical expertise for deployment. However, I'm unsure if everyone is comfortable with this transition, and it's a significant factor in our continued use.

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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's a very robust product. They're continuing to invest and put new enhancements into the product. They're very open about what their roadmap is, which is very good for us because then as a business, we can plan."

"The most valuable features of N-central are its ease of deployment and ease of use."

"N-able N-central is an easy tool to implement with customers."

"N-able N-central has numerous good features. The asset tracking capability is powerful, allowing you to track hardware and software on devices connected to your network. The remote control is smooth, securely enabling remote access to servers and routers. It can be integrated with ticketing systems and other tools like CrowdStrike and N-able EDR for comprehensive network monitoring and security. The automation feature is handy, allowing you to schedule tasks, respond to system triggers, and automate problem resolution, such as handling disk space issues automatically."

"The solution's service is good."

"The support is at a good level. So normally, we can always get to a solution when we are stuck with some monitoring problems that we encounter."

"The most valuable feature of N-able N-central is the many options it has."

"N-able N-central is very scalable."

More N-able N-central pros

"The software is cloud-based, so I do not need to store any data locally."

"It lets us know whether devices are getting out of date and tracked warranties. Spiceworks also gave me visibility in terms of what software was installed on each device and its status."

"Spiceworks is generic and free."

"Helpdesk and inventory are both equally valuable, and they form the true core of the product."

"Spiceworks' dashboard allows you to drill down to the notes, where I can take an inventory of the network and see the devices I need to monitor."

"The nice thing about Spiceworks is always it's free. Monitoring of printers for low toner. Finding machines that have low memory or low hard disk space."

"If you're in the market for a low-cost service desk system, Spiceworks is a good software solution to start out with, especially when it comes to startups and those organizations that don't currently have any existing service desk software in place."

"The solution is very stable. It's reliable and efficient."

More Spiceworks pros

Cons

"N-able N-central could improve the remote access, my technicians have complained about it. They have used other free tools instead to compensate, such as TeamViewer. Additionally, when using remote access on the web, it is lacking reports."

"Involving AI in the platform could improve it further."

"The solution's overall integration should be improved."

"The integration with other applications could be better."

"There is room for improvement in the development of custom monitoring services."

"The support from our direct team is very good, but the support from their day-to-day ongoing help desk isn't that good. They have still got some work to do on that, but they have been focusing on that a lot over the last number of years. So, it has gotten a lot better than it was."

"The industry has moved towards Redfish for out-of-band and in-band monitoring, yet N-able N-central still relies on older protocols like SNMP."

"At this moment, we encounter stability issues with N-able N-central from time to time."

More N-able N-central cons

"The GUI must be improved."

"Having an integrated asset management tool, where I can plug in things that are offline, would be good."

"The customer service is okay, however, I would appreciate much more clarity on what I want to know exactly."

"Once a device was recognized on the network, Spiceworks never got rid of it even after you took it off the network. You had to go in and manually remove it."

"I would like to see more information when drilling down into access permissions, assignments management, or tagging. When I click a note or a device, I should be able to see more details about the router and modem. For example, I want to see the version, downtime, availability, latency, etc. I should have easy access to everything about our assets at a glance."

"It would be nice to have remote access to the solution via a tablet. They also need remote control from a PC. Right now, to complete the technical support process, you have to have a tool to access the PC, and check the problems."

"One of the biggest ways in which Spiceworks could improve is by developing better and more automated workflows. For example, in another solution called ServiceDesk by ManageEngine, you can have levels of approval in the event that there is a request for new software, or when someone requests a VPN or WiFi connection. This kind of multi-stage approval feature provided by ServiceDesk does not appear to exist in Spiceworks, and it is one of their main shortcomings for me."

"Sometimes, it can be difficult to integrate what you need."

More Spiceworks cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"N-able N-central is not an expensive solution."

"The pricing and licensing are average, almost six out of ten."

"Seeing that it is a low-cost solution, I would advise you to go ahead with Spiceworks and experiment with it to see if you can get things working properly, especially if you currently don't have any existing service desk software in place."

"It's free."

"The product is free! Get it now."

"It might be about $300 annually for a bigger company. If you pay annually, it's better and cheaper."

"The tool is cheap."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) solutions are best for your needs.

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Comparison Review

it_user174738

IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

May 31, 2015

Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor

I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…

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Answers from the Community

Stephen Kane

Technical Solutions Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Nov 1, 2017

Solarwinds vs Spiceworks vs Airwatch

2 out of 9 answers

it_user719895

Diretor de Sistemas de Informação at a transportation company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Oct 30, 2017

You are comparing 3 different products. Solarwinds play in the major league of NMS. Spiceworks is adware and plays in the minor league. Airwatch is an MDM/MAM product. What is your goal?

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it_user357969

Managing Partner at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Oct 30, 2017

Agree with Antonio. Plus, if you’re talking about client desktop management, I think you might be missing better players.

Read full answer

See all 9 answers

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

23%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

11%

University

10%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about N-able N-central?

The solution's service is good.

What needs improvement with N-able N-central?

They have AI on their roadmap. It's about how to leverage AI to make recommendations about device maintenance, recommendations for areas, such as certain ports to close, and recommendations on anti...

What is your primary use case for N-able N-central?

What do you like most about Spiceworks?

The solution is easy to use and easy to manage.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Spiceworks?

The tool is cheap.

What needs improvement with Spiceworks?

I am unable to provide suggestions for improvement at this moment, however, I can provide feedback later. Currently, there do not seem to be any issues.

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Compared 28% of the time

Lansweeper vs Spiceworks

Compared 22% of the time

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs Spiceworks

Compared 8% of the time

Freshdesk vs Spiceworks

Compared 8% of the time

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Product Reports

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)

February 2025

Download N-able N-central product report

Download Spiceworks product report

January 2025

Also Known As

SolarWinds N-central, SolarWinds MSP N-central

No data available

Overview

N-able N-central is a comprehensive tool for monitoring networks, managing assets, automation, remote access, patch management, and ensuring system security. It is predominantly used by managed services providers to manage systems, servers, routers, and firewalls.

N-able N-central provides robust remote management and monitoring functionalities. It offers a user-friendly GUI and strong asset tracking capabilities. Integration with ticketing systems, CrowdStrike, and N-able EDR enhances monitoring and security. Automation features allow scheduling tasks, responding to system triggers, and automating problem resolution. Users appreciate ongoing enhancements and transparency about its roadmap.

What are the key features of N-able N-central?

Remote Connectivity: Provides smooth remote control for troubleshooting and support.
Reporting Suite: Offers comprehensive reporting tools for network insights.
Patch Management: Efficiently manages system updates to maintain security.
Intuitive GUI: User-friendly interface backed by solid support.
Asset Tracking: Powerful tracking of all managed devices.
Integration: Supports ticketing systems and security tools like CrowdStrike and N-able EDR.
Automation: Schedules tasks and automates problem resolution.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in the reviews?

Enhanced Efficiency: Automation and integration streamline workflows.
Improved Security: Robust monitoring and security features protect networks.
Cost Savings: Comprehensive tool reduces the need for multiple solutions.
Ease of Use: Intuitive interface and strong support simplify management.
Scalability: Grows with business needs, managing a large number of devices.

N-able N-central is widely implemented across various industries, providing essential network management and security functionalities. It is particularly useful for managed services providers in sectors such as healthcare, finance, and education, where robust monitoring, remote access, and asset management are critical for operational efficiency.

N-able

From network inventory and network monitoring to help desk software, and mobile device management (MDM) to cloud services detection, Spiceworks helps you manage everything about your IT workday from one easy place.

Sample Customers

Premier Technology Solutions

Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Symantec, Webroot, EMC, Pertino