N-able N-central vs Spiceworks comparison

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86% 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: November 2024).

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)

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Helped 824,053 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

N-able N-central

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

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 (17th), IT Asset Management (11th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (40th)

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 13.2%, up 9.7% compared to last year.
Spiceworks, on the other hand, focuses on IT Infrastructure Monitoring, holds 0.5% mindshare, up 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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Hassan Zia

IT Service Desk Manager (Global Delivery) at MLOGICA, INC.

Good low-cost service desk system, but lacks in automation workflows and categorization

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. There are also several other automation features in ServiceDesk that are not present in Spiceworks. Another feature that I have always wanted in Spiceworks is categorization. Let's suppose that I select a certain piece of software within Spiceworks, and I want to see the subcategories, Spiceworks should be able to auto-populate those subcategories. This is unfortunately not possible within Spiceworks at the moment.

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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

"The solution's service is good."

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

"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 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."

"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."

"I like the remote connectivity, reporting suite, and patch management module."

"It was easy to integrate Spiceworks with our existing setup."

"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."

"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."

"Tickets by e-mail, with actions by hastag."

"The most valuable features are the inventory and personalization."

"The solution can find all asset details automatically, whether it's a Mac address, computer name, IP address, models, etc. It's very helpful."

"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."

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

More Spiceworks pros

Cons

"N-central has limited mobile device management (MDM) support, specifically for Android devices. This limitation affected a deal with a client who had numerous Android devices to manage. It would be beneficial if N-central could expand its MDM support to include Android devices."

"The integration with other applications could be better."

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

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

"The SNMP sniffer requires a lot of work to get right."

"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 the solution to allow for more direct interaction with computers. I can open tickets and I can see their status, but I can't interact directly with the computers themselves."

"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."

"The GUI must be improved."

"The network mapping could be improved. Putting together an actual bonafide network map would be really nice."

"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."

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."

"It's free."

"The product is free! Get it now."

"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."

"The tool is cheap."

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

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

24%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Government

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

10%

University

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?

The GUI must be improved. The GUI looks old-fashioned. The vendor must do some web development for it.

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Product Reports

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)

Download N-able N-central product report

Download Spiceworks product report

Also Known As

SolarWinds N-central, SolarWinds MSP N-central

No data available

Learn More

N-able

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.

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

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)