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National Instruments (NI) Oscilloscopes vs Rohde & Schwarz Oscilloscopes 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

National Instruments (NI) O...
Ranking in Oscilloscopes
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Rohde & Schwarz Oscilloscopes
Ranking in Oscilloscopes
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Oscilloscopes category, the mindshare of National Instruments (NI) Oscilloscopes is 2.8%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rohde & Schwarz Oscilloscopes is 11.1%, up from 6.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Oscilloscopes Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Rohde & Schwarz Oscilloscopes11.1%
National Instruments (NI) Oscilloscopes2.8%
Other86.1%
Oscilloscopes
 

Featured Reviews

AA
Senior Technical Officer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I have saved almost 50 percent of my total budget for a project by using their products
The use of this solution does require a specific mindset. Some people are not tailored for it. Try it. The learning curve is really fast, so it's easy to use. We are measuring RF signals, one-sided analog signals, and control loops for system controls. We are not using this product to support connected devices nor are we planning to going forward.
BJ
Staff Transceiver Engineer at Xilinx, Inc.
With this machine, it's easier for us to debug or clarify where the noise source could be because of its accuracy
For the RF application, we care much about the crosstalk on our device and PCBs. Generally, what we can do with the other vendor's product is four-port measurement. It's a bit complicated for us and time consuming to combine all the crosstalk measurement together in a unified model. However, with this VNA, it is much easier because of its eight ports configuration. It's very stable because everything is done at the same time. This means within the test condition environment, everything is the same. This has increased accuracy and dramatically saved a lot of our time. We can do more experiments with this product than using other VNAs which have less ports.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The integrated lateral view makes it easier to develop your test systems and test software flow."
"It helps us to save on our investment with a lot of the stuff that we buy, as we can find defects quickly."
"The user interface is very good. Their boards are reliable. We buy boards from them, they are reliable, and we don't have problems with them."
"It speeds up the process to develop test software."
"Because their view is a graphical user interface (GUI), it's very easy to program the tool."
"Using this product is helpful, so I would recommend it to people at any other company."
"Go with their products."
"I can automate a lot of testing very quickly. With just a push of a button, I can test hundreds of different scenarios without having to do all that manual testing myself."
"The characterization of RF channels was helpful... The user interface was very simple to operate and there were a lot of tutorials."
"It is easy to connect with, accurate, reliable, and hardly fails."
"The instrument has a wide bandwidth. You can sweep across a wide range of frequencies."
"They are a top tier product, and we use it to guarantee our top tier product, which is why we purchased it."
"It is a more efficient, easier way to do measurements."
"The user interface is pretty good. Right now, it is more than what we expected. It's easy and fast to use."
"The noise floor for reference clocks is pretty low, so this instrument is able to measure it where others cannot."
"The instrument has a wide bandwidth, you can sweep across a wide range of frequencies, the resolution is good, and the accuracy is pretty good."
 

Cons

"There is a learning curve."
"I would like to see them increase the productivity and auxiliary functions."
"There is a learning curve. It might take a year if you're not well-versed with it."
"There is a learning curve. It takes one to two months to get acclimated to the tool."
"I would like more competitive pricing."
"The software has room for improvement."
"National Instruments needs to be focusing on its 5G RF applications."
"I would like more speed and a reduction in size."
"Sometimes, it's difficult to find menus on the user interface."
"There was a learning curve. Their user interface and the way that their products work are not intuitive to somebody who switches from other vendors, like Keysight or LeCroy."
"I'm against the Windows-based tools. Now everybody is running scopes, VNAs, and all their tools based on Windows. I don't want to see that in the future."
"It would be good if they would try to automate most things because it has more pressing buttons and repetitive work. If there were automation scripts that they could provide, that would improve things."
"Sometimes, it's difficult to find menus on the user interface."
"It has good performance, reliability, and support, but it is too expensive."
"We would like to have autotracking and auto error tracking for regression testing. We would like to know what error happened, when it happened, and during what scenario (such as setup), because right now we have to manually look at when it happened."
"The pricing is too high."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing was good. Compared to the others, it was very good."
"They have an initial investment cost, which is quite high. But, along the way, there is so much behind it that the product is really invaluable."
"It's reasonably priced for what we spend our money on in the lab. It's one of the lower-end purchases."
"The cost of the equipment has room for improvement. The pricing could improve."
"I would like more competitive pricing."
"The price is a little steep. A lot of people, like our customers, use a different machine because of the price. The price has to come down a bit so we can do other tests without paying the equipment's high costs."
"I have saved almost 50 percent of my total budget for a project by using their products."
"These products are a very low-cost, effective alternative to traditional Big Iron ATE hardware."
"The pricing is too high."
"The pricing is very competitive."
"The pricing is way too expensive."
"Buying Rohde & Schwarz gear is like buying a Mercedes. It raises eyebrows when you're asking for that level of performance."
"The pricing is very expensive."
"When we chose this, the price was really reasonable, and it is a high-end product. It had a high price, but we understood that because it has 8 port, the same noise floor (as the competition) with double the measurement capabilities and a cheaper price."
"One of the things I liked less, not only me but also my company, was that Rohde & Schwarz are very expensive... There are solutions that are almost the same that sell at better prices."
"The pricing is expensive, but very fair when you look at the technology that you are getting. These are higher-end pieces which have a ton of engineering in them that is not evident on the package. However, you could imagine the amount of time that the vendor has spent on the firmware, optimizing the internal layout, developing custom ICs, etc. They're releasing a mass produced product, but these things are built to last."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
17%
Government
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise6
 

Also Known As

NI Oscilloscopes
RT Series
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about National Instruments (NI) Oscilloscopes vs. Rohde & Schwarz Oscilloscopes and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,880 professionals have used our research since 2012.