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National Instruments (NI) Oscilloscopes vs Tektronix 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
Tektronix Oscilloscopes
Ranking in Oscilloscopes
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Oscilloscopes category, the mindshare of National Instruments (NI) Oscilloscopes is 3.5%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tektronix Oscilloscopes is 17.4%, up from 14.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Oscilloscopes Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Tektronix Oscilloscopes17.4%
National Instruments (NI) Oscilloscopes3.5%
Other79.1%
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.
HC
Sr Engineer at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
B-scan is its most valuable feature. However, we are looking for an Intel platform with the newest chipset.
Try it if it is within your budget. It is a good product. The learning curve is very quick. It takes about one or two days. While we have plans to use this product to support connect devices, we are not currently doing so. We are currently measuring signals from 3.0 and 4.0, and looking for 5.0.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It saves me a lot of time. You can click a button and walk away, basically doing a week's worth of work in 20 minutes, it's a pretty good time saver."
"It took us less than a week to get integrated into the solution, which is very fast."
"I chose this solution because it integrates a lot of functionality in one piece of equipment."
"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 user interface is very good, easy to understand, and easy to operate."
"Most of the features are on the screen itself. The naming convention makes it very easy to understand what is needed."
"It speeds up the process to develop test software."
"The user interface is absolutely great. It creates an easy working environment because it has well-integrated hardware and software. So, it is easy to use."
"The most valuable feature is the automation component in setting up some of these measurements."
"The user interface is excellent. The GUI is so self-explanatory and there are the same knobs everywhere; the design is a standard design line."
"Because it can detect both frequency and time domains simultaneously, if I want to check I send a command to the device and I can look at the frequency output."
"The sensitivity of the trigger and the reliability are the most valuable features, and the scopes were extremely reliable."
"The most valuable features are its ease of use, user interface, and PAM-4. The user interface is good and easy to use."
"I trust Tektronix for its accuracy; the probes of the solution fit my application, for example the speed of probes, the way that it is using probes with designs, and the probes' size."
"Tektronix is robust and reliable; it's a hammer-resistant machine, a fact which is most important on our manufacturing floor."
"For this introductory electrical engineering lab, it's pretty well-suited to my needs."
 

Cons

"The software has room for improvement."
"It took a good year until I felt proficient using the product, as It is a complex program. Their newest version has a less steep learning curve, but back closer to 15 years ago, it was a lot less user-friendly."
"National Instruments needs to be focusing on its 5G RF applications. They are aware of this, and that's where most of their R&D is going."
"It took a good year until I felt proficient using the product, as it is a complex program."
"I would like to have more RF. They're going that way, but still there is some work that they have to do."
"I would like more competitive pricing."
"The price is a little steep."
"I would like to see more of a tasking user base and documentation inside the instrument itself, rather than having to go online for it."
"On the source side, their AWGs don't have enough bandwidth. They need to increase the bandwidth of their AWGs, meaning they have to have a faster sample rate."
"There are other devices out there which are more capable, offering more features, with as good quality tech support."
"I am not utilizing the full bandwidth of this product."
"There was a learning curve, which was a little tricky at times."
"We would like more features for the CAN bus decoding, such as importing DDC files, which allows us to take the raw data and convert it into engineering units."
"We are looking for an Intel platform with the newest chipset."
"I am not utilizing the full bandwidth of this product."
"I would like to see some WiFi capabilities. I would like to upgrade equipment, and if I was in the U.S., I could do that with WiFi capabilities."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"It's a bit expensive. However, you get the entire package, not just the box. It's a box which supports older releases."
"I have saved almost 50 percent of my total budget for a project by using their products."
"The pricing was good. Compared to the others, it was very good."
"These products are a very low-cost, effective alternative to traditional Big Iron ATE hardware."
"It costs a quarter of a million. This technology is not cheap."
"Tektronix Oscilloscopes are really expensive for small businesses. The low-end scopes don't really compare performance-wise to what the other companies provide, like RIGOL . Mostly that just has to do with the software options."
"The pricing is not too high and not too low."
"The prices are compatible with what they offer. Going forward, I would like them to become more competitive and dominant with their pricing in the market."
"In the 100 gigabit Ethernet and 400 gigabit Ethernet category, everything is in the multi-hundred thousand dollar range, so it was fair pricing because everything is expensive."
"Isolated probes are good to have, as most of the scopes don't have it. It drives up the cost when you have to buy isolated probes."
"They're all pretty expensive. If everything costs that much, I suppose the pricing is fair."
"It could always be cheaper."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
14%
University
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise19
 

Also Known As

NI Oscilloscopes
TBS Series, TDS Series, MDO Series, MSO Series
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about National Instruments (NI) Oscilloscopes vs. Tektronix Oscilloscopes and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
895,151 professionals have used our research since 2012.