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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 January 2026, in the Oscilloscopes category, the mindshare of National Instruments (NI) Oscilloscopes is 2.3%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tektronix Oscilloscopes is 18.0%, up from 15.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Oscilloscopes Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Tektronix Oscilloscopes18.0%
National Instruments (NI) Oscilloscopes2.3%
Other79.7%
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 makes programming simpler."
"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 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."
"Because their view is a graphical user interface (GUI), it's very easy to program the tool."
"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."
"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."
"It helps us to save on our investment with a lot of the stuff that we buy, as we can find defects quickly."
"The learning curve was really fast, which was also the reason for saving a lot on the budget."
"When I was looking for a scope for that lab, that five subdivisions per division was important."
"The user interface is good, not very complicated. It is very intuitive."
"Tektronix is robust and reliable. It's a hammer-resistant machine, a fact which is most important on our manufacturing floor."
"It has a good user interface. It's easy to use, easy to read. It's intuitive."
"It takes 35 to 45 minutes to get acclimated to the solution."
"I trust Tektronix for its accuracy. The probes of solution fit my application. E.g., the speed of probes, the way that it is using probes with designs, and the probes' size."
"Being able to monitor data from a CAN bus while the vehicle is running will cut down a lot of the feedback for the design mode."
"The Tektronix user interface is like an Apple iPhone, but for oscilloscopes. It is simple to use."
 

Cons

"The software has room for improvement."
"I would like more speed and a reduction in size."
"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 to see more of a tasking user base and documentation inside the instrument itself, rather than having to go online for it."
"There is a learning curve. It takes one to two months to get acclimated to the tool."
"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. Their newest version has a less steep learning curve, but back closer to 15 years ago, it was a lot less user-friendly."
"There is a learning curve. It might take a year if you're not well-versed with 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."
"We are looking for an Intel platform with the newest chipset."
"I would like if they could have more customer support engagement."
"I wish we could turn off the automatic measurement feature of the oscilloscope, for teaching purposes."
"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."
"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."
"It needs one button and every time you push it, you get whatever you need."
"There are other devices out there which are more capable, offering more features, with as good quality tech support."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I have saved almost 50 percent of my total budget for a project by using their products."
"It's a bit expensive. However, you get the entire package, not just the box. It's a box which supports older releases."
"The cost of the equipment has room for improvement. The pricing could improve."
"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."
"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."
"The pricing was good. Compared to the others, it was very good."
"It's reasonably priced for what we spend our money on in the lab. It's one of the lower-end purchases."
"These products are a very low-cost, effective alternative to traditional Big Iron ATE hardware."
"We demoed the product before purchasing it."
"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."
"It's cost-effective... It might cost a lot of money, but if we need it we buy it."
"Pricing could be lower. I would want to buy it for an extremely, low price, but Tektronix is a high-end product."
"The pricing is not too high and not too low."
"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."
"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."
"It is a great price for a great product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
15%
University
12%
Educational Organization
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

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: December 2025.
879,477 professionals have used our research since 2012.