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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 June 2026, in the Oscilloscopes category, the mindshare of National Instruments (NI) Oscilloscopes is 3.7%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tektronix Oscilloscopes is 16.9%, up from 15.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Oscilloscopes Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Tektronix Oscilloscopes16.9%
National Instruments (NI) Oscilloscopes3.7%
Other79.4%
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, easy to understand, and easy to operate."
"The integrated lateral view makes it easier to develop your test systems and test software flow."
"I have saved almost 50 percent of my total budget for a project by using their products."
"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 very good. Their boards are reliable. We buy boards from them, they are reliable, and we don't have problems with them."
"I chose this solution because it integrates a lot of functionality in one piece of equipment."
"It has digital scopes with a high bandwidth and digitized signal. It can do whatever you want with the signal. Since its user-friendly software allows you to work with the signal, which is pretty cool."
"It's a good product."
"Technical support is great."
"It is easy to handle, so everyone likes to use it."
"We have multiple systems for manufacturing tests, and it's critical for our support. The support increases our productivity."
"I haven't seen anything similar where it has a spectrum analyzer and regular scope together."
"It works really well for general lab stuff, general testing, prototype and measurement."
"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."
 

Cons

"There is a learning curve. It might take a year if you're not well-versed with it."
"I would like to have more RF."
"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 them increase the productivity and auxiliary functions."
"I would like more speed and a reduction in size."
"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 takes one to two months to get acclimated to the tool."
"The software has room for improvement."
"I know you can get the Bit Masks but it's generally really expensive to get the eye diagrams and Bit Masks with it. I wish they were included or cheaper."
"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."
"The pricing is very expensive."
"It needs one button and every time you push it, you get whatever you need."
"If you are dealing with time domain measurement, I strongly recommend using a vendor other than this company."
"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."
"If they could make the user interface even more intuitive that would help. If they could make it easier to read, to know where the buttons are, that's all I need."
"I am not utilizing the full bandwidth of this product."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"These products are a very low-cost, effective alternative to traditional Big Iron ATE hardware."
"The pricing was good. Compared to the others, it was very good."
"The cost of the equipment has room for improvement. The pricing could improve."
"It's reasonably priced for what we spend our money on in the lab. It's one of the lower-end purchases."
"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 would like more competitive pricing."
"I have saved almost 50 percent of my total budget for a project by using their products."
"They have academic pricing which is helpful."
"Pricing could be lower. I would want to buy it for an extremely, low price, but Tektronix is a high-end product."
"It's cost-effective... It might cost a lot of money, but if we need it we buy 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 costs a quarter of a million. This technology is not cheap."
"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."
"We demoed the product before purchasing it."
"It's available on the low-end scopes for free, but on the higher-end scopes, it is expensive. Therefore, it's a bit more difficult to make stuff work."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Legal Firm
30%
University
10%
Media Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
15%
University
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
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.
899,645 professionals have used our research since 2012.