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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 March 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 Tektronix Oscilloscopes is 17.8%, up from 14.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Oscilloscopes Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Tektronix Oscilloscopes17.8%
National Instruments (NI) Oscilloscopes2.8%
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 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."
"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 absolutely great. It creates an easy working environment because it has well-integrated hardware and software. So, it is easy to use."
"It took us less than a week to get integrated into the solution, which is very fast."
"I have saved almost 50 percent of my total budget for a project by using their products."
"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."
"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."
"The sensitivity of the trigger and the reliability are the most valuable features."
"The Ipath and measurements are fantastic and simple to implement."
"Time domain measurement is very accurate compared to other devices."
"It is a very capable instrument; it really does the job."
"The user interface is good."
"The Tektronix user interface is like an Apple iPhone, but for oscilloscopes."
"It is easy to handle, so everyone likes to use it."
"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."
 

Cons

"There is a learning curve."
"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 them increase the productivity and auxiliary functions."
"National Instruments needs to be focusing on its 5G RF applications."
"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 might take a year if you're not well-versed with it."
"The ruggedness could be improved."
"There is room for improvement when it comes to the screen size. I don't really have a lot of complaints but screen size would be the biggest thing."
"There are other devices out there which are more capable, offering more features, with as good quality tech support."
"I wish we could turn off the automatic measurement feature of the oscilloscope, for teaching purposes."
"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."
"They need to add more memory to this machine."
"If you are dealing with time domain measurement, I strongly recommend using a vendor other than this company."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing was good. Compared to the others, it was very good."
"I would like more competitive pricing."
"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 cost of the equipment has room for improvement. The pricing could improve."
"These products are a very low-cost, effective alternative to traditional Big Iron ATE hardware."
"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."
"I have saved almost 50 percent of my total budget for a project by using their products."
"Pricing could be lower. I would want to buy it for an extremely, low price, but Tektronix is a high-end product."
"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 costs a quarter of a million. This technology is not cheap."
"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."
"The pricing is okay. It was within our budget."
"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."
"They have academic pricing which is helpful."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
14%
University
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Educational Organization
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: March 2026.
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.