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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

"Because their view is a graphical user interface (GUI), it's very easy to program the tool."
"It helps us to save on our investment with a lot of the stuff that we buy, as we can find defects quickly."
"It took us less than a week to get integrated into the solution, which is very fast."
"It makes programming simpler."
"It speeds up the process to develop test software."
"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."
"We haven't need technical support yet because all documentation is well done and there."
"Using this product is helpful, so I would recommend it to people at any other company."
"I haven't seen anything similar where it has a spectrum analyzer and regular scope together."
"The most valuable features are everything they do. We primarily use the O-scopes and they help us figure out what's going wrong with our scope out signals."
"It has a good user interface. It's easy to use, easy to read. It's intuitive."
"The technical support is great; they come in, they show us how to use it, and if we have questions, they'll give presentations."
"I like to use it and it does what I need it to do."
"It's a good product."
"This solution provides high confidence in the data being presented in the measurement to inform a design decision going forward."
"It takes 35 to 45 minutes to get acclimated to the solution."
 

Cons

"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."
"There is a learning curve. It might take a year if you're not well-versed with it."
"I would like more competitive pricing."
"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."
"There is a learning curve. It takes one to two months to get acclimated to the tool."
"The price is a little steep."
"There is a learning curve."
"Tektronix Oscilloscopes are really expensive for small businesses."
"If you are dealing with time domain measurement, I strongly recommend using a vendor other than this company."
"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."
"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 because at this time the machine can support random simulation to the power of 15 but realistically, in requests from our customers, we need it to the power of 31."
"They need to add more memory to this machine."
"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 wish we could turn off the automatic measurement feature of the oscilloscope, for teaching purposes."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of the equipment has room for improvement. The pricing could improve."
"I have saved almost 50 percent of my total budget for a project by using their products."
"I would like more competitive pricing."
"These products are a very low-cost, effective alternative to traditional Big Iron ATE hardware."
"It's reasonably priced for what we spend our money on in the lab. It's one of the lower-end purchases."
"The pricing was good. Compared to the others, it was very good."
"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 a bit expensive. However, you get the entire package, not just the box. It's a box which supports older releases."
"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 not too high and not too low."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"Tecktronix pricing tends to be pretty fair and reasonable with current market trends. They don't usually bump up the price too much."
"It costs a quarter of a million. This technology is not cheap."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
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: June 2026.
902,588 professionals have used our research since 2012.