Spiceworks vs vRealize Network Insight comparison

Spiceworks and VMware are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Spiceworks is ranked #45 with an average rating of 8.5, while VMware is ranked #23 with an average rating of 8.8. Spiceworks holds a 0.4% mindshare in IM, compared to VMware’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of Spiceworks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Spiceworks

Read 47 Spiceworks reviews

904 Views
471 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

vRealize Network Insight

Read 46 vRealize Network Insight reviews

885 Views
526 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Spiceworks

vRealize Network Insight

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Spiceworks and vRealize Network Insight both operate in the IT management tools category. Spiceworks often has the upper hand for small to medium-sized businesses due to its cost-effectiveness and strong community support, while vRealize Network Insight is preferred by larger enterprises for its advanced network visualization capabilities, despite its higher cost.

Features: Spiceworks provides a comprehensive help desk, robust inventory capabilities, and ease of setup, which are particularly beneficial for SMBs with limited budgets. vRealize Network Insight offers network flow visualization, microsegmentation analysis, and detailed network insights essential for enterprises looking for advanced network management solutions.

Room for Improvement: Spiceworks users note the need for better monitoring tools, improved scalability for larger enterprises, and enhanced customization options. vRealize Network Insight could improve its application recognition, increase third-party vendor integration, and reduce complexity in its operations for enhanced interoperability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Spiceworks is praised for its simple deployment options, available both on-premises and in public cloud settings, with support from a vibrant community. vRealize Network Insight, primarily installed on-premises, is backed by dedicated technical support, though more training resources could streamline the deployment process.

Pricing and ROI: Spiceworks provides significant ROI with its free cost model, mainly through time investments, while community support further offsets costs. vRealize Network Insight, with variable pricing depending on deployment, reflects its specialized features catering to larger enterprises seeking detailed network insights.

To learn more, read our detailed Spiceworks vs. vRealize Network Insight Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Spiceworks vs. vRealize Network Insight

April 2025

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Helped 848,253 peers since 2012

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

Spiceworks

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

45th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Help Desk Software (17th), IT Asset Management (11th)

vRealize Network Insight

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

23rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (23rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Spiceworks is 0.4%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vRealize Network Insight is 0.5%, down from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Jeetendar Kumar

Information Technology Analyst at The Aga Khan University Hospital (Pakistan)

Customizable, easy to use, easy to manage, and provides multiple features

I have used many software, but Spiceworks is the best. The tool provides multiple features. It is a valuable product for inventory. It is also useful as a ticketing system. The solution is easy to use and easy to manage. Many people can use it very easily. The features are not complicated. It is very easy to run, install, and understand. That is why my organization decided to use it. The solution’s asset management capabilities have benefitted us in many ways. We are able to manage all the inventory. We have a complete database. We have a record of everything. It is very valuable. I rate the usability of the user interface and dashboard a nine out of ten. The tool is easy to learn compared to other software.

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NiteshKumar1

Principle consultant at Infosys

The tool's configuration is easy and artifacts are easily accessible through professional services and the web

The product is highly regarded, and many customers have been using it along with other VMware products like vSphere and VMware vCloud Usage Insight. However, recently, there's been a trend among customers, especially those using VMware for a considerable period, to explore the potential of migrating to the public cloud. The common concern among these customers is how the VMware products will perform in the public cloud environment. Migrating instances from VMware to different platforms is not easy, especially when dealing with many instances across multiple customers. Customers are keen to maintain the functionality of their existing VMware products but prefer to run them on the public cloud instead of on-premise servers. Our clients for vRealize Network Insight are enterprise businesses. I rate it a nine out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Spiceworks is generic and free."

"It shows the users that are currently logged in, which is not something that Active Directory by default will ever let you know up front."

"If you're in the market for a low-cost service desk system, Spiceworks is a good software solution to start out with, especially when it comes to startups and those organizations that don't currently have any existing service desk software in place."

"The solution is very stable. It's reliable and efficient."

"The software is cloud-based, so I do not need to store any data locally."

"The most valuable features are the inventory and personalization."

"The software is cloud-based, so I do not need to store any data locally."

"The nice thing about Spiceworks is always it's free. Monitoring of printers for low toner. Finding machines that have low memory or low hard disk space."

More Spiceworks pros

"With this product, we can precisely identify communication patterns between virtual machines within our data center, whether it's east-east or east-west communication."

"It's a very powerful, very manageable product."

"A lot of time is saved when you use this type of software solution for the network. We have moved systems into the new data center and the servers and systems are much faster because of the very low latency between virtual machines."

"The most valuable feature is being able to easily see the path that the VM traffic is taking, what ports are in use."

"It allows us to see how the network devices function as well as to see network glitches or fluctuations or dropping of packets."

"It helps a lot because, until now, we didn't have the tools to figure out the micro level, VM-to-VM kind of traffic; that was not in the current environment. We could not figure out VM-to-VM communication from the other tools. This is the tool which gives us end-to-end transparency."

"The solution has helped improve our organization by directing the network traffic using SDN."

"The ability to use the natural language query and see the visualization is quickly intuitive, and it works very well."

More vRealize Network Insight pros

Cons

"There are a lot of disadvantages to Spiceworks because it's not an agent-based solution."

"They've also tried to integrate it with social logins, like Twitter and LinkedIn, and that type of login authentication has no place in a corporate application."

"Sometimes, it can be difficult to integrate what you need."

"Once a device was recognized on the network, Spiceworks never got rid of it even after you took it off the network. You had to go in and manually remove it."

"I would like the solution to allow for more direct interaction with computers. I can open tickets and I can see their status, but I can't interact directly with the computers themselves."

"The GUI must be improved."

"I am unable to provide suggestions for improvement at this moment."

"It would be nice to have remote access to the solution via a tablet. They also need remote control from a PC. Right now, to complete the technical support process, you have to have a tool to access the PC, and check the problems."

More Spiceworks cons

"After you use it for a little while you become accustomed to it but the layout doesn't feel very intuitive. You have to dig around and find the exact place where you can find the information, where you can actually see your east-west traffic, etc. I would like them to bring that information more to the forefront, instead of having to find it."

"There could be some deeper analytics into packet inspection and trace flows. It could use some kind of machine learning to look at Layer 7 traffic for potential malware or corrupt packets."

"I would like to see more reporting features, more dashboards."

"In a very general way, I would like to see an improvement in interoperability with third-party product, from other vendors."

"There is room for improvement when it comes to pricing because we pay here in Brazil, and all the costs are based on the dollar."

"Since Broadcom acquired VMware, it has been experiencing challenges. Many sales processes are not well defined."

"I'd like to see better support for being able to search the hardware NetFlow data. It ingests fairly well, but you can't tell, in a lot of cases, what source the data came from. I'd like to see more support for picking specific sources. That way you could really make a compelling use case. There are also some difficulties where it can't exactly trace the path between source and destination but if you hit the reverse flow on the same search it shows the entire path."

"I would like to see more interoperability on the firewall and low balancer sides."

More vRealize Network Insight cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is free! Get it now."

"The tool is cheap."

"It's free."

"Seeing that it is a low-cost solution, I would advise you to go ahead with Spiceworks and experiment with it to see if you can get things working properly, especially if you currently don't have any existing service desk software in place."

"It might be about $300 annually for a bigger company. If you pay annually, it's better and cheaper."

"vRealize Network Insight is expensive."

"They should include the product in NSX because it's important to have it for deployment."

"Cost always has room for improvement, you could always make it cheaper. But I think it's a good value for what you pay for it."

"It reduces costs. It takes something that may be challenging and makes it more usable and visual by being able to bring in tools, seeing what their impact is, such as microsegmentation and application rationalization, and seeing it quickly."

"I rate vRealize Network Insight's pricing a seven point five out of ten."

"It has brought more money into our company."

"The solution has helped us to reduce time, increase performance, reduce costs, and even easily manage networks. We are probably seeing 10 to 20 percent labor savings because we are able to be very specific and focused on what we want to do. It ends up saving the customer money and makes us be more efficient on our cost deliveries."

"The solution has reduced the time that we spend on other products. For example, with NSX, we were able to quickly find things that we would normally spend days trying to figure out."

More vRealize Network Insight pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user174738

IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

May 31, 2015

Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor

I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

12%

University

Real Estate/Law Firm

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Spiceworks?

The solution is easy to use and easy to manage.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Spiceworks?

The tool is cheap.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Spiceworks?

I am unable to provide suggestions for improvement at this moment, however, I can provide feedback later. Currently, there do not seem to be any issues.

See all answers

What do you like most about vRealize Network Insight?

The tool's ease of configuration and use and the availability of information and artifacts through professional services and the web are key factors that customers find valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vRealize Network Insight?

Broadcom is known for increasing product prices, making them expensive compared to what people used to pay. I liken the subscription model to not truly owning what you pay for.

See all answers

What needs improvement with vRealize Network Insight?

Right now, I do not see a specific area for improvement. My main concern is understanding the intentions of Broadcom, which has acquired VMware. Broadcom should improve by going back to what was wo...

See all answers

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Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

AppNeta by Broadcom vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 10% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Spiceworks

March 2025

Download Spiceworks product report

Buyer's Guide

vRealize Network Insight

March 2025

Download vRealize Network Insight product report

Also Known As

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Arkin

Overview

From network inventory and network monitoring to help desk software, and mobile device management (MDM) to cloud services detection, Spiceworks helps you manage everything about your IT workday from one easy place.

Spiceworks

VMware vRealize Network Insight delivers intelligent operations for software-defined networking and security. It helps customers build an optimized, highly-available and secure network infrastructure across multi-cloud environments. It accelerates micro-segmentation planning and deployment, enables visibility across virtual and physical networks and provides operational views to manage and scale VMware NSX deployments.

VMware

Sample Customers

Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Symantec, Webroot, EMC, Pertino

NTTi3, VCIX-NV, VMware Networking and Security Business Unit, Illumio, CompuNet

Buyer's Guide

Spiceworks vs. vRealize Network Insight

April 2025

Free Report: Spiceworks vs. vRealize Network Insight

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