As more devices access company networks and remote environments are more popular at companies, effective network monitoring is essential to maintain performance and reduce cybersecurity risks.
If a company is experiencing a network problem, network monitoring software can see the issue and can find a solution. From helping with problems like questionable activity and network connection errors, network monitoring software is there to keep a system and company running.
The network monitoring market is projected to reach a value of $2.2 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $3 billion by 2027, according to Markets and Markets. The demand for monitoring is rising due partly to changing networks and growing of security concerns.
See below to learn all about network monitoring technologies and the top software in the network monitoring market:
For more on the networking market: The Data Center Networking Market
Choosing the right network monitoring software
- Top network monitoring software
- SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor
- NinjaOne
- Datadog
- ManageEngine OpManager
- Nagios
- Zabbix
- LogicMonitor
- WhatsUp Gold
- Wireshark
- Auvik
- Network monitoring features
- Network monitoring benefits
- Use cases
- What to look for in network monitoring software
Top network monitoring software
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor
Network Performance Monitor is a network monitoring solution by SolarWinds, a software company based in Austin, Texas that gives companies the ability to monitor and manage their IT services, infrastructures, and applications. 
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor is able to detect, diagnose, and fix network performance problems and outages. The software can get analysis for on-premises, hybrid, and cloud services. SolarWinds’ networking monitoring solution has customizable topology, network discovery and mapping, automatic capacity forecasting, network alerts, and network reports.
“I am satisfied with SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor Software. It provides me deep insights into network activities with real-time statistics and comprehensive reports. The clarity of network performance and the troubleshooting process has improved in my IT infrastructure since its installation,” says a five-star reviewer at Gartner Peer Insights.
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor is also featured on the “DBTA 100 2022: The Companies That Matter Most in Data.”
Differentiators
- Monitor Azure vNet gateway visibility
- SolarWinds, NetPath helps get analysis along critical paths
- SolarWinds PerfStack provides cross-stack network data correlation
Pricing
For pricing, go to SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor’s online quote page.
NinjaOne RMM
NinjaOne Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) is software that’s designed to give a company the tools an enterprise may need for network monitoring. NinjaOne is an independent, founder-led company. 
NinjaOne RMM gathers information from remote endpoints and networks to assess their security and traffic data and complete various remote IT management tasks without disruption. The RMM software has multi-platform management, patch management, and secure remote access.
“This software does exactly what they say it does, saves you time and money. Our business has been able to grow rapidly and efficiently, due to the help of this software and ease of use. We tried almost every other software on the market. We wanted value for money and ease of use. If that’s what you are looking for, NinjaOne is what you are looking for,” says Nathan Steele of Steele Technology, a user of NinjaOne RMM.
NinjaOne’s RMM is named a “Leader of Spring 2022”, “Best Results Spring 2022”, and “Most Implementable Spring 2022” by G2.
Differentiators
- Third-party integrations
- API for other applications to communicate with the solution
- Role-based positions
Pricing
Go to NinjaOne’s pricing page for information.
Datadog
Datadog is a network monitoring system that both monitors and analyzes performance metrics, servers, and databases. New York-based Datadog is a company that provides a cloud monitoring and analytics platform for business users. Datadog uses two types of network monitoring tools, one is for network performance and the other is for monitoring devices.
The network performance monitoring software provides network traffic visualizations across applications, containers, and data centers. Datadog can also track key metrics and monitor the health of the traffic to avoid any issues.
The network device monitoring software can discover and collect the metrics of a company’s network on any device, monitor large environments, and take an inventory of hardware on a company’s network.
“With Datadog NDM, we now have detailed information from thousands of devices across our large-scale network inside the Datadog platform, helping our NOC teams isolate and respond to issues faster than ever,” says Robert Faria De Oliveira, infrastructure OPS manager at Wayfair, a user of Datadog.
Datadog has been recognized as a “Leader” in the Gartner “Magic Quadrant” two years in a row.
Differentiators
- SLA manager
- Readable tag to help filter traffic
- Scheduled, automated reports
Pricing
See here for Datadog’s pricing options.
ManageEngine OpManager
ManageEngine OpManager is a network monitoring solution that monitors multiple devices: routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers, wireless LAN controllers, servers, VMs, printers, storage devices. ManageEngine is a part of Zoho Corporation, a private global technology company. 
ManageEngine OpManage can monitor technology that is connected to the network and provides in-depth visibility and control over it. In case of a problem or error, a company can find the root cause and correct the problem before operations are affected.
“The OpManager, probably by monitoring all our servers and systems … basically allows us to seamlessly go ahead and identify issues at any point of time. … It’s been brilliant from the monitoring point of view. It allows us to monitor those links,” says an IT admin at Royal Flying Doctor Service, a user of ManageEngine OpManager.
ManageEngine OpManager was recognized as a Gartner Peer Insights “Customers’ Choice” for network performance monitoring and diagnostics software in 2019. It was also named “Network Management and Monitor Vendor of the Year” by Network World in 2019.
Differentiators
- VoIP monitoring
- WAN RTT monitoring
- Netflow for network traffic monitoring
Pricing
To get a quote, go to the ManageEngine OpManager quote page.
Nagios
Nagios Network Analyzer is a network monitoring tool that finds the problems caused by overloaded data links or network connections. Nagios Enterprises is an enterprise-grade IT company that is used worldwide mostly for their monitoring. 
Nagios Network Analyzer can also monitor routers, switches, and IT technology. With the ability to monitor availability and the reaction time of every node on the network, Network Analyzer can deliver results both visually and in reports.
“The number of recommendations from other administrators is what brought us to try Nagios. You can not only monitor network devices, but you can monitor servers and their processes. Nagios checked off all of our boxes and was very cost efficient, saving us a large amount,” says Norman Moy at US Physical Therapy, a user of Nagio Network Analyzer.
Nagios was named HostingAdvice.com “Choice for Comprehensive Health Monitoring & Risk Mitigation” and “Network Monitoring Application of the Year” by LinuxQuestions.org.
Differentiators
- Nagios XI integration
- Customer application monitoring
- Bandwidth utilization calculator
Pricing
For pricing, go to the Network Analyzer pricing page.
Zabbix
Zabbix network monitoring is an open-source platform that monitors a company’s network performance, network health, and configuration changes. Zabbix offers a range of
professional services, solutions, 24/7 technical support, and professional training globally.
The network monitoring software is also able to use various metric collection methods and protocols and gather data in a flexible and extendable way. Zabbix provides agentless monitoring, customer collection methods, and data transformation.
“With the current monitoring tools, it was extremely difficult to perform detailed configuration of each device during scaling. However, a major merit of using Zabbix is the ability to automatically perform monitoring according to auto scaling,” says Mr. Kazuma Kohara with the system architecture department at YUMEMI, a user of Zabbix network monitoring.
Zabbix won IT Central Station’s Peer Award in 2021 and was named “The Most Open Solution” by Latvian Open Technologies Association in 2021.
Differentiators
- Structured JSON, XML, CSV, and other data formats
- Command-line interface (CLI) utility for pushing data
- Extract Prometheus exporter data
Pricing
Zabbix software is free open-source software, but if it is used commercially, go to this licensing page on how to support the platform.
LogicMonitor
LogicMonitor is network monitoring software that gives a complete view of a company’s network, so it can quickly identify and fix network problems. 
LogicMonitor provides visualizations as well as customer dashboards, so a business can quickly see how a system works. LogicMonitor is also able to show connections in a company’s network and related problems.
“LogicMonitor lets us really dig into the problem and shows us the root cause. Since having LogicMonitor in place we haven’t suffered a major outage, because we are able to prevent them up-front,” says Andi Kuehne, head global IT infrastructure services at Sensirion, a user of LogicMonitor.
LogicMonitor was recognized on G2’s Best Software Products and Best IT Infrastructure Products lists.
Differentiators
- Baseline manager
- Customizable branding
- Forecasting
Pricing
See all of LogicMonitor’s pricing here.
WhatsUp Gold
WhatsUp Gold is network monitoring software that shows visibility and the status of applications, network devices, servers in the cloud or on-premises. WhatsUp Gold, part of Ipswich, is a solution with thousands of networks managed worldwide from Lexington, Massachusetts. 
WhatsUp Gold by Progress software gives users the ability to monitor, filter, search, and alert on syslogs or Windows logs for every device in a company’s network. The software provides log management, bandwidth consumption monitoring, and wireless network monitoring.
“I took a network that had literally hundreds of single points of failure. And we now have one single point of failure. Mostly through using WhatsUp Gold to monitor things and showing reports of what goes down, when it goes down, and why it goes down,” says Rob Smura, senior systems administrator at Klein Steel, a user of WhatsUp Gold.
WhatsUP Gold was recognized as a “Leader” in a report on network management by G2 and was an Emotional Footprint Award Champion by Info-Tech Research Group.
Differentiators
- Fail-over manager
- Virtualization monitoring
- Hyper-V and VMware environments
Pricing
For pricing, go to the WhatsUp Gold page.
Wireshark
WireShark is network monitoring software that helps a company see what is happening on their network at a “microscopic level.” Wireshark was started in 1998 by Gerald Combs who created the platform. 
Wireshark is able to live capture files and do offline analysis for a company’s network and work with several file formats, such as tcpdump (libcap), Pcap NG, and Catapult DCT2000.
“Wireshark is one of those tools that should be in every cybersecurity professional’s toolbox. We use Wireshark for research and investigation. When reviewing a new software, we will check the network traffic coming from applications to make sure that nothing strange is coming from or to the application,” says Chase Palmer, senior security analyst at Lucid, a user of Wireshark.
Wireshark was named one of the “Most Important Open-Source Apps of All Time” by eWEEK and one of the “Top 125 Network Security Tools” by SecTools.org.
Differentiators
- Import and export capture file
- Packet monitor
- Ability to colorize packet list
Pricing
Wireshark is a free network monitoring platform. To download, go here.
Auvik
Auvik is network monitoring software that is able to automate network visibility, IT asset management, troubleshooting, backup and recovery and analyze network traffic. Auvik is a network-focused company from Ontario, Canada. 
Auvik can prevent, detect, and resolve network issues, keep the company aware of what is on its network, and contains a cloud-based secure network.
“Auvik has proven to be a valuable tool in supporting our clients and resolving network traffic issues. The support and training is thorough and comprehensive,” says David Buthlay of BEK, a user of Auvik.
Auvik was named a “Most Valuable Software” by Channelnomics in 2018 and a “leader” in network monitoring and management solutions” in G2’s winter 2022 grid.
Differentiators
- Manage distributed sites
- Workflows with Auvik APIs
- Shows what each device is connected to
Pricing
To get a custom quote from Auvik, go to their pricing page.
For more networking products: Extreme Networks: Networking Portfolio Review
Network Monitoring Features
- Automatic discovery
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- No room for manual errors
- Upgrades and equipment discovery
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- Classification and mapping
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- Orders infrastructure based on type
- Groups clustered environments
- Helps visualize network
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- Security management
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- HTTPS/SSL encryption
- User privileges
- Authentication
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- Real-time performance metrics
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- Delivers insights on network functioning
- Metrics in real-time
- Shows how to fix technical problems
Network Monitoring Benefits
- Reduces work for IT: gives IT team more time for other projects and to improve their networks
- Identify security threats faster: track normal performance insights and alert when the network traffic changes
- Enhanced visibility: administrators can see all connected devices and how data moves through them
- Producing return on investment (ROI): network monitoring software can reduce network downtime, support calls, troubleshooting, and maintenance
Use cases
Fundbox
Fundbox, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered fintech startup, offers credit and payment solutions for small businesses.
As the startup connected with 325,000 businesses, they began looking for ways to strengthen their DevOps processes. Fundbox’s engineers were using eight different systems to monitor their microservices, which made up Fundbox’s platform. Using multiple systems made it difficult for engineers to spot and resolve problems during production.
Fundbox decided to use Datadog’s network monitoring software to help them have more visibility in their network.
“The reaction that we had from the R&D teams was overwhelming: they really loved Datadog. One of the team leads told me ‘Datadog was the friend I never knew I was missing,’ and it was true,” says Tan Turgeman, environment lead, Fundbox.
Fukuoka University
Fukuoka University is a large university in west Japan that uses a research and educational system called FUTURE5 as their network system.
Since FUTURE5 is the entire campus network, including administrative operations, when a problem occurs, it affects the entire university. Fukuoka University needed a reliable monitoring solution in the event of a network problem.
Fukuoka University chose the Zabbix for networking monitoring solution.
“Even in such an extremely large-scale system such as FUTURE5, we were able to complete the construction of a monitoring portion in which Zabbix is used, by using a template to complete the project in short stages. In this way, the processes, from the construction stage to the utilization of Zabbix, played a role in the construction of FUTURE5,” says Kiyotaka Watanabe, an engineer with Fukuoka University.
What to look for in network monitoring software
Network infrastructures need network monitoring and protection to keep their information private and secure, but with different features, only some network monitoring software will cover everything a business needs.
Many of the network monitor solutions in the market offer customized dashboards, real-time analytics, and alerts of security problems. However, management, detection, and learning a company’s traffic are all useful tools that not every platform contains.
Regardless of the network monitor software a company selects, the most important step is to ensure the platform will integrate with its applications, data, and processes.
For more: The Cloud Networking Market
