10 Best Network Management Software For Small To Large Networks

Here you will find a complete review and comparison of top Network Management Software for network management, administration, and troubleshooting:

In the world of LAN (Local Area Network), WAN (Wide Area Network), and WWW (World Wide Web), the biggest challenge for IT professionals or network administrators is keeping the network running.

The risk of cyber-attack and intrusion is always at the forefront of IT infrastructure. Also, massive releases and upgrades can damage devices and networks if implemented incorrectly.

It is very difficult to look after all these activities manually and we cannot expect 100% efficiency, so with the help of network management software, dynamic management, administration, and troubleshooting can be done.

In this post, we are going to do a technical review of the top network management tools or software that can easily do all such activities with precision accuracy.

Network Management Software Review

The primary task of any network management software is to collect information about all connected nodes, also called devices, and use this information to manage the entire infrastructure, such as inventory, maintenance, performance optimization, and bottleneck removal.

In the following sub-sections, we will see the top best network management software for different network sizes, its features, comparisons, and cost-effectiveness.

Salient Features of Network Management Software (NMS)

The various NMS software are available in the market, but a suitable and effective software should have the following key features to help administrators do their job better and increase the visibility of NMS:

1. Performance Management and Optimization: Helps to set smart goals, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), and SLAs (Service Level Agreements) for organizations and managed service providers.
2. Real-time visibility and analysis: Collects metrics from all connected devices, detects the real-time location and signal strength, helping to eliminate the congestion and improve performance.
3. Scalability and automation management: The ability of the software to integrate the evolving needs of the enterprise and to adapt all related automation.
4. Automatic compliance detection and reporting: Creates an inventory of devices and networks and compares past data with current data and visualizes future growth.
5. Security: Without this feature, the networks would be vulnerable to cyberattacks, spam software, malware, and more. Security functions are intended to strengthen the network, comply with the latest security standards, and analyze unwanted or suspicious network activity.
6. Compatibility: This feature will not only simplify administrative work but also expand the scope of the software. If the software is compatible and allows other top software or tools to be integrated via API or other methods, it increases the visibility of the software.

Pro-Tips: An effective NMS should have the following key features that enable administrators to effectively maintain a network, discover, monitor, and maintain IT infrastructure:

• Ability to identify trends based on historical data.
• Web-based interface for central administration.
• Agentless deployment as agent-based consumes fewer resources.
• Customized notifications.
• Auto-discovery of IPv6 and IP4 protocols.
• Network topology mapping.
• Application and service monitoring.
• Detect unwanted traffic and security threats.

How do you choose the best network management software to manage your network effectively?

There is always the challenge of managing network devices and their operations to ensure maximum uptime in the face of ever-increasing security threats. Network management software plays an important role in achieving this goal. So let’s see how to choose the best NMS to monitor and send advance notifications before they cause costly crashes and disruptions.

Five questions need to be asked before finalizing the NMS

1. How big is your network and what do you want to monitor?
2. What are the devices and bottlenecks that need to be addressed?
3. Is there a need for a sophisticated surveillance solution based on the complexity of the network?
4. What level of security are you looking for?
5. Can I deploy the trials or starter packs before implementing the final version?

The selection of the best NMS is based entirely on your current network requirements and future scalability plans.

Regardless of network size, some basic functions like auto-discovery, device inventory, custom alerts, web-based console, network topology layout, etc. help maintain, monitor, and troubleshoot network and infrastructure problems.

Below are some additional features you should look for depending on your needs:

• Support for IP4 and IP6 protocol.
• Application and services monitoring.
• On premise and cloud monitoring.
• Metrics to optimize network performance.
• Capacity planning and scalability.
• Automation of alerts and customized notifications.

Fact Check: Factors like growing network traffic, IoT (Internet of things) devices integration, network capacity planning, malware and DDoS (Distributed Denial-Of-Service) attacks, the complexity of managing geographically dispersed markets are creating more opportunities for network management software.

It is expected to grow at a CAGR (Compounded Annual Growth Rate) of 9.5% and is expected to touch USD 11.0 billion by 2024

The following picture depicts the Network management software market by region:

[image source]

Frequently Asked Questions

Q #1) What are network monitoring tools?

Answer: Network monitoring tools are used to monitor, track, and manage local area networks, wide area networks, and internet networks. Entire network operations like device inventory, network utilization, upkeeping of the network, troubleshooting, detecting unwanted traffic can be done with the help of these tools.

Q #2) What are the types of network management?

Answer: The network management can be done through either hardware or software tools based on three major methods as listed below:

• SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) based: The majority of tools use SNMP protocol to interact with network components.
• Flow-based: It is the method of capturing real-time data packets and processing to identify network status, bandwidth utilization, and suspicious traffic.
• Active Network Monitoring: It is the process of injecting packets into the network to gauge traffic transmission rate, data loss and reachability time, etc.

Q #3) What is the best network monitoring software free?

Answer: There are many tools that are free of cost but the few mentioned below are worth giving a try: Nagios, Zabbix, Icinga, Paessler PRTG Network Monitor – Free up to 100 sensors

Q #4) How can I monitor my network health?

Answer: Before implementing any monitoring tool in the network, it is recommended to use the trial version of the software and check the suitability in terms of:

• Error detection and troubleshooting.
• Performance optimization.
• Network Security.
• Network Scalability.

Q# 5) Why network management is needed?

Answer: Manually overlooking complete network operations is a daunting task and has high chances of errors, failures, and poor efficiency.

Contrary, if a network management tool or software is used then it will ensure the network compliance, reliability, and security of complete IT infrastructure. Importantly, security threats are detected and can be blocked using network management tools.

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List of Top Network Management Software

Here is a list of some notable network configuration management tools:

1. NinjaOne
2. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor
3. Datadog Network Performance Monitor
4. Paessler PRTG Network Monitor
5. Progress WhatsUp Gold
6. Zabbix
7. Nagios XI
8. Logic Monitor
9. ManageEngine OpManager
10. Site24x7 Network Monitoring
11. Icinga

Software nameBusiness SizeUniquenessFree TrialPrice/Licensing

NinjaOneSmall to large businessesAll-in-one RMM solution that helps to monitor, manage, & support all devices & users.AvailableQuote-based

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor Small, Medium and Large businessesIntelligent mapping to create custom maps and data packet paths30 days trialIts price starts at $1638

Datadog Network Performance Monitor Small, Medium and Large businessesAnalyzes not only IP’s but also any two endpoints at the app, port, and PID layers.free for 14 daysStarts at $5 per host per month

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor Small, Medium and Large businessesTrusted by 3 lakh users. A freeware version to monitor 100 sensors and alarms 30 days free trial The price starts at $1,750

Progress WhatsUp Gold Small, Medium and Large businessesAdds integrated Log Management, APIs and improved reporting to find and fix problems at a fast rateFree trial is availableThe prices are available on quote request.

ZabbixHome, small network to large businessesIt is free software that is scalable from home network monitoring to multiple enterprise networksIt is freeware

Let’s start the technical review:

Best for remote monitoring and management. It is an all-in-one remote monitoring and management platform for MSPs and IT departments.

NinjaOne is a cloud-based remote monitoring and management platform with capabilities for endpoint management, patch management, backup, service desk, remote access, IT documentation, software deployment, etc. It offers powerful yet easy-to-use tools. It gives complete visibility into your managed environment.

Features:

• NinjaOne has capabilities for automating vulnerability remediation, deploying next-generation security tools, and backing up critical business data.
• It enables you to support end-users anywhere and on any network.
• It gives complete control over your IT assets for monitoring, maintaining, and managing them.
• It provides real-time insights into all your IT assets.
• It can discover new assets.

Verdict: NinjaOne offers all the tools in its RMM solution. The solution provides several benefits, such as visibility & control, minimizing technology costs, reducing IT asset risk, and better workflow efficiency.

NinjaOne’s IT asset management can be used for servers, workstations, & laptops of Windows, Mac, & Linux. It is also useful for VMWare & Hyper-V hosts & guests and SNMP devices.

Price: NinjaOne offers a solution with flexible per-device pricing. It can be tried for free. As per customer review, the price of the platform is $3 per device per month.

Best for small networks to large geographically dispersed networks

Solarwinds is a leading company in this segment. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor is a comprehensive tool for the complete transparency of your network. Its extended functionality ensures uninterrupted network operation by quickly identifying and resolving problems.

If you have a requirement of looking large complex network, then its unique features like determining the end-to-end throughput capacity, cross-network correlation, and capacity prediction make it an ideal pick. The software supports both wired and wireless networks and automatically detects their key performance metrics.

Features:

• Multivendor network monitoring.
• Monitor logical and physical network health.
• Supports cloud and LAN, including hybrid infrastructure.
• Offers advanced dashboards, alerts, and reports.

Verdict: The software supports on-premises and cloud infrastructure. It monitors IT infrastructure services and is the best choice for all types of networks, regardless of their type, size and complexity.

Price: Prices start at $1,638 and offer subscription options and perpetual licenses. A fully functional 30-day trial period is also available.

#3) Datadog Network Performance Monitor

Best for networks, applications, and clouds of all sizes

Datadog network management software is named as a Leader in application performance monitoring by Gartner Magic Quadrant in 2021. It provides visibility of multi-cloud network flows in great detail to summarize performance and dependencies.

Its full dependency monitoring not only extracts network topology performance metrics but also visualizes Kubernetes, Docker image, and AWS protections. Another important aspect of this tool is that it not only reveals the network patterns but also further analyzes them to optimize performance and save costs.

Features:

• Optimize network performance based on traffic patterns.
• Observation of long-term abstraction.
• Provides metrics and events with high-resolution controls and charts.
• Full-stack monitoring of dependencies.

Verdict: An end-to-end solution for networks of any size. It can be used on-premise or as software as a service by service providers. Its API module enables the integration of services, tools, and other programming languages.

Price: It is available for free for 14 days. Prices are categorized according to different modules. The following figure shows only the price for one network module:

Website: Datadog Network Performance Monitor

#4) Paessler PRTG Network Monitor

Best for monitoring all medium to large infrastructure systems, devices, traffic, and applications.

The adoption of the PRTG Network Monitor ensures that network administrators have full transparency of all business and network components. It’s easy to deploy, set up, and get started in minutes and reduces installation and configuration costs. One of its unique features is personalized monitoring via APIs and sensors.

This network monitoring tool monitors the entire IT infrastructure using various protocols such as simple network management protocol, Windows Management Instrumentation, secure shell protocol, packet sniffing, and more.

Features:

• API and custom sensors for easy integration.
• Fair and simple licensing options.
• Agentless monitoring for Windows, Linux, and macOS.
• Flexible and reliable alerts mechanism.

Recommended Reading => Explore the Differences Hub vs Switch

Verdict: If you want to monitor not only the network but the entire IT platform, this tool will meet your needs. We can maintain complex and geographically distributed networks with just a few clicks.

Price: A fully functional version is available for a free 30-day trial. Starting at $1,750 for a server license that supports 500 aspects of network devices.

Website: Paessler PRTG Network Monitor

Further Reading => Explore the TOP Network Segmentation Software

#5) Progress WhatsUp Gold

Best suited for medium and large on-premise and cloud networks.

This network management software was recognized as an industry leader in the latest G2 Grid Report, which received a total of 8 awards. It provides a comprehensive overview of the IT infrastructure, including various network devices, applications, cloud servers, as well as LANs and WANs.

Its version 2021 is launched with built-in management of Windows event tracking and warning logs, as well as system logs. Its improved reporting indicators make it easier to showcase tracking results across multiple networks.

Features:

• HTML based reports.
• Traffic report to identify and detect suspicious IP addresses.
• Network traffic analyzer on the world map, which makes traffic analysis efficient.
• Automate configuration and change management for network devices.

Verdict: If you want to monitor, track and maintain network devices, servers, virtual machines, cloud, and wireless environments, this tool will provide efficient results for such activities.

Price: This tool is available in three editions – Premium Annual Subscription, Premium Perpetual, and Total plus. Prices are available upon request.

Website: Progress WhatsUp Gold

#6) Zabbix

Best for SMB (small and medium-sized business) and large scale networks to monitor all devices

The uniqueness of Zabbix is that it is open-source and free software. As a free platform, it supports enterprise-level monitoring with advanced features such as high availability, distributed monitoring, cloud, and on-premises network.

It pulls various metrics from all network devices like servers, virtual machines, wireless networks, cloud, and more.

Features:

• Backed by 250+ partners to support enterprise-level surveillance.
• Supported both on-premises and in the cloud.
• Collect metrics from all devices, systems, apps.
• Flexible, easy to set up, and quick to get started.

Verdict: This tool is safe and secure and can be used for monitoring network devices, servers, cloud, and application monitoring. The architecture also maintains unlimited scalability and high availability.

Price: It is freeware.

Website: Zabbix

#7) Nagios XI

Best for advanced network management for Enterprise level monitoring.

It has a flexible architecture and monitors almost all network devices. It has a powerful monitoring engine powered by Nagios Core 4. Its Business Process Intelligence tool automatically saves configuration details.

Its updated mobile interface is spontaneous and more useful for responding to alerts and signals. To provide a complete picture of the entire network structure, it accepts both JSON and XML-based data.

Features:

• Proactive planning and awareness.
• Comprehensive monitoring of IT infrastructure.
• Extensible architecture with multiple APIs.

Verdict: Nagios XI is an advanced network management software that offers more performance tools. Its enhanced mobile interface and automatic deployment help to deliver a wide range of IT Infrastructure activities.

Price: It is available for a 30-day trial period. This software has two versions, Standard Edition $1995 and Corporate Edition $3495.

Website: Nagios XI

#8) Logic Monitor

Best for large enterprise networks and IT service providers

The LogicMonitor is agent-less network monitoring, analysis, and reporting software. The platform is certified to the highest safety standards, such as ISO/IEC 27001:2013 and SOC2 Type 2 standards.

One of its unique features is the over 2000 pre-configured integrations that make it easy for IT administrators to deploy, manage, and root cause analysis for the entire IT infrastructure.

Features:

• Cloud monitoring – AWS, Google, and Azure.
• Storage, database, and configuration monitoring.
• Automatic implementation and configuration for over 2000 integrations.
• Intelligent metrics, stable alerts, and dynamic topology mapping.

Verdict: It is a cloud platform for monitoring hybrid infrastructure. It is one of the best software for network and infrastructure monitoring, analysis, and operations management.

Price: Fully functional version can be tested for free for 14 days. The main version of the package, which is intended for IT infrastructure, has two versions – Pro and Enterprise versions. The price is available on the quote request.

Website: Logic Monitor

#9) ManageEngine OpManager

Best for large businesses to monitor network operations, find bottlenecks, and troubleshoot.

The software has won various awards like Gartner, Infotech research, etc. It provides in-depth metrics and tracks all devices that have an IP address, so in short, it covers all devices that are connected to the network.

The details like bandwidth utilization and configuration changes are viewed in a single plane. Its enterprise edition allows monitoring geographically dispersed networks in a single console. In addition to real-time monitoring, the software also provides insights into various network areas that would create performance issues.

Features:

• Retrieves information of over 2000 built metrics of network components.
• Physical and virtual metrics.
• Can set multi-level thresholds for critical monitoring.
• WAN link monitoring.

Verdict: The software is suitable for companies of all sizes. It can be utilized for network management, monitoring of device metrics, bandwidth analysis, troubleshooting, and more.

Price: The software is available in 3 editions – Standard, professional, and Enterprise versions. The price is based on per device and user connection and is available on quote request.

Website: ManageEngine OpManager

#10) Site24x7 Network Monitoring

Best for network monitoring, analysis, and reporting for small to large networks.

It is an agentless network monitoring. It is complete monitoring software that monitors firewalls, wireless networks, storage monitoring, VPNs, routers and switches, etc. IP-based devices such as UPS and printers can also be monitored.

The software analyzes network behavior and identifies hogs, break-ins, and delays. It is compatible with other third-party providers like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jira to provide greater transparency and control over your infrastructure.

Features:

• Automatic detection of all IP devices in LAN and WAN networks.
• Supports up to 450 vendors such as Cisco, HP, Canon, Juniper, D-Link, and Dell.
• Easy setup and configuration with 1000’s built-in templates.
• VoIP (voice over IP) monitoring.

Verdict: A versatile network monitoring software best fit for small to large businesses. It has great feasibility of integrating top third-party software and the ability of full-stack monitoring.

Price: It has 30 days free trial. The software is available in four versions – Pro, Classic, Elite, and Enterprise. The brief price information is shown below:

Website: Site24x7 Network Monitoring

#11) Icinga

Best for monitoring large enterprise networks in heterogeneous and distributed environments.

The Icinga software is a stack of 6 modules to cover all aspects of monitoring the entire infrastructure dispersed around the world. It monitors infrastructure on-premise and on the cloud.

Its centralized infrastructure console monitors enter network and devices to check the availability, performance issues and generate metrics to report administrators. Its unique function is to automate monitoring activities to reduce human error and react faster to eliminate bottlenecks.

Features:

• High Availability: Connect two Icinga nodes into one zone to increase reliability.
• Redundancy: Its cluster mechanism spreads the workload across multiple servers.
• It easily integrates within existing systems
• Scalable and extensible: Monitors large and complex environments across multiple locations.

Verdict: It is suitable for large and distributed networks. Its customizable platform enables administrators to integrate into the existing setup. Its automation capability caters to most of the monitoring and alerting requirements.

Price: The software is available in four versions – Starter, Basic, Premium, and Enterprise. The prices are available on request.

Website: Icinga

Conclusion

As mentioned above, network management software can make it easier for IT and network administrators to monitor and manage network infrastructure. Its main functions, such as monitoring, analysis, and alerts, will help small networks, while automatic discovery, mapping, inventory, and troubleshooting will be useful for medium-sized networks.

Network management software or tools are important for large and distributed networks because they are complex by nature. The above-mentioned software such as SolarWinds, Datadog, Paessler PRTG, Nagios, ManageEngine will play an important role in the management of large enterprise networks.

Research Process:

• We spent 20 hours studying and researching various network management software to choose the best one for you.
• Total software researched- 15
• Total software shortlisted – 10

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