Top 15+ Network Monitoring Tools For Fast Performance in 2024
Are you facing difficulty in managing network performance? Security issues, delayed performance, and frequent downtime are big business problems nowadays. You can only run your organization smoothly with the help of any network monitoring tools.
A slow network and higher downtime lead to a bad user experience and thus increase the number of dissatisfied users. The only way to fix these issues is to use the correct network monitoring tools for your business without damaging your business’s reputation.
The primary key to success is to use the most suitable network monitoring tools in your business and, detect security issues, downtime faults, and track the overall network performance.
In this blog post, I am going to illustrate the top 15+ network monitoring tools for better and more secure performance in 2024.
Let’s explore these tools to boost your knowledge of the tools and improve your business’s performance.
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Table of Contents
What are Network Monitoring Tools?
Network monitoring tools are referred to as tools that ease management and tracking, making it simple and hassle-free. They consistently track connections, various servers, security panels, and devices. These monitoring tools display whether everything is under control or whether there are issues, like outages, downtime, or slow networks.
If anything goes wrong, you will receive instant alerts so you can quickly address problems. Apart from identifying security issues, network monitoring tools protect your private data from hackers or any kind of threats.
By providing data on the fast and secure performance of the network, they make it easy to track current trends and improve the setup. You can ensure network security, improve overall performance, and reduce downtime with the help of these network monitoring tools.
Businesses widely use them to avoid any unexpected disruptions and manage the performance of their functioning networks.
Why Do You Need Network Monitoring Tools?
Have you ever noticed that these network monitoring tools provide you with a wide range of benefits? From higher visibility to reduced downtime, these tools track the performance of your network in real-time.
I am going to shed some light on the advantages you might get by using these popular network monitoring tools in 2024.
Let’s explore
Higher Visibility: Real-time traffic can be seen with the help of the network monitoring tools. Each server, device, and connection is highly visible to you when you apply such popular tools. This encourages fast detection of issues and better network management. Being visible helps prevent issues before they damage the user experience.
Better Network Optimization: Tracking higher downtime, slow network performance, and overcrowded network locations can be easily found with the help of network monitoring tools. You can boost the overall performance of your network through advanced features and adjustment settings. These tools also ensure better user experience and smooth network connections.
Fast & secure performance: These popular monitoring tools ensure the speed and fast performance of your network. They track slow networks, downtime, or malware issues. Tracking performance enables you to guarantee ease of access and address issues before becoming more critical.
Security threat identification: Tracking unusual or threatening activities with some of the most frequently used monitoring tools can detect cyber threats or other security attacks. The firewall monitoring feature helps you know when hackers try to enter your network and alerts you immediately. They also help you safeguard your vital data, which will keep your network secure and safe from malware attacks.
Downtime Reduction: Network monitoring tools help in detecting and fix issues before they lead to downtime and slow network experience. You might get an immediate alert from the tools if something is threatening. This indicates that you can fix the issue quickly to manage system performance and user happiness.
Access to historical data: These network monitoring tools keep track of historical data of overall network performance. Using such data will help you detect current trends and boost your performance further. Due to historical data demonstrating previous issues, it is also helpful for debugging present issues.
Top 15+ Network Monitoring Tools
I have already shed light on the concept of network monitoring tools and what advantages you can get if you use network monitoring tools in your organization. Here, I am going to discuss the top 15+ network monitoring tools that are popular for fast and secure performance in 2024.
The list I have curated below constitutes both the free and paid tools for better monitoring.
Let’s start now!
1. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
SolarWinds is the one-stop IT infrastructure monitoring solution for businesses of all levels. It offers basic real-time network performance monitoring along with server and cloud monitoring.
Due to its easy interface, SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor is highly used by business agencies that prefer real-time network monitoring without needing a complex setup.
In addition, Solarwinds NPM helps to improve the overall network management and performance. Moreover, due to its proactive network monitoring, it also plays a major role in reducing downtime.
It also offers instant alerts to users if any errors occur. Higher scalability is also supported over various large networks, including cloud networks.
Key Features
- Real-time Database monitoring
- Intelligent alerting
- Easy scalability
- Regular and Real-time updates
- Resource exhaustion predictions
- Automated network mapping
- Server capacity planning
- Automated network discovery
- Unlimited custom options
- Network performance monitoring
- 1200+ monitoring templates
- Threshold alerts
- Custom dashboards
Pricing Plans
Solarwinds offers an exclusive 30-day free trial plan with a few network monitoring features, and this is highly recommended to small or mid-sized businesses. If you want to discover and get the benefits of more advanced monitoring features, then you can choose from the below paid subscription plans. The plans are;
- The Essentials plan starts at $39 a month
- The Advanced plan starts at $79 a month
- The Premier plan starts at $99 a month
2. ManageEngine OpManager
This is another efficient network monitoring tool that offers higher visibility into the fast and secure performance of your firewalls, wireless LAN controllers, routers, load balancers, switches, storage devices, and more!
This is an easy-to-access monitoring tool. You can detect the root cause of your network issues and solve them easily with the help of this affordable one-stop solution. From workflow automation to privilege-based user management, this tool, among other popular network monitoring tools, does its job perfectly.
Key Features
- In-built automated inventory
- Excellent network mapping
- Firewall monitoring
- Router monitoring
- Server performance monitoring
- Server bottleneck detection and troubleshooting
- Bandwidth identification
- sFlow, IPFIX, NetFlow, and jFlow support
- Multi-level thresholds
- Network visualization
- Fault management
- Distributed network monitoring
- Storage Monitoring
- Cisco ACI monitoring
- Instant notification feature
- Regular network performance monitoring reports
Pricing Plans
ManageEngine OpManager offers a free trial period of 30 days to avail of some basic features. Upon exceeding the free trial plan, you can choose from the below-paid subscription plans;
- The Standard Edition Plan starts at $245 monthly and allows only 25 devices.
- The Professional Edition Plan starts at $345 monthly and allows only 25 devices.
- The Enterprise Edition Plan starts at $11545 monthly and allows only 250 devices.
3. Nagios
Nagios is another cost-effective IT solution for robust network monitoring. This frequently used tool is famous for its advanced tracking features, software applications, and different types of services.
This is the one-stop solution for real-time tracking, alerting, bug fixing, and complete performance reporting.
Key Features
- Multi-platform monitoring
- Real-time monitoring servers
- App restarts
- Huge plugins library
- Larger community support
- Trend analysis reporting
- Custom plugins
- Immediate alerts for issues
- Multi-tenancy feature
- Configuration Wizards
- Open-source community support
- Robust Script APIs
- Open API
- Historical data monitoring
- Flexible deployment
- Integrated graphs
- Configuration snapshots
- Capacity planning
- Advanced user management
Pricing Plans
Nagios is a free and open-source network monitoring platform. So, you don’t have to spend a penny. If you want to experience the exclusive features of advanced monitoring, you must go choose from the below pricing plans;
- The Standard Plan starts at $2,495 for 100 nodes.
- The Enterprise Plan starts at $4,490 for 100 nodes.
- The Sitewide Plan offers unlimited nodes, and the price depends on customization.
4. Auvik
Auvik is a popular SaaS network monitoring tool that offers quick solutions for your network issues. This cloud-based network monitoring tool is seen as a one-stop solution for network issues for businesses in 2024.
This tool also offers you insight into internet usage monitoring along with web traffic reporting.
Key Features
- Accurate alerting system
- Single user-intuitive dashboard
- Custom alerts
- Root cause analysis
- Visual graphical representations
- Custom platform
- Muti platform integrations include Autotask PSA, Mircosoft teams, Continuum, PagerDuty, Slack, and more.
- Syslog for faster issue troubleshooting
- VPN monitoring
- Remote worker protection
- Location insights
- Automated backups
- Real-time documentation updates
- Network mapping
- Network discovery
- Inventory management
- MTTR reduction
- Internet connectivity issue detection
Pricing Plans
Auvik offers a 14-day free trial plan to experience and take advantage of some basic features. Upon exceeding the 14-day free trial plan, you can pick from the below-paid pricing plans;
- The Essentials Plan
- The Performace Plan
Ask for quotes to get the pricing details of both plans for your specific needs.
5. Domotz
Domotz is another simple yet powerful network monitoring solution and device management. It provides various key features such as network security features, remote monitoring, and instant alerts. For expert professionals who monitor various locations remotely, Domotz is the perfect one-stop solution.
This tool offers a wide variety of network monitoring services, from remote location monitoring to SNMP polling.
Key Features
- Advanced custom alerts
- Network topology mapping
- Network monitoring and visibility
- Remote power management
- Daily backups
- Access point management
- Multi-tenant management
- Security camera monitoring
- Secure remote connection
- TCP services
- SNMP monitoring
- Simple and easy global dashboards
- Automated device discovery
- Endpoint monitoring
- External IP host monitoring
- Automated switch port mapping
- Inventory management
Pricing Plans
The two pricing plans of Domotz offer various advanced features to monitor your network infrastructure easily. The plans include;
- The Device Plan starts at £1.50 every month to manage the network in a device.
- The Location Plan starts at £35 every month to manage location in a device.
6. Datadog
The simplest and most effectively used cloud-based network monitoring tool, Datadog, offers in-depth data about your agency’s networking system. It helps in real-time monitoring of the database, applications, servers, and cloud services.
IT professionals often pick Datadog due to its extensive data analytics and easy-to-use components. Advanced network configurations have been specially created for it like microservices, cloud-based software, and packaged systems.
Key Features
- Network Device Monitoring
- Log management
- Application monitoring
- Integrated dashboards
- Audit trails
- Real-time updates
- Rest API
- AI-integrated alerts
- Easy Access control
- Anomaly detection
- Data encryption
- Multiple global location-based monitoring
- Security monitoring
- 450+ vendor-backed integrations
- Cloud security management (CSM)
- Real user monitoring
- Internal and external monitoring access
- Synthetic tests integration
- Application performance monitoring (APM)
- Infrastructure maps
Pricing Plans
A free trial plan is also offered with Datadog with very basic features like network device monitoring, real-time updates and more.
Other than the free trial plan, there are four types of paid subscription plans in Datadog. The plans are;
- The Pro pricing plan starts at $15 per month for each host.
- The Enterprise pricing plan starts at $23 per month for each host.
- The DevSecOps pricing plan starts at $22 per month for each host.
- The DevSecOps Enterprise pricing plan starts at $34 per month for each host.
7. Paessler PRTG Network Monitoring
PRTG offers a one-stop application and network monitoring solution for IT professionals and business owners who want to manage their networks efficiently. It helps to track real-time devices, overall performance, and total bandwidth. Network monitoring is made easy with configurable alarms and custom dashboards of PRTGs.
Key Features
- Custom alerts
- Push notifications
- SNMP monitoring
- Custom reporting
- Transparent licencing
- Custom sensors
- SaaS support
- Auto network discovery
- Network mapping
- Freeware version support
- Threshold-based alert system
- IG segment device discovery
- Bandwidth monitoring
- Application specific sensors
- Multi-protocol data protection
Pricing Plans
Paessler PRTG Network Monitoring provides a 30-day free trial plan to get some limited network monitoring features. Upon exceeding the 30-day free trial plan, you can choose from the below-paid plans of Paessler PRTG Network Monitoring ;
- The PRTG 500 plan starts at $2149 a year
- The PRTG 1000 plan starts at $3899 a year
- The PRTG 2500 plan starts at $8099 a year
- The PRTG 5000 plan starts at $14,199 a year
- The PRTG 10000 plan starts at $17,899 a year
8. New Relic
Another popular tool for real-time network monitoring that IT professionals use the most is known as New Relic. Managing real-time data logs also aids you in depicting issues in the network and instantly troubleshooting them.
This specific network monitoring platform is an excellent tracking tool that can also be employed to track and boost the overall performance of various organizations. Issue detection and real-user monitoring testing tools are also available in New Relic. Network monitoring is not the main goal of this specific tool.
Key Features
- Synthetics monitor
- Incident signal analysis
- Errors inbox
- Docker container monitoring
- New Relic Edge with infinite tracing
- Guided agent installation
- Searchable inventory
- UX correction feature
- New Relic Health Map
- On-host integrations
- New Relic Query Language
- One dashboard complete observatory access
- Dynamic alerting
- Open Telemetry UI
- AI-integrated insights
- AWS integrations
- Near real-time data
- Crash reporting
- Pay-as-you-go pricing
- Cloud services monitoring
- Easy dashboard
Pricing Plans
New Relic is offering you a free trial plan with limited or basic features. Due to the easy user interface, it is highly recommended for newbies. Do you want to avail some advanced monitoring features? Upgrade your free plan to a paid pricing plan. The plans are;
- The Standard plan
- The Pro plan
An Enterprise plan is custom-built, and pricing is determined as per requirement.
9. NinjaOne RMM
This is another popular tool among effective network monitoring tools. NinjaOne RMM provides remote device monitoring and management. It also gives you real-time alerts and fixes bugs with the help of its automated issue troubleshooting feature.
It also has a very simple and user-friendly setup and is supported by various popular platforms. This IT management tool offers local support and free onboarding.
Key Features
- Auto-discovery network
- Traffic analysis
- Device status monitoring
- Endpoint management
- Intuitive user interface
- Intuitive workflows
- One-click device actions
- Auto-remediation
- Native Documentation
- Free onboarding
- Hardware Inventory
- Unlimited scalability
- Custom alerts
- Self-service panel
- IT documentation
- Automated patching
- Custom dashboard
- 24*7 customer support
Pricing Plans
A free trial plan is available on NinjaOne RMM. If you want to avail yourself of some advanced network monitoring features, you can choose from the custom plans crafted on demand.
10. Zabbix
This popular open-source and effective network monitoring tool for anomaly detection, instant issue troubleshooting and root cause analysis. You might also apply it for network mapping, trend forecasting, and increasing defense. You can get plenty of choices for auto-remediation and immediate alerts about network errors.
You can also experience advanced AI-integrated monitoring components as an IT professional like multiple tenant support and thorough inventory information.
Zappix also offers you an easy-to-apply custom dashboard so you can instantly monitor the real-time functioning and other issues of your website’s network.
Key Features
- Error Analytics
- Real-time user monitoring
- Single pane of glass
- Custom thresholds
- In-depth transaction monitoring
- Multi-channel alerting
- Scalability
- Metric collection
- Custom dashboards
- Instant alerting
- Network monitoring
- Third-party tools integration, such as Jira, Slack, and Telegram
- Data visualization
- Custom alerting
- Real-time alerts
- Network Auto-discovery
- Business monitoring
- Problem detection
Pricing Plans
Zabbix is another popular free and open-source tool, and you don’t really have to think about the price of basic network monitoring components. But yes, if you want to experience some advanced monitoring elements, you can pick any one from the below plans;
- The Advanced Edition plan starts at $18,700 for a year
- The Professional Edition plan starts at $27,000 for a year
- The Expert plan starts at $43,900 for a year
11. Obkio
Obkio is another great example of an effective network monitoring tool in the crowd of DataDog, Zabbix, NewRelic, NinjaOne RMM, and more. It offers continuous network performance monitoring, leading to instant solutions to network errors.
It detects and alerts users of network errors very fast. The tool also boosts overall network performance and provides daily backups and real-time reports that are easy to read.
Key Features
- Dynamic thresholds
- Proactive alerts
- Monitoring agents
- Real-time monitoring
- Smart notifications
- Bandwidth monitoring
- QoS monitoring
- End-to-End Monitoring
- Template-Based configuration
- Advanced SpeedTests
- CPU monitoring
- Ultra-fast polling
- Automatic OID detection
- Firewall monitoring
- Anomaly detection
- Multi-tenant support
- Cloud network monitoring
- VoIP monitoring
Pricing Plans
This tool offers a 14-day free trial version and you can avail some basic network monitoring features in this plan. If you want to take advantage of some exclusive and advanced features, then upgrade to premium pricing plans. The plans are;
- The Business plan: It has four sub plans, and they are Starter ($199 a month), The Basic plan ($399 a month), The Premium plan ($699 a month), and the Custom Enterprise ($2000 a month).
- The Educational Plan
- The personal plan
Both the plans have three sub-pricing plans: a Personal plan ($9 a month), a plan for a Non-Profit organization ($280 a month), and an educational scholarship plan, which is based on the partnership agreement.
12. Logic Monitor
Logic Monitor is a popular server as well as a network monitoring tool that is hosted by the cloud. It offers analytics, real-time performance tracking, and automated alerts. The specific tool has no issue integrating with cloud services and applications.
This cloud-based monitoring tool has become one of the most popular choices of IT professionals when it comes to monitoring the entire website network of the business organization.
Key Features
- Higher scalability
- Easy navigation
- Excellent customer support
- Topology mapping
- Cloud monitoring
- Custom dashboard
- Automated alerts
- Anomaly detection
- Alert Management
- Remote monitoring
- User-friendly and simple reports
- Multiplatform integration
- Network visualization
- Fast network troubleshooting
Pricing Plans
There are a range of different pricing options available in Logic Monitor, and they are ;
- The Infrastructure monitoring plan starts at $22 per month
- The Cloud IaaS monitoring plan starts at $22 per month
- The Wireless access point plan starts at $4 per month
- The Cloud PaaS & container monitoring plan starts at $3 per month
- The Log Intelligence plan starts at $4 per month
13. Site 24*7
Site24*7 offers a range of monitoring services in networks, apps, and websites. It also provides real-time performance reports and instant notifications. Due to its cloud-based nature, it is easy to access from any location. Hence, remote location monitoring is also supported with this specific tool, among other popular network monitoring tools.
Key Features
- All-in-one observability
- AIOps
- Custom dashboards
- Instant alerting
- AI-integrated monitoring
- Web transaction monitoring
- Log management
- Real user monitoring
- REST API monitoring
- Custom dashboards
- Kubernetes monitoring
- Virtualization monitoring
- NetFlow monitoring
- Network configuration monitoring
- Application performance monitoring
- Third-party integrations such as Jira, OpsGenie, Moogsoft and Slack.
Pricing Plans
Site 24*7 offers a 30-day free trial for beginners who can only experience some limited monitoring features.
Are you excited to explore some exclusive and advanced features? Choose the pricing plans from below;
- The Web Uptime plan starts at $9 per month
- The Pro plan starts at $35 per month
- The Classic plan starts at $89 per month
- The Elite plan starts at $225 per month
- The Enterprise plan starts at $449 per month
- The Enterprise Plus Web plan starts at $899 per month
14. SuperOps
SuperOps is another mostly picked network monitoring tool by IT professionals for hassle-free management packages and remote location monitoring.
It also offers IT management tools along with network monitoring. From advanced automation and security monitoring to real-time alerts and notifications, SuperOps does its job perfectly. This tool is highly recommended for small as well as mid-sized businesses.
Key Features
- Remote monitoring
- Splastop business integration
- Patch management
- Easy user interface
- Real-time alerts
- Real-time analytics
- Unified PSA and RMM platform
- Data transparency
- Excellent 24*7 custom support
- Security threat detection
- Smart tracker
- Event scheduling
- Contract management
- Asset management
- Intelligent alerting
Pricing Plans
- SuperOps is offering a free trial plan with a few basic features for newbies. If you want to experience some exclusive advanced network monitoring features, then you must choose from the below pricing plans;
- The Standard plan for PSA starts at $89 per month.
- The Standard plan for RMM starts at $109 per month.
- The Pro plan starts at $149 per month.
- The Super plan starts at $179 per month.
15. Google Cloud
Google Cloud is another famous tool that is quite popular for its robust network performance and cloud services monitoring. It also provides real-time instant alerts and notifications. The network monitoring tool easily integrates into different platforms as well as Google Cloud services.
Key Features
- Google Kubernetes Engine
- Cloud monitoring
- Cloud Armor Network Security
- Cloud Audit logs
- Network Intelligence center
- Alerting policies
- Monitoring filters
- Monitoring Query Language (MQL)
- Network topology
- Real-time error tracking
- Advanced analytics and reporting
- Custom performance dashboard
- Firewall insights
- Network analyzer
- SLO monitoring
- Google Cloud Console Integration
- Ops Agent
- Custom dashboard
Pricing Plans
This platform is open-source and free. Hence, you can start monitoring cloud networks without spending any penny.
Only you have to pay $0.01 per GB each month, which is the minimal charge for using the exclusive and powerful features of Google Cloud.
16. DynaTrace
DynaTrace is another popular network monitoring tool hosted by Cloud. It works best under hybrid premises. This tool can instantly detect network issues and fix those issues immediately.
Key Features
- Full-stack monitoring
- End-to-end visibility over the cloud
- Automated bug detection and fixation
- OpenShift, Kubernetes, and Docker integration
- AI-powered monitoring
- User experience tracking feature
- Davis AI integration
- Log Analytics
- Real-time performance analysis feature
- Custom dashboards
- Threat Observability
- Root cause analysis
- Dynatrace AI Observability
Pricing Plans
DynaTrace provides various types of paid pricing plans, and if you want to experience them, try them out today! The plans are;
- The Full-Stack Monitoring plan starts at $0.08 per hour for an 8 Gigabyte Host.
- The Infrastructure Monitoring plan starts at $0.04 per hour for any host size.
- The Kubernetes Platform Monitoring plan starts at $0.002 per hour for any size of the pod.
- The Application Security plan starts at $0.018 per hour for an 8 Gigabyte Host.
- The Real-user Monitoring plan starts at $0.00225 per session.
- The Synthetic Monitoring plan starts at $0.001 per systemic request.
Features to Consider While Choosing the Best Network Monitoring Tools
While choosing the most appropriate network monitoring tools among the huge library of effective tools, you should always consider some major features. I have demonstrated some major features that are very important in picking the best network monitoring for your business.
Check out the components below.
Automated Management: Try to look for network monitoring tools that can perform repetitive tasks automatically. Automating tasks such as quick alarms or tracking network status, manual labor reduction, and more.
This aids in detecting issues more easily by saving time. Automated monitoring tools ensure the smooth performance of your network without needing consistent monitoring.
Configuration Management: All device setups and performance settings should be tracked and controlled by the network monitoring tools. It allows a fast network recovery in the event that an update causes sudden problems to the site. You can manage the integrity of systems and reduce downtime with the help of configuration backups.
Custom monitoring plugins support: Choose a tool that allows you to include custom plugins for specific needs. This offers options for monitoring special services or devices. It ensures that your specific network monitoring tool and network configuration are a perfect match.
Advanced Visualization & Analytics: Always pick the tools that offer intuitive dashboards with simple and clear graphs and charts. They help analyze trends and detect errors. You can assess the overall performance of the network quickly with the help of visual optimization reports.
Robust Support and Documentation: Check if the network monitoring tools include in-depth instructions and fast customer support. Well-prepared documentation boosts the process of problem-solving. When problems arise, your network continues to operate and run with fast and dependable monitoring features.
Better User Experience: The User interface of the network monitoring tools should be simple and easy to access. A well-organized structure helps in fast team navigation. It reduces the learning curve, which accelerates the process of network monitoring and management.
Daily Updates: Try to choose a tool that provides daily or regular updates to fix or troubleshoot bugs and boost overall network performance. Every day, performance updates ensure the tool is up-to-date with advanced automated technology. This also ensures the effectiveness and credibility of the entire network monitoring device.
Improved Security: In order to secure your network, the network monitoring tool needs to have robust security features. Early threat or malware detection and quick response are expected. Your network and vital data are protected from malware attacks with the help of a secure network monitoring tool.
Wrapping Up,
I have tried to cover popular network monitoring tools from SolarWinds to NewRelic in this blog post. Each of the network monitoring tools reflects their unique components to produce better network management.
From AI-integrated monitoring to instant alerting, these popular networking tools are doing a great job.
Hoping, I have illustrated all the major network monitoring tools effective for advanced monitoring, downtime reduction, and instant alerting. I have also included key features and pricing plans of these tools above to clear your understanding.
If you still have questions, please feel free to add them in the comments section below. If you have any other network monitoring tools in mind that I forgot to explain, also add them in the comments!