21 Best Network Security Software Of 2024
10 Best Network Security Software Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 21 tools reviewed.
Cybersecurity threats are always evolving, so good network security software is essential to stop unauthorized access, malware, and data breaches. Below are my evaluations of the best network security tools available today, including each solution’s distinct features and functionalities to help you choose one that best protects your particular network environment.
What's Network Security Software?
Network security software is designed to strengthen your IT infrastructure and keep sensitive data safe. This is done with tools like antivirus software, intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS), encryption, and security protocols. Network security software can protect from external threats like phishing and malware, as well as threats occurring within a network, such as unauthorized resource access.
By implementing network security software, service providers, institutions, and organizations can mitigate cyber risks and achieve real-time threat detection to maintain network infrastructure’s reliability.
Best Network Security Software Summary
| Tools | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| CrowdStrike | From $299.95/year | Website |
| Perimeter 81 | From $10/user/month | Website |
| Avira Prime | From $53.33/year | Website |
| Acunetix | Pricing upon request | Website |
| ESET Internet Security | From $4.17/user/month | Website |
| Solarwinds | From $19/user/month | Website |
| Norton 360 Deluxe | From $4.17/user/month | Website |
| Commvault | From $42/user/year | Website |
| Webroot | From $23.99 for 1st year (1 device) | Website |
| Elastic | From $16/month | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare SoftwareBest Network Security Software Reviews
I’ll explain each tool’s features, integrations, and pricing below, so you can choose the solution that matches your network security needs.
Auvik is a cloud-based network management software designed to provide visibility and control over network infrastructure. It enables organizations to monitor network performance, identify devices that need upgrading or replacement, and manage network configurations
Why I picked Auvik: Auvik earned its spot on this network monitoring software list because it offers automatic inventorying and visual mapping of network infrastructure. This feature helps save time, ensure data integrity, and promote better visibility of networks. Auvik also stands out for its real-time documentation updates and automated backups of network devices, making it a proactive tool for network management.
Auvik Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include network monitoring and troubleshooting, alerts and notifications for network events, syslog for faster issue resolution, VPN monitoring for remote worker protection, and internet connection check for instant connectivity issue diagnosis.
Integrations include ArcusTeam, Autotask PSA, BrightGauge, Captain's Chair, Slack, Microsoft Teams, ConnectWise, Continuum, Freshdesk, Global Dash, PagerDuty, and more.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Quick and accurate alerting system
- Single dashboard monitoring
- Detailed visual graphical representation of networks
Cons:
- Could use more integrations
- Customizing the platform can be time consuming
Checkmk is a powerful network monitoring software that provides everything you need to monitor hybrid environments. That includes on-premises servers, virtual machines, network devices, applications, and cloud services. Thanks to its optimized core, it scales with ease and can fit the needs of anything from small to enterprise-level infrastructure.
Why I picked Checkmk: As a network monitoring software, Checkmk excels in offering real-time insights into network performance, identifying issues before they impact operations. It provides detailed network analytics, customizable dashboards, and an efficient alert system, making it easier for IT teams to manage network health and performance effectively without being overwhelmed by meaningless alerts.
Checkmk Standout Features & Integrations
Features include flexible configuration and scalability, which can accommodate the monitoring needs of both small businesses and large enterprises. Additionally, the raw edition of Checkmk is open-source, offering a powerful monitoring solution without any cost. The paid versions, Enterprise and Cloud, add numerous features like automation and monitoring Kubernetes, containers, AWS, Azure, and GCP cloud services. All editions offer a predictive analytics feature to predict future system behavior and potential issues.
Integrations include Nagios, Grafana, Prometheus, LDAP/Active Directory, Jira, PagerDuty, DataDog, ntop, and Slack.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Comprehensive monitoring capabilities
- Numerous automation options
- High configurability
Cons:
- Learning curve for new users
- Potential overhead for smaller networks
New Relic’s network optimization software provides proactive alerting, deep diagnostics, and customizable dashboards for efficient network troubleshooting and optimization.
Why I picked New Relic: I liked New Relic during my evaluation because its ability to monitor your whole IT infrastructure network is quite extensive.
It has application monitoring (APM) capabilities and synthetic monitoring, where you can simulate user interactions and test the responsiveness and availability of your applications from different locations. With distributed tracing, you can visualize and trace requests as they travel across other services and components, helping you identify bottlenecks.
New Relic Standout Features and Integrations:
Features that I want to recommend for advanced users are its API monitoring capabilities, allowing you to track API performance and availability, identify slow or failed requests, and generate API usage reports.
Beyond this, it can also monitor databases, serverless functions, containers, and transaction tracing (where you can trace the performance of individual transactions within your applications, identifying slow database queries).
Integrations are available natively for 600+ options, including Ruby, Elixir, Cassandra, CentOS, Couchbase, Debian, Nagios, and OpenAI Observability. APIs are available.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Customizable dashboards where you can visualize and analyze your data
- Can centralize and manage your application logs
- Generates visual service maps that show how different services in your application architecture are related
Cons:
- High license costs
- May take time for users to become proficient in navigating and utilizing all the features
NinjaOne is a top-rated UEM and IT management software that offers a range of solutions for IT departments and MSPs, including endpoint management, patch management, mobile device management, remote control, and endpoint backup.
Why I picked NinjaOne: When comparing different tools, NinjaOne stands out due to its comprehensive suite of features that cater to both IT departments and managed service providers (MSPs), making it a versatile choice for various organizational needs. NinjaOne differentiates itself by offering a unified platform that includes endpoint management, patch management, mobile device management, and remote control, all accessible through a single intuitive interface. This integration allows for efficient management of IT assets, which is crucial for maintaining security and operational efficiency.
NinjaOne Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include endpoint management, patch management, mobile device management, remote control, endpoint backup, RMM for MSPs, MSP backup, endpoint security, and various integrations. The platform also provides resources such as an ROI calculator and IT security fundamentals guide.
Integrations include ConnectWise Manage, Autotask PSA, HaloPSA, Accelo, SherpaDesk, RepairShopr, Harmony PSA, and Computicate PSA.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Automated IT compliance reporting
- Detailed hardware and software inventory tracking
- Efficient multi-tenant management
Cons:
- Limited customization in dashboard design
- Dependency on cloud infrastrucutre
With advanced features like fault management, performance monitoring, and bandwidth analysis, OpManager helps you proactively manage and optimize your network infrastructure.
Why I picked ManageEngine OpManager: If you’re looking for a multi-vendor network monitoring solution, then I think ManageEngine OpManager is the perfect choice. It supports popular hardware vendors like HP, D-Link, Juniper, Dell, 3Com, Cisco, Force10, NETGEAR, Fortinet, and NetScreen. You can also choose a vendor of your choice as it provides 245 built-in customizable device templates. These templates save the configuration commands for all vendors, so you don’t have to remember all configurations manually.
ManageEngine OpManager Standout Features and Integrations:
Features that I appreciate are that you can monitor various servers like Hyper-V, Citrix, Nutanix HCI, and VMware. In addition, you can also monitor access points, switches, WiFi systems, wireless routers, WAN links, storage devices like storage arrays and tape libraries, and distributed networks in multiple locations.
Integrations are natively built for ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, ServiceNow, Jira Service Management, Slack, and Microsoft Teams. APIs are available.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Router performance metrics like temperature, voltage, and buffer statistics
- Mapping and visualization of performance degradation and network outages
- 2,000+ performance metrics for network monitoring
Cons:
- Complex setup and configuration process
- Limited customization options for dashboards and reports
Dynatrace provides real-time visibility into your network, allowing you to monitor and analyze traffic patterns, latency, and performance metrics.
Why I picked Dynatrace: The reason I suggest Dynatrace for complex environments is it enables smooth performance for all types of network connections, like virtualized clouds and data centers, by installing agents on each host. This lets you gain insight into which processes need troubleshooting. For each process, it can track network bandwidth and connection issues.
Dynatrace Standout Features and Integrations:
Features that I like are that you can get a big picture of your entire virtualized network infrastructure. Plus, it can automatically monitor new networks that are added. You also get to see other health metrics for CPU, memory, and disk, as well as for applications, so that you understand the impact of these issues on end-users.
Integrations are pre-built for Active Directory, Adobe Analytics, Akka, Amazon DynamoDB, Ansible Tower, and Azure Virtual Machines and native for Google Analytics, Gremlin, LaunchDarkly, and Zenduty.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Alerting and notification for network outages
- Capacity planning and forecasting for network resources
- Can analyze network latency and packet loss
Cons:
- Pricing structure is complex
- No free plan
LogicMonitor is an observability platform but comes with powerful features to manage the health and performance of your network ecosystem.
Why I picked LogicMonitor: I chose LogicMonitor because of its ability to support monitoring for SD-WAN and cloud-based networks. You can use LogicMonitor to get insights into the workings of switches, wireless devices, load balancers, routers, and firewalls. It also comes with network topology mapping that helps you understand how devices are interconnected and how data flows within the network.
LogicMonitor Standout Features and Integrations:
Features that I specifically want to call out are that you can easily enable network traffic monitoring in complex environments to get information on bandwidth allocation, packet loss, and more. It also offers log-based anomaly detection and forecasts issues that may crop up.
Integrations include more than 2,000+ native options like ServiceNow, PagerDuty, VMWare, BigPanda, Fortinet, Redis, ConnectWise, Juniper, and Twilio. APIs are available.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Auto-discovery abilities are fast
- Portal functionality and uptime are great
- Easy setup process
Cons:
- Fewer customization options for user interfaces
- No free version
WhatsUp Gold is a comprehensive IT monitoring and management solution that provides real-time insights and alerts to ensure optimal performance and availability of IT systems.
Why I picked WhatsUp Gold: WhatsUp Gold has common capabilities like infrastructure network monitoring, automatic network discovery, and notifications about network issues. What stands out to me is you can gain insights into network traffic patterns, helping to optimize bandwidth utilization. You can also monitor device performance metrics, such as CPU usage, memory utilization, and disk space.
WhatsUp Gold Standout Features and Integrations:
Features that I appreciate are that it can track bandwidth usage and monitor the performance of your database servers and even applications. It also lets you monitor your virtualized environments and wireless network infrastructure. You can monitor SNMP-enabled devices, collecting data for performance analysis.
Integrations are natively available for Active Directory, ServiceNow, VMware, Microsoft Azure, and Cisco. You can also do custom integrations via REST APIs.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Extensive support for different protocols and vendors
- Customizable dashboards and reports
- User-friendly interface
Cons:
- Complex deployment and configuration process
- Occasional bugs or stability issues
With Datadog, you can manage on-prem, cloud, and hybrid networks. You can also track the performances of application layers and even the health of bare-metal appliances.
Why I picked DataDog: The reason I suggest DataDog for small businesses is because of its affordability and provision of all standard network monitoring offerings. These include visual maps of connected networks, traffic metrics by host, processes, and containers, and DNS performance.
DataDog Standout Features and Integrations:
Features that I want to highlight are its ability to track metrics like TCP retransmits, connection churn, and latency. It can also check on the performance of traffic between layers like app, port, IP address, or process ID (PID). You can track DNS server health with response time, error code, and request-volume metrics.
Integrations are natively available for 600+ options, including Active Directory, Airflow, Bitbucket, Bugsnag, Cassandra, Crowdstrike, GitHub, and GitLab.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Offers scalable monitoring capabilities
- Provides historical data for trend analysis
- Supports multi-cloud and hybrid environments
Cons:
- Data retention periods may be shorter than desired
- Monitoring for Microsoft Azure tools can be complex
Zabbix’s open-source tool provides detailed monitoring and analysis capabilities, allowing you to identify and resolve network issues promptly.
Why I picked Zabbix: I selected Zabbix because, although it’s an open-source platform, it has a wide range of network monitoring features. You can track total bandwidth usage, packet loss, error rates, number of TCP connections, link status, and other SNMP metrics. You can even monitor network device performances like device availability, power supply status, fan status, and temperature.
Zabbix Standout Features and Integrations:
Features that Zabbix provides are standard, like alerts for unexpected spikes, ping loss, and anomalous behaviors. A feature that stands out for me is its ability to create an escalation logic based on the severity of network problems. You can escalate alerts across departments and users and define each user’s or channel’s working hours.
Integrations are available natively for various platforms, including Zoho, xMatters, VMware, Twilio, Tomcat, SysAid, Tableau, Splunk, Sophos, and ServiceNow. You can also request a custom integration from the Zabbix support team.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- 300+ templates for most popular hardware network vendors
- Active community because of being open-source
- Can define notification methods (SMS, on-screen, or email) when thresholds exceed
Cons:
- Need more templates for rich monitoring
- Needs more documentation resources
Other Network Security Software Options
Still didn’t find the perfect network security tool for you? Here are a few more that didn’t make my top list but are worth checking out for other uses:
- McAfee+
Best comprehensive security services
- ManageEngine Log360
Best for centralized log management
- CloudFlare
Best for web app security and performance optimization
- NordVPN
Best VPN for personal use
- SonicWall Capture ATP
Best for advanced threat protection
- Palo Alto Network
Best for security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR)
- pfSense
Best open-source solution for robust network security
- Snort
Best for real-time network intrusion detection and prevention
- Avast One
Best for families with many devices
- WatchGuard Network Security
Best for network visibility and unified threat management (UTM)
- Cisco
Best for network access control and identity management
Selection Criteria For Best Network Security Software
Here are the evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best network security software for this article:
Core Functionality
I prioritized tools with a wide range of security measures to create a multi-layered defense. Aside from protecting your network from unauthorized access and external threats, the best security platforms should enable you to:
- Encrypt sensitive data transmitted throughout the network
- Conduct vulnerability assessments to identify and address security weaknesses
- Monitor network traffic and implement strong firewall protection to control it
- Manage user access and permissions within the network securely
Key Features
To deliver this core functionality, the following features or elements are essential in an effective network security platform:
- Real-time monitoring and reporting: An effective network security platform should provide real-time monitoring capabilities, allowing for continuous monitoring of network traffic, system logs, and security events. It should offer comprehensive reporting functionality, providing insights into security incidents, anomalies, and compliance status.
- Vulnerability scanning: This feature includes vulnerability scanning capabilities to identify potential weaknesses in the network infrastructure. It enables proactive identification and remediation of vulnerabilities, reducing the risk of exploitation by malicious actors.
- Identity and access management: The software should support secure authentication methods, role-based access controls, and multi-factor authentication, ensuring that only authorized users can access sensitive data and systems.
- Centralized management: A network security software should provide a centralized console or dashboard that allows administrators to monitor, configure, and manage security controls across the network infrastructure from a single interface.
- Integration capabilities: The software should support integration with threat intelligence feeds, SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) solutions, incident response platforms, and other security infrastructure components. This enables enhanced threat detection, automated response actions, and seamless collaboration between different security tools.
Usability
I chose software with easy-to-use and intuitive dashboards that show the network’s security status, key metrics, and real-time alerts in a centralized system. I also looked for tools that had a history of positive reviews and a strong user base.
Integrations
I chose software that worked well with other security solutions, like SIEM platforms and vulnerability scanners, to simplify security management. You can review the critical integrations of each software on my list in the overview to choose a solution that best aligns with your existing tools.
People Also Ask
Here are some FAQs about network security software you can explore to make a more practical decision that addresses your security needs:
How does network security software work?
What is the difference between network security software and incident response software?
What are the fundamental principles of network security?
Choosing The Right Network Security Software
The 12 best network security software options showcase a wide variety of capabilities designed to safeguard networks, detect intrusions, and prevent data breaches. For example, if you’re interested in just the essential coverage for your home or small business, a straightforward antivirus package from ESET or McAfee could do the trick. More complex security tasks might require additional tools, such as Elastic for data analytics, Commvault for data protection, or others from my list.
In any case, I hope my overview makes it easy for you to select the right network security software for your individual or organizational needs, budget considerations, and network security requirements.
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