Caligare Flow Inspector vs Intermapper

Caligare Flow Inspector analyzes NetFlow exports from existing routers, without requiring deployed probes. Its web-based management interface configures collectors, network devices, application groups and anomaly detection. The software provides real-time network analysis, user data tracking, and statistics for hosts, protocols, applications and conversations. Caligare says this visibility can help identify suspicious activity, denial-of-service attacks, worm-infected stations, bottlenecks and routing trouble. The free edition supports NetFlow versions 1, 5, 6, 7 and 9, along with low-level traffic search, interface utilization, maps, filtering and forwarding. It also offers local, LDAP or external authentication and user and group management. The free license is for non-commercial use and is limited to two devices, 24-hour history and 250 flows per second. Professional and Enterprise editions add longer-term trends, network anomaly detection, unrestricted NetFlow parsing and commercial use. Linux packages are listed; the latest version requires MySQL 5.1 or newer. A 30-day trial key can be requested by email.

Intermapper helps IT teams discover network devices and servers, map their relationships, monitor health and performance, and receive alerts when conditions change. Its live maps show infrastructure, dependencies, device status, and network connections. Auto-discovery identifies devices and helps keep the network view current as environments change. Flows Insight analyzes NetFlow, sFlow, jFlow, and cFlow data to show traffic patterns, utilization, and top talkers. Advanced Reporting provides dashboards and automated reports for uptime, service health, SLA performance, and infrastructure trends. Intermapper supports SNMPv3, includes built-in probes, and allows custom probes. APIs and add-ons, including the Intermapper App for Splunk, can complement other tools. Remote access supports SSL and username/password or network-address authentication. A fully functional 30-day trial is available, but continuing afterward requires a purchase. Licensing is based on monitored devices, with subscription or perpetual options starting at 10 devices and extending to unlimited; pricing is by custom quote. Paid licenses include 24/7 technical support according to the upgrade page.