Networking · alternatives
Alternatives to ThousandEyes
19 networking tools sit alongside ThousandEyes in this directory. Below is what separates each from ThousandEyes on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 19
- With a free tier
- 12
- Cheaper to start
- -
- ThousandEyes starts at
- On request
Why people look past ThousandEyes
Only what the record supports. Each point below is a figure on the ThousandEyes entry measured against the tools listed beside it.
There is no free tier
The record for ThousandEyes carries no free tier, so evaluating it means paying first. 12 of the 19 alternatives below can be used without paying.
There is only one tier
ThousandEyes publishes a single plan, ThousandEyes at On request. There is no smaller tier to drop to if the fit is wrong or the budget moves.
What each alternative does differently
Ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry. Differences are drawn from price, pricing model, tier count and rating, the fields the category listing carries. For a feature-level difference, follow the head-to-head link on each card: those pages read both full records.
Internet and digital experience monitoring, with a genuinely published entry price through its WebPageTest product line
- Can be used without paying; ThousandEyes cannot.
- Sold on a Free tier plus published entry tiers, enterprise quote-only model rather than quote, unit-based consumption on annual or prepaid contracts.
- 4 tiers to ThousandEyes's 1.
Network observability platform built on flow and traffic data, sold on annual-only contracts starting around $24,000/year
- Sold on a Annual contract only, per tier model rather than quote, unit-based consumption on annual or prepaid contracts.
- 2 tiers to ThousandEyes's 1.
Open source infrastructure monitoring, free at its core, with paid support and modules sold separately by Icinga GmbH
- Can be used without paying; ThousandEyes cannot.
- Sold on a Open source core, with paid repository, module and support subscriptions sold separately model rather than quote, unit-based consumption on annual or prepaid contracts.
- 2 tiers to ThousandEyes's 1.
Free, community-driven network monitoring with commercial support sold by a third-party partner, not the project itself
- Can be used without paying; ThousandEyes cannot.
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee; commercial support sold by a third-party partner model rather than quote, unit-based consumption on annual or prepaid contracts.
Software-defined mesh networking, free up to 10 devices and one network, then billed per device
- Can be used without paying; ThousandEyes cannot.
- Sold on a Free up to 10 devices and 1 network, then per additional device per month model rather than quote, unit-based consumption on annual or prepaid contracts.
- 3 tiers to ThousandEyes's 1.
Open source firewall software with a free Community Edition and a separate commercial Plus edition sold by Netgate
- Can be used without paying; ThousandEyes cannot.
- Sold on a Open source Community Edition, free; commercial Plus edition sold separately by Netgate model rather than quote, unit-based consumption on annual or prepaid contracts.
- 2 tiers to ThousandEyes's 1.
Every ThousandEyes alternative at a glance
A dash means the catalogue entry carries no figure, not that the answer is nothing.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Tiers | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ThousandEyes (this page) | On request | Quote, unit-based consumption on annual or prepaid contracts | 1 | |
| CatchpointFor a comparable internet and digital experience monitoring platform with more published entry-tier pricing | Free | Free tier plus published entry tiers, enterprise quote-only | 4 | vs ThousandEyes |
| KentikFor internal flow-based network observability rather than external internet path monitoring | On request | Annual contract only, per tier | 2 | vs ThousandEyes |
| Icinga | Free | Open source core, with paid repository, module and support subscriptions sold separately | 2 | vs ThousandEyes |
| LibreNMS | Free | Open source, no licence fee; commercial support sold by a third-party partner | 1 | vs ThousandEyes |
| ZeroTier | Free | Free up to 10 devices and 1 network, then per additional device per month | 3 | vs ThousandEyes |
| pfSense | Free | Open source Community Edition, free; commercial Plus edition sold separately by Netgate | 2 | vs ThousandEyes |
| OpenVPN | Free | Open source core is free; Access Server billed per simultaneous connection | 3 | vs ThousandEyes |
| NetBird | Free | Per user per month | 3 | vs ThousandEyes |
| Nebula | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs ThousandEyes |
| Headscale | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs ThousandEyes |
| Twingate | Free | Per user per month | 3 | vs ThousandEyes |
| Zabbix | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs ThousandEyes |
| Netdata | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs ThousandEyes |
| Domotz | On request | Per collector or per managed device per month | 2 | vs ThousandEyes |
| Juniper Mist | On request | Quote, hardware plus required Wi-Fi Assurance subscription | 2 | vs ThousandEyes |
| Auvik | On request | Quote, per managed device | 1 | vs ThousandEyes |
| Cisco Meraki | On request | Quote, hardware plus mandatory recurring licence | 1 | vs ThousandEyes |
| PRTG Network Monitor | On request | Per sensor tier, billed monthly on an annual contract | 5 | vs ThousandEyes |
| MikroTik RouterOS | On request | One-time purchase, per licence level | 2 | vs ThousandEyes |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry; Softwr hosts no reviews of these products. How each figure is used is set out on the ThousandEyes badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
What you would be giving up
ThousandEyes is most often brought in for a network operations team at a large enterprise needing to diagnose whether a performance problem sits inside their network, with an isp, or at the destination, an organisation already standardised on cisco networking wanting internet path monitoring that integrates with existing cisco tooling, a company needing endpoint agent testing from real employee devices to reproduce user-reported performance issues, an sre team wanting aggregated internet outage and bgp visibility across a wide customer base rather than building that dataset themselves. Anything replacing it has to cover the ones you actually depend on, and a cheaper tool that misses one of them is not cheaper.
Two things this page cannot settle. It compares on price, model, tier count and rating, because those are the fields the category listing carries, feature-level differences need both full records, which is what the head-to-head pages load. And the ratings are third-party aggregates imported with each entry rather than reviews written here, so a 0.2 difference between two tools is noise rather than a finding.
If ThousandEyes is broadly right and the question is cost, the ThousandEyes pricing breakdown covers every tier and what each one adds. If you want the whole field rather than a shortlist, the Networking category lists everything the directory holds, and best networking tools ranks them.
ThousandEyes runs on web, api. Platform coverage is not carried on the category listing for the alternatives, so it is one more thing to check on each head-to-head page rather than here.
Questions about ThousandEyes alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to ThousandEyes?
- 19 other networking tools are listed in this directory, led by Catchpoint, Kentik, Icinga, LibreNMS. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to ThousandEyes?
- 12 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: Catchpoint, Icinga, LibreNMS, ZeroTier, pfSense.
- Why do people look for an alternative to ThousandEyes?
- On the figures on record, 2 things stand out: there is no free tier; there is only one tier. Each is set out with the numbers behind it above.
- What would I give up by switching from ThousandEyes?
- ThousandEyes is most often brought in for a network operations team at a large enterprise needing to diagnose whether a performance problem sits inside their network, with an isp, or at the destination, an organisation already standardised on cisco networking wanting internet path monitoring that integrates with existing cisco tooling, a company needing endpoint agent testing from real employee devices to reproduce user-reported performance issues, an sre team wanting aggregated internet outage and bgp visibility across a wide customer base rather than building that dataset themselves. Anything you replace it with has to cover the ones you actually rely on, the side-by-side comparisons linked from each alternative below put the two feature records against each other.
- Is there an open-source alternative to ThousandEyes?
- None of the networking tools listed here are recorded as open source. That is what the licence field on each entry says, and the field is not always filled in, so it is worth checking directly for any tool you are serious about.
- How were these ThousandEyes alternatives chosen?
- They are the tools filed in the same category, Networking, ordered by the aggregated rating on each entry. There is no editorial shortlist, and nothing on this page is paid: no sponsored placement runs on alternatives pages and the order cannot be bought. Softwr has not used these products.
- Where can I compare ThousandEyes against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against ThousandEyes covering price, platforms, features and what each one is used for. Those pages read the full record for both products rather than the summary shown here.
- Does this list cover every networking tool?
- No. It covers what this directory holds in the Networking category, 19 tools beside ThousandEyes. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.