Kentikvs
Catchpoint
Catchpoint: For internet and digital experience monitoring focused on end-user performance rather than internal network flow data
Kentik
Network observability platform built on flow and traffic data, sold on annual-only contracts starting around $24,000/year
As of 1 September 2026, Kentik's pricing is not published; the vendor quotes on request. A network traffic intelligence and observability platform combining flow analysis, synthetic testing and cloud network monitoring, aimed at network engineering teams operating at real scale. Softwr lists it under Networking. Kentik is available on Web, API.
Overview
What Kentik does
Kentik ingests network flow data (NetFlow, sFlow and similar), correlates it with device, BGP and cloud metadata, and layers in synthetic testing to give network teams visibility into traffic patterns, capacity, DDoS activity and cloud network cost and performance, presented through dashboards, alerting and an API for programmatic queries. The commercial detail worth stating is that Kentik sells exclusively on annual contracts, monthly billing is not offered, and its Pro tier has a real published starting price of $2,000/month billed as $24,000/year, covering 50 users and a baseline flow and synthetics quota; Premier, which raises those limits and adds features like custom dimensions and scheduled reporting, is quote-only. Add-on modules for advanced DDoS protection, service provider analytics and the Firehose data pipeline are priced and sold separately again, so a full deployment can cost meaningfully more than the Pro sticker price once those are added. Buyers are network engineering and network operations teams at organisations with real network scale, ISPs, large enterprises, and cloud-heavy organisations wanting to control cloud networking cost, where flow-level traffic visibility justifies a five-figure annual commitment. The trade-off against PRTG or a general infrastructure monitoring tool is that Kentik is purpose-built for traffic and flow analysis rather than general host and service uptime monitoring, so it complements rather than replaces a tool like PRTG or Icinga.
What people use it for
- A network engineering team at an ISP or large enterprise needing flow-level traffic visibility beyond basic uptime monitoring
- A cloud-heavy organisation wanting visibility into cloud provider network cost and performance across multiple providers
- A security or network operations team wanting DDoS detection layered on top of standard traffic monitoring
- A team needing synthetic testing alongside passive flow analysis in one platform rather than two separate tools
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Kentik.
- Contracts are annual only, so there is no monthly option for a team wanting to trial the platform under real production load before committing to a year of spend
- The Pro tier's $24,000/year starting price is a serious commitment relative to general infrastructure monitoring tools, and it is aimed specifically at flow-level traffic visibility rather than general host monitoring
- Add-on modules for advanced DDoS protection, service provider analytics and the Firehose pipeline are priced separately, so real deployment cost frequently exceeds the Pro sticker price
- Premier tier pricing is entirely quote-based, so organisations needing more than Pro's limits (50 users, 1,000 FPS, 120-day retention) cannot get a number without a sales conversation
- It is a specialised flow and traffic analytics tool, not a general infrastructure monitoring platform, so most buyers will still need a separate tool like PRTG or Icinga for host and service uptime checks
- Data retention is capped at 120 days for traffic and 45 days for forensic data even on Pro, which may be short for organisations with longer compliance or investigation requirements
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Kentik
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- KentikvsPRTG Network Monitor
PRTG Network Monitor: For general infrastructure monitoring that complements, rather than replaces, flow-level traffic analytics
- KentikvsAuvik
Auvik: For a lower-cost network monitoring option aimed at MSPs rather than large-scale flow analytics
Pricing
What Kentik costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Pro
$24,000 /yr
- 50 users
- 1,000 flows per second baseline
- 2.5M synthetics credits
- 120 days traffic retention
Premier
On request
- 1,000 users
- 5M synthetics credits
- Custom dimensions and scheduled reporting
- Quote-only
Capabilities
Features
Flow-based traffic analysis
Ingests NetFlow, sFlow and similar flow data for traffic pattern and capacity visibility
Synthetic testing
Active testing (network intelligence platform synthetics) alongside passive flow data
Cloud network monitoring
Visibility into cloud provider network cost and performance across AWS, Azure and GCP
DDoS detection
Baseline DDoS detection included, with an advanced protection module sold separately
API-driven querying
Programmatic access to flow and metric data for custom dashboards and automation
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is there a monthly billing option?
No, Kentik states contracts are annual only.
What is the entry price?
Pro starts at $2,000/month billed as $24,000/year for 50 users and baseline flow and synthetics quotas.
Does Kentik replace general infrastructure monitoring tools like PRTG?
No, it is focused on flow-based traffic and network observability rather than general host and service uptime monitoring.
Keep looking
Where to go from Kentik
- Kentik alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Kentik pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Kentik badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Networking softwareThe full category
- Best Networking softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Networking software for
Compare Kentik with
- Auvik
- Domotz
- ThousandEyes
- Catchpoint
- PRTG Network Monitor
- ngrok
- Grafana
- Consul
- Tailscale
- Cisco Meraki
- MikroTik RouterOS
- Zabbix
- Ubiquiti UniFi
- Headscale
- HiveMQ
- Domotz
- MikroTik RouterOS
- Zabbix
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Kentik, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
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