What Is WhatsUp Gold?
WhatsUp Gold is a network monitoring software created by Progress Software. It assists IT professionals in monitoring their networked devices, applications, and services to improve performance and assist with troubleshooting. The primary function is to identify devices on the network and monitor their performance, sending alerts when there are disruptions or potential issues, thereby enabling rapid response and minimizing downtime.
The tool provides a comprehensive view of networks, offering features like network discovery, mapping, SNMP monitoring, and alerting. WhatsUp Gold simplifies complex network management tasks, making it easier for network administrators to monitor and maintain large-scale networks effectively.
While WhatUp Gold does not provide pricing information on its website, we’ll provide an overview of its editions and licensing structure, offer pricing information available via third-party websites, and share user feedback on pricing from platforms like G2.
WhatsUp Gold Editions
WhatsUp Gold has three editions for its core product, and two more editions for distributed organizations.
Free
The Free edition of WhatsUp Gold is an introductory package suitable for small businesses or those new to network monitoring. It allows monitoring of up to 10 devices and includes basic features like device and server monitoring, automatic discovery, and interactive maps. Users can also benefit from availability and performance monitoring, as well as alerts and notifications.
Licensing options: Annual subscription
Support: Community support
Premium
The Premium edition is an enhanced offering that caters to businesses requiring comprehensive network monitoring capabilities. This version provides an unlimited number of devices for monitoring, along with advanced features such as wireless network monitoring and cloud and storage monitoring. It also provides add-on modules for network traffic analysis, application monitoring, and more.
Licensing options: Annual subscription or perpetual software license
Support: Included in annual subscription, for perpetual license first year included in the price
Total Plus
Total Plus is the most extensive WhatsUp Gold edition, designed for large enterprises with complex networks. It includes all the features of the Premium version, with additional advanced options like log management, scalability pollers, and failover capabilities. It includes one year of support and uses a point-based licensing system (see more details below).
Licensing options: Perpetual software license
Support: First year included in perpetual license price
Image credit: WhatsUp Gold
Distributed Monitoring Editions
In addition to the basic editions, WhatsUp Gold provides two more editions for organizations with networks spread across multiple locations.
Distributed Edition
This edition provides all the features of the Premium Edition and allows for secure management and monitoring of remote sites from a centralized Network Operations Center (NOC). Key add-ons available include network traffic analysis, application, virtualization, and configuration management. This perpetual license also includes log management and scalability pollers, with a failover manager add-on for continuous monitoring.
MSP Edition
The MSP (Managed Service Provider) Edition is designed for service providers managing networks on behalf of their clients. It includes all the features of the Premium Edition and provides additional tools to support the unique needs of MSPs. This subscription-based license incorporates add-ons for network traffic analysis, application, virtualization, and configuration management, similar to the Distributed Edition. However, unlike the Distributed Edition, the MSP Edition does not offer a failover manager.
WhatsUp Gold Licensing Options: Device-Based vs. Point-Based
Device-based licensing is a model employed by WhatsUp Gold Premium Edition, where pricing is determined based on the number of devices within the network. This approach simplifies the monitoring process by allowing as many monitors or sensors per device as needed without additional cost. Cost is determined by the quantity of devices being monitored, regardless of how many interfaces or monitors are assigned to each device.
Point-based licensing is used by WhatsUp Gold Total Plus Edition. This structure provides flexibility as it allocates points to different monitoring needs based on their complexity and importance. Simple devices such as routers or switches consume one point each, while more data-intensive monitoring like network traffic analysis may require more points, as shown in the table below. This model permits the reallocation of points to adapt to changing monitoring demands.
Image credit: WhatsUp Gold
WhatsUp Gold Pricing
WhatsUp Gold offers device-based pricing for its Premium edition and point-based pricing for its Total Plus edition.
Due to the highly tailored nature of its network monitoring solutions, WhatsUp Gold does not provide a standardized list pricing. Instead, the pricing is customized based on the specific requirements and scale of each environment. Contact WhatUp Gold sales for a price quote.
To give you a general idea of WhatsUp Gold pricing:
- PC Magazine reports that pricing starts at $2,740.
- CDW, a reseller, offers WhatsUp Gold for $3,238, Premium Tier Perpetual License, with monitoring for 500 devices.
WhatsUp Gold Pricing Concerns and Challenges
WhatsUp Gold, while a robust network monitoring solution, presents several pricing concerns, as reported by users on the G2 platform:
- Prohibitive cost for small-to-medium businesses: The pricing structure of WhatsUp Gold can be a significant barrier for small businesses. These organizations often operate under tight budgets and may find the costs associated with WhatsUp Gold difficult to justify, especially if they don’t need extensive network monitoring features.
- No suitable offering for small businesses: WhatsUp Gold does not offer a specific pricing tier or package aimed at small businesses. Such businesses typically require fewer features and seek simpler, more cost-effective monitoring solutions.
- Scaling issues: For businesses in the growth phase, the scaling of network monitoring capabilities with WhatsUp Gold can become prohibitively expensive. Adding additional features or expanding the monitoring scope often incurs substantial costs, which may not be fully transparent or predictable at the outset.
Faddom: The Ultimate WhatUp Gold Mapping Alternative
Faddom is a feature-rich alternative to WhatUp Gold. It is agentless, doesn’t require credentials, and is cost-effective, starting at $10K/year.
Faddom offers a much richer set of features compared to WhatsUp Gold, most notably including real-time application dependency mapping. Faddom can map all your servers into business applications automatically, updating 24/7 in real time. Only one person can map an entire organization in under an hour.
Learn more about Faddom for application mapping or start a free trial to the right
