Don't risk your app performance to something that will fail under stress
Download the Comparison Matrix
NETem solutions are time consuming, challenging to configure, and need extensive expertise going in. WANem is less complicated, but has very limited network emulation capabilities. Neither solution produces results accurate enough to depend on. Apposite overcomes all these challenges.
Apposite Netropy and Linktropy emulators are accurate to the microsecond and architected to deliver the complexities of real-world networks, but easy to use and simple enough to be up and running tests in as few as 15 minutes with no training or development required.
Emulation Made Easy
Multi-link emulation, extensive impairment options, an intuitive GUI, and full APIs
Better Than Freeware
High-precision emulators deliver accurate, reproducible results for reliable, repeatable testing
“Real World” Flexibility
Not restricted by single-link emulation in which all traffic is treated the same—users get the data they need to see!
Today’s networks are too complex, and too vital to the business, to leave performance to chance. Explore the unique needs of your own changing environments to deliver the best possible user experience at the least possible cost.
Download our Comparison Matrix for a feature by feature comparison.

Freeware
Quick to Install and Easy to Use
Apposite network emulators are quick to install, intuitive to configure, and easy to operate. You are up and running in minutes with no training or development expertise necessary.
Apply changes using an easy to use browser-based GUI or automate with a command line interface (CLI) or by Restful API.

Ease of Use and Time to Test
Long Set Up and Development
Freeware applications can take days or weeks to set up before they can start running tests. WANem has a very limited GUI and CLI, and NETem is a solely CLI-based utility. This requires extensive development knowledge to operate.
Accurate Down to 0.1 Millisecond
Apposite provides purpose-built network emulation appliances that offer enterprise level testing precision. Apposite emulators are accurate down to 100 microseconds and can guarantee deterministic and repeatable test results.

Accuracy
Unpredictable Results
Open source wan emulators are dependent on the hardware they are installed on, and the average PC wasn’t engineered to provide sub-millisecond accuracy at the application level. Even with Network interface controllers, any results you acquire will not be reliable enough to deliver conclusive results.
Dozens of Impairments out of the Box
Apposite emulators offer advanced impairment capabilities. Set random, burst, periodic and bit error rate (BER) packet loss. Plus, emulate delay and jitter up to 10 seconds in increments of .01ms with a constant, exponential, or accumulative / burst distribution.

Advanced Impairments
Limited Impairment Options without Development
NETem and WANem have limited functionality for setting loss and latency. For loss, the only options are random and burst. For latency, WANem only does constant and jitter. NETem requires development & scripting to produce these impairments.
Export Graphs and Statistics
The GUI on Apposite’s emulators offers live graphing and easy export of reports to Excel.. View and download 24 hours of throughput graphs and link statistics with the traffic monitor.

Reporting
Limited Reporting Capabilities
With WANem the options for reporting and statistical views are limited and do not provide reporting on specific measurements of time. NETem does not offer any out of the box reporting capabilities.
Import Recorded Conditions
Apposite network emulators allow users to import network profiles and schedules, both packet capture and network recorded files. Netropy can then replay those network conditions to mimic live networks.

Importing Live Network Conditions
No Import Functionality
WANem and NETem do not support importing of any kind.
Free App for Recording Live Networks
Apposite offers a free app that allows the unique ability to record existing network conditions to a file. This file can then be loaded in any Netropy appliance to emulate the recorded network conditions.

Recorder Utility
No Recording Functionality
Neither WANem or NETem provide a recording or playback ability.
Load or Create Time Schedules
In order to replicate intermittent network impairments, Apposite’s emulators allow users to create specific time schedules for conditions or load an existing schedule.

Scheduling
Little or No Scheduling Ability
There is no out of the box solution for this in NETem and is not possible at all with WANem.
Background Bandwidth Usage
Apposite network emulators allow for background bandwidth utilization to mimic network usage. This reveals how other network traffic can impact application performance.

Throttling
Only Bandwidth Throttling
While freeware tools can throttle bandwidth, they cannot mimic background utilization.
Emulate Real-World, Multi-Link Networks
Apposite emulation engines can simulate and save up to 15 separate WAN links. And, Apposite emulators range from 1 to 4 independent emulation engines per unit – enabling up to 60 different network links that can be individually configured.

Multi-link Emulation
All Traffic is Treated the Same
WANem and NETem do not support saving multiple network profiles.
Real People and Constant Improvements
Apposite’s network emulators come with a team of experts to provide support. Apposite consistently updates its network emulation products to provide new testing capabilities.

Support & Updates
No Support Team or Helpful Resources
Freeware solutions do not have a support team, and are rarely updated, if ever.