manual · chapter: comparison
Three scanners, one scorecard
Same test LAN, three tools, honest notes. No affiliate ordering — the ranking below changes depending on who is asking.
revised 15 september 2026
tbl. 1At a glance
| Angry IP Scanner | LizardSystems NS | Engineer's Toolset | |
|---|---|---|---|
| price | free, GPLv2 | free edition; licence lifts the cap | paid per engineer |
| runs on | windows, macos, linux | windows only | windows only |
| host discovery | ping + ARP, very fast | multithreaded, solid | ping sweep + SNMP |
| shares & rights | no | its speciality | partial |
| switch ports | no | no | yes, via SNMP |
| output | CSV / TXT / XML | reports, HTML/XML | maps, reports, exports |
| best for | quick home audits | office share audits | professional documentation |
§ 2Where each one earns its place
Angry IP Scanner wins on friction. Nothing installs, nothing lingers, and the results table is legible to a first-timer. It deliberately stops short of shares, rights and switch data — a torch, not a toolkit.
LizardSystems Network Scanner wins on office reality. Windows networks live on shared folders, and this is the tool that lists them and then quietly tests whether your ordinary account can write into each one. That test has a habit of ruining someone's afternoon, productively.
Engineer's Toolset wins on deliverables. When the client expects a port map that matches next quarter's hardware, SNMP-driven discovery beats manual notes. The licence prices it out of hobby use, correctly.
§ 3Verdict by situation
- Home, once a quarter: Angry IP Scanner.
- Office of Windows machines, shares everywhere: LizardSystems Network Scanner, with the free edition first to judge the scale.
- Contracted documentation with switches and VLANs: Engineer's Toolset under its trial, then licensed if it sticks.
Individual manuals: Angry IP Scanner · Network Scanner · Engineer's Toolset.