We compare the nitric oxide measurements in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (60 to 150 km) from four instruments: the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment-Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS), the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS), the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY), and the Sub-Millimetre Radiometer (SMR). We use the daily zonal mean data in that altitude range for the years 2004-2010 (ACE-FTS), 2005-2012 (MIPAS), 2008-2012 (SCIAMACHY), and 2003-2012 (SMR). We first compare the data qualitatively with respect to the morphology, focussing on the major features, and then compare the time series directly and quantitatively. In three geographical regions, we compare the vertical density profiles on coincident measurement days. Since none of the instruments delivers continuous daily measurements in this altitude region, we carried out a multi-linear regression analysis. This regression analysis considers annual and semi-annual variability in the form of harmonic terms and inter-annual variability by responding linearly to the solar Lyman-α radiation index and the geomagnetic Kp index. This analysis helps to find similarities and differences in the individual data sets with respect to the inter-annual variations caused by geomagnetic and solar variability. We find that the data sets are consistent and that they only disagree on minor aspects. SMR and ACE-FTS deliver the longest time series in the mesosphere, and they agree with each other remarkably well. The shorter time series from MIPAS and SCIAMACHY also agree with them where they overlap. The data agree within 30 % when the number densities are large, but they can differ by 50 to 100 % in some cases. ; S. Bender and M. Sinnhuber thank the Helmholtz Society for funding this project under the grant number VH-NG-624. The IAA team (M. Lopez-Puertas and B. Funke) were supported by the Spanish MINECO under grant AYA2011-23552 and EC FEDER funds. The SCIAMACHY project was funded by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Dutch Space Agency, SNO, and the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO). ESA funded the Envisat project. The University of Bremen as the principal investigator has led the scientific support and development of SCIAMACHY and the scientific exploitation of its data products. The Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE), also known as SCISAT, is a Canadian-led mission mainly supported by the Canadian Space Agency and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Odin is a Swedish-led satellite project funded jointly by Sweden (SNSB), Canada (CSA), Finland (TEKES), France (CNES) and the Third-Party Missions programme of the European Space Agency (ESA). The provision of MIPAS level-1b data by ESA is gratefully acknowledged. We acknowledge support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Open Access Publishing Fund of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. ; Peer Reviewed