Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

ConnectWise Automate vs SolarWinds NPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

ConnectWise Automate
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (10th)
SolarWinds NPM
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
159
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (3rd), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (4th), Cloud Monitoring Software (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Systems Management solutions, they serve different purposes. ConnectWise Automate is designed for Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) and holds a mindshare of 7.7%, down 9.3% compared to last year.
SolarWinds NPM, on the other hand, focuses on Network Monitoring Software, holds 4.4% mindshare, down 5.5% since last year.
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

MikeChacker - PeerSpot reviewer
Facilitates valuable patch cycles, but the web client is not very intuitive and needs updating, and the scripting has room for improvement
The fixed client for Automate is slow. The web client is not very intuitive. It could use some updating and some thought around the UX. Also, with the scripting, I would like to see something where it could have third-party scripts already pre-built, and all you have to do is say, "Hey, I need this," and go load it. It's not as automated as I'd like it to be.
Masud Alam - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers alerting service to trigger alerts and easy to manage
For end-user performance monitoring, we like features such as availability of our all devices and device/interface monitoring. We have also used NCM (Network Configuration Manager) for our network. We use the alerting service to trigger alerts based on specific thresholds, like CPU or memory utilization exceeding a certain percentage. There are AI network initiatives in SolarWinds NPM for some lengthy issues. For example, it shows availability reports. But for bandwidth monitoring, it's not very clear how much bandwidth is being consumed. SolarWinds provide real-time bandwidth monitoring. It is not difficult to manage the network with SolarWinds. We have one customer with a satellite location. If we have a large network with, let's say, 43,000 elements, and our current SolarWinds license supports only 30,000, we would need to create another polling engine to accommodate the additional 13,000 elements. It's limited to the polling engine, so we can only support 30,000 elements per engine. So it's only for 30,000, but we have at least 40,000 elements in our network.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"We use monitors to keep track of our machines. We use a pretty good portion of information from Automate."
"The most value we get from this solution is that everything is on a patch cycle."
"It is very scalable."
"It's a very good IT tool for a company that provides IT services. It is very helpful for technicians to work with the tool to see all of the customers in one place and then manage all of the computers in one place."
"The initial setup is easy and the deployment is quick."
"This product saves us a lot of time and increases our efficiency."
"It allows us to manage all client requests, jobs and invoicing."
"Maybe they could improve the capability to be multi-tenant."
"The solution is stable and reliable."
"The initial setup was straightforward. We deployed the solution from new and completed the upgrades."
"The product is scalable."
"It's easy to understand, even if you are not too technical."
"It covers everything from end to end, from the standpoint of endpoint machines and the routers and switches. The switch port also comes there."
"The most valuable features in SolarWinds NPM are the network search and diagnostic tools."
"The solution is very user-friendly."
"Reporting tools are a great feature along with the ability to create customized reports for you"
 

Cons

"Scheduling of automation could be improved and made more simple."
"In Patch Manager, there should be more reportability so that it is easier to see the updates that I have applied to a machine and when the next update will happen. A lot of times, it seems like all the information is kind of thrown all over the place, and you can't really see it all at the same time. There should be a simplified patch data view that allows us to quickly confirm that our various clients are getting patched as they should be."
"They could use some automated alerts particularly when we're talking about an MSP that might shoot over."
"Their support needs to be better."
"I have a problem with the reports available on the solution. I don't understand how to work with the reporting functionality. For example, when I want to give a report for a specific machine, ConnectWise doesn't seem to have this as an option. I'm not sure if I'm missing something, or if the reporting functionality is just poorly conceived."
"They always change the GUI to some dumb-down version of tiles which are more "user-friendly", but slows my team down in the end."
"Patching and reporting need improvements, especially reporting. The reporting engine is quite outdated, so you end up having to use your own dashboard."
"The menu doesn't always load properly."
"This product could improve by adding cloud monitoring. I want SolarWinds NPM to do much more integration, and have more involvement in cloud monitoring, like AWS or Google, or Azure. I feel like it requires lots of improvement for cloud monitoring in NPM."
"The root cause analysis and installation faults are not clear."
"My team has had a lot of issues with support."
"They have had a rather large security breach in the past. It's cost some companies customers."
"It is difficult for stakeholders to translate technical requirements, which results in difficulties selecting a platform or implementing a solution."
"The dashboard of the solution is an area with certain shortcomings that need improvement."
"Fortigate firewalls are one example of a product that we are unable to monitor properly via SolarWinds NPM."
"SolarWinds needs to upscale on observability and add full-fledged observability features, including security features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I pay $85 a month per user for a ConnectWise package that contains multiple solutions."
"From what I've overheard, it is pretty comparable to other solutions in terms of price."
"Pricing and licensing are reasonable."
"I believe Automate is available for around $2."
"We have a multi-year license for the use of this solution. There are additional costs for recourses in the environment."
"Most of the licenses are perpetual, and the annual maintenance charges are not high."
"USD $15,000 annually for maintenance."
"SolarWinds NPM has different pricing models available. The cost of the solution is less than some competitors."
"I’d suggest that people be aware that licensing has tiers."
"It is not an expensive product."
"We pay a yearly licensing fee."
"The standard licensing fees are what we're paying. It's about $20,000 a year for all our licensing."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) solutions are best for your needs.
862,452 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 31, 2015
Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor
I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
16%
Computer Software Company
14%
Performing Arts
7%
Real Estate/Law Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
11%
Educational Organization
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
It actually depends on the exact purpose or kind of devices (network devices, servers, something else). Some tools are better for only network devices while others are better for a cloud monitoring...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We are partners with SolarWinds and we sell a lot of Network management to large enterprises also because of scalability, products like Network Performance Monitor & Netflow Traffic Analyzer ar...
 

Also Known As

LabTech for IT Service Providers, ConnectWise Automate for Corporate IT Departments, ConnectWise Automate for IT Service Providers
Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

I-M Technology, Mainstay Technologies, PC Works Plus, Integrity IT, Kerkhoff Technologies Inc., Marathon Consulting, Christenberry Sales Company, EDTS, Secom Technology, Ready to View, ARRC Technology, DaVinci Digital, JNR Networks, Quinn Technology Solutions, PCIT, Liberty Technology, Capital Computers & Networks, Atlanta Technology Force, Doberman Technologies, First Column Enterprises, CisCom Solutions
Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard
Find out what your peers are saying about Kaseya, NinjaOne, N-able and others in Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM). Updated: June 2025.
862,452 professionals have used our research since 2012.