SCOM vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

SCOM
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
78
Ranking in other categories
Event Monitoring (3rd), Network Monitoring Software (10th)
SolarWinds Server and Appli...
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (17th), Server Monitoring (11th), Active Directory Management (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2024, in the Event Monitoring category, the mindshare of SCOM is 8.6%, down from 9.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.1%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Event Monitoring
Unique Categories:
Network Monitoring Software
2.7%
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
2.2%
Server Monitoring
3.6%
 

Featured Reviews

Amar Sharma - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 30, 2022
Helpful in monitoring web servers, database servers and alerts
It is used for monitoring on-premises servers, and we deploy it on-premises The solution helped monitor web servers, database servers and alerting, which is very useful. The ease of deployment, especially on Windows platforms, is valuable. The solution can be improved by expanding to cloud…
it_user631218 - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 27, 2017
We use this product for base and application monitoring.
I always thought we should be able to perform all admin activities using the web portal. Over a period of time, SolarWinds has achieved this. Most of the admin activities can be performed using SolarWinds web portal (such as advanced alerting, web reports, custom attribute editor, report schedulers, etc., which in the past were hosted on the SolarWinds server). I also thought SolarWinds doesn't provide a service navigator map that would drill down from application layer to node level, with PerfStack in place. Most of these things have been addressed. PerfStack can be made more effective. I am sure SolarWinds already has a plan for the same in coming versions.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We have found the scalability capabilities to be okay."
"Because it's Windows-based, it actually reports quite well. It reports everything you can think of on the Windows server and allows you to monitor anything. It's excellent for those in the Windows world as it's very good at it."
"The advantages of SCOM are that it is definitely user friendly and a more appropriate solution for what we need."
"I enjoy its integration with the Microsoft Active Directory functions, which means users, computers, or other group policies can connect with Windows Active Directory."
"The solution has improved our overrides and the ability to start services if they're stopped."
"The most valuable feature is the extensibility, as there are really no limits as to what you can do with it."
"The solution is scalable. If you want to monitor more you have to buy more licenses, but you can add on. We don't plan to increase usage."
"This solution saves us a lot of work because it reduces the effort that is required in order to start monitoring."
"There are many valuable features, including the network configuration manager, and the network performance manager."
"The component and cable monitoring are good. SolarWinds is more intuitive and user-friendly than AppDynamics. The AppDynamics console is more complex because it's a more feature-rich solution, so it's not easy for somebody to pick it up."
"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is the network devices' performance monitor is the best."
"Management Console - Managing service to each server enrolled in the Solarwinds is much easier. Using a web base console, you can control your service much convenient way. There is no need to login remotely. It save a lot of time and effort."
"The more valuable feature of this solution is the Exchange feature."
"SolarWinds is a very stable platform compared to others on the market."
"The solution has good alerts. Notifications are sent via email to technicians. You can filter the kinds of alerts you want to receive as well. It's excellent."
"SSL Certificate Monitoring and Expiry Alerting"
 

Cons

"The solution should be more user-friendly and offer a better user interface."
"All of the areas of reporting are very bad and need to be improved."
"Direct integration with third-party tools, like ticketing systems, is lacking but would be beneficial."
"The solution should have more tools for monitoring the cloud engine versus on-premise."
"They can focus more on cloud monitoring instead of on-premise monitoring. We should be able to monitor cloud-related applications. They can include this feature in the next release. If it is in the cloud, we can have scalability by using Kubernetes. The container is containerized, packaged, and managed using Kubernetes. This feature is not there in SCOM. Going forward, if they can focus on that, it will be great."
"I would like to see them improve their network monitoring."
"The management of the servers could be better."
"The interface is a little bit cumbersome and certain actions could be simplified."
"This product has no real downside unless they fail to continue development of its capabilities."
"The templates could use improvement. Currently, they are quite complex. They should have drag-and-drop functionality instead. It would make it easier to use."
"The current script monitoring feature has limitations, especially when dealing with custom scripts."
"The setup was complex. We had local support to assist us."
"Downside of the tools is the web console are hung or crash. It need to improve the performance."
"It needs time-based functions for monitoring. Some things need to be polled on a specific schedule or only during a specific window."
"Currently SolarWinds SAM offers AppInsight for modern versions of: IIS, Exchange, SQL Server. They have shown to be powerful and insightful tools. However, AppInsight needs to be offered for more applications: Citrix, SharePoint, AX, etc."
"SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor could improve by having a cloud version. They have an observability platform but it still needs to be maintained by us."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't know the exact cost because it's managed by our sales team, but Microsoft is on the higher side."
"The pricing is good, and it's part of their system center suite."
"It is the cheapest product available in the market."
"Our Enterprise Agreement includes the price."
"Our licensing fees are approximately $30 per user, per month."
"We have an enterprise agreement that includes this product as part of it."
"We have to pay for a license and the price is fine for us."
"Two customers bought the enterprise agreement with Microsoft and paid for Software Assurance. But few customers don't buy it for Software Assurance. They just buy it and deploy it, and they think that we will be using it for the next five years."
"Nagios XI, WhatsUpGold, Uptime Software, PRTG, Manage Engine, and SpiceWorks are the other tools that have lower pricing and licensing costs. However, they can't compete with SolarWinds when it comes to the features and functionality that SolarWinds can provide."
"I like the pricing for this SolarWinds product."
"I think SolarWinds' pricing is very decent compared to other competitors in the market."
"The tool is available for my company at a good price point."
"SAM is not per server so the pricing model can be deceiving. If you have an enterprise environment, you will quickly exceed your licensing quickly. You should know this before going in."
"We are on an annual license to use the solution. The price of the solution is expensive. The price is based on a bunch of factors, such as the number of engines and elements."
"The product might cost you $30,000 USD to buy, but scaling this solution requires the purchase of additional polling engines at $20,000 USD each."
"The solution's price is reasonable. Though it's on the higher side, the tool is worth the money."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
41%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SCOM?
The tool helps to monitor Windows servers. It offers alerts from a central location.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SCOM?
It is the cheapest product available in the market. I rate the pricing a one out of ten.
What needs improvement with SCOM?
SCOM needs to improve its usability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?
The price is too high. The tool is overpriced. We don't need all the features. The product must minimize the features and reduce the price. It all comes down to pricing. The customers find it prett...
What needs improvement with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?
The biggest pain point is root cause analysis. It is difficult to analyze, assess, and warn my IT department about what will happen in the next five hours. It is also difficult to use AIOps to redu...
 

Also Known As

System Center Operations Manager, SCOM 2012
SolarWinds SAM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Dialog Telekom
Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC, ServiceNow, Microsoft and others in Event Monitoring. Updated: June 2024.
787,779 professionals have used our research since 2012.