SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor provides comprehensive server, application, and infrastructure monitoring, focusing on integration, application dependency, and network insights through user-friendly interfaces and detailed dashboards.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor | 2.9% |
| Zabbix | 10.3% |
| Nagios XI | 6.1% |
| Other | 80.7% |
| Type | Title | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Server Monitoring | Jun 22, 2026 | Download |
| Product | Reviews, tips, and advice from real users | Jun 22, 2026 | Download |
| Comparison | SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs Zabbix | Jun 22, 2026 | Download |
| Comparison | SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs NinjaOne | Jun 22, 2026 | Download |
| Comparison | SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs VMware vCenter | Jun 22, 2026 | Download |
| Title | Rating | Mindshare | Recommending | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Datadog | 4.3 | N/A | 97% | 211 interviewsAdd to research |
| Zabbix | 4.2 | 10.3% | 95% | 109 interviewsAdd to research |
Based on user feedback, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor has proven to be a valuable investment. Users have reported positive outcomes and benefits, indicating a satisfactory return on investment.
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 13 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 7 |
| Large Enterprise | 19 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 174 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 114 |
| Large Enterprise | 431 |
With AppStack and AppInsight support, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor offers service management, detailed resource dashboards, and integration capabilities. It monitors hardware metrics and performance parameters, facilitating database and network insights for cloud and virtual environments. Robust alerting, predictive analytics, and capacity planning ensure efficient management of server health and application performance.
What are the key features?Industries implement SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor to enhance server utilization reporting, network configuration, and AV equipment performance tracking. They benefit from monitoring critical services across diverse deployment models, improving management efficiency and decision-making.
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor was previously known as SolarWinds SAM.
Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite
| Author info | Rating | Review Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Technical Specialist at ServiceIO | 4.0 | I’ve used SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor for over 15 years; it's reliable, user-friendly, easy to set up, and offers strong monitoring and alerting, though it lacks event correlation and manager-of-manager integration capabilities. |
| Team Lead at a mining and metals company with 10,001+ employees | 4.0 | I've used SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor for two years; it offers great server visibility but has a complex setup and lacks dashboard flexibility. Despite a higher price, it's effective, though technical expertise is definitely required. |
| Assistant Director at Higher Education Commission | 3.5 | I work in the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, using SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor to manage multiple servers efficiently. The tool's GUI customizations, alert configurations, and service monitoring are impressive, although application-based monitoring could improve. We're accustomed to SolarWinds over alternatives. |
| Software Engineer 1 at HCLSoftware | 4.5 | I use SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor for application-level monitoring, particularly at the OS level. Its valuable features include monitoring SQL databases and various components efficiently. I have no suggestions for improvement and employ Microsoft Azure as the cloud provider. |
| Senior Operations Manager at Sencinet | 4.0 | I use SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor to efficiently oversee client services and manage costs. While the tool offers positive ROI with adequate devices, it needs better licensing synchronization and more granular polling options for improved customer customization. |
| Infrastructure Technical Applications Manager at Emory Healthcare | 3.5 | We use SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor to track certificate and VM issues, appreciating its integration with Remedy for ticket creation. However, manual cleanup is often needed as updates post-VM changes aren't always effectively automated. |
| Data Center Engineer at a retailer with 5,001-10,000 employees | 4.0 | I use SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor primarily to oversee devices. Its most valuable feature is the user-friendly interface. However, I believe that the response time of the technical support team could be improved. |
| Solutions Architect at Airtel | 3.5 | I use SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor for network monitoring, valuing its SNMP polling and availability features. However, it lacks end-to-end application performance monitoring compared to Riverbed, which we currently use for APM. We're considering consolidating with either solution. |
| Manager at QMUL | 3.5 | I've been monitoring university audio-video equipment with SolarWinds SAM, a versatile tool. It's effective but needs predictive capabilities. While scalable, it may require extra components. Compared to Datadog, it’s simpler and often more cost-effective, despite licensing changes. |
| Founder Director at Techsa Services | 4.0 | I use SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor to track server and application health, focusing on performance parameters like CPU and memory. The AppStack feature is helpful for identifying issues, but its storage monitoring and analytics need improvement. |
We are monitoring all the infrastructure with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor, which means our physical machines, and we are also monitoring the network devices, including the port traffic, NetFlow, and bandwidth utilization.
I have been working with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor for more than 15 years now, and my total experience in this particular tools domain is about 17 years.
From an advantage perspective, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is comparatively cheaper from a commercial point of view. It is easy to install and configure, very user-friendly, and quick to get up and running, allowing you to see the early value adds in your organization. It is compatible with most technologies for monitoring with very few chances of incompatibility. Configuration also allows us to monitor all the technical parameters we are looking for, making it a very good experience for us.
The alerting feature in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is a main advantage, as it alerts based on threshold breaches and can raise tickets to the ticketing system, send SMS, and email notifications, allowing engineers to work on those tickets to resolve issues and avoid further impact.
The visibility into server health is a beneficial feature that I am utilizing.
We widely use various application performance metrics in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor such as database monitoring and server monitoring, which are quite good enough for any monitoring solution.
We utilize the customizable dashboards in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor.
From an integration point of view, if you want to have a manager of manager kind of layer, that is currently lacking in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor. We need to use different modules like BMC or ServiceNow for that purpose, though monitoring can be done using SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor, the event consolidation part definitely requires improvement if their product path heads in that direction.
I have been working with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor for more than 15 years now, and my total experience in this particular tools domain is about 17 years.
We can have multiple pollers installed with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor to monitor over 1,000 applications and systems.
I find the technical support of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor to be responsive and helpful.
Since we carry those skills, we have not engaged with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor support so much, but they have been very responsive.
Positive
It was straight and quicker for deployment, and the installation of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is smooth, starting with deployment installation.
The installation process was not complex at all; it was quick and smooth.
Installation for SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor took place in just a day or two, and I needed to have all the prerequisites ready and fulfilled to install the product, but there were no challenges in installation of those products.
We had a team of three members for the deployment: two members plus the architect, and we had multiple solutions there including NCM, NPA, and the traffic protocol monitoring module which was also involved and installed.
Considering the lacking manager of manager and event correlation capabilities, I rate SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor as an eight out of ten.
I am doing research as we currently have both solutions, and I am looking to see if we need both or can manage with one. Currently, the outcome indicates that we need both. The focus point is different for the two tools. I have a big data set of tools and applications that I need to manage, along with a big data set of servers for CPU, disk, and other resources. Licensing is also a consideration, so the focus is different in how we use it.
I am comparing it with ManageEngine now, and I am also using ManageEngine Applications Manager.
I am using ManageEngine for a different purpose; the focus on Applications Manager is more about the application. AppDEX, user satisfaction, and site availability are key aspects. It focuses more in detail about the application rather than on technical aspects such as disks and other components. It's more about whether an application is running slow or fast, or if there's an issue we can detect and alert early.
The big question is whether we need two tools or one, which drives my investigation.
The benefits I've seen from using SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor include excellent functionality once properly configured, though initial setup can be challenging. As a non-technical person, I observe the process that technical staff need to go through to achieve correct configuration.
I have found the visibility into server health with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor very beneficial, which we use on a daily basis.
I have generally been satisfied with the product.
There is definitely room for improvement besides simplifying its setup. As a non-technical person, I believe the dashboards could be improved. Everything we use appears on video walls, and we need to understand exactly what we're seeing and be able to drill down, which seems to be difficult.
Customizable dashboards are an area that needs enhancement. The pricing is definitely more than other tools, though I believe the end result is worth it. There isn't a real issue with pricing, rather the ease of use. Users need to be very technical to understand exactly what to do or set up.
They are complex to operate; users need to know what they want during setup. It's not possible to simply experiment with it; technical expertise is required to extract what you need from the tool.
Their alerting system is less complex in setup. Regarding dashboards, there are some limitations as they provide standard dashboards that users must work with. However, once configured, the dashboard and all components are readily available without requiring additional generation.
I have been working with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor for approximately two years.
When I face issues, I contact their technical support and they are very good. The team has been in regular contact with them.
Positive
I do not encounter complexity issues with ManageEngine; it is a much simpler tool.
The implementation took a few weeks approximately, considering we have an expert in our team. It wasn't a full-time implementation process.
I serve more as a manager than a user.
I would definitely recommend this product to others.
I was one of the sources for this review.
On a scale of one to ten, I rate this solution an eight.
I am working in the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan as part of the Pakistan Education Research Network, which provides services to universities. We have three data centers in Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi, with multiple servers. I perform monitoring using SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor (SAM). This solution allows me to monitor different alerts.
We manage SolarWinds ourselves without outsourcing its services. The graphical interfaces, GUI customizations, and alert configurations are impressive. For SAM, monitoring the hard disk and utilization of different services is beneficial. Customizing alerts, creating different groups of alerts, and setting escalation levels within alerts are crucial features. The ability to know which service is running or down is vital for our operations.
Application-based monitoring, such as monitoring within servers like Apache and IIS, has room for improvement. Monitoring these services is more complex compared to others.
The stability of the solution is strong. It is critical for us and provides necessary monitoring for our operations.
For scalability, I encountered challenges when I needed to add another polling engine. Convincing management for more licenses is necessary. Despite this, scaling involves handling maximum capacity and ensuring good monitoring.
The technical support was better in previous years. With the launch of the premium support service, the normal support has declined. There were times when they redirected us to seek premium support or other domain experts.
Negative
We have not used any alternative solutions extensively. Although we have software like Huawei monitoring and I am aware of other tools like HP OpenView, we are more accustomed to using SolarWinds.
The initial deployment depends on the complexity of infrastructure. It can take a day or two, and once configured, adding services and monitoring becomes easy. It can be done in minutes.
The initial cost is quite high, but the renewal cost is reasonable.
We have not extensively used alternatives, although we are aware of tools like Huawei monitoring software and HP OpenView.
Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten. My experience with SolarWinds SAM has been good over the years. I recommend it to others due to its reliability.
Positive
We use the product to monitor our customers' critical services and applications. This tool has provided invaluable insights into capacity and application usage, which has been instrumental in managing bandwidth efficiently and controlling costs for our clients.
SolarWinds SAM has significantly improved our workflow by allowing us to develop a comprehensive knowledge base of known errors and automate responses to specific alerts. We have implemented automated scripts that preemptively address potential incidents and optimize server performance, particularly during peak usage. This level of automation has helped us adapt to customer service behavior more effectively and substantially reduced the incidence of human errors.
One product area that could benefit from improvement is the synchronization of licensing periods across different modules. The misalignment of licensing terms can present commercial challenges when adding new modules or additional pollers. Additionally, the granularity of polling times for specific components could be enhanced to better meet individual customers' needs without impacting the entire polling pool.
Over the past year, my team and I have extensively utilized SolarWinds SAM.
The technical support is generally excellent, and the support team takes a proactive approach. They offer valuable insights and recommendations to ensure the tool's smooth operation.
Positive
The deployment process is relatively straightforward, though it does require some effort to adjust alarms and familiarize oneself with typical project behavior. The maintenance process is generally stable, and the APIs provided are user-friendly and effective. However, the high pricing is a significant consideration and can be a barrier in our market.
The return on investment for the product is generally positive, particularly when there is a sufficient number of devices to justify the addition of new pollers. However, if the number of devices is insufficient, the return can be less favorable, affecting the overall cost-effectiveness.
The product is expensive.
I recommend SolarWinds SAM due to its robust support model, stability, extensive functionality, and market continuity. However, potential users should be aware of this tool's high initial cost.
I rate it an eight.
We use the product to monitor issues with certificates and VMs in our environment.
It's a good product. The ability to create tickets with our infrastructure team for them to be aware of immediate issues and be able to triage those quickly is valuable to us. The product integrates with Remedy. It's probably one of the biggest things.
It would be great if the product repolled things properly after we changed VMs. A lot of times, we have to do a lot of manual cleanups.
My team uses the solution right now.
There are no issues with stability.
The solution’s scalability seems to be fine. We have around 8000 VMs right now and are not encountering any issues.
My engineers contact support. We've had some issues over time, and it sometimes takes a while for a clear resolution. Part of it might be our environment, and part of it might be the support team.
Neutral
Three FTEs spend a portion of their time on maintaining the product. We would need the time of one and a half FTEs for maintenance.
I try to always follow the processes and things exactly to a T. I don't think we had any major issues with the product. It has room for improvement, but overall, it does most of what we need to do on a day-to-day basis. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.
I use the solution to monitor devices.
The most valuable feature of the solution is its interface, which is used for monitoring.
The technical support team's response time could be improved.
I have been using the solution for five years.
I am satisfied with the solution’s technical support.
Positive
The solution’s initial setup is very easy.
It took us four to six hours to implement the solution.
For the features it provides, the solution's pricing is good. We pay around $ 2,000 to $ 5,000 yearly for the solution. We don't have to pay additional costs for support, and it is covered in the license.
I rate the solution's alerting mechanism and its impact on our operations ten out of ten. We have around 600 retail offices, and the solution helps us save costs by preventing shutdowns. I would recommend the solution to other users.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
I use the solution in my company for our network and network monitoring purposes.
The most valuable features of the solution revolve around areas like SNMP polling and availability. My company doesn't use APM-related features of the product. I have an understanding related to network monitoring, but I want to understand what other features SolarWinds provides and to figure out what benefits customers will get from using it. I wanted to know if SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor are cheaper or costlier than Riverbed.
The major concern in the product revolves around application performance monitoring since end-to-end application monitoring is not possible with the tool. For APM, there are products like ThousandEyes or Dynatrace that help with end-to-end app monitoring. The aforementioned area can be considered for improvement in the tool. My company uses Riverbed for application performance monitoring, but I want to leverage the functionalities of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor to take care of such areas. If possible, we can do packet capturing via SolarWinds and application performance monitoring via the tool.
I have been using SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor for five years. The product is internally used in our company.
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.
The solution's technical support is okay. I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.
Neutral
My company uses Riverbed for application performance monitoring.
I was doing research so that I could understand if SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor provide APM capabilities similar to Riverbed, which allows our company to get a packet capture of an entire session, and on the basis of it, we look at the application performance monitoring part. With SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor, my company does SNMP polling, so it can drag an entire session, but it focuses more on availability, CPU memory, and server connection status. In Riverbed, my company catches an entire system, so when we deal with two applications, we have end-to-end app visibility. All the application monitoring happens through Riverbed. Our company's main problem is that, as of now, we have two different products in our organization, and we don't want to continue with the multiple products currently. I wanted to understand if SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor already have capabilities like Riverbed, and if they do, then I wanted to figure out why our company should not go with SolarWinds and why we are using products from multiple vendors. My company needs to continue with either Riverbed or SolarWinds. I wanted to see which products are good for the organization and how much I want to continue with Riverbed.
The product's deployment phase is okay.
The solution can be deployed quickly.
The tool is available for my company at a good price point.
I can say that my company has integrated SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor into ServiceNow, and because of this, we are getting proper alerts. My company also gets alerts via Telegram and other sources. I have not seen any major issues in the product related to the alerting feature.
There are no issues with the integration capabilities of the product, and it provides value.
I need SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor to explain to our company the benefits of the product.
The dashboard part of the product is okay.
I rate the overall tool a seven out of ten.
Recently, I have been using it to oversee the performance of audio-video equipment within the university setting. In a broader sense, it serves as a versatile tool for general system and application monitoring.
I find it to be a strong product suite, particularly when you need a comprehensive monitoring tool.
One area that could benefit from improvement is its performance. Instead of merely reporting on current events, the goal is to predict future issues and take proactive measures to address them.
I have been working with it for seven years.
I find it to be a stable product overall. A couple of years ago, they did experience a security breach, which is somewhat expected when you're one of the most visible market leaders.
It offers excellent scalability capabilities.
In terms of technical support, I've noticed a decline in recent years. They have expanded their support teams globally, but the quality of the initial response has suffered. It takes longer to reach someone who can provide in-depth assistance, especially for experienced users dealing with complex issues. It's something they need to address, perhaps allowing the newer support teams to gain experience and improve their service.
I used to work for IBM, and when it comes to scalability, SolarWinds SAM can handle substantial scaling effectively. I have never encountered a hard limit, but it's important to note that you may need to deploy additional components to achieve this scalability. While the licensing model may change, SolarWinds SAM is capable of scaling to meet the needs of many organizations, although extremely large enterprises might consider alternative solutions.
The initial setup is relatively straightforward, and I would consider it one of the system's strong points.
You are able to install SolarWinds and begin monitoring within a day.
Among the major monitoring solutions, especially considering that free monitoring tools are available, it is relatively affordable. When compared to other licensed models in the market, it stands out as one of the more cost-effective options.
Currently, Datadog appears to be the leading player in the monitoring market. It's a powerful tool, but it can be somewhat more complex to set up and operate compared to SolarWinds. Choosing between the two often comes down to understanding your specific needs and your target audience. Additionally, cost considerations are important to keep in mind, as Datadog tends to be on the higher end of the price spectrum.
For small to medium-sized enterprises, SolarWinds SAM is definitely worth considering. It offers a strong price-performance ratio, making it an attractive option. While there are more advanced products available in specific areas, SolarWinds stands out for its comprehensive coverage of infrastructure, networks, and applications. The choice between an all-in-one tool like SolarWinds and a combination of specialized tools depends on the organization's architectural preferences and needs. Overall, I would rate it seven out of ten.
We use the product to monitor the server's health that includes hardware health like power supply, temperature, and other physical parameters and also performance parameters like CPU, memory, server network, etc. We also use it to monitor application health.
The monitoring is covered under 3 aspects -
Server Hardware Health
Server Performance Monitoring
Application Performance Monitoring (restricted to services, process)
I am impressed with the tool's AppStack feature which mainly helps us in the identification process. This feature can give an overview of the fault and help us identify the issues for performance degradation. Instead of looking at multiple places, we can look at a single place to identify the issues.
The tool's AppStack needs to improve in the storage monitoring part. It should also include an analytics and recommendation approach. If I have found a fault in a server or application, I would like to know what caused it and how do I recover from it.
I have been working with the solution for over 6 years.
The solution is stable.
The tool is scalable and I have customers who use it to monitor around 2000 servers.
Some resolutions require catering to the unique environment of customers and can take time. Otherwise, the tool's support is pretty good.
Neutral
The tool's installation is easy and can be completed in a couple of hours. You need to plan and figure out what exactly would you like to monitor. For example, when a customer has 2000 servers, then you would need to find the application groups and define them. If a customer has a large web server environment then you need to create dashboards for the web administrators. The tool is flexible and allows you to do it.
The solution's price is reasonable. Though it's on the higher side, the tool is worth the money.
I would rate the product an eight out of ten.
SAM is an easy-to-deploy solution. You need to plan your monitoring strategy well because if you want to monitor a large number of servers, you need to plan and decide what exactly would you like to monitor. Because things can get pretty complicated, especially when it comes to application monitoring. The solution gives the flexibility to decide as to what you would like to do with their monitoring platform. You shouldn't go blind and say that I want to monitor everything.
