AWS Auto Scaling vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

AWS Auto Scaling vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

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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

AWS Auto Scaling

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

39th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

18th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

4.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (6th), Active Directory Management (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of AWS Auto Scaling is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.1%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor	1.1%
AWS Auto Scaling	0.5%
Other	98.4%

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Ishaka Michael Efe

DevOps Engineer Intern at HNG Tech

Automation has simplified traffic management and improved workload efficiency

I'm not really sure what improvements I would want to see in AWS Auto Scaling because I haven't really used it extensively or explored most of it. To the extent that I've used it so far, I think it is very good. I can't really say for certain what should be improved because I haven't really explored it a lot. However, what I've been using it for has been very good. If there could be training for AWS Auto Scaling, that would be fine. If you could add more training on how to use it correctly and on the functions that I haven't used before or some people have not really used before, that would help. If there could be more documentation and training on it, that would be beneficial.

Read full review

NikhilKalwint

Technical Specialist at ServiceIO

Monitoring over a thousand systems has improved decision making and operational visibility

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The setup is not very complex."

"Once we moved them to AWS and created the appropriate architecture, it solved the problem."

"It helps us to reduce the cost."

"AWS Auto Scaling is very good for managing traffic and creating new instances when necessary."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it scales automatically without manual intervention based on the metrics we provide."

"The automation aspect where you can automate it to whatever you want is what I value the most about Auto Scaling."

"The product provides self-healing features."

"The good thing about Autoscaling is that it provides the capacity to minimize downtime. So, it gives you the assurance of stability and robustness within your system."

More AWS Auto Scaling pros

"From a customers point of view, they get a good return on investment because they are not paying a lot of money when you compare to what they used to pay for IBM and other large vendors."

"The OOTB (Out of the Box) implementation does have very good node specific pages and can provide a wealth of information."

"SolarWinds fit the bill because it gave many possibilities in monitoring with a good amount of out of the box capabilities."

"The most beneficial aspect of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is its ability to monitor at the application level."

"I'd rate technical support at eight out of ten. They are helpful and fast."

"The solution can be deployed quickly."

"Monitoring of processes and services is the most valuable feature; it is not necessarily just the server alone in terms of the CPU or the memory, as we can go in-depth into services and processes."

"The ROI for SolarWinds products is unmatched in the industry."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

Cons

"The tool must include AI features."

"The product’s pricing needs improvement."

"The setup can be a bit complex in some situations."

"AWS Auto Scaling's documentation could be better."

"The only area of improvement is the speed at which servers are launched. When cleaning up to six servers at a time, it can take up to 15 to 20 minutes to launch new servers."

"The solution's infrastructure scalability and elasticity could be improved."

"In comparison to other public clouds, the product is costly."

"Setting up the configuration involves too much work for the cloud engineer, like configuring the ALB, the target group, and all the steps."

More AWS Auto Scaling cons

"PerfStack can be made more effective."

"There is one feature that is a report writer. And they are currently trying to take it out from being a stand-alone application and integrating to the web. This doesn't give us the flexibility and it doesn't expand what we can get when it comes to reporting. So, putting it on the web is going to make it difficult to get some information. Leaving it where it is now will help us a lot."

"Application-based monitoring, such as monitoring within servers like Apache and IIS, has room for improvement."

"AppInsight needs to include more applications, the current list is very limited."

"The product does not explain why a problem occurred."

"Having two places to build and manage alerts is not efficient and not all alerting tools are available in the trap manager."

"Some custom applications cannot be monitored, and a lot more applications need to be included."

"The current script monitoring feature has limitations, especially when dealing with custom scripts."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"AWS Auto Scaling is a cheap solution."

"AWS Auto Scaling is an expensive solution."

"The product has moderate pricing."

"The pricing is good. I have not had any customers that have complained about the price."

"AWS Auto Scaling's price is high."

"The product is expensive."

"AWS Auto Scaling is a pay-per-use and pay-as-you-use service."

"I would rate the pricing for this solution a three out of five."

"The price is too high."

"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."

"We pay around $ 2,000 to $ 5,000 yearly for the solution."

"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."

"When planning for the number of licenses to purchase, make sure you understand all of the elements within an application required to really understand performance well. In our case, we quickly came to the conclusion that an unlimited license for SAM was the way to go."

"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."

"Price can always be lower. It is neither on the expensive side nor on the cheap side. We have worked with them for a lot of years, so we get a discount due to the size of the installation."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability solutions are best for your needs.

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902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

16%

Educational Organization

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

Educational Organization

13%

University

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	12

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	21

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Auto Scaling?

I'm not sure about the pricing aspect of AWS Auto Scaling or the cost of it.

What needs improvement with AWS Auto Scaling?

AWS Auto Scaling can be improved in many ways, such as providing better visibility into scaling decisions and clarifying why exactly scaling happens. Sometimes, I am not sure why scaling occurs. Ea...

What is your primary use case for AWS Auto Scaling?

My main use case for AWS Auto Scaling is automatically scaling EC2 instances behind a load balancer based on traffic, CPU, and memory usage, as well as custom CloudWatch metrics. I also use it with...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

The initial cost is quite high, but the renewal cost is reasonable.

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

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 ...

What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

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 diffe...

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Product Reports

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Download AWS Auto Scaling product report

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Download SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor product report

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report

Also Known As

AWS Auto-Scaling

SolarWinds SAM

Overview

AWS Auto Scaling optimizes resource use by automatically adjusting instances based on demand. It integrates with CloudWatch for seamless monitoring, enhancing system reliability and cost efficiency without manual intervention.

AWS Auto Scaling is designed to dynamically scale resources in response to demand, supporting horizontal and vertical scaling for optimal performance. It integrates well with AWS services like EC2 and ECS, allowing for flexible and scalable solutions. Predictive scaling and intelligent automation reduce costs and ensure reliability, particularly during unpredictable traffic variations. Users implement it to maintain efficiency and minimize downtime, benefiting from features such as self-healing and health checks.

What are the key features of AWS Auto Scaling?

Automatic Scaling: Adjusts resources based on real-time demand metrics.
CloudWatch Integration: Seamless monitoring integration for efficient resource management.
Target Tracking: Maintains desired performance levels by adjusting resources as needed.
Scheduled Scaling: Pre-configure adjustments based on expected demand changes.
Self-Healing: Automatically replaces unhealthy instances to ensure maximum uptime.

What benefits should users expect from AWS Auto Scaling?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces cost by adjusting resources based on fluctuating demand.
Reliable Performance: Ensures consistent performance even with varying traffic levels.
Minimal Downtime: Automatically adapts to traffic changes to keep services running smoothly.
User-Friendly Interface: Simple operation with intuitive controls and configurations.
Flexibility: Supports a range of AWS services, adapting to different use cases and demands.

In industries with variable demand, AWS Auto Scaling is deployed to manage real-time traffic surges, ensuring efficient use of resources during periods such as events and festive seasons. Users grow dynamic environments while balancing costs and maintaining stability, integrating the tool with CI/CD processes for continuous and efficient deployment.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

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.

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?

Integration: Seamlessly connects with existing tools.
AppStack: Provides a holistic view of applications.
AppInsight: Supports widely-used applications.
SNMP Polling: Efficient network data collection.
Diagnostics: Real-time troubleshooting.
Customizable Dashboards: Tailored monitoring views.

What benefits should users expect?

Comprehensive Monitoring: Extends from servers to databases.
Transparent Control: Enhances visibility into performance metrics.
User-Friendly: Simplifies proactive monitoring with alerts.
Predictive Features: Supports capacity and trend planning.

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

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite

AWS Auto Scaling vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor