AWS Auto Scaling vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #40 with an average rating of 8.5, while SolarWinds is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 0.5% mindshare in APM, compared to SolarWinds’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

AWS Auto Scaling

Read 22 AWS Auto Scaling reviews

2,155 Views
2,069 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Read 44 SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor reviews

7,596 Views
4,330 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

AWS Auto Scaling

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and AWS Auto Scaling are products competing in server management and resource scaling. AWS Auto Scaling holds the upper hand due to its robust features and superior resource management solution capabilities.

Features: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor provides extensive server and application monitoring, automated issue detection, and performance metrics analysis. AWS Auto Scaling offers dynamic scalability, integration with CloudWatch, and seamless scaling based on demand.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds could enhance its cloud integration, reduce setup complexity, and expand alert customization. AWS Auto Scaling may improve cost transparency, user interface navigation, and offer more detailed documentation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: AWS Auto Scaling is seamlessly integrated into the AWS ecosystem, offering a streamlined cloud deployment model with extensive support. SolarWinds employs a traditional deployment approach, which may require adjustments but is supported by strong technical resources.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds offers predictable setup costs and return on investment through performance optimization. AWS Auto Scaling relates costs to usage, potentially offering savings in dynamic environments, though the return on investment depends on demand stability.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Auto Scaling vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

AWS Auto Scaling vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

August 2026

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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

40th

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

19th

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 August 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 1.0%, 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	1.0%
AWS Auto Scaling	0.5%
Other	98.5%

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

"It can scale."

"It helps us to reduce the cost."

"Auto Scaling is a cool feature that works well and its automatic scaling capabilities are very useful."

"It efficiently handles traffic, ensuring we are not running expenses and the infrastructure is strong enough to handle the load."

"Our internal business applications are hosted in AWS Auto Scaling."

"I would highly recommend Auto Scaling to others because it is a fantastic feature that simplifies scaling processes and makes deployment efficient."

"It is a stable platform."

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

More AWS Auto Scaling pros

"The features like trends, capacity planning, recommendations, and diagnostics are the main items I focus on for added value."

"There are many valuable features, including the network configuration manager, and the network performance manager."

"SSL Certificate Monitoring and Expiry Alerting"

"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."

"SolarWinds is a very stable platform compared to others on the market."

"I have found the visibility into server health with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor very beneficial, which we use on a daily basis."

"I find it to be a strong product suite, particularly when you need a comprehensive monitoring tool."

"This feature from Solarwinds SAM helped us to monitor and alert whenever the SSL cert is going to expire on the server to avoid any downtime of the services running on the server specially on ADFS platform where we have Video conference, Webex, Office 365 and single sign-on services."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

Cons

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

"The product’s pricing needs improvement."

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

"The tool must include AI features."

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

"It requires a downtime before deploying the Auto Scaling group."

"The tool's stability could be improved."

"It has latency issues. It depends on the distribution used, whether it's Amazon Linux, Windows Linux, etc. Occasionally, there are latency issues, which might lead to slower performance."

More AWS Auto Scaling cons

"It should also be easier to upgrade SolarWinds. AppDynamics is harder to deploy but easier to upgrade. So AppDynamics takes a lot of time and effort to install, but you can upgrade it in minutes. SolarWinds is the opposite. It's easy to deploy, but upgrades take forever. To date, nobody can complete it on time, so the production environment is sitting idle."

"One area that could benefit from improvement is its performance"

"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."

"Reporting is the only thing with which we currently have challenges. They have this in two ways. There is the report writer, which is the backend, and we also have web reports, which are on the console. So, they have removed the report writer for the backend reports, and we are making use of the web console, but most of the users are not finding it very interesting to use the frontend reports. I would like them to bring back the report writer. That's the key area within it to improve on the reporting. If they can bring back the report writer, then most users will actually be comfortable. I have some customers who are trying to export their report to an Excel format, but it is not possible because they said any report that has been done from the web console cannot be exported to Excel, but most of the customers need to export their reports to Excel. That's one area they need to work on."

"The product needs to reduce its price."

"I believe that SolarWinds should spend more effort in reporting."

"An additional feature that would improve this solution is the ability to complete root cause analysis."

"Downside of the tools is the web console are hung or crash. It need to improve the performance."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is expensive."

"AWS Auto Scaling is an expensive solution."

"AWS Auto Scaling is a cheap solution."

"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 has moderate pricing."

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

"Its licensing is on a yearly basis. It is just the standard price, but it can vary depending on the current rate of the dollar."

"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."

"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."

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

"The tool is available for my company at a good price point."

"The product is expensive."

"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."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

17%

Educational Organization

13%

Outsourcing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

13%

University

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 7% of the time

Snyk vs AWS Auto Scaling

Compared 6% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs AWS Auto Scaling

Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 6% of the time

Dynatrace vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

Opsview vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

August 2026

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Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

July 2026

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report

Download SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor product 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

Buyer's Guide

AWS Auto Scaling vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

August 2026

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