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

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

"The setup is not very complex."

"When a lot of traffic comes into our organization, the product scales our instances based on our environment’s requirements."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to select a minimum amount of active servers so that a new server automatically launches if one fails."

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

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

"The tool gives you the flexibility to scale up and grow. The solution is also fast to deploy."

"The solution's monitoring effectively monitors our application and CPU utilization."

More AWS Auto Scaling pros

"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."

"SolarWinds is one of the best products on the market and if they eventually support the IBM Mainframe then it will be perfect."

"It is simple to implement and can provide fairly decent Windows-based monitoring, beyond simple SNMP. It is great for monitoring newbies and smaller shops."

"Hardware health: It allows for proactive monitoring of the hardware health and is a game changer."

"Identifying the problem statement is easy."

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

"The initial setup was relatively easy, and we didn't have to install anything. All we had to do was put on the devices we wanted to monitor."

"I adore the NTA module that provides deep details on ingress/egress traffic for any interface. With a few clicks, you can correlate who is accessing what and when, beside the bandwidth consuming applications/users."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

Cons

"The tool's stability could be improved."

"The solution is not out-of-the-box and you have to study to use it. It should be more easier to use."

"The product’s security features need improvement."

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

"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."

"Flexibility in configuring the workload is missing in AWS Auto Scaling."

"It is sometimes very critical to deploy on AWS since some servers are already running in the background. There are challenges for employees on how to deploy at a given time."

"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."

More AWS Auto Scaling cons

"The technical support was better in previous years. With the launch of the premium support service, the normal support has declined."

"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."

"Reporting is the only thing with which we currently have challenges."

"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."

"The technical support is nothing special."

"SolarWinds' interface is slow, and this is a global concern."

"SAM's software-defined network monitoring capability is also low and could be improved."

"PerfStack can be made more effective."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"AWS Auto Scaling is an expensive solution."

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

"AWS Auto Scaling is a cheap solution."

"The product is expensive."

"The product has moderate pricing."

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

"AWS Auto Scaling's price is high."

"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."

"I like the pricing for this SolarWinds product."

"The solution's price is reasonable. Though it's on the higher side, the tool is worth the money."

"Understanding the counts of objects to monitor will determine the licensing need. In terms of pricing, it’s not cheap but it’s not expensive as larger vendors whose products don’t have all the features or integrations."

"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."

"I think SolarWinds' pricing is very decent compared to other competitors in the market."

"I would advise potential buyers to wait until the end of the quarter, end of year, or other time to place orders. There are actually great deals to be had at those times if your budget cycle can match up."

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