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 #14 with an average rating of 8.7, while SolarWinds is ranked #20 with an average rating of 7.6. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 0.4% mindshare in APM, compared to SolarWinds’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 91% 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

802 Views
754 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Read 44 SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor reviews

4,008 Views
2,605 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

AWS Auto Scaling

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and AWS Auto Scaling compete in monitoring and scaling applications. AWS Auto Scaling seems to have the upper hand due to its extensive features and scalability, making it worth the cost for many users.

Features: SolarWinds offers comprehensive monitoring capabilities, detailed analytics, and user-friendly alerts. AWS Auto Scaling is noted for dynamic resource allocation, seamless integration with AWS services, and robust automation features.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds could improve integration with other tools and offer more customization options. AWS Auto Scaling users need better documentation and more intuitive configuration procedures.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds has a straightforward deployment process and good customer service. AWS Auto Scaling's deployment is complex due to its advanced features but benefits from comprehensive AWS support.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds is preferred for competitive pricing and strong ROI. AWS Auto Scaling, though costlier, is valued for ROI provided by automatic scaling and resource optimization capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Auto Scaling vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

AWS Auto Scaling vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

December 2025

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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

14th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

20th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

4.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (9th), Active Directory Management (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of AWS Auto Scaling is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.2%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
AWS Auto Scaling	0.4%
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor	1.2%
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.

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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.

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

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

"It can scale."

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

"AWS Auto Scaling is cost-effective and very useful for businesses."

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

"It helps us to reduce the cost."

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. We can go in-depth into services and processes."

"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."

"Extremely user friendly: Any IT professional can learn how to admin NPM in a short time."

"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is its powerful monitoring capabilities."

"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."

"SolarWinds SAM has provided us with dynamic thresholds based on historical trends and requirements. The threshold gets configured automatically, so it's no longer necessary to configure it manually every time."

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

"The product integrates with Remedy."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

Cons

"The solution's infrastructure scalability and elasticity 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."

"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."

"There hasn't been a need for improvements."

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

"The speed of the solution must be improved."

"The tool must include AI features."

"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."

More AWS Auto Scaling cons

"PerfStack can be made more effective. I am sure SolarWinds already has a plan for the same in coming versions."

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

"Nodes in Azure are able to be monitored with the use of agents, but this does not apply to cloud service offerings that are not node based."

"It needs time-based functions for monitoring. Some things need to be polled on a specific schedule or only during a specific window."

"It would be helpful if the solution could integrate more with the security compliances, like this IDSS, etc."

"One product area that could benefit from improvement is the synchronization of licensing periods across different modules"

"They should incorporate more artificial intelligence. There should also be more predictive features."

"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."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"AWS Auto Scaling is a cheap solution."

"The product has moderate pricing."

"AWS Auto Scaling's price is high."

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

"The product is expensive."

"AWS Auto Scaling is an expensive solution."

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

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"The licenses start from USD 3000.00 and go up to USD 20,000.00 for the year. It's a perpetual license. Nothing is free in SolarWinds, anything that you need is an additional cost."

"Pricing is inexpensive, starting at 2440 euros. For that, you get the ability to monitor a couple of nodes and one year of maintenance and support."

"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."

"Pricing and licensing is fair for what you get. It does have a great bang-for-the-buck appeal."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Educational Organization

11%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	12
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	11

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

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AWS Auto Scaling?

The tool's most valuable feature is vertical auto-scaling, which is easy to use. However, most companies now prefer horizontal scaling. I set up the health check integration to monitor CPU usage. W...

See all answers

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?

See all answers

What do you like most about SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

Identifying the problem statement is easy.

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

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

January 2026

Download AWS Auto Scaling product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

January 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 monitors your applications and automatically adjusts capacity to maintain steady, predictable performance at the lowest possible cost. Using AWS Auto Scaling, it’s easy to setup application scaling for multiple resources across multiple services in minutes. The service provides a simple, powerful user interface that lets you build scaling plans for resources including Amazon EC2 instances and Spot Fleets, Amazon ECS tasks, Amazon DynamoDB tables and indexes, and Amazon Aurora Replicas. AWS Auto Scaling makes scaling simple with recommendations that allow you to optimize performance, costs, or balance between them. If you’re already using Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling to dynamically scale your Amazon EC2 instances, you can now combine it with AWS Auto Scaling to scale additional resources for other AWS services. With AWS Auto Scaling, your applications always have the right resources at the right time.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) delivers powerful application and server monitoring capabilities for IT pros, enabling them to diagnose and troubleshoot performance issues faster. Do not let slow applications and downtime impact your end-users and business services. Pinpoint the root cause of application issues across various layers of the IT stack. SolarWinds SAM is affordable and easy to deploy, use, and customize. You can automatically discover your system's environment and start monitoring in about an hour. No professional services or consultation needed.

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

December 2025

Free Report: AWS Auto Scaling vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

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