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BMC Helix Monitor vs SCOM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 23, 2025

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

BMC Helix Monitor
Ranking in Event Monitoring
6th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SCOM
Ranking in Event Monitoring
4th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
82
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (16th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Event Monitoring category, the mindshare of BMC Helix Monitor is 10.1%, down from 12.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SCOM is 8.1%, down from 9.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Event Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

Jijil GHosh - PeerSpot reviewer
An agentless tool that offers great scalability and a straightforward setup phase
The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that BMC Helix Monitor is an agentless tool, because of which you don't need to deploy agents on each and every system in your IT environment. If you want to install an agent on each and every system, manpower is needed, while there is no such need when one uses BMC Helix Monitor. BMC Helix Monitor provides you with details on asset relationships. If a particular printer is connected to a core network printer or a particular desktop is connected to the servers, the product scans and gives you a free structure of relationship, which doesn't need any human intervention, making it an automated process. BMC Helix Monitor gives you the entire information about your assets, because of which you can sit in one place and keep track of whether a particular asset is online or offline.
MarcMermuys - PeerSpot reviewer
Has efficient monitoring with robust integration capabilities
We use SCOM to configure different monitors using several management packs. It integrates systems like Active Directory and correlates them, and it is used for monitoring and managing systems SCOM allows integration of several systems, providing correlation between different systems such as…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product's initial setup phase is easy."
"The service operations monitoring features are valuable."
"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that BMC Helix Monitor is an agentless tool, because of which you don't need to deploy agents on each and every system in your IT environment."
"It is evolving more and more into artificial intelligence."
"This solution helps our application teams by allowing them to drill further into issues and perform a root cause analysis."
"I like the historical reporting of observer metrics."
"It discovers the components automatically, which is a fantastic thing. The discovery works in an automatic way, and it has a dynamic way of discovering the components, assets, and applications. It doesn't require any manual intervention."
"The solution is scalable. If you want to monitor more you have to buy more licenses, but you can add on. We don't plan to increase usage."
"Setting up SCOM is straightforward and takes about an hour as long as you have all your firewalls and DNS settings in place."
"This solution saves us a lot of work because it reduces the effort that is required in order to start monitoring."
"The solution has improved our overrides and the ability to start services if they're stopped."
"SCOM provides alerting capabilities and threshold settings, which are helpful for monitoring."
 

Cons

"I feel that the tool's stability has some scope for improvement."
"The product must provide more information and dashboards."
"The initial setup of the solution is complex."
"The solution's GUI and some patching-related information are areas with shortcomings where enhancements are needed, though I believe they are areas that fall under BMC's roadmap for the future."
"The interface is a little bit cumbersome and certain actions could be simplified."
"It lacks certain details that other products do better, like granular access and better application monitoring."
"​I would like to better be able to monitor Oracle processes.​"
"The configurations could be better. There are multiple tests where you can do something, but they can be a trigger as well. The overriding methodologies are not that easy. The configurations are difficult. The configuration and thorough day-to-day operations to get them to the level you want takes some time. It's very difficult."
"The price could be improved."
"Direct integration with third-party tools, like ticketing systems, is lacking but would be beneficial."
"Stability and some performance issues exist and they need improvement."
"The console feature is very poor, and it would be very good for us if this were improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product’s price could be improved."
"I don't know the exact cost because it's managed by our sales team, but Microsoft is on the higher side."
"SCOM is part of the System Center suite and I am satisfied with the pricing."
"We have to pay for a license and the price is fine for us."
"There is a license needed to use this solution and it is paid annually."
"We have an EA with Microsoft, and it comes as part of the EA."
"The pricing is good, and it's part of their system center suite."
"We have an enterprise agreement that includes this product as part of it."
"It is more expensive than the competition."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
29%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
7%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BMC Helix Monitor?
The service operations monitoring features are valuable.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BMC Helix Monitor?
The product’s price could be improved. The company is quite flexible with pricing. Legacy products need to revise their pricing strategy without losing their position in the market. The legacy mode...
What needs improvement with BMC Helix Monitor?
I feel that the tool's stability has some scope for improvement.
What do you like most about SCOM?
The tool helps to monitor Windows servers. It offers alerts from a central location.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SCOM?
I am not aware of the exact pricing as it is managed by my supervisor. As an academic institution, we receive substantial discounts.
What needs improvement with SCOM?
SCOM is likely to be phased out in favor of more compatible tools like Icinga ( /products/icinga-reviews ) for application monitoring or when moving to cloud solutions like CloudWatch and Azure ( /...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Helix Monitor
System Center Operations Manager, SCOM 2012
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Grupo Moura, Goodman, Aspect, Telefónica Colombia, Fujitsu
Dialog Telekom
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC Helix Monitor vs. SCOM and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.