Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

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
7th
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
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
83
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (15th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Event Monitoring category, the mindshare of BMC Helix Monitor is 8.5%, down from 12.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SCOM is 9.5%, up from 8.3% 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 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."
"The product's initial setup phase is easy."
"The service operations monitoring features are valuable."
"It is evolving more and more into artificial intelligence."
"Availability monitoring is the feature I have found most valuable, as well as the capacity and ability to send notifications."
"SCOM integrates several systems and offers correlation features, like setting up everything around Active Directory or DNS."
"The monitoring features are the most valuable. We have seen a major benefit from that so far."
"They have great integration with the active directory."
"The advantages of SCOM are that it is definitely user friendly and a more appropriate solution for what we need."
"I like the historical reporting of observer metrics."
"The product has helped our organization with in-depth monitoring."
"SCOM has improved our organization by simplifying the monitoring process. The system tells you what the bi-weekly or monthly usage was and that enables us to report this information to the manager. It shows if there was a connectivity issue that needs to be fixed and it's easier to concentrate on what needs to get fixed. System errors, therefore, get fixed faster."
 

Cons

"The product must provide more information and dashboards."
"I feel that the tool's stability has some scope for improvement."
"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."
"They can focus more on cloud monitoring instead of on-premise monitoring. We should be able to monitor cloud-related applications. They can include this feature in the next release. If it is in the cloud, we can have scalability by using Kubernetes. The container is containerized, packaged, and managed using Kubernetes. This feature is not there in SCOM. Going forward, if they can focus on that, it will be great."
"We didn't know the solution enough, and therefore, it took a while to set everything up correctly. There was a learning curve."
"It would be a much better product if Microsoft provided management packs with the product."
"In future releases, I would like to see APM solutions and dashboards like Grafana."
"The solution’s initial setup is difficult."
"The solution should be more user-friendly and offer a better user interface."
"Regarding certain issues in the solution, it can be difficult to generate reports if we have a program that is not user-friendly for reporting. While this is not necessarily negative, we may need to use another solution."
"Non Windows monitoring is fairly weak. Network device monitoring is not reliable."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product’s price could be improved."
"SCOM is part of the System Center suite and I am satisfied with the pricing."
"It is more expensive than the competition."
"There is a license needed to use this solution and it is paid annually."
"Two customers bought the enterprise agreement with Microsoft and paid for Software Assurance. But few customers don't buy it for Software Assurance. They just buy it and deploy it, and they think that we will be using it for the next five years."
"The pricing and licensing are fair."
"Our licensing fees are approximately $30 per user, per month."
"We have to pay for a license and the price is fine for us."
"We have an EA with Microsoft, and it comes as part of the EA."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Event Monitoring solutions are best for your needs.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
28%
Computer Software Company
15%
Healthcare Company
5%
Insurance Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

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?
We believe that the dashboarding in SCOM needs to be improved or enhanced because it is not too expressive in reporting. We can work on deploying new ways of viewing things and modifying visualizat...
 

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: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.