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IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

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

IBM SevOne Network Performa...
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
46th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
Server Monitoring (20th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (45th), Log Management (47th), Cloud Monitoring Software (30th)
SolarWinds Network Device M...
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
30th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) is 1.0%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is 0.6%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

Grzegorz Nowak - PeerSpot reviewer
Improves infrastructure planning by helping us analyze network traffic
We use SevOne to collect and report on network flows SevOne improves infrastructure planning by helping us analyze network traffic. We can look at bandwidth for specific endpoints on the customer's network and analyze traffic to identify issues. For example, maybe some connectors are unavailable.…
Vijay Samant - PeerSpot reviewer
Monitor network utilization and manage bandwidth efficiently with live monitoring and reliable fault management capabilities
I use SolarWinds Network Device Monitor for monitoring network utilization, bandwidth utilization, uptime, and downtime. It also assists in incident management SolarWinds Network Device Monitor provides live monitoring capabilities, which are very useful. Its fault management capabilities are…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Based on my experience, the stability of IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) is excellent."
"The network data collection has been very flexible for us. It's been thorough in areas that were lacking. They have a team that I've worked with to add other pieces to it. So if it's missing something out of the box, they work with me to add it. I was able to collect that data. It's not perfect, but it's pretty thorough."
"The monitoring of the network is very customizable. That is its unique feature."
"I like SevOne's network flow reporting."
"Another useful feature is that SevOne gives you real-time insights into your network performance. It polls every five minutes. That is important for our customers because there are some network teams that are always monitoring their networks."
"SevOne provides support for all universal connectors. They internally work with other data sources to get features implemented. We have an SD-WAN implementation and use other app data to monitor performance. If you pull that data into one centralized location, that is very useful for management."
"It also gives us the closest thing to real-time insight into network performance that we have, with just a 10-second delay. It's very important for us to know the health of the infrastructure very quickly."
"The most valuable feature is the NMS because that's the core of the system. Without the NMS, the other tools aren't that usable."
"Overall, I rate SolarWinds Network Device Monitor ten out of ten."
"The alerting functionality in SolarWinds Network Device Monitor helps us stay informed during off-hours by sending alerts if our main links or devices are impacted, allowing us to quickly address any issues."
"The product is useful for switches and IP phones."
"The alerts we are getting when we start losing connection access have been helpful."
"SolarWinds is flexible and works with multiple vendor devices."
"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is monitoring."
"Link monitoring is the most valuable feature of this solution."
"Since our devices are spread out across the world, we can see the status of these devices without having to send someone physically to a remote location, which saves money."
 

Cons

"We previously have had discussions on some reporting enhancements. So, we raised a feature request, which was delivered from SevOne."
"There is room for improvement in the integration with different vendors and the reporting capabilities."
"Software upgrades can be tricky is not easy."
"SevOne should work with the graphs legend functionality."
"There are a lot of pain points. My main problem is that we don't have a high availability system. There are 20 peers. We're going to lose the end-of-life appliances that are old. If we lose a peer and it doesn't come back, we lose all that data. The reason we don't have high availability is because it's double the charge."
"The reports are easy to configure but they are a bit outdated in terms of appearance and visualization."
"NMS has several areas for improvement. It should be more user-friendly inside of NMS for some of the functionality in there. It's been getting better the last version or two, but the there have been bugs in there whenever I've gone to new versions."
"You need to plan integrations. That has been the biggest bug with SevOne so far. For the things that SevOne pulls directly, those are easy to understand, modify, and put into the database. For things that need to use the Universal Collector or xStats, you need to plan that stuff well in advance."
"The solution lacks in performance monitoring."
"The security needs improvement, which is why we are moving away from Solar Winds. We have security concerns."
"The main disadvantage of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is the licensing cost, which is expensive."
"The solution should have AI-powered issue-resolving capabilities"
"The security could always be improved."
"It would be beneficial if SolarWinds Network Device Monitor could provide a feature to monitor CRC errors specifically on individual interfaces rather than the entire device. This would help in detecting intermittent issues and packet drops on main links more accurately, especially when there are CRC errors. It's important for us to be aware of these issues to avoid any voice quality problems or interruptions on our MTS links."
"SolarWinds Network Device Monitor could improve by being more user-friendly. The network has so many features which make it difficult to find how to configure how to use it. It is not simple to customize."
"Integration with different tools, such as ServiceNow and Excel, can be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are cheaper solutions available."
"Prices per license are not huge, but they exist."
"A blocking point is the high upfront cost because it is challenging to get it accepted and the purchase approved."
"The pricing has been fair."
"Choose a SevOne partner who can provide SevOne as a service and can deliver professional services and maintenance."
"It is inexpensive compared to other monitoring tools."
"Although I don't have exact details in terms of cost, my experience has been that SevOne is willing to make a deal with the customer."
"For the value that you get from SevOne, it's worth the price. There are a lot of cheaper alternatives on the market, and even free options. But they require more staff, more resources, and engineers with more advanced knowledge of monitoring. That's what makes SevOne worth the price."
"SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is not an expensive solution."
"Well, we had a perpetual license and the renewal was $20 to $25,000."
"The product is expensive."
"The price of the SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is good."
"Thankfully, it doesn't take a lot of manpower to install and deploy."
"I find the cost of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor reasonable for our company. Though, I'm not aware of the exact licensing cost."
"The enterprise license is good for the SolarWinds Network Device Monitor. However, it is expensive, they should reduce their price."
"I rate the product's price as three to three and a half or on a scale of one to ten, where one means low price, and ten means high price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Legal Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with SevOne Network Data Platform?
There is room for improvement in the integration with different vendors and the reporting capabilities. It would be beneficial to have out-of-the-box integration with third-party vendors and improv...
What is your primary use case for SevOne Network Data Platform?
The primary use case of IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) ( /products/ibm-sevone-network-performance-management-npm-reviews ) is network monitoring. It helps to maintain the infrastru...
What advice do you have for others considering SevOne Network Data Platform?
To compete with custom-built tools, IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) should accommodate the desired features and be timely in the delivery of feature updates. I would rate the overal...
What do you like most about SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?
I rate the product's initial setup process a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one means it is a difficult phase and ten is an easy process.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?
SolarWinds pricing is on the higher side, and in India, every customer is cautious about commercial aspects.
What needs improvement with SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?
SolarWinds Network Device Monitor should include automatic diagrams in its network solutions. Additionally, there is a challenge with having to add an additional polling engine after 10,000 element...
 

Also Known As

SevOne
Network Device Monitor
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ATOS, Devereux, Spark New Zealand, Access4, Rogers Communication, Lumen (formerly known as CenturyLink)
Air Rarotonga
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) vs. SolarWinds Network Device Monitor and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.