IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) 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

IBM SevOne Network Performa...

Ranking in Server Monitoring

15th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (29th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (35th), Log Management (35th), Cloud Monitoring Software (28th)

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Ranking in Server Monitoring

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

4.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (22nd), Active Directory Management (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) is 2.7%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 2.9%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Server Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor	2.9%
IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM)	2.7%
Other	94.4%

Server Monitoring

Featured Reviews

reviewer1543041

Network monitoring engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Provides consistent infrastructure monitoring with excellent usability and support

The primary use case of IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) is network monitoring. It helps to maintain the infrastructure's availability and ensure that alerts are generated when needed The most valuable features of IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) are its stability,…

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

"It is a very efficient and highly recommended solution."

"We've had great feedback from our customers about SevOne support. They're willing to set up a remote session upon request. You have to go through three tiers of support with most vendors, and they ask a lot of screening questions before they will do a remote session. You need to spend a lot of time before an engineer will host a remote session to look at your problematic system."

"SevOne is the one tool which provides multiple features, and the servers or databases have different plugins that can be used to monitor various components of the network and applications."

"It has been a godsend and has brought us 11 months of stability, the likes of which I'd never seen before in 15 years with the company."

"SevOne enables us to look at the data and see that the customer has disconnected so we can stop billing and reimbursing them."

"It is one of the most important systems we have in our environment for monitoring devices."

"With this tool it is interesting to show the info to the client and explain where the traffic is."

"SevOne NPM helps our customers detect performance issues faster and, once it's properly configured, it will help you address some issues right away, cutting troubleshooting time by one to three hours and enabling you to proactively address potential performance issues before a failure occurs."

More IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) pros

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

"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."

"SolarWinds SAM is very stable, and we are using it with hundreds or thousands of customers and there are no stability issues."

"SAM has altered the way monitoring is being looked at - from just being able to monitor CPU, Mem, Disk and network utilization levels we have moved to the next levels of finding out process related issues, service related issues and specific application related issues to identify root cause of performance issues."

"This product can monitor application environments no matter where they reside and provides capabilities for deep insight into infrastructure."

"The most valuable feature is application monitoring."

"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."

"I'd rate technical support at eight out of ten. They are helpful and fast."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

Cons

"Some similar solutions offer end-to-end visibility."

"Although it is a very good monitoring tool, it can be confusing when you try to add devices and they don’t appear correctly."

"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 method of searching for SIP and the way to create the groups."

"I would like to see live maps as an added feature. Also, build modules on AI and EML to provide better data insights that would proactively tell us what we should be looking after."

"The user management features need to be improved. It would be nice if we had more granular control, or layers of control, out of the box."

"Features like SMS support and a faster way to create objects in calculation editor would be good."

"The support is excellent, but the features are average."

More IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) cons

"MS Azure Service and user experience monitoring is an area in which the SolarWinds tools are lacking; without a doubt, this is the Achilles heel of the Orion monitoring tools, and I am currently reviewing other vendors for Azure service monitoring tools."

"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."

"The major concern in the product revolves around application performance monitoring since end-to-end application monitoring is not possible with the tool."

"Application-based monitoring, such as monitoring within servers like Apache and IIS, has room for improvement."

"The tool’s report feature created issues for us. We needed to gain skills to use that feature. The tool’s customization is not easy since you have to reconfigure the whole system."

"I think they need to make reporting easier and more simple & dynamic."

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

"SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is not stable. We have to maintain the platform and it goes down frequently."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing has been fair."

"There are different options available for licensing, with the per-device option being more expensive but more flexible."

"Choose a SevOne partner who can provide SevOne as a service and can deliver professional services and maintenance."

"Have a bank of licenses, because it is about the number of objects (RAM, ports, CPU, etc.)."

"Many tools price things based on the number of KPIs that you're collecting around a device. In many cases, there could be hundreds of metrics that you need to collect. SevOne provides device-level pricing. That gives us the flexibility to turn on, and expand on, the metrics that we're collecting around those devices, without taking a financial hit."

"The tool is not expensive. We were able to negotiate with SevOne on pricing."

"It is inexpensive compared to other monitoring tools."

"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."

More IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) pricing and cost advice

"I have always said SolarWinds is very “proud” of their products, meaning they are expensive. I cannot afford to purchase all the licenses I need for all the SolarWinds products."

"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."

"The price is too high."

"The product is expensive."

"I like the pricing for this SolarWinds product."

"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."

"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."

"When compared to other licensed models in the market, it stands out as one of the more cost-effective options."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pricing and cost advice

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915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Outsourcing Company

Educational Organization

13%

University

Financial Services Firm

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	45

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

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 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...

SolarWinds NPM vs IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM)

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Product Reports

IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM)

Download IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) product report

IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) report

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Download SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor product report

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report

Also Known As

SevOne

SolarWinds SAM

Overview

IBM SevOne Network Performance Management offers real-time insights, customization, and integration capabilities to efficiently monitor network performance across diverse infrastructures, enhancing operational efficiency.

IBM SevOne NPM is recognized for its ability to provide scalable network monitoring across multi-vendor environments. It delivers real-time data insights essential for maintaining network health and performance. With features like SNMP monitoring, NetFlow data collection, and comprehensive dashboards, it supports proactive tracking and analysis. While challenges in upgrade processes and third-party integration exist, its ability to monitor network availability, capacity, and performance in complex environments makes it valuable for organizations managing data centers and virtual machines.

What are the key features of IBM SevOne NPM?

Real-time Data Insights: Provides immediate visibility into network performance.
Scalability: Supports growing infrastructure and diverse environments.
Customization: Adaptable to specific infrastructure needs.
Extensive Device Support: Monitors a wide range of network devices.
Comprehensive Dashboards: Offers detailed performance assessments.

What benefits and ROI should users expect from IBM SevOne NPM?

Improved Efficiency: Enhances operational processes through ITSM integration.
Proactive Monitoring: Facilitates early detection of network issues.
Flexible Infrastructure Support: Efficient in multi-vendor environments.
Insightful Reporting: Provides baseline comparisons and anomaly detection.

In industries such as IT service providers and large enterprises, IBM SevOne NPM is implemented for its ability to monitor extensive network environments, including data centers and virtual machines. Its proactive monitoring and reporting capabilities are instrumental in maintaining network health and ensuring seamless performance across multiple regions and platforms.

IBM

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

ATOS, Devereux, Spark New Zealand, Access4, Rogers Communication, Lumen (formerly known as CenturyLink)

Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite

IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor