ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

ManageEngine and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Active Directory Management category. ManageEngine is ranked #3 with an average rating of 9.4, while SolarWinds is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.4. ManageEngine holds a 10.4% mindshare in ADM, compared to SolarWinds’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of ManageEngine users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

Read 15 ManageEngine ADAudit Plus reviews

1,344 Views
1,089 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Read 42 SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor reviews

3,776 Views
113 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 9, 2024

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and ManageEngine ADAudit Plus are leading solutions in their respective fields. While users appreciate the extensive features of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor, many find ManageEngine ADAudit Plus more feature-rich and worth its price.

What features are offered by SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor in comparison to ManageEngine ADAudit Plus?

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor provides comprehensive monitoring capabilities, custom alert settings, and infrastructure management. ManageEngine ADAudit Plus offers detailed audit reports, real-time alerts, and thorough compliance tracking.

What areas of improvement can be found in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor in comparison to ManageEngine ADAudit Plus?

Users suggest SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor could enhance its reporting functionalities, streamline the setup process, and improve its user interface. ManageEngine ADAudit Plus requires improvement in integration capabilities, reducing occasional system lags, and optimizing its user interface.

How is the ease of deployment and customer service of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor in comparison to ManageEngine ADAudit Plus?

Deployment for SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is straightforward with good customer support. ManageEngine ADAudit Plus is noted for its quick setup process and responsive support team, though it requires more initial configuration than SolarWinds.

What setup costs and ROI can be seen with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor in comparison to ManageEngine ADAudit Plus?

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is appreciated for its reasonable setup costs and good return on investment. ManageEngine ADAudit Plus, while slightly more expensive upfront, delivers significant ROI due to its extensive feature set.

To learn more, read our detailed ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

July 2025

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Helped 867,497 peers since 2012

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

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

Ranking in Active Directory Management

3rd

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Ranking in Active Directory Management

10th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (20th), Server Monitoring (11th)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Active Directory Management category, the mindshare of ManageEngine ADAudit Plus is 10.4%, up from 9.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.3%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Active Directory Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
ManageEngine ADAudit Plus	10.4%
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor	1.3%
Other	88.3%

Active Directory Management

Featured Reviews

Md Abdul Hakim

System Engineer at Corporate Projukti Limited

Advanced monitoring enhances user tracking that's cost-effective

I have been involved with this product for the last three years, participating in service and support within our company. We are currently supporting over 30 companies. This month, we deployed the solution for three companies, including two RMGs and one private bank in Bangladesh. The popularity of this product is due to its active directory monitoring abilities. Engineers can receive reports and log details within one to five seconds, which is essential for monitoring user activity swiftly and effectively. This product is very well-liked in Bangladesh due to user tracking, failed logins, and Jar reports for any Barna activity or execution. This solution's popularity extends through comprehensive auditing capabilities.

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VIVEK PATHAK

Solutions Architect at Airtel

Offering reasonably good dashboarding features but needs to improve the application performance monitoring

My company uses Riverbed for application performance monitoring. I was doing research so that I could understand if SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor provide APM capabilities similar to Riverbed, which allows our company to get a packet capture of an entire session, and on the basis of it, we look at the application performance monitoring part. With SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor, my company does SNMP polling, so it can drag an entire session, but it focuses more on availability, CPU memory, and server connection status. In Riverbed, my company catches an entire system, so when we deal with two applications, we have end-to-end app visibility. All the application monitoring happens through Riverbed. Our company's main problem is that, as of now, we have two different products in our organization, and we don't want to continue with the multiple products currently. I wanted to understand if SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor already have capabilities like Riverbed, and if they do, then I wanted to figure out why our company should not go with SolarWinds and why we are using products from multiple vendors. My company needs to continue with either Riverbed or SolarWinds. I wanted to see which products are good for the organization and how much I want to continue with Riverbed.

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

"ADAudit Plus's best features are that it's very easy to use with a user-friendly interface, and it gives reports on group policy and object changes that we couldn't find in any other product."

"The most valuable feature of ManageEngine ADAudit Plus is its reports."

"Some of the most valuable features of ADAudit Plus are the granular parts of the reports fetched from Active Directory."

"It assists in managing the active directory and modifying the reintegrated GPOs."

"We use the product to track events and monitor logs of servers and workstations. I am impressed with the tool's tracking ability. It is intuitive and easy to use."

"This solution's popularity extends through comprehensive auditing capabilities."

"I rate this ten out of ten."

"I like the user behavior analytics (UBA). It's a machine learning feature that creates a standard profile for each user when you install it. It creates a baseline for every user, so it can detect when anyone deviates from that standard baseline profile. For example, if a user typically logs in at 9:30 am and logs out at 6 pm, ADAudit will flag it as an anomaly when that same logs in after normal hours and alert the admins."

More ManageEngine ADAudit Plus pros

"SolarWinds is a very stable platform compared to others on the market."

"The solution can be deployed quickly."

"The graphical interfaces, GUI customizations, and alert configurations are impressive."

"The features like trends, capacity planning, recommendations, and diagnostics are the main items I focus on for added value."

"SolarWinds SAM has significantly improved our workflow by allowing us to develop a comprehensive knowledge base of known errors and automate responses to specific alerts."

"Management Console - Managing service to each server enrolled in the Solarwinds is much easier. Using a web base console, you can control your service much convenient way. There is no need to login remotely. It save a lot of time and effort."

"Monitoring the components on your devices with out of the box monitors or the ability to create new ones (SAM)"

"There are many valuable features, including the network configuration manager, and the network performance manager."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

Cons

"Some features require more external integration."

"The interface could be improved, and the log collecting feature should have additional functionalities."

"The solution should include more details on file creation and modification. It also needs to have a quick message for troubleshooting problems which needs to be detailed and generic."

"It assists in managing the active directory and modifying the reintegrated GPOs."

"ADAudit could have a more sophisticated interface design. They are using a plain UI, which is decent. However, customers have said that it looks a little flat compared to other vendors. It's not fancy."

"Sometimes the developers in technical support take time."

"There is room for improvement, especially in the standard professional edition. Some features require more external integration."

"Its configuration can be better. There were 44 pages of documented notes of what I had to do to get the product to work during the installation process."

More ManageEngine ADAudit Plus cons

"Solarwinds should come up the same monitoring system for other certificate expiration alert apart from SSL."

"It lacks a user experience for measuring things like the end-to-end time for which a user waits for a specific response in the system. In the application layer, it has some very basic stuff. You have to build your own with manuscripts and things like that."

"Currently SolarWinds SAM offers AppInsight for modern versions of: IIS, Exchange, SQL Server. They have shown to be powerful and insightful tools. However, AppInsight needs to be offered for more applications: Citrix, SharePoint, AX, etc."

"The setup was complex. We had local support to assist us."

"Support for the IBM Mainframe is needed."

"There is one feature that is a report writer. And they are currently trying to take it out from being a stand-alone application and integrating to the web. This doesn't give us the flexibility and it doesn't expand what we can get when it comes to reporting. So, putting it on the web is going to make it difficult to get some information. Leaving it where it is now will help us a lot."

"The templates could use improvement. Currently, they are quite complex. They should have drag-and-drop functionality instead. It would make it easier to use."

"Downside of the tools is the web console are hung or crash. It need to improve the performance."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is affordable, and our company is very happy with it. If ten is the most expensive and one is the least expensive, I rate the tool a three or four."

"Adding features and other functionality it costs you more. Also, the first installation costs an additional amount."

"ADAudit Plus's pricing is affordable and flexible, with very low prices in the market."

"My guess is that it was around $4,000 or $5,000 a year, and we bought a license, and then we have maintenance fees. I'm not 100% sure how that worked out."

"It's a medium-priced solution."

"The solution's pricing is acceptable."

"I would advise potential buyers to wait until the end of the quarter, end of year, or other time to place orders. There are actually great deals to be had at those times if your budget cycle can match up."

"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."

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

"I would rate the pricing for this solution a three out of five."

"The product is expensive."

"The tool is available for my company at a good price point."

"Nagios XI, WhatsUpGold, Uptime Software, PRTG, Manage Engine, and SpiceWorks are the other tools that have lower pricing and licensing costs. However, they can't compete with SolarWinds when it comes to the features and functionality that SolarWinds can provide."

"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."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	20

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ManageEngine ADAudit Plus?

The most valuable feature of ManageEngine ADAudit Plus is its reports.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ManageEngine ADAudit Plus?

The price is normal for this type of solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ManageEngine ADAudit Plus?

The customers that I have implemented for, such as a leading bank in Sri Lanka, don't have integrations with native audit policies or object path permissions. They haven't done any integration. Fro...

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 are no specific features or functionality I would like to see improved or enhanced in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor at this time. I have not encountered any missing features or fu...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 15% of the time

Lepide vs ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

Compared 12% of the time

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Compared 16% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 9% of the time

Prometheus Group vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 6% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

August 2025

Download ManageEngine ADAudit Plus product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

August 2025

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report

Download SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor product report

Also Known As

No data available

SolarWinds SAM

Overview

In real-time, ensure critical resources in the network like the Domain Controllers are audited, monitored and reported with the entire information on AD objects - Users, Groups, GPO, Computer, OU, DNS, AD Schema and Configuration changes with 200+ detailed event specific GUI reports and email alerts.

ManageEngine

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

Warsaw City Hall, Acument Global Technologies, Inc., Cosma International, Bank of South Pacific, Life Management Center, Central Bank, UncleBob's Self Storage, Leeds Building Society, California Transplant Donor Network, First Response, Blessing Hospital, Northern Land Council, RMK Marine

Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite

Buyer's Guide

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

July 2025

Free Report: ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Find out what your peers are saying about ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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