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ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 9, 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

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
Ranking in Active Directory Management
5th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds Server and Appli...
Ranking in Active Directory Management
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
4.5
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (22nd), Server Monitoring (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Active Directory Management category, the mindshare of ManageEngine ADAudit Plus is 8.1%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.9%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Active Directory Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ManageEngine ADAudit Plus8.1%
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor1.9%
Other90.0%
Active Directory Management
 

Featured Reviews

Karthik G - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise Pre-sales Specialist at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees
Has enabled detailed auditing of sensitive changes across directory and file systems
The key functionalities of ManageEngine ADAudit Plus are primarily Active Directory reporting, where we create the whole user life cycle management, such as when users are created, who created them, when users are deleted, what group memberships changed, and not just for users, but for all Active Directory objects, users, computers, groups, and group policies. All changes are recorded immediately in real-time and reported for forensic analysis of incidents including who created them, what exactly changed, and what were the old and new values for the attributes. In case of a ransomware attack on a particular server, we can check what process created the files and what files have changed, even with features such as attack surface analyzer that help administrators see what's happening in their local Active Directory regarding password attacks. ManageEngine ADAudit Plus provides real-time tracking capabilities through agent installation, which works in real-time to collect information and immediately alerts if anything matches the defined conditions in the application.
NikhilKalwint - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I rate this ten out of ten."
"The product's initial setup phase is very easy."
"Some of the most valuable features of ADAudit Plus are the granular parts of the reports fetched from Active Directory."
"Customers prefer ManageEngine ADAudit Plus to other solutions because they produce good results for comparatively lower prices."
"ADAudit saves you the expense of hiring an outside auditor for compliance with regulations like PCI DSS or PCA."
"The most valuable feature is the control of the file server."
"It is not saving me money, but it is making me compliant."
"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."
"SolarWinds is a very stable platform compared to others on the market."
"Once we got our IT inventory organized and aligned with the business, we were able to leverage our Orion Platform to provide more than just a reactive-based monitoring service to the business."
"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is the network devices' performance monitor is the best."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is its interface, which is used for monitoring."
"AppInsight. Provides a simple way to get very in-depth monitoring configured for our most popular applications. Exchange, SQL, and SharePoint."
"The ROI for SolarWinds products is unmatched in the industry."
"The component and cable monitoring are good. SolarWinds is more intuitive and user-friendly than AppDynamics. The AppDynamics console is more complex because it's a more feature-rich solution, so it's not easy for somebody to pick it up."
"SolarWinds SAM has provided us with dynamic thresholds based on historical trends and requirements, so the threshold gets configured automatically, and it's no longer necessary to configure it manually every time."
 

Cons

"Sometimes the developers in technical support take time."
"The solution's managing file server activity could be improved."
"One problem with ADAudit is that it has too many configurations to apply to the active directory server, which makes it difficult to use."
"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."
"The return on investment for ManageEngine ADAudit Plus is very hard to measure."
"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."
"Some features require more external integration."
"There are so many reports that it can be a headache."
"I believe that SolarWinds should spend more effort in reporting."
"When you implement SolarWinds on a larger scale my customers complain about the speed."
"Application-based monitoring, such as monitoring within servers like Apache and IIS, has room for improvement."
"SAM AppInsight for SQL: The ability to ignore fragmentation of specific indexes."
"I would like to see support for non-Windows or non-Microsoft domains, especially Apache and other non-Windows servers."
"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."
"It would be helpful if the solution could integrate more with the security compliances, like this IDSS, etc."
"In terms of the dashboards on offer, they should work to improve them. The types of dashboards that you get in terms of the graphs on offer aren't ideal right now."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"ADAudit Plus's pricing is affordable and flexible, with very low prices in the market."
"The solution's pricing is acceptable."
"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."
"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."
"It's a medium-priced solution."
"Adding features and other functionality it costs you more. Also, the first installation costs an additional amount."
"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 like the pricing for this SolarWinds product."
"The solution's price is reasonable. Though it's on the higher side, the tool is worth the money."
"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."
"Its licensing is on a yearly basis. It is just the standard price, but it can vary depending on the current rate of the dollar."
"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."
"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."
"The product is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Educational Organization
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise21
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with ManageEngine ADAudit Plus?
An area of improvement for ManageEngine ADAudit Plus could be in graphical reporting, as currently, it's limited with old school bar charts, and having more interactive reports with a better graphi...
What is your primary use case for ManageEngine ADAudit Plus?
The main use case for ManageEngine ADAudit Plus is primarily focused on auditing, so any changes related to Active Directory or Azure Intra ID or even file servers, such as file monitoring, are imm...
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 ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
SolarWinds SAM
 

Overview

 

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
Find out what your peers are saying about ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,264 professionals have used our research since 2012.