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 #5 with an average rating of 9.3, while SolarWinds is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.6. ManageEngine holds a 8.3% mindshare in ADM, compared to SolarWinds’s 1.9% 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

1,494 Views
1,255 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Read 44 SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor reviews

4,410 Views
176 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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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: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

December 2025

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Helped 881,821 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

5th

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

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

4.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (22nd), Server Monitoring (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Active Directory Management category, the mindshare of ManageEngine ADAudit Plus is 8.3%, down from 10.6% 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 Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
ManageEngine ADAudit Plus	8.3%
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor	1.9%
Other	89.8%

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.

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"Real-time monitoring of AD changes and logons is valuable."

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

"The Account Lockout Analyzer and the Inactive Users reports are particularly valuable."

More ManageEngine ADAudit Plus pros

"Features like monitoring and infrastructure dependency mapping are valuable to us."

"It's good at monitoring system-specific things like ports, services."

"I am impressed with the tool's AppStack feature which mainly helps us in the identification process. This feature can give an overview of the fault and help us identify the issues for performance degradation. Instead of looking at multiple places, we can look at a single place to identify the issues."

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

"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is its powerful monitoring capabilities."

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

"One of the most valuable features are the reports. They're pretty good. Also, the ease of installation and customization for the client is another feature that we value. SolarWinds has a lot of features but these are the ones I like the most. We also like that the KPIs have the ability to be preset."

"SSL Certificate Monitoring and Expiry Alerting"

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

Cons

"ADAudit Plus can be very tricky, especially if we need to do some high-availability configuration or distributed environment installation."

"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 graphical user interface would be beneficial."

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

"There are so many reports that it sometimes makes it difficult to navigate to what you need."

"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."

"I consider the pricing for ADAudit Plus a bit high compared to other software solutions, so I would rate it around two or three on the pricing scale."

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

"The initial setup was difficult."

More ManageEngine ADAudit Plus cons

"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."

"Support for the IBM Mainframe is needed."

"SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor could improve by having a cloud version. They have an observability platform but it still needs to be maintained by us."

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

"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."

"I would like to see support for non-Windows or non-Microsoft domains, especially Apache and other non-Windows servers."

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

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing is acceptable."

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

"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."

"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."

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

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

"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."

"Price can always be lower. It is neither on the expensive side nor on the cheap side. We have worked with them for a lot of years, so we get a discount due to the size of the installation."

"The solution is overpriced in terms of application management."

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

"The product is expensive."

"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."

"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."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

11%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software 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	17
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	21

Questions from the Community

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?

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...

See all answers

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...

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 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 ...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

January 2026

Download ManageEngine ADAudit Plus product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

January 2026

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

December 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: December 2025.

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See our ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report.

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