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ManageEngine ADManager 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 ADManager Plus
Ranking in Active Directory Management
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
15
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
42
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (20th), Server Monitoring (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Active Directory Management category, the mindshare of ManageEngine ADManager Plus is 14.5%, up from 13.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.2%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Active Directory Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ManageEngine ADManager Plus14.5%
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor1.2%
Other84.3%
Active Directory Management
 

Featured Reviews

MUBDIUL ISLAM - PeerSpot reviewer
User management becomes efficient and installation is straightforward
My primary use case for ADManager is to manage users and groups, perform group policy without logging into Active Directory, and provide easy and secure management and monitoring capabilities. One of my clients uses ADManager for these purposes With ADManager, I can easily complete any Active…
VIVEK PATHAK - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It makes our job easier, especially for managing data for a bulk of users."
"Makes it easy to administer your active directory."
"It is a stable solution."
"Simple with good automation."
"The most valuable features of the solution are vulnerability management and system patching functionalities."
"The most valuable features of the solution are its ease of use, the ability for us to customize the access privileges for the users, and integration with ServiceDesk Plus."
"The most valuable feature is the dashboard. They allow me to see everything in real-time and drill down and pick and choose versus running scripts."
"The solution provides oversight, reports, and logs that are easy to understand."
"The solution can be deployed quickly."
"Features like monitoring and infrastructure dependency mapping are valuable to us."
"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."
"AppInsight for SQL: Enables us to see the relevant error log entries on the same page as performance parameters."
"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."
"Hardware health: It allows for proactive monitoring of the hardware health and is a game changer."
"SolarWinds is a very stable platform compared to others on the market."
 

Cons

"Some things are not very intuitive."
"Some of my clients experience issues with the GPO results, which do not always generate the real outcomes. This needs to be resolved by technicians."
"Other products have more flexibility and integration in managing identities."
"This solution is not stable, it wasted my time."
"The solution is very complex, especially when there's an active directory of more than 1,000 users, which makes it hard to administrate. They need to improve the management of the administrative process."
"It would be nice if the solution offered some sort of brochure with some high-level information that would help sell it to management. If they had details around how much time it saves an engineer, for example, to show the ROI, it would be helpful."
"The bulk email ID creation must be improved. I had to create 50 to 60 IDs manually because when I tried the bulk option, it didn't work. I still had to cross-verify because some fields were empty."
"The product's price is an area of concern where improvements can be introduced by making it available at a cheaper rate."
"Mapping interactions between systems."
"PerfStack can be made more effective. I am sure SolarWinds already has a plan for the same in coming versions."
"Solarwinds should come up the same monitoring system for other certificate expiration alert apart from SSL."
"SAM's software-defined network monitoring capability is also low and could be improved."
"I believe that some of the trends, environmental maps, and items like those found in Orion would be very beneficial."
"This product has no real downside unless they fail to continue development of its capabilities."
"It needs time-based functions for monitoring. Some things need to be polled on a specific schedule or only during a specific window."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I am satisfied with the solution’s pricing."
"The tool's pricing is good."
"I need to pay for the license, and I believe that it could be made cheaper."
"The pricing depends on scope and makes sense for use cases with multiple domains."
"I downloaded the trial version, only."
"It is not expensive."
"The cost of this product is a little higher than I would expect for a tool like this."
"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 tool is available for my company at a good price point."
"Pricing and licensing is fair for what you get. It does have a great bang-for-the-buck appeal."
"The product is expensive."
"I like the pricing for this SolarWinds product."
"When compared to other licensed models in the market, it stands out as one of the more cost-effective options."
"We pay around $ 2,000 to $ 5,000 yearly for the solution."
"I think SolarWinds' pricing is very decent compared to other competitors in the market."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise20
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with ManageEngine ADManager Plus?
Some of my clients experience issues with the GPO results, which do not always generate the real outcomes. This needs to be resolved by technicians. Additionally, upgrading from recent to the lates...
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...
 

Also Known As

No data available
SolarWinds SAM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite
Find out what your peers are saying about ManageEngine ADManager Plus vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.