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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
2nd
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 (18th), Server Monitoring (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Active Directory Management category, the mindshare of ManageEngine ADManager Plus is 15.2%, up from 13.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.1%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
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…
Carlos Camargo - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides user-friendly API features and has straightforward deployment process
One product area that could benefit from improvement is the synchronization of licensing periods across different modules. The misalignment of licensing terms can present commercial challenges when adding new modules or additional pollers. Additionally, the granularity of polling times for specific components could be enhanced to better meet individual customers' needs without impacting the entire polling pool.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Simple with good automation."
"Technical support from ManageEngine is very satisfactory."
"The most valuable feature for me is automation."
"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 most valuable feature was conducting the automation of our cloud and all services of the Active Directory."
"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 scalability is also good. ADManager Plus is being used by seven to eight system administrators right now, and it has been working fine."
"Makes it easy to administer your active directory."
"AppInsight. Provides a simple way to get very in-depth monitoring configured for our most popular applications. Exchange, SQL, and SharePoint."
"The graphical interfaces, GUI customizations, and alert configurations are impressive."
"The most beneficial aspect of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is its ability to monitor at the application level."
"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."
"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."
"SolarWinds SAM has provided us with dynamic thresholds based on historical trends and requirements. The threshold gets configured automatically, so it's no longer necessary to configure it manually every time."
"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is its powerful monitoring capabilities."
"Solarwinds has an open database that allows you to do serious integrations. It doesn't matter which service desk you have, you can implement and integrate it with SolarWinds."
 

Cons

"Other products have more flexibility and integration in managing identities."
"Some things are not very intuitive."
"The solution should be made tablet friendly because it works well on iPhones and Android phones, but does not work on tablets."
"The number of main controllers affects the database for creating the hardware specs."
"Lacks sufficient integration with management tools."
"I think the cost of this product is a little higher than I would expect."
"There is room for improvement in support, they should work on overall competence and turn-around time."
"With the number of available integrations these days, it would be beneficial to have more ready-to-integrate technologies in other products as well."
"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."
"When you implement SolarWinds on a larger scale my customers complain about the speed."
"The stability, flexibility, and ease of use could be improved."
"I think they need to make reporting easier and more simple & dynamic."
"SAM's software-defined network monitoring capability is also low and could be improved."
"They should incorporate more artificial intelligence. There should also be more predictive features."
"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."
"The setup was complex. We had local support to assist us."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing depends on scope and makes sense for use cases with multiple domains."
"I downloaded the trial version, only."
"The tool's pricing is good."
"I need to pay for the license, and I believe that it could be made cheaper."
"It is not expensive."
"The cost of this product is a little higher than I would expect for a tool like this."
"I am satisfied with the solution’s pricing."
"I would rate the pricing for this solution a three out of five."
"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 planning for the number of licenses to purchase, make sure you understand all of the elements within an application required to really understand performance well. In our case, we quickly came to the conclusion that an unlimited license for SAM was the way to go."
"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."
"Pricing is inexpensive, starting at 2440 euros. For that, you get the ability to monitor a couple of nodes and one year of maintenance and support."
"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."
"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."
"The product might cost you $30,000 USD to buy, but scaling this solution requires the purchase of additional polling engines at $20,000 USD each."
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
24%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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: June 2025.
859,129 professionals have used our research since 2012.