Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Microsoft Active Directory 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

Microsoft Active Directory
Ranking in Active Directory Management
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (7th)
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 (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Active Directory Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Active Directory is 6.5%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.2%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Active Directory Management
 

Featured Reviews

Roberta Politano - PeerSpot reviewer
Has good authentication features
The solution's group policy is a normal way to deploy configuration and helps deploy to a wider environment. The solution is deployed both on-premises and on the cloud. I would recommend the solution to other users based on their infrastructure. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
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

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Active Directory is the ability to search for computers and users. While I do not have administrative privileges to reset passwords, I can view user information such as department, and communicate with someone who can make the changes."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is an easy-to-use tool."
"I can use Active Directory to block a user's internet access and monitor how an employee is using the internet."
"Audit, authentication and authorization are the best features."
"I find the product makes it easier to enhance various tools with Microsoft Active Directory."
"The password policy helps enforce security protocols by requiring complex passwords and frequent password changes."
"The ability for a single sign-on for applications."
"I think the main reason we are using Active Directory for SSO Office for single time and for intake integrity capability to other services."
"I adore the NTA module that provides deep details on ingress/egress traffic for any interface. With a few clicks, you can correlate who is accessing what and when, beside the bandwidth consuming applications/users."
"The most beneficial aspect of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is its ability to monitor at the application level."
"It's good at monitoring system-specific things like ports, services."
"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 solution is great for monitoring. If something is going wrong, we can immediately find the root cause."
"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is its powerful monitoring capabilities."
"We use the solution as a central monitoring tool. We use it to monitor every transaction that has a relation to the organization’s infrastructure."
"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."
 

Cons

"Sometimes support takes long to engage and resolve, extending over weeks or even months."
"There is room for improvement in the support."
"It could be more stable."
"There has been a change in the layout of the user information. Previously, I had to go to properties to view the information, but now it is displayed directly below the search results. It takes some time to get used to."
"UI is not very user-friendly."
"The product's premium support services could be less expensive."
"There is room for improvement."
"I would like to see the integration with Mac and IOS products improved."
"Some custom applications cannot be monitored, and a lot more applications need to be included."
"It would be helpful if the solution could integrate more with the security compliances, like this IDSS, etc."
"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."
"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."
"Nodes in Azure are able to be monitored with the use of agents, but this does not apply to cloud service offerings that are not node based."
"SAM AppInsight for SQL: The ability to ignore fragmentation of specific indexes."
"I believe that some of the trends, environmental maps, and items like those found in Orion would be very beneficial."
"The technical support was better in previous years. With the launch of the premium support service, the normal support has declined."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I'm unsure about the cost of the solution, as I was never involved in that aspect. However, I don't think it would be expensive. It might be average, around four or five out of ten."
"My company makes payments every quarter towards the licensing costs of the product."
"The price of Microsoft Active Directory could improve. We pay annually for the solution."
"I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten."
"The product's premium support services are expensive."
"The license is perpetual and the cost is minimal. If you purchase Microsoft Windows then Microsoft Active Directory comes with the package."
"It's not overly expensive. It's considered a base function by Microsoft."
"Microsoft Active Directory is not an expensive solution."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"Understanding the counts of objects to monitor will determine the licensing need. In terms of pricing, it’s not cheap but it’s not expensive as larger vendors whose products don’t have all the features or integrations."
"I like the pricing for this SolarWinds product."
"I would rate the pricing for this solution a three out of five."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Active Directory Management solutions are best for your needs.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Retailer
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Active Directory?
The solution is easy to install and has good reliability.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Active Directory?
There are a few areas that could be improved with Microsoft Active Directory, along similar lines as Intune. Not too much on the support side, but on the Group Policy side, it doesn't always functi...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Active Directory?
The use cases for Microsoft Active Directory are managing all users on-premises. We have over 200 employees and multiple computers, approximately over 200 computers. We have shared computers and sh...
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 Microsoft Active Directory vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.