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Oracle Enterprise Manager vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 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

Oracle Enterprise Manager
Ranking in Server Monitoring
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
129
Ranking in other categories
Database Development and Management (3rd)
SolarWinds Server and Appli...
Ranking in Server Monitoring
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
4.5
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (17th), Active Directory Management (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of Oracle Enterprise Manager is 2.7%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 3.0%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Oracle Enterprise Manager2.7%
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor3.0%
Other94.3%
Server Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer996648 - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder and President at a training & coaching company with 1-10 employees
Extensive functionality impresses despite occasional setup complexity
The functions and features of Oracle Enterprise Manager that I have found most valuable are its evolution from being problematic in 10g and 11g versions to becoming better and more stable. Now it has become a significantly improved product. We have integrated identity management, and we are using it for normal database examination, tuning, and performance. We are working with STATSPACK and similar tools that are integrated in Oracle Enterprise Manager. We are currently working with version 13.5, having upgraded from 13.4 last year. Automation is useful for improving operational efficiency, and there are many more opportunities to automate outside the databases. Not many things need to be automated inside the databases. We have jobs running, imports, exports, and similar tasks. To automate these processes, we utilize the Scheduler from Oracle, which is managed in the databases by the vendor. This is not part of our DBA functions in Oracle Enterprise Manager.
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

"This solution was the only one which allows us to monitor all our solutions from one interface."
"For Oracle databases and Oracle products in general, OEM is the best monitoring / console solution to get live and historical overview on your systems"
"Query tuning, historical graphs, real time statistics on query usage, easy to find blocking or locking queries, easy to kill queries, easy to add new datafiles to tablespaces about to run out of space, easy to explore table structure."
"I can see the whole picture and analyze the data; I rely on that a lot."
"The best part is the efficient database performance monitoring and the ability to take actions directly from there."
"The most valuable features of Oracle Enterprise Manager are the data guide and online monitoring."
"I have found the uptime of all of our systems to be most valuable with this solution. This is important because we need to guarantee specific uptime and preventive maintenance. We need to know upfront if there are going to be any issues on the database so we can proactively solve those."
"We have been using the overall OEM for over eight years."
"The most beneficial aspect of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is its ability to monitor at the application level."
"This feature from Solarwinds SAM helped us to monitor and alert whenever the SSL cert is going to expire on the server to avoid any downtime of the services running on the server specially on ADFS platform where we have Video conference, Webex, Office 365 and single sign-on services."
"SolarWinds is one of the best products on the market and if they eventually support the IBM Mainframe then it will be perfect."
"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."
"The most valuable feature is the Access Rights Manager."
"AppInsight. Provides a simple way to get very in-depth monitoring configured for our most popular applications. Exchange, SQL, and SharePoint."
"The solution is end-to-end from the network and the application to the processes. Everything about the enterprise infrastructure is being covered by the solution. It's easy to use and easy to navigate and one of the leaders among monitoring solutions."
"I'd rate technical support at eight out of ten. They are helpful and fast."
 

Cons

"It could improve in some areas like the screen. It's not so clear for the novice, when a new person looks at the screen he/she may not really understand where to start first."
"I would say the footprint on the server. Also the GUI can be tricky."
"It comes with some monitoring bugs, which once reported to Oracle support is always solved."
"I feel more dashboards can be added, especially those useful to higher levels of IT management."
"I think with the documentation there could be improvements."
"Setting up provisioning can be challenging. Also there are a lot of bugs and some specific to platforms."
"One thing I would like to see is the option of agent less monitoring."
"OEM needs to be a little bit faster."
"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 major concern in the product revolves around application performance monitoring since end-to-end application monitoring is not possible with the tool."
"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."
"When you implement SolarWinds on a larger scale my customers complain about the speed."
"For each poller, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor can only monitor up to ten thousand components, which restricts scalability."
"They are complex to operate; users need to know what they want during setup."
"It would be helpful if the solution could integrate more with the security compliances, like this IDSS, etc."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is only the standard licensing fee. There are no other costs."
"The solution is free."
"Oracle Enterprise Manager is a free-of-cost solution. Oracle Enterprise Manager can be expensive only if you go for its licensing part."
"It's expensive."
"The solution is inexpensive to purchase."
"The product is very expensive."
"Based upon 3 days of implementation by a single person, plus licensing costs would be approximately $60,000, including the virtualized hosts."
"As with all Oracle products, care should be taken when using any features to ensure that they do not activate licensed features that have not been paid for."
"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."
"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."
"I think SolarWinds' pricing is very decent compared to other competitors in the market."
"The tool is available for my company at a good price point."
"The solution is overpriced in terms of application management."
"Pricing and licensing is fair for what you get. It does have a great bang-for-the-buck appeal."
"The price is too high."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
7%
Performing Arts
6%
Educational Organization
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business37
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise81
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise21
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Enterprise Manager?
I would rate the pricing of Oracle Enterprise Manager as very expensive, definitely deserving a 10 out of 10.
What needs improvement with Oracle Enterprise Manager?
The weaknesses I would like to address in Oracle Enterprise Manager involve the dealing of Grid Infrastructure. Oracle Enterprise Manager's handling of Grid Infrastructure needs some improvement. I...
What is your primary use case for Oracle Enterprise Manager?
I am still working with Oracle products. I would like to leave my opinion on some other Oracle products that I have been working with lately. I am working on many Oracle products for database admin...
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 ...
What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?
I am doing research as we currently have both solutions, and I am looking to see if we need both or can manage with one. Currently, the outcome indicates that we need both. The focus point is diffe...
 

Also Known As

No data available
SolarWinds SAM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

7-Eleven, Halliburton, Cisco, Garmin, Nationwide, Korea Telecom, Allied Irish Bank
Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle Enterprise Manager vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
894,998 professionals have used our research since 2012.