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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
7th
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 (20th), Active Directory Management (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of Oracle Enterprise Manager is 2.4%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 3.2%, 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 Manager2.4%
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor3.2%
Other94.4%
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

"I think the fact that I can manage all of our infrastructure, all the hardware and software, from one place which makes it very useful."
"We can manage everything in our environment."
"Go ahead and implement it, as you'll find that it is very useful for infrastructure related tasks."
"There are a number of different user interfaces you can choose from."
"The dashboards are great for gathering analytic information and seeing where the problems are."
"Oracle Enterprise Manager triggers critical alerts."
"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."
"It is a comprehensive, end-to-end solution for managing database consolidation, something that has been missing and difficult to do."
"There are many valuable features, including the network configuration manager, and the network performance manager."
"The solution can be deployed quickly."
"Identifying the problem statement is easy."
"We choose the Solarwinds based on the simplication of managing the tool itself."
"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."
"We manage SolarWinds ourselves without outsourcing its services."
"If you are looking for a single pane of glass to monitor Windows products then SolarWinds is your product."
"It's good at monitoring system-specific things like ports, services."
 

Cons

"Services are pretty inconsistent. Too much usage will make it go down, and we will have to step in to bring it back up."
"Setting up the Oracle Enterprise Manager is challenging as it requires setting up a separate server."
"I would say the footprint on the server. Also the GUI can be tricky."
"It would be helpful if OEM is integrated with OBIEE reports and free report viewer without a license."
"The only con is that we may need to install patches provided by Oracle from time to time for its upgrades or bug fixes."
"I would like to improve the cost."
"I would like to see better pricing."
"The tool is expensive."
"I believe that SolarWinds should spend more effort in reporting."
"When you implement SolarWinds on a larger scale my customers complain about the speed."
"SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor could improve the server monitoring and the web application monitoring features are not good. Microsoft SCOM has better server monitoring."
"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."
"SAM AppInsight for SQL: The ability to ignore fragmentation of specific indexes."
"We are looking into other solutions because it is just too expensive to keep scaling."
"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 templates could use improvement. Currently, they are quite complex."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Be careful to only enable the packs for which you have a license as this is an issue we see time and again."
"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."
"Evaluate your requirements carefully. Elaborate DR and HA setup of OEM can become expensive."
"It's expensive."
"The licensing is the responsibility of our customers."
"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."
"Oracle Enterprise Manager is a free tool from Oracle."
"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."
"I think SolarWinds' pricing is very decent compared to other competitors in the market."
"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."
"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."
"When compared to other licensed models in the market, it stands out as one of the more cost-effective options."
"The solution's price is reasonable. Though it's on the higher side, the tool is worth the money."
"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."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
6%
Educational Organization
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
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 do you like most about Oracle Enterprise Manager?
What I like most about Oracle Enterprise Manager are its features, particularly the active session history. It provides insights into SQL, and I use it regularly to identify potential issues.
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 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 ...
 

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.
886,077 professionals have used our research since 2012.