No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

POWERHOUSE Application Performance Monitoring vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 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

POWERHOUSE Application Perf...
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
74th
Average Rating
8.8
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds Server and Appli...
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
19th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
4.5
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Server Monitoring (6th), Active Directory Management (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of POWERHOUSE Application Performance Monitoring is 0.5%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.0%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor1.0%
POWERHOUSE Application Performance Monitoring0.5%
Other98.5%
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
 

Featured Reviews

it_user328959 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager of Cell Architecture and Integration at a non-profit
Gives us clear information on what is going wrong and where we need to focus to improve our applications, but it lacks automatic alerting.
Have real-time performance metrics Alerting Profiling in production Gives us clear information on what is going wrong and where we need to focus to improve our applications. Real added value in our IT internal and external organization (we open Nudge APM dashboard to our outsourced…
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

"Nudge APM helps my organization to meet all SLA requirements, thanks to alert triggers."
"Great reduction in resolution time: proactive identification of errors before users send incidents."
"Gives us clear information on what is going wrong and where we need to focus to improve our applications, with real added value in our IT internal and external organization as we open Nudge APM dashboard to our outsourced suppliers."
"Performance management is a shared concern and APM tools must be used by all people involved in the build and run process."
"The recommendations are a life saver."
"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."
"The most valuable feature is the Access Rights Manager."
"It is simple to implement and can provide fairly decent Windows-based monitoring, beyond simple SNMP. It is great for monitoring newbies and smaller shops."
"SolarWinds SAM is very stable, and we are using it with hundreds or thousands of customers and there are no stability issues."
"We manage SolarWinds ourselves without outsourcing its services."
"Extremely user friendly: Any IT professional can learn how to admin NPM in a short time."
"The more valuable feature of this solution is the Exchange feature."
 

Cons

"There is room for improvement on the portal to access the collected data, but it has already been enhanced with great zooming features."
"No automatic alerting"
"SAM's software-defined network monitoring capability is also low and could be improved."
"The current script monitoring feature has limitations, especially when dealing with custom scripts."
"Scalability was an issue in the past."
"The technical support team's response time could be improved."
"The major concern in the product revolves around application performance monitoring since end-to-end application monitoring is not possible with the tool."
"It needs time-based functions for monitoring. Some things need to be polled on a specific schedule or only during a specific window."
"I had some stability issues. I lost my environment, but with the help of SolarWinds support, I was able to get back to a stable platform."
"For each poller, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor can only monitor up to ten thousand components, which restricts scalability."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"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."
"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."
"The product is expensive."
"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."
"Pricing and licensing is fair for what you get. It does have a great bang-for-the-buck appeal."
"I think SolarWinds' pricing is very decent compared to other competitors in the market."
"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."
"I like the pricing for this SolarWinds product."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability solutions are best for your needs.
909,948 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Educational Organization
13%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise21
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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

Nudge APM
SolarWinds SAM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bank and Insurance : Crédit Agricole, CDC (Caisse des dépots et consignations), ACMS (French healthcare insurance), Service : Unibail Rodamco, Elis, Public : CNIL, Mairie de Paris, AESN, HAS, EPIDE, Ministere Education Nationale Software : Jalma, Neoxia, AFI, Traceone, Infinancials, Telecom operator : NordNet Media : Les Echos,
Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite
Find out what your peers are saying about POWERHOUSE Application Performance Monitoring vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,948 professionals have used our research since 2012.