SCOM vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor comparison

Microsoft and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Microsoft is ranked #25 with an average rating of 7.8, while SolarWinds is ranked #31 with an average rating of 7.6. Microsoft holds a 1.4% mindshare in NMS, compared to SolarWinds’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

SCOM

Read 83 SCOM reviews

10,547 Views
7,066 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Network Device M...

Read 23 SolarWinds Network Device Monitor reviews

3,499 Views
3,429 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

SCOM

SolarWinds Network Device M...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

SCOM and SolarWinds Network Device Monitor compete in IT monitoring. SCOM has an edge with robust Microsoft integration and flexible custom solutions. SolarWinds is user-friendly with simpler network monitoring capabilities.

Features: SCOM offers strong Microsoft technology monitoring, extensive management packs, and flexibility in creating custom solutions. It supports various systems like Windows, Unix, and network devices with comprehensive dashboards. SolarWinds provides effective network monitoring with customizable dashboards and is designed for ease of use but has less integration in Microsoft environments.

Room for Improvement: SCOM's pricing is high since it requires the entire System Center suite; it needs easier dashboard customization and better support for non-Microsoft products. SolarWinds should improve platform integration and reporting features, alongside developing AI-based issue resolution for better usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SCOM is mainly on-premises with some hybrid cloud features, benefiting from Microsoft's Premier Support for consistent assistance. SolarWinds also operates on-premises but offers greater flexibility with private and hybrid cloud options. Its support service is efficient yet could improve response times.

Pricing and ROI: SCOM, part of Microsoft's System Center, is often bundled in enterprise agreements, offering potential cost savings despite high initial costs. Its ROI includes proactive monitoring and reduced downtime. SolarWinds has variable pricing, potentially higher than alternatives, with ROI realized through immediate alerts and network management efficiency.

To learn more, read our detailed SCOM vs. SolarWinds Network Device Monitor Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

SCOM vs. SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

August 2026

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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

SCOM

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

25th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Event Monitoring (5th)

SolarWinds Network Device M...

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

31st

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of SCOM is 1.4%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is 0.8%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SCOM	1.4%
SolarWinds Network Device Monitor	0.8%
Other	97.8%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Akshita Kukreja

Assistant Manager at SMS group GmbH

Have integrated effective monitoring and seamless alerting with improved visualization capabilities

The most valuable feature of SCOM is its monitoring capability, and we have integrated SCOM with Grafana, which is a dashboarding tool. We have implemented and integrated this to create dashboarding of the SCOM monitoring system for the database, SQL, and the Linux servers we have configured in SCOM. We have created separate dashboarding for it, and the monitoring and creating rules and monitors in the management servers and management packs that SCOM provides are very useful for us. The alerting mechanism of SCOM has benefited our operations because we have modified the thresholds as per our internal requirements. We have configured threshold modifications for the CPU, memory, and especially for disk space. For routine disk space usage on the system, we have provided a separate threshold configuration.

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Sorin Gogean

IT Infrastructure Senior Network Technician at Autoliv

Offers some features but needs better customization and analysis tools

There are solutions that can perform better, but due to pricing for our corporate implementation, we had to stay with this solution. It accomplishes the necessary tasks, but there is room for improvement. The features are not as customizable as we would prefer, but they are workable. If configured properly, you can perform a drill-down analysis. However, I have not used this feature much for our infrastructure on the network side.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This is the main monitoring system for our company; we use it for monitoring, reporting, and analytics."

"We've had outages at two am and three am that was automatically resolved by SCOM saving us time and money."

"It has good graphs of what is going on within the operating system."

"We heavily rely on SCOM as our pro-active monitoring tool, preventing various problems and resolving issues quickly with the informative detail raised in SCOM alerts, which assists our department in being pro-active in resolving issues with servers and services rather than reactive."

"It works better than other products I’ve used – namely SolarWinds, which is cumbersome and error prone for web app monitoring. SCOM is not."

"It can send messages to our ticketing system."

"Availability monitoring is the feature I have found most valuable, as well as the capacity and ability to send notifications."

"The solution has improved our overrides and the ability to start services if they're stopped."

More SCOM pros

"In terms of general network monitoring features, I find SolarWinds Network Device Monitor very flexible and comfortable to use. The software itself is extremely useful when it comes to monitoring how our data moves between different networks and environments."

"Since our devices are spread out across the world, we can see the status of these devices without having to send someone physically to a remote location, which saves money."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"In real-time, we know when there's an issue on our network and it helps us to be proactive to solve the situation."

"I rate the product's initial setup process a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one means it is a difficult phase and ten is an easy process."

"The alerts we are getting when we start losing connection access have been helpful."

"We are doing more with SolarWinds Network Device Monitor than we were doing in the past with WhatsApp Gold; when we moved to SolarWinds Network Device Monitor, the whole observability part started to grow."

"The solution and its interface are elaborate and fully integrate all monitored items for easy analysis and troubleshooting."

More SolarWinds Network Device Monitor pros

Cons

"There are some negative points about this product. Sometimes, the capabilities of the software don't appear, and you can't directly see the results. You have to wait for a long period to refresh the policy to push it to the software or other patches."

"In future releases, I would like to see APM solutions and dashboards like Grafana."

"Microsoft SCOM is an old fashion beast of a monitoring solution that offers basic monitoring out of the box and for a dime because it comes with licenses they forced on us anyway."

"SCOM needs to improve its usability."

"My advice to people who are looking for a solution like SCOM would actually be to advise them to move from licensed software to open-source."

"SCOM agents have a heavy footprint. Would like a lighter, more-efficient footprint."

"The suite is a monster. Without a clear strategy and fine tuning can produce a lot of noise (unnecessary noise) or miss critical aspects of your environment."

"The interface is a little bit cumbersome and certain actions could be simplified."

More SCOM cons

"The data is in the system but we are unable to pull it because reporting is not integrated and versatile."

"SolarWinds Network Device Monitor could improve the features. We don't have the complete model for the database, and the monitoring for the database is up and down. We expect that we could monitor the blocking items on the database but we don't have that feature."

"When an organization's network grows, the complexity of the dashboard becomes an area of concern where improvements are required."

"SolarWinds Network Device Monitor could improve by being more user-friendly. The network has so many features which make it difficult to find how to configure how to use it. It is not simple to customize."

"The security could always be improved."

"The main disadvantage of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is the licensing cost, which is expensive."

"In terms of price, it could be less expensive."

"It would be beneficial if SolarWinds Network Device Monitor could provide a feature to monitor CRC errors specifically on individual interfaces rather than the entire device. This would help in detecting intermittent issues and packet drops on main links more accurately, especially when there are CRC errors. It's important for us to be aware of these issues to avoid any voice quality problems or interruptions on our MTS links."

More SolarWinds Network Device Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our Enterprise Agreement includes the price."

"I don't know the exact cost because it's managed by our sales team, but Microsoft is on the higher side."

"It is the cheapest product available in the market."

"We have an enterprise agreement that includes this product as part of it."

"SCOM's pricing is average."

"The pricing and licensing are fair."

"If you have a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, then this is part of the agreement."

"The platform is cost-effective due to our existing Microsoft support."

More SCOM pricing and cost advice

"The product is expensive."

"Thankfully, it doesn't take a lot of manpower to install and deploy."

"The price of the SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is good."

"I rate the product's price as three to three and a half or on a scale of one to ten, where one means low price, and ten means high price."

"SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is not an expensive solution."

"Well, we had a perpetual license and the renewal was $20 to $25,000."

"When compared with other solutions SolarWinds is more expensive."

"I find the cost of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor reasonable for our company. Though, I'm not aware of the exact licensing cost."

More SolarWinds Network Device Monitor pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

11%

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	22
Large Enterprise	54

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	14

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SCOM?

I am not aware of the exact pricing as it is managed by my supervisor. As an academic institution, we receive substantial discounts.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SCOM?

We believe that the dashboarding in SCOM needs to be improved or enhanced because it is not too expressive in reporting. We can work on deploying new ways of viewing things and modifying visualizat...

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What is your primary use case for SCOM?

My usual use case for SCOM is as an administrator role where I create reports and provide system configuration for Linux and installation of the SCOM agent. I handle deploying and upgrading the age...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?

I am not a positive person regarding SolarWinds Network Device Monitor.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?

I have experience regarding the AD part, but my focus for the last 15 years has been oriented to the network side. My experience with identity tools comes more from a network perspective. We used N...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SCOM

July 2026

Download SCOM product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

July 2026

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor report

Download SolarWinds Network Device Monitor product report

Also Known As

System Center Operations Manager, SCOM 2012

Network Device Monitor

Overview

SCOM monitors Microsoft environments with a focus on Windows servers and applications such as SQL, Exchange, and SharePoint. It offers integration with Active Directory and Azure, along with customizable dashboards, management packs, and robust alert mechanisms, aiding efficient management and control.

SCOM provides a comprehensive monitoring solution for Microsoft technologies, helping organizations track performance and availability of applications, services, and infrastructure. It integrates with Active Directory and Azure, offering capabilities for monitoring Windows and Linux environments. Extensive management packs, customizable dashboards, and automated alerts offer a refined monitoring experience. Users benefit from detailed performance data, network monitoring, and auto-discovery features, enhancing operational insights and server management efficiency.

What are key features of SCOM?

Microsoft Environment Monitoring: Specialized for Windows servers and applications such as SQL, Exchange, and SharePoint.
Integration Capabilities: Seamless integration with Active Directory and Azure for streamlined operations.
Customizable Dashboards: Tailor visual data displays to enhance monitoring and decision-making.
Extensive Management Packs: Broad range of management packs for enhanced resource and application control.
Robust Alert Mechanisms: Comprehensive alerting to maintain service stability and address potential issues promptly.

What benefits should users seek in reviews?

Operational Efficiency: Enhanced management of server applications and infrastructure.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Detailed insights into performance and service availability.
Proactive Issue Notification: Timely alerts for quick issue resolution.
Improved Control: More efficient server management through automation and visibility.

In technology sectors, SCOM is widely implemented for its ability to monitor server applications and infrastructure components. Healthcare and finance utilize its monitoring and alert systems for compliance and uptime. Enterprises integrate SCOM for managing complex systems like Exchange, SharePoint, and Active Directory, enabling comprehensive analytics and reporting.

Microsoft

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor offers comprehensive real-time network monitoring capabilities with seamless integration across multiple vendor devices, ensuring efficient network operations.

Offering features like cloud workload monitoring, quick deployment, and a user-friendly interface, SolarWinds Network Device Monitor supports real-time alert thresholds, accurate link readings, historical utilization metrics, and customizable dashboards. Its ability to integrate with multiple vendor devices and perform network discovery enhances operational efficiency. Comprehensive bandwidth and fault management features provide stable network monitoring, benefiting devices such as switches and IP phones. However, there is room for improvement in integration with tools like ServiceNow and Excel, support response times, and enhanced security. Users highlight the need for a mobile version, improved reporting, and better customization options, alongside concerns about setup complexity and licensing costs.

What are the key features?

Cloud Workload Monitoring: Monitors workloads hosted in the cloud.
User-Friendly Interface: Offers an intuitive experience for users.
Quick Deployment: Simplifies installation and setup processes.
Real-Time Monitoring: Provides immediate alerts for network statuses.
Customizable Dashboards: Enhances network visibility with tailored displays.

What benefits can users expect?

Proactive Problem Solving: Real-time alerts facilitate quick issue resolution.
Efficiency: Automated network monitoring streamlines operational workflows.
Insightful Analytics: Provides valuable data on memory and CPU usage.
Cost-Effective: Monitors bandwidth and fault management to reduce outages.

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is implemented prominently in industries needing robust network infrastructure monitoring, like tech and manufacturing. Companies rely on its capabilities for IP address management, cloud workload monitoring, and remote equipment monitoring, gaining insights into system performance and ensuring compliance checks are met effectively.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Dialog Telekom

Air Rarotonga

Buyer's Guide

SCOM vs. SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

August 2026

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