SCOM vs SolarWinds NPM comparison

Microsoft and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Microsoft is ranked #14 with an average rating of 8.0, while SolarWinds is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.5. Microsoft holds a 1.5% mindshare in NMS, compared to SolarWinds’s 3.7% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

SCOM

Read 83 SCOM reviews

8,966 Views
6,007 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

SolarWinds NPM

Read 160 SolarWinds NPM reviews

18,343 Views
14,124 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

SCOM

SolarWinds NPM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

SolarWinds NPM and SCOM are network monitoring solutions with distinct features. SolarWinds NPM often has the upper hand in terms of scalability and a strong community presence, while SCOM excels in integration with Microsoft environments.

Features: SolarWinds NPM offers seamless scalability up to 30,000 elements, comprehensive alerting, and requires no additional agents for launch. Its robust community forum further supports users. SCOM is noted for its deep integration with Windows, flexible monitoring through management packs, and extensive capabilities for Windows-based systems.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds NPM could improve network discovery accuracy, alert customization for device categories, and the user experience when managing separate modules. SCOM could enhance its cross-platform monitoring, simplify the user interface, and develop more intuitive dashboards.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both SolarWinds NPM and SCOM cater to varied deployment environments from on-premises to hybrid cloud. SolarWinds NPM is favored for its straightforward initial setup and supportive customer service, enhanced by an active community forum. SCOM's integration with Microsoft products provides a support advantage for businesses heavily invested in Microsoft ecosystems, although its complex deployment may need specialized expertise.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds NPM is seen as cost-effective with comprehensive functionality, though costs may rise with additional modules. It provides significant ROI by reducing downtime and enhancing network visibility. SCOM offers better value as part of the Microsoft System Center suite, bundled with other products, and can lead to long-term cost savings in Microsoft-reliant environments.

To learn more, read our detailed SCOM vs. SolarWinds NPM Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

SCOM vs. SolarWinds NPM

April 2026

Download the complete report

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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:

ROI

Sentiment score

6.4

SCOM users experience varied ROI, with advantages in monitoring and management offset by potential licensing costs and latency issues.

Sentiment score

7.0

SolarWinds NPM enhances network management and cost efficiency, providing superior monitoring, fast issue resolution, and significant ROI.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the SCOM report

The return on investment is significant as the solution effectively reduces costs while being worth its expense.

Wahyu Krisnamukti

Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance

For more quotes and insights, download the SolarWinds NPM report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.8

Microsoft customer service is generally viewed positively, with efficient assistance and experienced staff, despite occasional consistency issues.

Sentiment score

6.9

SolarWinds NPM support is knowledgeable and helpful but faces criticism for slow responses and aggressive sales tactics.

When I was working directly with Microsoft at TCS, my first company, the support experience was quite smooth, and we received solutions promptly.

Akshita Kukreja

Assistant Manager at SMS group GmbH

They often treat issues in isolation, not considering how one problem might relate to another.

Mark Folan

Network Operations Center at Student Loans Company

For more quotes and insights, download the SCOM report

If there is no timely response, getting a resolution is more difficult.

SJ6

Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

We had contact with SolarWinds regarding the implementation, and they were helpful.

Wahyu Krisnamukti

Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance

They have good technical support.

Tochukwu Uzomba

Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited

For more quotes and insights, download the SolarWinds NPM report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

6.9

SCOM offers scalable management, efficient load balancing, and high availability but faces challenges with non-Microsoft integration and diverse device monitoring.

Sentiment score

6.9

SolarWinds NPM offers scalable solutions for various environments, with possible increased costs and challenges on virtual platforms.

The scalability of SCOM, meaning its ability to adapt to our needs, is excellent because we are working with SQL systems and multiple servers.

Akshita Kukreja

Assistant Manager at SMS group GmbH

For more quotes and insights, download the SCOM report

SolarWinds NPM is scalable and effective in handling large network infrastructures.

Tochukwu Uzomba

Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited

For more quotes and insights, download the SolarWinds NPM report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.1

SCOM's stability has improved significantly, especially in newer versions like 2019, with proper configuration and resource allocation.

Sentiment score

7.5

SolarWinds NPM is stable, with issues arising during upgrades; regular updates and support enhance its performance.

I have not seen many errors or frequent data loss because once we have installed the agent on the system and have the details, not much manual intervention is required.

Akshita Kukreja

Assistant Manager at SMS group GmbH

SCOM is a bit unstable lately, primarily due to a lack of resources.

Mark Folan

Network Operations Center at Student Loans Company

For more quotes and insights, download the SCOM report

The NPM product is stable, particularly when used for simple network monitoring.

SJ6

Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the SolarWinds NPM report

Room For Improvement

SCOM needs better dashboards, lower licensing costs, easier integration, improved reporting, enhanced support, and efficient alert management.

SolarWinds NPM users seek improvements in network discovery, interface, integration, resource usage, cloud support, security, and pricing adjustments.

SCOM is likely to be phased out in favor of more compatible tools like Icinga for application monitoring or when moving to cloud solutions like CloudWatch and Azure.

Mark Folan

Network Operations Center at Student Loans Company

It would be beneficial to have a summary on one single dashboard, as there are many more possibilities available.

Akshita Kukreja

Assistant Manager at SMS group GmbH

I would like to see a software-as-a-service version in Azure to eliminate the need for on-premise infrastructure.

MarcMermuys

ICT System Administrator at College of Europe

For more quotes and insights, download the SCOM report

Customers have given feedback about the delayed response times from the technical team.

SJ6

Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

SolarWinds needs to upscale on observability and add full-fledged observability features, including security features.

Tochukwu Uzomba

Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited

I would need a feature in SolarWinds in the future for some kind of malfunctioning detection, such as malware attacks or that type of environment.

Vivek Jaiswal

Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the SolarWinds NPM report

Setup Cost

SCOM pricing varies with agreements, often part of cost-effective Microsoft packages, though licensing can be complex initially.

SolarWinds NPM pricing is competitive yet complex, appealing to some while being costly for smaller enterprises or multi-module needs.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the SCOM report

It is not too pricey and is adequate.

Vivek Jaiswal

Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

PRTG's package offers all features in one bundle, which is cost-effective.

Tochukwu Uzomba

Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited

The solution is considered expensive.

Wahyu Krisnamukti

Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance

For more quotes and insights, download the SolarWinds NPM report

Valuable Features

SCOM efficiently monitors Microsoft environments with integration, customizable dashboards, real-time reporting, and automated alerts for proactive management.

SolarWinds NPM offers easy deployment, strong monitoring, and seamless integration, enhancing network management with intuitive dashboards and real-time insights.

The most valuable feature of SCOM is its monitoring capability, and we have integrated SCOM with Grafana, which is a dashboarding tool.

Akshita Kukreja

Assistant Manager at SMS group GmbH

It assists me in detecting server downtime and delivers basic performance monitoring right out of the box.

Mark Folan

Network Operations Center at Student Loans Company

SCOM integrates several systems and offers correlation features, like setting up everything around Active Directory or DNS.

MarcMermuys

ICT System Administrator at College of Europe

For more quotes and insights, download the SCOM report

Whenever any node is down in our network, whether it is a server or any network device, we receive information through email that the device is down.

Vivek Jaiswal

Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It provides a detailed overview of the network, which is valuable.

SJ6

Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

SolarWinds NPM has specific modules for monitoring different network capabilities, which provides rich features for carrying out specific tasks.

Tochukwu Uzomba

Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited

For more quotes and insights, download the SolarWinds NPM report

Categories and Ranking

SCOM

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

14th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Event Monitoring (3rd)

SolarWinds NPM

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

160

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (5th), Cloud Monitoring Software (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of SCOM is 1.5%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 3.7%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SolarWinds NPM	3.7%
SCOM	1.5%
Other	94.8%

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.

Read full review

Vivek Jaiswal

Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Central monitoring has improved outage alerts and now needs smarter detection and modern dashboards

Regarding the automated network topology and mapping feature in SolarWinds NPM, I am not satisfied with it. For static monitoring, it is acceptable. However, if it is possible, I would need a feature in SolarWinds in the future for some kind of malfunctioning detection, such as malware attacks or that type of environment. We did not have any facility to detect that in SolarWinds. I think it would be better to incorporate those types of features. Regarding customization options in SolarWinds, the ability to customize the dashboard has room for improvement. The dashboard is quite old, and we need some improvement in it. Nowadays, we have multiple tools with AI-based monitoring and web-based dashboards. SolarWinds also has a web-based dashboard, but I think there is scope for improvement in the UI. There may be other areas I would like to improve in SolarWinds NPM.

Read full review

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Comparison Review

it_user174738

IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

May 31, 2015

Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor

I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Computer Software 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	59
Midsize Enterprise	33
Large Enterprise	85

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SCOM?

The tool helps to monitor Windows servers. It offers alerts from a central location.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

It actually depends on the exact purpose or kind of devices (network devices, servers, something else). Some tools are better for only network devices while others are better for a cloud monitoring...

See all answers

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

From my point of view, SolarWind is the best tool.

See all answers

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

We are partners with SolarWinds and we sell a lot of Network management to large enterprises also because of scalability, products like Network Performance Monitor & Netflow Traffic Analyzer ar...

See all answers

Comparisons

Nagios XI vs SCOM

Compared 6% of the time

WhatsUp Gold vs SCOM

Compared 6% of the time

Zabbix vs SCOM

Compared 5% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs SCOM

Compared 5% of the time

ManageEngine OpManager vs SCOM

Compared 4% of the time

More SCOM Competitors

ManageEngine OpManager vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 4% of the time

Nagios XI vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 3% of the time

DX Spectrum vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 3% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 3% of the time

ThousandEyes vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 2% of the time

More SolarWinds NPM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SCOM

April 2026

Download SCOM product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds NPM

April 2026

Download SolarWinds NPM product report

Also Known As

System Center Operations Manager, SCOM 2012

Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer

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 NPM is a network performance monitoring tool offering a user-friendly interface with customizable dashboards. It provides real-time tracking of device health, latency, and bandwidth utilization, supporting diverse integration and scalability needs.

SolarWinds NPM's robust features include real-time monitoring of network performance and efficient tracking of device health, latency, and bandwidth utilization. The tool is appreciated for its ease of deployment, scalability, and support for integration with other tools. Features like SNMP monitoring, NetPath, and comprehensive reporting enhance its diagnostic capabilities and network visibility. However, users identify areas for improvement such as real-time analytics, advanced customization options, and enhanced scalability for larger enterprises. Better customer support, improved integrations, and security measures are also desired.

What are the key features of SolarWinds NPM?

User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies navigation and operation.
Customizable Dashboards: Allows personalized data views.
Real-Time Monitoring: Provides instant updates on network performance.
Strong Alerting Capabilities: Offers immediate notifications for issues.
Scalability: Supports growth with ease.
Integration: Works smoothly with other tools for comprehensive monitoring.
SNMP Monitoring: Tracks device stats effectively.
NetPath: Helps visualize network paths and performance.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Improved Network Visibility: Enables proactive issue resolution.
Enhanced Diagnostics: Facilitates quicker troubleshooting.
Real-Time Performance Data: Supports informed decision-making.
Ease of Deployment: Reduces setup time and complexity.
Infrastructure Monitoring: Ensures network stability and reliability.
Custom Integration: Adapts to existing IT environments.

In enterprise environments, SolarWinds NPM is deployed to monitor network health and device status, sending alerts for any issues. It provides visibility into network performance, tracking bandwidth utilization and server metrics efficiently. Its applications span from monitoring routers, switches, and firewalls to supporting infrastructure monitoring across industries.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Dialog Telekom

Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard

Buyer's Guide

SCOM vs. SolarWinds NPM

April 2026

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