ServiceNow Cloud Observability vs SolarWinds AppOptics comparison

ServiceNow and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. ServiceNow is ranked #41 with an average rating of 7.5, while SolarWinds is ranked #58. ServiceNow holds a 0.4% mindshare in APM, compared to SolarWinds’s 0.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of ServiceNow users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

ServiceNow Cloud Observability

Read 4 ServiceNow Cloud Observability reviews

765 Views
453 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SolarWinds AppOptics

Read 9 SolarWinds AppOptics reviews

673 Views
314 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

ServiceNow Cloud Observability

SolarWinds AppOptics

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

SolarWinds AppOptics and ServiceNow Cloud Observability are competitive solutions in cloud observability. ServiceNow Cloud Observability often stands out for its comprehensive features and perceived value despite higher costs.

Features: SolarWinds AppOptics is praised for its real-time monitoring, application dependency mapping, and quick alerts. ServiceNow Cloud Observability garners positive feedback for its extensive dashboard capabilities, integration options, and predictive analytics.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds AppOptics users highlight the need for better scalability options and enhanced reporting capabilities. ServiceNow Cloud Observability users seek improved configuration simplicity and more flexible alerting mechanisms.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds AppOptics is noted for its straightforward deployment process but has mixed reviews regarding customer support efficiency. ServiceNow Cloud Observability, while more complex to deploy, receives high marks for reliable and consistent customer service.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds AppOptics users appreciate its lower initial setup cost and faster ROI. ServiceNow Cloud Observability's higher pricing is justified by users due to its robust features and long-term benefits, suggesting a more favorable ROI despite the initial investment.

To learn more, read our detailed ServiceNow Cloud Observability vs. SolarWinds AppOptics Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Cloud Observability vs. SolarWinds AppOptics

June 2025

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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

ServiceNow Cloud Observability

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

41st

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SolarWinds AppOptics

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

58th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (57th), Cloud Monitoring Software (43rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of ServiceNow Cloud Observability is 0.4%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds AppOptics is 0.3%, down from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

VinayKumar16

Senior DeliveryManager at ITC Infotech

Provides ease of use in areas like analytics and reporting

The feature of the tool that is more impactful for cloud performance stems from the area revolving around analytics and reporting. It is an easy-to-use tool. There is something known as performance analytics within ServiceNow that offers complete analytics, which offers end-to-end analytics along with the KPI metrics with what we have in place and so on. With the aforementioned aspects of the tool, I think we should be able to create a dashboard according to the operations view called the operation dashboard view, specifically for C-level executives.

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John Yuko

Assistant Manager ICT - Projects at I&M Bank Ltd

Unique features allow consolidating and combing metrics into a single dashboard, but don't monitor mobile solutions

I would like to see more granular information provided on Unix applications. Also, the integration with Unix services should be a bit more straightforward in terms having an agent to retrieve your credentials rather than having to enter or save them for SSH on SolarWinds. From the outset, we had to set some commands to log into the search console, and they are saved on the solution, which presents a challenge in terms of exposure. The solution is unable to monitor APK solutions completely because we'd then be forced to break down the APK and provide the APIs or go through the source code. They don't have a module that can analyze an application that is maybe under-used.

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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

"The solution Lightstep/ServiceNow has a couple of pretty advanced functionalities to help us investigate a deviation and help the development teams have better observability in the environment using distributed and complex services."

"To a certain extent, it is possible to save on the costs of the product."

"The ability to create a stream based on different parameters, operation name, service name, URL, tags, and URI part, is one valuable feature."

"The UI is very intuitive."

"The product has a great dashboard."

"Technical support is always live and they're supportive."

"Some of the most valuable features of SolarWinds are the topology discovery and network performance analysis."

"The reporting of the solution is very good."

"I have found the most valuable feature is application performance management."

"The sum solution, NTA, and DPA."

Cons

"The support team could be better. Because of the different versions of different tactics of integrating reactive code base, the documentation is not very clear if someone has to be onboard. I would rate the documentation of Lightstep a five out of ten. It could need improvement."

"In terms of licensing, users would want the product to offer them the ability to tailor the tasks offered in the solution to suit their needs."

"The design of this solution is not very intuitive and probably could come with more friendly tips for beginners."

"The dashboard and graphics must be improved."

"In terms of the technology, I think they need to put some more advanced troubleshooting into SolarWinds, in terms of AI capabilities. That's the next generation, especially in the cases of APIs which have already adopted AI capabilities into their products."

"The solution should be more user-friendly."

"AppOptics would benefit from having a much more centralized view."

"I would like to see more integration with other tools that are available on the market."

"The integration with Unix services should be a bit more straightforward."

"The implementation needs improvement. It needs to get modernized with the newer cloud scenario in both public and private deployment models."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is expensive. I rate the tool's pricing model an eight out of ten."

"Since it's a negotiable rate, I would rate the pricing as a five out of five."

"Mostly, it's a perpetual license. We don't have any customers using the subscription right now—it's mostly a perpetual license that the customers purchase. The licensing is based on the number of elements, whereas other solutions are node-based."

"I believe the current licensing cost is reasonable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Retailer

10%

Educational Organization

38%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about LightStep?

The UI is very intuitive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with LightStep?

There are a lot of workflows and connectors. In terms of licensing, users would want the product to offer them the ability to tailor the tasks offered in the solution to suit their needs.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for LightStep?

I use the solution in my company since it has multiple tenants available. Basically, what happens in business is that you have a hybrid setup model, and for that, you extensively use a cloud platfo...

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Comparisons

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Compared 39% of the time

Datadog vs ServiceNow Cloud Observability

Compared 30% of the time

Dynatrace vs ServiceNow Cloud Observability

Compared 20% of the time

New Relic vs ServiceNow Cloud Observability

Compared 11% of the time

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Dynatrace vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 28% of the time

New Relic vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 15% of the time

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 13% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 12% of the time

Zenoss Cloud vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 9% of the time

More SolarWinds AppOptics Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Cloud Observability

May 2025

Download ServiceNow Cloud Observability product report

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

June 2025

Download SolarWinds AppOptics product report

Also Known As

LightStep

AppOptics, SolarWinds TraceView, Librato

Overview

ServiceNow Cloud Observability is a comprehensive platform designed to enhance visibility, control, and performance monitoring of your IT infrastructure and applications. It seamlessly integrates log management, trace management, metrics monitoring, and infrastructure monitoring in real-time, leveraging AI and machine learning for automated tasks and actionable insights. With benefits including improved visibility, faster incident resolution, enhanced application performance, simplified IT operations, and reduced costs, this cloud-native solution is ideal for businesses of all sizes with complex IT infrastructures. It integrates seamlessly with ServiceNow IT Operations Management (ITOM), supports OpenTelemetry standards, and provides AI-powered insights along with pre-built dashboards and reports.

ServiceNow

AppOptics is a SaaS-based simple, powerful and affordable Infrastructure & Application monitoring for custom on-premises, cloud, and hybrid systems.

Your business runs on applications, and when they go down or run slowly, it can impact the business in lost productivity, customers, or revenue. To add to the complexity, your IT environment is changing, and workloads can be spread across data centers, and cloud resources. You need to monitor the availability and performance of applications and infrastructure, regardless of where they are, so you can identify potential issues early and address them before they impact users

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

InVision, Twilio, Lyft, Yext, DigitalOcean,

TraxoCovea Insurance BTE TechnologyDatarista

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Cloud Observability vs. SolarWinds AppOptics

June 2025

Free Report: ServiceNow Cloud Observability vs. SolarWinds AppOptics

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