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ServiceNow Discovery vs SolarWinds Pingdom comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Discovery
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (6th), Server Monitoring (4th), Cloud Resource Discovery Services (1st)
SolarWinds Pingdom
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (62nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

ServiceNow Discovery and SolarWinds Pingdom aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. ServiceNow Discovery is designed for IT Asset Management and holds a mindshare of 4.1%, down 5.5% compared to last year.
SolarWinds Pingdom, on the other hand, focuses on Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability, holds 0.5% mindshare, up 0.2% since last year.
IT Asset Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ServiceNow Discovery4.1%
ServiceNow13.8%
Lansweeper6.1%
Other76.0%
IT Asset Management
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SolarWinds Pingdom0.5%
Dynatrace6.0%
Datadog5.2%
Other88.3%
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
 

Featured Reviews

Abhinay Sharma - PeerSpot reviewer
Service Now Developer at Bangmetric services pvt ltd
Cloud discovery has improved asset visibility and reporting but still needs smarter automation
The impact of ServiceNow Discovery on my organization's strategic planning depends on various factors. Some customers have their own discovery tools which they do not want to switch from, even if we explain why ServiceNow might be better, because they have been using them for a long time. Some customers are dynamic, so we need to have some kind of proposition that comes with ServiceNow. Sometimes, we need to talk with ServiceNow people themselves to give them a bundle offer in which we can have Discovery and ITSM at a much more affordable price than the competitors, so that is our main goal. Currently, I would say there might be a possibility if we can use some AI discovery features that could be helpful for our organization. If we can get discovery jobs running based on AI schedules, that would be beneficial. I believe in the coming future that I want to see myself working more with ServiceNow in this capacity.
Jay Vekaria - PeerSpot reviewer
Linux System Administrator at Ergode
High performance, quick setup, but lacking ease of use
Some of the functions could improve by making them easier. There is room for improvement when it comes to the graphs provided by the software. Additionally, there seems to be an issue with the ping status, as it sometimes indicates that a website is down even when it is functioning properly. It appears that there are certain aspects related to cache management or other backend functionalities that are unclear. The time range graph and overall user interface could be more user-friendly. For example, when selecting a custom graph for a specific time period, clicking on it should open the corresponding website in a new tab, but instead, it displays the current graph. This lack of consistency can be frustrating when trying to navigate the interface. Furthermore, the reports shared on a weekly basis arrive one week late, reducing their usefulness. Overall, some extra efforts are required to make the user experience smoother and more efficient.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Most fields on our forms are auto-filled, reducing manual maintenance for our infrastructure team. Post Discovery implementation there is hardly any maintenance."
"The biggest advantage of ServiceNow is the value that it brings."
"ServiceNow Discovery helps with operations, audits, and allows people to assess how a particular change in infrastructure impacts other components."
"It's pretty robust, and it's agentless for the most part. So, you don't need to deploy agents, which makes it a lot easier to stand up."
"The workflows are beneficial as they allow tasks to be assigned to respective teams without the need for coding."
"ServiceNow Discovery comes in a bundle with everything, including CMDB, which makes it much easier to use."
"I am impressed with the tool's incident problem change management."
"Stability-wise, I feel it is a good product."
"The most valuable features are monitoring and reporting."
"Once you set the threshold on your environment, it feels very real-time"
"There are alerting mechanisms in place to let us know, for example, if a device is not responding to a ping test and is probably not going to work."
"One notable feature of this software is its page speed setup, which is highly commendable. Additionally, the metrics it provides are also impressive."
 

Cons

"In a few instances, ServiceNow has failed to discover some basic things. Some other tools are better at network discovery than ServiceNow. I'm not talking about database servers or any other infrastructure—only networking. Cloud discovery could also be better."
"What needs improvement in ServiceNow Discovery is the reporting UI because I didn't find it as friendly compared to other tools. Other tools have better reporting UI than what's currently in ServiceNow Discovery. What I'd like to see in the next release of ServiceNow Discovery is more user-friendly out-of-the-box reporting that would be helpful for non-technical users. Some users such as managers would want to just do a few clicks to access the reports and shouldn't be required to do search queries, but right now, reporting in the tool isn't very user-friendly."
"Technical support has not been helpful when we have come across problems."
"The product should improve its customer interface, web interface, and front end. I would like to see the integration of keyboard chat with the solution."
"When you switch versions, for example, when you go from Paris to Quebec they will introduce many new things and occasionally things break when they do that."
"The initial setup could be made easier. We hired professionals to implement it, and they trained our employees for ongoing processes."
"I am not seeing significant ROI beyond breaking even on what I spend."
"Instead of AI, even GenAI should be introduced in ServiceNow Discovery."
"I would like to see better integration with other products."
"Technical support could use some improvement."
"Pingdom is always improving everything in its product. So, they should work on the GUI."
"Some of the functions could improve by making them easier."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a need to make payments every quarter of a year towards the licensing costs of the solution. ServiceNow Discovery is an expensive tool."
"As per a general discussion I had with the stakeholders, I figured out that it is a costly tool. There is a need to make additional payments apart from the licensing fees for better support services from ServiceNow."
"ServiceNow Discovery's licensing is not a very small investment, but it definitely pays off."
"The solution is very expensive."
"ServiceNow Discovery is expensive, but the company has a monopoly and we need to use the solution. We use it because we do not have a choice."
"You need a subscription to ServiceNow Discovery, so you can use its features. You can also use specific plugins with the tool, and some of the plugins are free. I don't have information on how much my company pays for the subscription to ServiceNow Discovery."
"It is not recommended for smaller companies because of the price."
"The price could be better. It's a bit on the pricey side."
"The license was paid yearly and included technical support."
"This price of this solution is reasonable."
"While I wouldn't describe it as excessively expensive, if you require specific and reliable monitoring, SolarWinds can be a suitable option. The advantage is that SolarWinds offers a free version as well. If you don't heavily rely on its monitoring capabilities and are content with its basic features, the free version could suffice for your needs."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Educational Organization
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise23
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ServiceNow Discovery?
The solution can prioritize the discovery of IP ranges. The product automatically places all Discovery CIs into the correct class within the CMDB.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Discovery?
The pricing information for ServiceNow Discovery was requested but not provided.
What needs improvement with ServiceNow Discovery?
A CMDB debugging tool to give indication about the errors that appear would be appreciated.
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

York, National Grid, DXC Technology, experian, BEACHBODY
Spotify, MailChimp, Slack, Twitter
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow Discovery vs. SolarWinds Pingdom and other solutions. Updated: September 2020.
883,026 professionals have used our research since 2012.