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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
6.8
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (3rd), Server Monitoring (2nd), 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 (57th)
 

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 5.8%, up 3.7% compared to last year.
SolarWinds Pingdom, on the other hand, focuses on Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability, holds 0.3% mindshare, up 0.2% since last year.
IT Asset Management
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
 

Featured Reviews

Ayobanji Iluyomade - PeerSpot reviewer
Service helps organizations with network discovery and IT infrastructure management but troubleshooting challenges remain
ServiceNow Discovery was adopted by my organization. We use ServiceNow Discovery for discovery and ITSM The most beneficial features of ServiceNow Discovery for maintaining my IT infrastructure are the CMDB top and discovery of network switches. The areas of ServiceNow Discovery that have room…
Jay Vekaria - PeerSpot reviewer
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

"One of the most valuable features of ServiceNow Discovery is the automated discovery that helps identify dependencies and generates reports."
"It has been stable since deployment."
"In the past, I found troubleshooting difficult in ServiceNow Discovery because I didn't have much exposure to the platform during that time, but then I explored some troubleshooting features, and I found that it wasn't that tough, so this is one of the qualities I like about ServiceNow Discovery. I also like that log reading in ServiceNow Discovery is much better than other tools. Another valuable feature of the tool is that you don't need to install many tools to deploy ITSM. You only need to subscribe to the modules to deploy the proper ITSM in your organization."
"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"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."
"We can find servers or services we were unaware of and stumble on vulnerabilities from those devices."
"The solution finds public cloud infrastructures globally and updates the integration management database, service catalogs, and asset management details."
"I would rate the stability of ServiceNow Discovery as nine, as we never had downtime."
"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."
"The most valuable features are monitoring and reporting."
 

Cons

"It creates quite a bit of duplication, so that needs to be fixed."
"I believe there is room for improvement in ServiceNow Discovery, particularly in providing more detailed information about network usage and communication between ServiceNow and the infrastructure."
"It is one of the most costly applications in terms of subscription costs."
"I find it valuable to enhance IP address management. I've been in this field since around 2011, and my experience since then has revolved around automation, deployment, distribution, and comprehensive inventory management, all crucial for deploying various components, including patches. When we talk about patch management or vulnerability management, it's more complex than just applying patches; sometimes, you need to undergo significant upgrades or phase out old components for new ones, and this can turn into a substantial project, explaining why vulnerabilities persist. Now, the role of ServiceNow Discovery and security operations, or at one point, looking at vulnerability management in ServiceNow Discovery, is crucial. It allows you to identify vulnerabilities on assets and, with the addition of discovery, service mapping, and event management, you gain a business context for these vulnerabilities. It's not merely about knowing they exist on a server; it's about understanding which services are responsible for critical business processes or transactions, like payroll. This knowledge changes the approach and execution of vulnerability remediation."
"The solution is too high priced."
"We would like more flexibility with the licensing. Discovery is bundled with ServiceNow's ITOM license. It was more affordable when it was sold separately, but we bought a package license to get more functionality out of the CMDB. We'd prefer to buy only the pieces we need instead of taking things we don't want or solutions that aren't yet mature enough to use."
"In my opinion, it's quite slow compared to other tools, like Device42. Also, there are predefined fields in Device42 that are not available in ServiceNow. These are the basic things I think can be improved here."
"ServiceNow is very costly."
"Technical support could use some improvement."
"Some of the functions could improve by making them easier."
"I would like to see better integration with other products."
"Pingdom is always improving everything in its product. So, they should work on the GUI."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"ServiceNow Discovery's licensing is not a very small investment, but it definitely pays off."
"It's on a yearly basis. We renew our contract for three years at a time."
"It is an expensive product with a price that depends on the models that you wish to purchase."
"There is a subscription for ServiceNow Discovery. It's expensive, but I think it's one of the best solutions on the market, so it's worth it."
"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."
"It costs a lot. It is probably close to over a hundred thousand. It's an expensive platform, but you can't compare ServiceNow's Discovery functionality to other discovery tools. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison of ServiceNow to a configuration management tool to an asset management tool because it does those things, but it's not those things."
"Setting up and licensing for ServiceNow can be expensive, especially for enterprise service management."
"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."
"The license was paid yearly and included technical support."
"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."
"This price of this solution is reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Healthcare Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
29%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
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?
I think the price of ServiceNow Discovery is cheaper than BMC.
What needs improvement with ServiceNow Discovery?
The areas of ServiceNow Discovery that have room for improvement are getting custom reports on the relationship between CIs that are not on the same table.
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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.
860,632 professionals have used our research since 2012.