SolarWinds AppOptics vs Spiceworks comparison

SolarWinds and Spiceworks are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. SolarWinds is ranked #58, while Spiceworks is ranked #47 with an average rating of 8.5. SolarWinds holds a 0.4% mindshare in IM, compared to Spiceworks’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of SolarWinds users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of Spiceworks users who would recommend it.

SolarWinds AppOptics

Read 9 SolarWinds AppOptics reviews

971 Views
447 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Spiceworks

Read 47 Spiceworks reviews

2,142 Views
793 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

SolarWinds AppOptics

Spiceworks

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Spiceworks and SolarWinds AppOptics compete in the IT management and monitoring category. Spiceworks holds an advantage for SMBs due to its free pricing and user-friendly installation, while AppOptics is superior in offering comprehensive features for enterprise-level monitoring.

Features: Spiceworks is ideal for SMBs with features such as remote monitoring, basic ticketing, and active IT community support. It provides an easy setup that is appealing to companies without an established infrastructure management system. SolarWinds AppOptics offers extensive performance monitoring, topology discovery, and detailed network insights, making it valuable for larger enterprises.

Room for Improvement: Spiceworks faces challenges in scalability and performance, with limited ticketing impacting its use for larger organizations. Its reporting tools need better filtering and analysis capabilities. SolarWinds AppOptics could enhance its implementation process, pricing structures, and integration with other IT tools. Both could improve user interface and usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Spiceworks offers straightforward on-premises deployment and relies on community-driven support. SolarWinds AppOptics provides both on-premises and cloud deployment options, with formal customer service channels for support.

Pricing and ROI: Spiceworks is entirely free, offering remarkable ROI for SMBs with budget constraints. Its no-cost pricing is a significant advantage. SolarWinds AppOptics, with licensing fees based on elements, provides advanced features that justify its cost for enterprises demanding thorough monitoring solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed SolarWinds AppOptics vs. Spiceworks Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds AppOptics vs. Spiceworks

July 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

SolarWinds AppOptics

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

58th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (56th), Cloud Monitoring Software (43rd)

Spiceworks

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

47th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Help Desk Software (15th), IT Asset Management (12th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of SolarWinds AppOptics is 0.4%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Spiceworks is 0.4%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Featured Reviews

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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Rohit Samel

Account Manager Enterprise Sales at Navdeep Technologies Pvt.Ltd

Cloud storage with no hardware needed and great comprehensive reports

The software is cloud-based, so I do not need to store any data locally. It is a fully software-based solution, eliminating the need for investment in hardware. We have the capability to create reports as needed. It is good software to use, as there were no incidents where I needed to contact technical support. Additionally, it is free software.

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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

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

"The sum solution, NTA, and DPA."

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

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

"The reporting of the solution is very good."

"The product has a great dashboard."

"It's easy to understand."

"Tickets by e-mail, with actions by hastag."

"The software is cloud-based, so I do not need to store any data locally."

"The solution is easy to use and easy to manage."

"The most valuable features are the inventory and personalization."

"If you're in the market for a low-cost service desk system, Spiceworks is a good software solution to start out with, especially when it comes to startups and those organizations that don't currently have any existing service desk software in place."

"The nice thing about Spiceworks is always it's free. Monitoring of printers for low toner. Finding machines that have low memory or low hard disk space."

"Helpdesk and inventory are both equally valuable, and they form the true core of the product."

More Spiceworks pros

Cons

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

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

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

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

"The solution should be more user-friendly."

"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."

"There are a lot of disadvantages to Spiceworks because it's not an agent-based solution."

"The GUI must be improved."

"I would like to see more information when drilling down into access permissions, assignments management, or tagging. When I click a note or a device, I should be able to see more details about the router and modem. For example, I want to see the version, downtime, availability, latency, etc. I should have easy access to everything about our assets at a glance."

"I would like the solution to allow for more direct interaction with computers. I can open tickets and I can see their status, but I can't interact directly with the computers themselves."

"Having an integrated asset management tool, where I can plug in things that are offline, would be good."

"One of the biggest ways in which Spiceworks could improve is by developing better and more automated workflows. For example, in another solution called ServiceDesk by ManageEngine, you can have levels of approval in the event that there is a request for new software, or when someone requests a VPN or WiFi connection. This kind of multi-stage approval feature provided by ServiceDesk does not appear to exist in Spiceworks, and it is one of their main shortcomings for me."

"Sometimes, it can be difficult to integrate what you need."

"It would be nice to have remote access to the solution via a tablet. They also need remote control from a PC. Right now, to complete the technical support process, you have to have a tool to access the PC, and check the problems."

More Spiceworks cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"I believe the current licensing cost is reasonable."

"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."

"The product is free! Get it now."

"It's free."

"Seeing that it is a low-cost solution, I would advise you to go ahead with Spiceworks and experiment with it to see if you can get things working properly, especially if you currently don't have any existing service desk software in place."

"It might be about $300 annually for a bigger company. If you pay annually, it's better and cheaper."

"The tool is cheap."

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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…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

University

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about Spiceworks?

The solution is easy to use and easy to manage.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Spiceworks?

The tool is cheap.

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What needs improvement with Spiceworks?

I am unable to provide suggestions for improvement at this moment, however, I can provide feedback later. Currently, there do not seem to be any issues.

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Comparisons

Dynatrace vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 26% of the time

New Relic vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 23% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 11% of the time

Zenoss Cloud vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 8% of the time

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 7% of the time

More SolarWinds AppOptics Competitors

ServiceNow vs Spiceworks

Compared 35% of the time

Zabbix vs Spiceworks

Compared 26% of the time

Lansweeper vs Spiceworks

Compared 20% of the time

Freshdesk vs Spiceworks

Compared 7% of the time

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs Spiceworks

Compared 7% of the time

More Spiceworks Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

August 2025

Download SolarWinds AppOptics product report

Buyer's Guide

Spiceworks

July 2025

Download Spiceworks product report

Also Known As

AppOptics, SolarWinds TraceView, Librato

No data available

Overview

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

From network inventory and network monitoring to help desk software, and mobile device management (MDM) to cloud services detection, Spiceworks helps you manage everything about your IT workday from one easy place.

Spiceworks

Sample Customers

TraxoCovea Insurance BTE TechnologyDatarista

Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Symantec, Webroot, EMC, Pertino

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds AppOptics vs. Spiceworks

July 2025

Free Report: SolarWinds AppOptics vs. Spiceworks

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