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SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager vs WhatsUp Gold comparison

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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

Microsoft Intune
Sponsored
Ranking in Configuration Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
358
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (2nd), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
SolarWinds Network Configur...
Ranking in Configuration Management
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Network Automation (4th)
WhatsUp Gold
Ranking in Configuration Management
21st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (30th), Network Monitoring Software (23rd), Server Monitoring (15th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (18th), Log Management (41st), Cloud Monitoring Software (22nd), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 5.4%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is 3.0%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhatsUp Gold is 1.4%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Configuration Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Intune5.4%
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager3.0%
WhatsUp Gold1.4%
Other90.2%
Configuration Management
 

Featured Reviews

Varun Mehra - PeerSpot reviewer
collaboration support engineer at a retailer with 11-50 employees
Centralized device management has transformed security and streamlined remote provisioning
One area where Microsoft Intune can improve is the user interface. Sometimes the portal feels a bit complex and not very intuitive, especially for new users, and it can take time to find specific settings. Another point is troubleshooting. While logs are available, the diagnostic policies and sync issues can still be time-consuming and not very straightforward. I also feel that reporting could be more detailed and customizable. The built-in reports are helpful, but for deeper insights, I often need to rely on additional tools. Overall, it is a strong solution, but improving usability and troubleshooting experience would make it even better. While Microsoft Intune works very well within the Microsoft ecosystem, the integration of some third-party tools could be smoother and require less customization. Support is another area that could improve, as sometimes response times can be slow, and resolving complex issues may take longer than expected. In terms of features, I think more advanced automation and built-in remediation options would be helpful since common issues can be fixed automatically without manual intervention.
reviewer1327239 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Automated configuration management has improved monitoring, backups, and policy control
I do not think there is anything I would like to improve at this point in time because SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager compares almost perfectly to what it is supposed to do. I think it is one of the best products in its category. Regarding the automation capabilities of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager, I think that is an area they will need to explore in making it more autonomous. Discovery happens through IP address scanning, but building out automation is something they need to focus on. I absolutely believe in providing automation for SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. It is essential to address how to deploy, discover, and remediate wherever possible. I think that is something they should already be looking at because AAFS is currently something everybody is focused on, and storage also needs to consider it.
EC
Technical Manager at Quan Hung Gourmet
Efficient monitoring with detailed customization, yet complexity remains
The best feature of WhatsUp Gold is the automatic generation of topology and its integration with virtualization and wireless. I have used the automated device discovery with this topology feature. The interactive map feature helps me manage the topology because sometimes we cannot draw the topology correctly, so we need to manually edit the connections. The alerting system is very tunable and customizable, but it's a little complicated to use. Many customers cannot manage it by themselves and need support from us, the provider. We always use the dashboards in the SOC, where we constantly display a dashboard or multiple dashboards. This allows us to know immediately if the connection or bandwidth is full or if the connection is broken.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The user experience with Microsoft Intune is excellent because we can manage users and maintain security and policies anywhere they are."
"It is absolutely a positive investment."
"The one feature we find most useful is the Mobile Application Manager; we don't give our users phones, it is their own personal phone, and we need to allow them to have access to the company data on their phone while creating a balance between their own personal data and the company data so that we won't be able to interfere with their own personal data."
"The most reliable feature is the integration with Microsoft XDR, which grants administrators and solution architects like me the ability to bring value to a business."
"Intune makes it possible for us to reach all the endpoints and have them protected at all times."
"I have seen a return on investment right from the start of the tool's usage."
"The Advanced Endpoint Analytics in Microsoft Intune has improved and helps us proactively detect and remediate anomalies in endpoints."
"This improved control and visibility has helped my organization by reducing risks, saving time, and making compliance easier."
"It's a helpful tool and I really like it."
"We can proactively monitor our infrastructure in a single pane of glass, unlike before when there were a lot of network management tools that would need to be looked at."
"Configuration refers to the specific settings and options that determine how a device or system behaves. It can include things, such as network settings, security settings, and other options that are specific to the device or system in question. One of the most valuable features of the solution was its ability to track and monitor changes to the configuration of devices on a network. This can be useful for troubleshooting and identifying potential issues. By keeping track of who made changes to the configuration and when it can be easier to determine the cause of any problems that may arise."
"I use it for monitoring the entire network for the company. We oversee nodes down, we oversee devices heading up to crossing the threshold for CPU usage. We oversee power so power backups on the switches, we oversee if they're down or if they're failing. We oversee any node down or any router from any vendor."
"The most valuable features the solution offers are compliance, reliability, and information about reliability."
"The solution's view is very nice, and they have a great customized dashboard."
"SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager can be used for backing up network device configuration, which helps you be more secure because when you have a system failure, you can get the information back."
"The feature that I really enjoy is the ability to script changes across all of your devices."
"It is very good at monitoring the network and keeps us up to date on the status of internal devices."
"We've been using it for many years and we use it typically for early warning, as it notifies customers of problems prior to failure."
"It is stable."
"One thing good about WhatsUp Gold is that it is fairly stable."
"There is a flow monitor option, so we can trace the source IP, the destination IP, and top talker feature in this."
"Their tech support is very good."
"In terms of pricing, I'd say that the pricing is nice and the product is good."
"The most valuable features are network bandwidth monitoring and monitoring device health."
 

Cons

"Historically, Group Policy has simplified the management of various items, such as printer and drive mappings and while Intune offers workarounds, it lacks native support for these functionalities. This is an area I believe needs improvement."
"The pricing could be improved."
"Technical support can be challenging when resources shift, requiring repeated explanations. Support from India sometimes provides information without the right solution."
"Almost every day during the initial deployment, I would chat with technical support for solutions. They did not give me a suitable solution to solve the false positive alarms."
"What I'd like to see in their next upgrade is more in the context of today's security policies and what's needed, for them to keep adding features based on that, for example boosting security, so they can keep on adding security features, and that is the best they can do."
"There is room for improvement in server patch management and allowing direct uploads of EXE applications instead of needing to convert them to Intune format, which would save time."
"Customer service is not really good. I would give it a six out of ten. The main issue is the time it takes to get someone involved who truly understands what the product does."
"One area where Microsoft Intune could improve is policy troubleshooting and reporting. Identifying why a device is non-compliant or why a deployment failed can sometimes require longer than expected."
"The third-party plugins available in the solution could improve. I have received some issues with the templates."
"Its look and feel can be improved. They can also put in more effort into building the THWACK community and use the information about various customer issues and requests to build the new releases."
"Our experience has shown that most of the problems we've had with SolarWinds NCM are related to software issues."
"The network logs could be improved. When the error logs come across with those false positive alarms in the error logs."
"The network flow is a problem for this solution."
"The Network Configuration Manager needs to improve the access control list compliance."
"On NCM, reporting could be a bit better. It's completely become just one report. When I try to create a custom report, the solution just commits old server data."
"It would be great if they include a network service manager, network performance manager, or privileged assessment in the next release."
"Integrations with other devices. I want to have a product that has full integration with my active directory so I can track user activity."
"We can never achieve or get a good picture of the network topology."
"The interface needs some work."
"You have to invest a few days to become an expert in this solution, but after that, it's possible to do almost anything with it."
"The price could be improved. When we first started using this product, the company was new. The prices were very low then, in comparison with HP OpenView or IBM, but now the policy is too high, relative to the number of devices we have."
"The point system is not clear and clarity around this would improve our understanding of the system."
"The new release cadence needs to be improved. It takes a while for them to add new features and functionality. There should be a quicker turnaround with new versions."
"The technical support does not bother to respond."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Intune is available as an individual product, but it also comes with Office 365 Premium or an Enterprise license, and the price varies for each version."
"Its pricing seems reasonable."
"There are licenses required for this solution. We enable licenses on the devices we need to manage."
"Even if they charge a premium, they aim to provide equal value."
"All security solutions worldwide are expensive. Microsoft has allowed a small scale of features within Microsoft Intune for cost-efficient solutions. If you want the full suite, you need to invest more to gain better security features."
"The Intune license model is costly."
"For organizations that are a Microsoft shop, the pricing is compelling."
"We have the business premium licenses for the solution."
"There is a license for the use of this solution and it is priced well, there is a lot of value for the money."
"With a minimal bundle, we pay about $3000 a year in licensing costs. If you have multiple devices in your network, you must buy the bundle, which is 100% identical for your infrastructure. If you have 15 devices, you need 15 licenses, for example. That's one bundle. You don't pay for anything over and above that."
"You have a base license for 50 devices, and then you can add more licenses as you go."
"Available at a moderate price"
"In Africa, the cost is a major factor in decision-making for many companies. As a result, some companies may choose cheaper solutions, even if they are open-source, over more expensive ones, such as SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. However, as an engineer, I believe that the functionalities and services offered by SolarWinds justify the cost. Nonetheless, many companies in Africa may still view the prices as unaffordable."
"Additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee are inevitable."
"Pricing is reasonable and competitive."
"There is a license needed to use SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager."
"The choice of version depends on the number of points, or devices, that you want to monitor, and this makes the product expensive."
"This is a well priced solution."
"I'm not sure, but it's expensive. We don't pay any additional fees."
"There is a license needed to use WhatsUp Gold."
"The tool's price is reasonable. WhatsUp Gold is cheaper than SolarWinds."
"The most valuable feature is the cost compared to other solutions."
"Pricing is reasonable compared to other products."
"The pricing can be on the expensive side when considering competing products."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
7%
Government
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
7%
University
6%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business157
Midsize Enterprise59
Large Enterprise181
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

How does Microsoft Intune compare with VMware Workspace One?
Microsoft Intune is a great tool for managing a mobile device fleet while keeping access control. The solution makes ...
What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune is a great configuration management tool and has a lot of good things going for it. Here are some of...
How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager?
The licensing costs of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager are expensive, but considering its reliability, featu...
What needs improvement with SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager?
NCM could benefit from enhanced automation capabilities — for instance, enabling workflow-based configuration automat...
What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager?
I work with SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager ( /products/solarwinds-network-configuration-manager-reviews ) a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for WhatsUp Gold?
Clients find the licensing calculator confusing, but we simplify this for them by collecting relevant information fir...
What needs improvement with WhatsUp Gold?
It would be great if WhatsUp Gold could add features that simplify management with AI, as it is currently too complic...
What is your primary use case for WhatsUp Gold?
My use case for WhatsUp Gold includes all device availability checks, bandwidth usage, CPU, and memory usage, as well...
 

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
SolarWinds NCM
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
United Lincolnshire Hospitals, Air Rarotonga, NetSuite, Thai AirAsia, REA Group, 335th Signal Command, Agilisys, Marine Expeditionary Force
Artoni Trasporti, Austin Independent School District, Banca Marche, Burke County North Carolina, Cambridge University School of Clinical Medicine, Clayco, Community Integrated Care, Desca, Deutsche Bergbau, Flexi-Van, Gropper, Hamleys, Hammonds Furniture, Knowledge IT, Idras S.P.A., Sibeg, Swann Engineering, Trivium Lindenhof
Find out what your peers are saying about SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager vs. WhatsUp Gold and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
894,668 professionals have used our research since 2012.