SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs Stackify comparison

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

Stackify and SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor are two prominent solutions in monitoring server and application performance. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor has the upper hand with its feature-rich offering, making it a worthwhile investment for users.

Features: Stackify offers seamless integration, efficient performance monitoring capabilities, and intuitive dashboards. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor provides comprehensive monitoring features, in-depth insights, and broad compatibility with various environments.

Room for Improvement: Stackify could enhance its troubleshooting tools, offer more detailed analytics, and improve user interface customization. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor could improve its complexity, ease of navigation, and manage the steep learning curve.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Stackify is praised for its quick, hassle-free deployment, and responsive customer service. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor often requires a more intricate setup and seasoned IT knowledge, and though effective, its customer support is perceived as less approachable.

Pricing and ROI: Stackify is noted for its competitive pricing and good ROI, especially for small to medium-sized enterprises. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor, despite higher setup costs, delivers substantial ROI through its extensive features and reliability, making it a favored choice for larger-scale implementations.

To learn more, read our detailed SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Stackify Report (Updated: June 2026).

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Stackify

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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 Server and Appli...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

18th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

4.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (6th), Active Directory Management (8th)

Stackify

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

58th

Average Rating

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (67th), Log Management (57th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.1%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Stackify is 0.7%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor	1.1%
Stackify	0.7%
Other	98.2%

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

NikhilKalwint

Technical Specialist at ServiceIO

Monitoring over a thousand systems has improved decision making and operational visibility

From an advantage perspective, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is comparatively cheaper from a commercial point of view. It is easy to install and configure, very user-friendly, and quick to get up and running, allowing you to see the early value adds in your organization. It is compatible with most technologies for monitoring with very few chances of incompatibility. Configuration also allows us to monitor all the technical parameters we are looking for, making it a very good experience for us. The alerting feature in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is a main advantage, as it alerts based on threshold breaches and can raise tickets to the ticketing system, send SMS, and email notifications, allowing engineers to work on those tickets to resolve issues and avoid further impact. The visibility into server health is a beneficial feature that I am utilizing. We widely use various application performance metrics in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor such as database monitoring and server monitoring, which are quite good enough for any monitoring solution. We utilize the customizable dashboards in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor.

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Idoko Emmanuel

Senior Software Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Has good filtering and rating features and helps with resource and load management

I've not used Stackify for a while, and I'm currently using a solution now that's not as good as Stackify. Among the solutions I've been using so far, Stackify has been one of the best for me, but there's always room for improvement. For example, I don't know if it's just me, but when I try to get the log from Stackify, sometimes it doesn't appear in real-time. It takes a few minutes before the logs appear. When I redeploy my solution and the application starts, I don't see the logs immediately, and it would take two to three minutes before I see the logs. I don't know if other customers have a similar experience. It's the wait time for the logs to appear that's a concern for me, could be improved, and is what the Stackify team should be looking into. In terms of any additional feature that I'd like added to the solution, I'm not sure if Stackify has a way to export logs out. I've been trying to do it. On the solution, you can click on a spiral-like icon and it shows you the entire error, and I'd prefer an export button that would let me download the error and save that into a text file, for example, so it'll be available on my local machine for me to reference it, especially because the log keeps going and as you're using the solution, the system keeps pushing messages on to Stackify, so if I'm looking at a particular error at 12:05 PM, for example, by the time I go back to my system and would like to revisit the error at 12:25 PM, on Stackify, the logs would have gone past that level and I won't see it again which makes it difficult. When you now go back to that timestamp, you don't tend to see it immediately, but if the solution had an export feature for me to save that particular error information on my local machine for reference at a later time, I won't have to go back to Stackify. I just go to that log, specifically to that particular export that I've received on my local machine. I can get it and review it, and it would be easier that way versus me going back to Stackify to find that particular error and request that particular information.

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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

"This product can monitor application environments no matter where they reside and provides capabilities for deep insight into infrastructure."

"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is the network devices' performance monitor is the best."

"This feature from Solarwinds SAM helped us to monitor and alert whenever the SSL cert is going to expire on the server to avoid any downtime of the services running on the server specially on ADFS platform where we have Video conference, Webex, Office 365 and single sign-on services."

"It is easy to install and configure, very user-friendly, and quick to get up and running, allowing you to see the early value adds in your organization."

"The component and cable monitoring are good. SolarWinds is more intuitive and user-friendly than AppDynamics. The AppDynamics console is more complex because it's a more feature-rich solution, so it's not easy for somebody to pick it up."

"I find it to be a strong product suite, particularly when you need a comprehensive monitoring tool."

"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is its powerful monitoring capabilities."

"SSL Certificate Monitoring and Expiry Alerting"

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

"What stood out to us were the metrics and granular details we received."

"My advice to anyone who wants to use Stackify is to go for it because my experience with it is good."

"The deployment is very fast."

"We switched from New Relic and Loggly as it provides us more info at a lower price."

"The performance dashboard and the accurate level of details are beneficial."

"Within few hours of install we've identify the source of issue we've been investigating for few days and couldn't pin point."

"It is very simple and very easy to configure."

"The solution is stable and reliable."

More Stackify pros

Cons

"The current script monitoring feature has limitations, especially when dealing with custom scripts."

"It should also be easier to upgrade SolarWinds. AppDynamics is harder to deploy but easier to upgrade. So AppDynamics takes a lot of time and effort to install, but you can upgrade it in minutes. SolarWinds is the opposite. It's easy to deploy, but upgrades take forever. To date, nobody can complete it on time, so the production environment is sitting idle."

"For each poller, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor can only monitor up to ten thousand components, which restricts scalability."

"SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor could improve by having a cloud version. They have an observability platform but it still needs to be maintained by us."

"AppInsight needs to include more applications, the current list is very limited."

"The templates could use improvement. Currently, they are quite complex. They should have drag-and-drop functionality instead. It would make it easier to use."

"A lot of times, we have to do a lot of manual cleanups."

"SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is not stable. We have to maintain the platform and it goes down frequently."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

"When I redeploy my solution and the application starts, I don't see the logs immediately, and it would take two to three minutes before I see the logs."

"It should be easily scalable and configurable in different instances."

"The search feature could be improved."

"I would like to be able to see metrics about individual running containers on the host machines."

"Better mobile support."

"I'm looking to see more performance tools, but heard that they are going to release some."

"One thing that happens as a new user on Stackify is when you install the agent it pulls everything and if you're not careful, your log allowance will just be exhausted as you are actually pulling too much data."

"It's not easy to set up. It's hard especially for juniors to understand."

More Stackify cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is overpriced in terms of application management."

"The price is too high."

"The product might cost you $30,000 USD to buy, but scaling this solution requires the purchase of additional polling engines at $20,000 USD each."

"When planning for the number of licenses to purchase, make sure you understand all of the elements within an application required to really understand performance well. In our case, we quickly came to the conclusion that an unlimited license for SAM was the way to go."

"The product is expensive."

"Nagios XI, WhatsUpGold, Uptime Software, PRTG, Manage Engine, and SpiceWorks are the other tools that have lower pricing and licensing costs. However, they can't compete with SolarWinds when it comes to the features and functionality that SolarWinds can provide."

"SAM is not per server so the pricing model can be deceiving. If you have an enterprise environment, you will quickly exceed your licensing quickly. You should know this before going in."

"I have always said SolarWinds is very “proud” of their products, meaning they are expensive. I cannot afford to purchase all the licenses I need for all the SolarWinds products."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pricing and cost advice

"The price is variable. It depends on how much data we have received in that particular month. Usually, it goes up to $2,000, or, at times, $3,000 USD per month."

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902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

13%

University

Financial Services Firm

Government

Construction Company

21%

Comms Service Provider

13%

Media Company

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	21

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

The initial cost is quite high, but the renewal cost is reasonable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

There is definitely room for improvement besides simplifying its setup. As a non-technical person, I believe the dashboards could be improved. Everything we use appears on video walls, and we need ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

I am doing research as we currently have both solutions, and I am looking to see if we need both or can manage with one. Currently, the outcome indicates that we need both. The focus point is diffe...

See all answers

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Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

OpenText SiteScope vs Stackify

Compared 4% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs Stackify

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Product Reports

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

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SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report

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Also Known As

SolarWinds SAM

No data available

Overview

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor provides comprehensive server, application, and infrastructure monitoring, focusing on integration, application dependency, and network insights through user-friendly interfaces and detailed dashboards.

With AppStack and AppInsight support, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor offers service management, detailed resource dashboards, and integration capabilities. It monitors hardware metrics and performance parameters, facilitating database and network insights for cloud and virtual environments. Robust alerting, predictive analytics, and capacity planning ensure efficient management of server health and application performance.

What are the key features?

Integration: Seamlessly connects with existing tools.
AppStack: Provides a holistic view of applications.
AppInsight: Supports widely-used applications.
SNMP Polling: Efficient network data collection.
Diagnostics: Real-time troubleshooting.
Customizable Dashboards: Tailored monitoring views.

What benefits should users expect?

Comprehensive Monitoring: Extends from servers to databases.
Transparent Control: Enhances visibility into performance metrics.
User-Friendly: Simplifies proactive monitoring with alerts.
Predictive Features: Supports capacity and trend planning.

Industries implement SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor to enhance server utilization reporting, network configuration, and AV equipment performance tracking. They benefit from monitoring critical services across diverse deployment models, improving management efficiency and decision-making.

SolarWinds

Stackify enhances application performance monitoring with features like detailed logging and effective filtering options, integrating capabilities to eliminate the need for multiple tools, and providing rapid deployment and stable performance.

Stackify offers a comprehensive solution for business insight through custom dashboards, error monitoring, load management, and application scoring. Its ability to visualize performance by creating responsive dashboards helps connect business and technical teams. Despite its strengths, users seek improvements such as better mobile support, real-time log appearance, and Docker documentation. Enhanced Linux support and agent memory optimization are also desired, along with better visibility into container and application performance metrics. Integrating more plugins and options would make Stackify a more robust monitoring tool.

What are the key features of Stackify?

Detailed Log and Error Data: Provides in-depth traces and logs for error and data analysis.
Custom Dashboards: Offers business insights and application scoring through tailored dashboards.
Performance Metrics: Monitors application and server performance effectively.
Simple Configuration: Ensures easier setup and deployment without complexities.
Filtering Options: Enables effective management of logs and errors through filters.

What benefits should be expected from using Stackify?

Improved Performance Monitoring: Provides tools to identify root causes and enhance application and server monitoring.
Resource Management: Manages server utilization and handles resource spikes efficiently.
Proactive Alerts: Allows setting up alerts across platforms like AWS and Docker.
Log Aggregation: Compiles logs for testing and analysis to improve system performance.

Organizations across industries use Stackify for extensive application performance monitoring, particularly in testing environments. It is crucial for analyzing database calls, third-party requests, and aggregating logs. Its capabilities in monitoring across AWS and Docker environments make it especially valuable for dynamic and distributed infrastructures.

Sample Customers

Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite

MyRacePass, ClearSale, Newitts, Carbonite, Boston Software, Children's International, Starkwood Media Group, Fewzion

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Stackify