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SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs Tenable Identity Exposure 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

SolarWinds Server and Appli...
Ranking in Active Directory Management
11th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.0
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (20th), Server Monitoring (10th)
Tenable Identity Exposure
Ranking in Active Directory Management
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Active Directory Management category, the mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.0%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tenable Identity Exposure is 6.8%, up from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Active Directory Management
 

Featured Reviews

Subhajit Nag - PeerSpot reviewer
The component and cable monitoring features are good, but the interface is slow
SolarWinds' interface is slow, and this is a global concern. Every SolarWinds user complains about the sluggishness. The response is slow. If you browse from one page to another, you have to wait. Our company is a massive user with plenty of licenses, so the performance issues could be due to the load per license. Ten thousand components can be mapped under one license. So SolarWinds needs to take care of the speed problem. It cannot be this slow. That is a huge complaint. Otherwise, the tool is good. 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. The upgrade time matters because you only install the solution once, but you'll need to upgrade the solution repeatedly over the life of the product. A complex installation isn't an issue, but I mind if the upgrade takes too long because it's already in production.
Alexandru Cioruta - PeerSpot reviewer
An easy-to-implement solution that provides good reporting features and protects users’ AD infrastructure
We use Tenable Identity Exposure for our customers who have legacy AD still in use to see any exposure and protect their AD infrastructure as much as possible The solution is easy to implement, and its reporting is great. From the start, you get to see the exposure of your AD. So, it doesn't need…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is simple to implement and can provide fairly decent Windows-based monitoring, beyond simple SNMP. It is great for monitoring newbies and smaller shops."
"The application dependency feature identifies issues between applications and servers or within the network where the application is hosted. It highlights related problems, whether related to packet processing or other issues, enabling the creation of alerts and reports accordingly."
"The most valuable feature is the Access Rights Manager."
"The solution has good alerts. Notifications are sent via email to technicians. You can filter the kinds of alerts you want to receive as well. It's excellent."
"There are many valuable features, including the network configuration manager, and the network performance manager."
"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is its powerful monitoring capabilities."
"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."
"SolarWinds is a very stable platform compared to others on the market."
"The solution is easy to implement, and its reporting is great."
 

Cons

"The major concern in the product revolves around application performance monitoring since end-to-end application monitoring is not possible with the tool."
"One area that could benefit from improvement is its performance"
"It needs time-based functions for monitoring. Some things need to be polled on a specific schedule or only during a specific window."
"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."
"There is one feature that is a report writer. And they are currently trying to take it out from being a stand-alone application and integrating to the web. This doesn't give us the flexibility and it doesn't expand what we can get when it comes to reporting. So, putting it on the web is going to make it difficult to get some information. Leaving it where it is now will help us a lot."
"Downside of the tools is the web console are hung or crash. It need to improve the performance."
"A lot of times, we have to do a lot of manual cleanups."
"It would be helpful if the solution could integrate more with the security compliances, like this IDSS, etc."
"Tenable Identity Exposure is more expensive than Defender for Identity."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I think SolarWinds' pricing is very decent compared to other competitors in the market."
"Pricing and licensing is fair for what you get. It does have a great bang-for-the-buck appeal."
"Its licensing is on a yearly basis. It is just the standard price, but it can vary depending on the current rate of the dollar."
"Understanding the counts of objects to monitor will determine the licensing need. In terms of pricing, it’s not cheap but it’s not expensive as larger vendors whose products don’t have all the features or integrations."
"The solution is overpriced in terms of application management."
"Pricing is inexpensive, starting at 2440 euros. For that, you get the ability to monitor a couple of nodes and one year of maintenance and support."
"Price can always be lower. It is neither on the expensive side nor on the cheap side. We have worked with them for a lot of years, so we get a discount due to the size of the installation."
"We pay around $ 2,000 to $ 5,000 yearly for the solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
36%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?
There are no specific features or functionality I would like to see improved or enhanced in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor at this time. I have not encountered any missing features or fu...
What do you like most about Tenable Identity Exposure?
The solution is easy to implement, and its reporting is great.
What needs improvement with Tenable Identity Exposure?
Tenable Identity Exposure is more expensive than Defender for Identity.
What is your primary use case for Tenable Identity Exposure?
We use Tenable Identity Exposure for our customers who have legacy AD still in use to see any exposure and protect their AD infrastructure as much as possible.
 

Also Known As

SolarWinds SAM
Teanble.ad
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about ManageEngine, One Identity, Netwrix and others in Active Directory Management. Updated: April 2025.
851,371 professionals have used our research since 2012.