SolarWinds Virtualization Manager vs VMware Aria Operations comparison

SolarWinds Virtualization Manager vs. VMware Aria Operations

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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 Virtualization M...

Ranking in Virtualization Management Tools

6th

Average Rating

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

VMware Aria Operations

Ranking in Virtualization Management Tools

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

376

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Management (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Virtualization Management Tools category, the mindshare of SolarWinds Virtualization Manager is 10.5%, up from 9.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Operations is 24.7%, down from 34.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Virtualization Management Tools Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
VMware Aria Operations	24.7%
SolarWinds Virtualization Manager	10.5%
Other	64.8%

Virtualization Management Tools

Featured Reviews

Ravi Khanchandani

Founder Director at Techsa Services

Optimizing virtual environments by reclaiming and allocating resources efficiently

SolarWinds Virtualization Manager optimizes VM performance and virtualization. It provides me with recommendations for resource allocation, indicating if a virtual machine is under-provisioned or over-provisioned. This allows me to reclaim resources, such as reducing the number of CPU cores or RAM, which is beneficial. Its capacity planning feature is also very useful for me. The GUI is highly simplified, cutting across various virtualization platforms, including VMware, Hyper-V, and Nutanix environments.

Read full review

AldoDomini

Senior System Network Analyst at Net spa

Have faced limitations due to high costs but have maintained reliability over time

The primary issue is the pricing, which is very expensive for my company's budget. We cannot afford to pay such a large fee. We are not Microsoft or BMW; we are a small company. As a small company, I have no power to negotiate directly with VMware. Perhaps larger companies have more opportunity to contract directly with VMware, but I do not have that leverage. The only path I can follow is to change solutions. Net.spA is a company working in the field of waste management. We are not a technological company, so we do not have a large margin to justify purchasing and maintaining the VMware infrastructure at current costs.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"If you’re looking to get a lot more insight into your virtualization environment and more than just basic information, SolarWinds Virtualization Manager is the choice you should make."

"The most valuable features of SolarWinds Virtualization Manager are the non-Windows servers' monitoring and capacity planning."

"Virtualization manager’s cost analysis comparison report identified areas in which specific customers were being grossly undercharged for their resource consumption levels, as compared to rates available through AWS."

"This product is so helpful out-of-the-box."

"SolarWinds Virtualization Manager optimizes VM performance and virtualization."

"The most valuable features of SolarWinds Virtualization Manager are the non-Windows servers' monitoring and capacity planning."

"Alerting expands, and makes, our monitoring and management much more efficient."

More SolarWinds Virtualization Manager pros

"This solution has helped to reduce time to troubleshoot issues, improve quality of service to users, and provide costs savings through higher capacity utilization."

"The product is a single pane of glass for faults and warnings, for VMs that are undersized or hosts that are undersized or struggling with resources, and for validating that the sizing for a VM is accurate."

"We used to do all the calculations manually, and now everything is done within the analytics engine itself, giving us a very clear vision, or data, about what we need in our infrastructure support applications."

"The capacity management has saved us more than 30% on storage."

"It has increased the speed of VM deployment; a normal server request would come in, it could take anywhere from three to four days to deploy and now within 15 minutes they can click and have something up and running."

"I would say vROps gives us 30% faster throughput, faster return on investment or better return on investment, so I consider it a good investment."

"I would definitely recommend the solution."

"As a VMware engineer, the visibility of the infrastructure that it provides is something that I am really impressed with."

More VMware Aria Operations pros

Cons

"The UI is a little cumbersome at first, but the more you use it and get accustomed to it, the simpler it becomes."

"SolarWinds needs to support integration with other virtualization platforms like KVM or Linux-based systems."

"The problem or issue with the product is related to its pricing."

"The SolarWinds Virtualization Manager platform in general can have a better response time in the performance."

"I had some stability issues. I lost my environment."

"Out of the box support for a wider array of hardware vendor/device-specific SNMP mibs could be improved upon."

"Adhoc reporting takes time to get used to – due mainly to the fact that the team I am on are all admins, and not necessarily accustomed to query reporting in the manner utilized by Solarwinds Virtualization Manager."

More SolarWinds Virtualization Manager cons

"One area that needs improvement is the solution's connectivity and integration with other products, such as IBM and Huawei servers and storage."

"Honestly, I wish the reports were a little bit more snazzy, if that makes sense."

"If I had to think of one thing that could be improved, I would probably lean towards making it easier to pull dashboards from vRealize Operations into other products, like a company-branded dashboard that would display in a NOC."

"I occasionally use VMware technical support, and it is bad, to be honest."

"It's great at providing information but to the point where it can be overwhelming sometimes."

"Out of all of the tools that VMware provides, I think vRealize is probably one of the more challenging tools."

"I think the dev ops for Horizon need improvement."

"Continue on the endpoint side, so you can dig deeper into the Windows operating system, services, and events, because we're trying to use it to replace System Center Operations Manager (SCOM). It doesn't quite do everything, but it's getting there."

More VMware Aria Operations cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The is an annual subscription needed to use this solution."

"The maintenance and support are a part of the package, meaning it is included in the product's price."

"If one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the product price an eight out of ten."

"Cost is an issue on vROps. The Standard edition, for an organization our size, is just not useful at all. However, I like the price point of vROps Standard. But as a company, the Advanced is the minimum version that we can use, because we need the customization, we need a lot of the features that Advanced brings. But the price is substantially higher than Standard. It's always been a challenge to try to go in to my leadership and say, "Here's what I want." I've always got to go back and super-justify it and it's not an easy win. Whereas, if the pricing were closer to the Standard model, or maybe even a little bit above that, it's an easier conversation with leadership. But because it really feels like more than double the price, I'm not sure the value, double the money, is there, as an easy-sell to my leadership."

"This is an enterprise-level product and everything is included in the VMware Suite license."

"Get the right licensing and increase your licensing as you upgrade and grow. If you get the wrong licensing, it will be expensive, especially if you plan improperly."

"If you compare the prices of VMware and the cloud solutions along with the components that you may use, I feel that it may be costly."

"Five or six years ago, when we took it, it was a very good option. Now, I think I have to reevaluate, to be honest."

"If the VMs were trimmed, then we wouldn't have to buy as much software/hardware, and this means less licenses. While most of it is VMware licenses, which are relatively cheap, there are SQL licenses for Microsoft, and this is where we could start saving a lot of money."

"We would like to build custom dashboards in the standard license. Right now, this is available in the enterprise license, not the standard license."

More VMware Aria Operations pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Healthcare Company

Government

Energy/Utilities Company

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Marketing Services Firm

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	65
Midsize Enterprise	62
Large Enterprise	281

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Virtualization Manager?

This solution delivers significant cost savings, especially from a capacity perspective. Consistent monitoring is essential in a virtualization environment, and Virtualization Manager, or VMAN as i...

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Virtualization Manager?

SolarWinds needs to support integration with other virtualization platforms like KVM or Linux-based systems.

What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Virtualization Manager?

We predominantly work with financial organizations such as large banks, stock exchanges, and insurance companies, as well as IT-enabled services (ITES). I use SolarWinds Virtualization Manager at o...

What's the difference between VMware vRA (automation) and vROps (operations)?

vROP is a virtualization management solution from VMWare. It is efficient and easy to manage. You can find anything you need from the software interface. It provides complete visibility over applic...

Is VMware Aria Operations a user friendly solution?

In terms of user-friendliness, VMware Aria Operations is one of the best solutions out there. It is not overly complex to set up and you can rely on the technical support to provide you with assis...

What is the most useful new feature of VMware Aria Operations?

For me, the alerts features are the most unique part of this product, no matter the current name it uses. When they introduced the new version of VMware Aria Operations, they also introduced more a...

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Comparisons

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Compared 11% of the time

Savision Cloud Reporter vs SolarWinds Virtualization Manager

Compared 10% of the time

Dell OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter vs SolarWinds Virtualization Manager

Compared 8% of the time

IBM Turbonomic vs SolarWinds Virtualization Manager

Compared 8% of the time

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IBM Turbonomic vs VMware Aria Operations

Compared 7% of the time

VMware Aria Automation vs VMware Aria Operations

Compared 6% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) vs VMware Aria Operations

Compared 5% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs VMware Aria Operations

Compared 4% of the time

Nutanix Prism vs VMware Aria Operations

Compared 4% of the time

More VMware Aria Operations Competitors

Product Reports

Virtualization Management Tools

Download SolarWinds Virtualization Manager product report

SolarWinds Virtualization Manager report

VMware Aria Operations

Download VMware Aria Operations product report

Also Known As

SolarWinds VMAN

VMware vRealize Operations (vROps), vCenter Operations Manager (VCOPS)

Overview

SolarWinds Virtualization Manager streamlines the monitoring and management of virtual environments by offering comprehensive visibility and actionable insights for IT professionals.

Designed to handle complex virtual systems, SolarWinds Virtualization Manager aids IT teams in tracking application performance, optimizing resource utilization, and identifying potential issues before they impact operations. The robust features ensure efficient operation and continuous system health, fostering an environment where virtual infrastructures can be effectively monitored and managed without significant manual intervention.

What are the key features of SolarWinds Virtualization Manager?

Performance Monitoring: Tracks system health and alerts users to potential bottlenecks.
Capacity Planning: Analyzes trends to predict future resource needs.
Sprawl Control: Identifies and manages VM sprawl to optimize resources.
Storage Monitoring: Provides insight into storage utilization and performance.
Customizable Dashboards: Allows personalized views of critical data.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Increased Efficiency: Streamlines virtual environment management.
Cost Savings: Reduces resource wastage and prevents overspending.
Improved Uptime: Proactive identification of issues minimizes downtime.
Enhanced Planning: Data-driven insights support effective resource allocation.

In industries such as healthcare, finance, and manufacturing, SolarWinds Virtualization Manager supports infrastructure maintenance by ensuring reliable performance and aiding compliance management through detailed monitoring capabilities. It adapts to specific industry requirements, facilitating seamless integration and operational excellence.

SolarWinds

VMware Aria Operations provides detailed metrics, graphing capabilities, and historical data for proactive infrastructure management, offering a single pane of glass for comprehensive views, alert notifications, and seamless integration with VMware tools.

VMware Aria Operations is designed for monitoring and optimizing virtual environments, empowering businesses to enhance infrastructure efficiency and manage workloads. With stress ratings and capacity planning, it facilitates troubleshooting performance issues while forecasting resource needs. Automation and integration with VMware tools streamline operations, making it indispensable for maintaining system health and enabling data-driven decisions. Users appreciate its comprehensive infrastructure views, though they note the interface complexity and high pricing as key considerations. Improved automation, third-party integration, and usability are desired enhancements.

What are the key features of VMware Aria Operations?

Single Pane of Glass: Provides comprehensive views of infrastructure for easy management.
Performance Monitoring: Tracks performance with detailed metrics and trend analysis.
Capacity Planning: Offers insights into stress ratings and future resource needs.
Alert Notifications: Effectively notifies users of potential system issues.
Automation and Integration: Streamlines operations with VMware tools.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Infrastructure Efficiency: Ensures optimal use of virtual environments for effective workload management.
Operational Visibility: Improves decision-making with detailed insights and analytics.
Resource Optimization: Helps forecast and allocate resources efficiently.
Proactive Management: Facilitates early detection of issues to maintain system health.

VMware Aria Operations' implementation across industries like finance, healthcare, and education showcases its utility in maintaining operational efficiency. It aids in tracking usage metrics and integrating workflows, benefiting sectors with critical performance and resource management needs.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Elliot Health System

Science Applications International Corporation, Tribune Media, Heartland Payment Systems, Telkom Indonesia, Columbia Sportswear, iGATE, CSS Corp, Angel Broking, Adira Finance, Hipskind, Beiersdorf Shared Services, Innovate Mas Indonesia, Adobe, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi , Join Experience S.A, Borusan Holdings, Department of Transport - Abu Dhabi

SolarWinds Virtualization Manager vs. VMware Aria Operations