Spiceworks vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications comparison

Spiceworks and VMware are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Spiceworks is ranked #47 with an average rating of 8.5, while VMware is ranked #17 with an average rating of 8.8. Spiceworks holds a 0.4% mindshare in IM, compared to VMware’s 1.4% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of Spiceworks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Spiceworks

Read 47 Spiceworks reviews

2,142 Views
793 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Read 14 VMware Aria Operations for Applications reviews

2,539 Views
1,320 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Spiceworks

VMware Aria Operations for ...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Spiceworks and VMware Aria Operations for Applications compete in the service desk and monitoring category. VMware Aria Operations for Applications has the upper hand due to its robust monitoring capabilities and integration features.

Features: Spiceworks offers free inventory and helpdesk capabilities, network scanning features, and community support. VMware Aria Operations for Applications provides cloud and hybrid monitoring, Kubernetes integration, and detailed monitoring insights.

Room for Improvement: Spiceworks needs better monitoring tools, reporting capabilities, and scalability for larger enterprises. Improvement in the ticketing system and streamlining the community login process would enhance its offering. VMware Aria Operations for Applications requires easier setup, improved integration with Kubernetes, and more predictable costs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Spiceworks provides versatile deployment options, being available on-premises or in the cloud, with community-driven support. VMware Aria Operations for Applications offers robust official support across on-premises and hybrid solutions, suitable for enterprises needing structured support.

Pricing and ROI: Spiceworks is free, providing an excellent ROI for small businesses. Its effectiveness relies on user expertise and time investment. VMware Aria Operations for Applications, though more expensive with licensing fees, provides comprehensive features justifying the costs for large organizations seeking detailed application insights.

To learn more, read our detailed Spiceworks vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Spiceworks vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

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

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)

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

17th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (18th), Container Monitoring (5th), Cloud Monitoring Software (14th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Spiceworks is 0.4%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Operations for Applications is 1.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Featured Reviews

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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ToniLindberg

senior consultant at Virtual Consultants Sverige AB

Troubleshooting capabilities have improved application monitoring and support engagement

I can see what happens end to end, which is pretty beneficial. The solution has troubleshooting capabilities, providing a direct connection to knowledge base articles from VMware Broadcom. When I encounter an error, I can search directly within the system to see what solutions have been employed by others. It has a familiar interface, which makes it easy to get started.

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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

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

"Spiceworks' dashboard allows you to drill down to the notes, where I can take an inventory of the network and see the devices I need to monitor."

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

"Spiceworks is generic and free."

"It's easy to understand."

"The solution can find all asset details automatically, whether it's a Mac address, computer name, IP address, models, etc. It's very helpful."

"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."

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

More Spiceworks pros

"I gladly recommend VMware Aria Operations for Applications because it is cost effective and has commendable AI response capabilities."

"For us, the ease of deployment in combination with TMZ was the most important part because we don't have to manually deploy a complex monitoring solution. We can more or less do that with the click of a button, and we are not dependent on the developers to provide us with all the necessary features and functions to make that work. We can just deploy it on a workload cluster and monitor at least a good part of the workload. If we want to go into detail, we clearly need to make changes, but for a good part of application monitoring, it gives us good insights."

"VMware comes with a support team, and if you have trouble, you can easily create a ticket, and VMware will help you. Therefore, the best aspect is the support."

"No issues with stability."

"The features I find most valuable is the querying and alerting capabilities."

"Tanzu itself, integrated with multiple solutions, bestows support and security upon a container platform, especially when it comes to managing open-source container platforms such as Kubernetes."

"The most valuable aspects of the solution are its ease of use and its ease of implementation."

"This solution allows me to have true visibility for any metrics when it comes to my cloud, and private."

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications pros

Cons

"The GUI must be improved."

"The customer service is okay, however, I would appreciate much more clarity on what I want to know exactly."

"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."

"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 am unable to provide suggestions for improvement at this moment."

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

"Since Spiceworks is a free tool, it's not very scriptable or customizable."

"They've also tried to integrate it with social logins, like Twitter and LinkedIn, and that type of login authentication has no place in a corporate application."

More Spiceworks cons

"The implementation is a long process that should be improved."

"I find that there could be improvements in the support service response time, as the urgency varies unless specified as Priority 2 or 1 cases."

"I would like to see integration with Kubernetes cluster and APIs so that you can manage the entire stack."

"An area for improvement would be more in-depth reporting, such as analyzing disk IO during business hours compared to after hours."

"I find that there could be improvements in the support service response time, as the urgency varies unless specified as Priority 2 or 1 cases."

"It could use a URL document server. Everything in the market is moving towards automation and everybody's looking for the single click operations as well relational data locality."

"The main problem I have is that the license cost is very high."

"The solution could be expensive, which might be a limiting factor."

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"The tool is cheap."

"It's free."

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

"The product is free! Get it now."

"I don't have the details. In our case, there is a mixture in place. We have production usage, and we are also doing training for VMware. So, we also have a training instance. It is worth the money you would spend on it. That's because if you were to build all of this yourself by using some of the open source tools, then you would need a lot of time."

"Different locations require different setups. In your terms, around 300 to around 400K USD."

"I would rate the pricing as three out of five."

"The licensing costs are very high, particularly when you consider that we have to purchase a level 1 license for every integration, such as the load balancer, HAProxy, and the MSSP. And if you want to use vSAN, that's another license. Then, of course, Tanzu Observability has its own separate license."

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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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

University

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Spiceworks?

The solution is easy to use and easy to manage.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Spiceworks?

The tool is cheap.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

The solution includes cost drivers that can be configured according to your environment. You can input server-wise, CPU-wise, storage, and memory costs per hour or day. Once cost drivers are provid...

See all answers

What needs improvement with VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

The new version 8.18 has brought significant improvements. The main purpose of using this tool is having a single console to manage all entities. The cloud integration capabilities, including priva...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

I have been involved in several projects where I had to implement automation and monitoring alerting. I performed automation using VMware Aria Operations for Applications. There is an automation ta...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Spiceworks

July 2025

Download Spiceworks product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Operations for Applications

July 2025

VMware Aria Operations for Applications report

Download VMware Aria Operations for Applications product report

Also Known As

No data available

Tanzu Observability, Wavefront, Wavefront by VMware, VMware Tanzu Observability

Overview

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

VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront is a powerful tool for monitoring and analyzing the performance and availability of applications and infrastructure in real-time.

With its comprehensive monitoring capabilities, visualizing and analyzing data becomes effortless. The real-time alerting system ensures timely issue resolution, while scalability and a user-friendly interface provide a seamless experience for smooth operations.

VMware

Sample Customers

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

1. Atlassian 2. Cisco 3. Databricks 4. DigitalOcean 5. Equinix 6. Fidelity Investments 7. Google 8. Hewlett Packard Enterprise 9. Honeywell 10. IBM 11. Intel 12. JetBlue Airways 13. LinkedIn 14. Lyft 15. Mastercard 16. Microsoft 17. MongoDB 18. Netflix 19. Nvidia 20. Oracle 21. PayPal 22. Pinterest 23. Qualcomm 24. Red Hat 25. Salesforce 26. SAP 27. Spotify 28. Square 29. TMobile 30. Twitter 31. Uber 32. VMware

Buyer's Guide

Spiceworks vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

July 2025

Free Report: Spiceworks vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

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