If a customer is looking for a monitoring box solution, a medium-scale customer, and he's looking for something that can manage servers, routers, storage, applications, basic monitoring for applications, to cover everything, then SolarWinds is the right choice. However, he has to be a mid-tier customer. He cannot be an enterprise customer. If they are an enterprise customer, then SolarWinds is not the right choice as it will start to slow down.
Enterprise Solutions & Services Head at Duroob Technologies
Stable with great functionality and perfect for mid-sized companies
Pros and Cons
- "It's a very good tool and a very stable tool."
- "They have had a rather large security breach in the past. It's cost some companies customers."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
It's a very good tool and a very stable tool.
For a medium-sized customer, it has everything that you're looking for.
It has all kinds of functionality that any network team or monitoring team is looking for. It's easy to integrate with any other tool, as it has an open database. It's easy to implement and has a very nice user experience.
What needs improvement?
One of the problems that SolarWinds has is when the data becomes too big, it will start getting slower.
It's not at all for enterprise customers. I don't recommend enterprises to go for SolarWinds. They should go for a bigger tool.
They have had a rather large security breach in the past. It's cost some companies customers.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been dealing with the solution for ten years as a partner at least. It's been a long time. I've used it for about a decade at this point in that capacity. I've been dealing with SolarWinds for almost more than 17 or 18 years, personally.
Buyer's Guide
SolarWinds NPM
February 2023

Learn what your peers think about SolarWinds NPM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2023.
687,256 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have three to four customers on the solution.
It's best for a mid-tier company, and not a large enterprise.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is okay.
The only problem that they have is that last year they had a security hack issue. That is something that was a big problem SolarWinds in the market, as everybody is scared to use SolarWinds. They still have managed customers. Still, I have to say, there are very few customers that they don't have SolarWinds.
Whenever I go for meetings for security or monitoring or anything, I find some engineers still using SolarWinds. They may not be using it a lot, however, they are still using it for more than monitoring. Still, people did lose customers over it.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very easy and quite straightforward. It's not overly difficult or complex.
The implementation is fast and doesn't take more than a month or a month and a half.
We only need one consultant to handle implementation.
What about the implementation team?
We are able to handle the setup for our clients.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing process is pretty simple. it's not too complex.
What other advice do I have?
We've done a couple of implementations at this point. We're actually a partner.
For a mid-tier customer, I would rate the solution at about an eight.
I'd recommend the solution t a mid-tier customer. I wouldn't if the company was quite sizable.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner

Service Delivery Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
Helpful support, detailed data, and highly scalable
Pros and Cons
- "There are a lot of valuable features with SolarWinds NPM. We can receive a lot of detailed data from the monitoring that can use useful for investigations, especially when you are troubleshooting. It is very helpful. Overall it was a very good experience."
- "SolarWinds NPM could improve the graphics of the interface and more customized reporting."
What is our primary use case?
We are using SolarWinds NPM to monitor our network. For example, we monitor Cisco Meraki for WAN, and other Cisco routers, and for LAN we monitor Cisco switches and firewalls.
What is most valuable?
There are a lot of valuable features with SolarWinds NPM. We can receive a lot of detailed data from the monitoring that can use useful for investigations, especially when you are troubleshooting. It is very helpful. Overall it was a very good experience.
What needs improvement?
SolarWinds NPM could improve the graphics of the interface and more customized reporting.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SolarWinds NPM for approximately one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SolarWinds NPM is stable. We haven't faced any major outages.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of SolarWinds NPM is good, and it is simple. We have approximately 5,000 nodes.
How are customer service and support?
The support we have received from SolarWinds NPM has been very good. Initially, there were some issues with the solution but the support help us figure it out.
I rate the support of SolarWinds NPM a four out of five.
The knowledge base of the support could improve. However, every organization has its own use cases. Sometimes it's not a common use case and the support has not seen the particular problem. We might have something unique, which other clients never faced.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have used Centreon previously. We have evaluated it for some time. It was very easy to use but the requirements we had, were not fulfilled. We have engaged with some Centreon providers, and the support was not great. We bought a license for one year for Centreon, and the support from France was not great. That's why we decided that we cannot go with it for a longer time and on a larger scale. Additionally, we have used Alaloop for quite some time, and it was good.
We switched to SolarWinds NPM mainly because we were expanding, and in Alaloop we were mainly using it for WAN only, not for the LAN. Additionally, Alaloop was much more expensive compared to SolarWinds NPM.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of SolarWinds NPM was not straightforward. We had some difficulty configuring some of the new features for the devices properly. However, this was because we were new to the solution. We had the documentation which was helpful.
The full implementation took approximately one month.
I rate the initial setup of SolarWinds NPM a three out of five.
What about the implementation team?
We used third-party support for the implementation. The solution requires maintenance but we have not had any issues.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
SolarWinds NPM has different pricing models available. The cost of the solution is less than some competitors.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend SolarWinds NPM to others but it depends on how complex the network they have is and how large it is. Based on that information, you need to make a decision if the solution is the best fit. If their infrastructure is quite large, the good thing is they can expand it, even for the server infrastructure, not only for network infrastructure.
I would recommend the solution for a larger organization.
I rate SolarWinds NPM an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Last updated: Jun 25, 2022
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SolarWinds NPM
February 2023

Learn what your peers think about SolarWinds NPM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2023.
687,256 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Assistant Director, IT Service Excellence Quality Assurance at American University in Cairo (AUC)
Scalable network monitoring software that offers a good view of networks to monitor performance.
Pros and Cons
- "This solution offers a very good view of our network and allows us to effectively monitor performance."
- "The dashboards for this solution could be improved. We would like to divide the dashboards to give a clear view to our management team to show what we have and what deficiencies exist in our network."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Solar NPM to send alerts to the NOC and SOC teams. Some reports are used for our network to link to the router for internet utilization. We are also monitoring wireless access points using SolarWinds. Our network, security and system teams use this solution and its dashboards.
What is most valuable?
This solution offers a very good view of our network and allows us to effectively monitor performance.
What needs improvement?
The dashboards for this solution could be improved. We would like to divide the dashboards to give a clear view to our management team to show what we have and what deficiencies exist in our network. We would also like to show the number of devices which we need to improve our service.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable solution. A few months ago I had a problem with the number of nodes on the system itself. We have the SLX NPM license which is unlimited and I can add an unlimited number of nodes. It seems there was a limitation on the one server. When I contacted support, they told me that I either need to delete some nodes or add another server to scale.
How are customer service and support?
Whenever I have a problem or I need to ask a question, I contact the SolarWinds support team. I would rate their support a four out of five.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Our company decided to change to SolarWinds due to a security breach they experienced. Other solutions that were considered were more expensive than Solarwinds.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
To install the SolarWinds for the first time, you need a virtual machine to install the demo or trial version of SolarWinds. You can then add some devices, monitor and try to use whatever dashboards or reports you think you will need. Installing NPM itself and adding the nodes took us three months.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented this solution in house with the help of a third party who were Solarwinds experts.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a return on our investment using this solution. We are now working on a re-innovation project for the whole organization's network because our network is very old. Some vendors offered us a management solution for network performance monitoring but their devices offer the same functionality as SolarWinds. Based on what other solutions charge, the $700 we pay for this solution is fair.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We pay approximately $700 per year for renewal of the license.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise others to test the environment before deploying the whole solution.
I would rate Solarwinds an eight out of ten. I would give a higher rating if I could use root cause analysis to point to one device in the stack to understand which device has a problem. In general, I think SolarWinds is one of the most stable solutions and it has a lot of useful features for network performance monitoring.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Sep 15, 2022
Flag as inappropriateAVP Technology Network Engineer at LPL Financial
User-friendly, easy to configure, and has good technical support, but scalability could be improved
Pros and Cons
- "The nice thing about SolarWinds is that it's kind of all-in-one. I can manage the status of my networking devices, whether they are up or down, I can see how much traffic is going across an interface, and I can run a report that tells me exactly what that traffic is."
- "They need to work on their automation and automatically discover devices. They are not very good at automatically discovering devices."
What is our primary use case?
SolarWinds NPM was used for everything. For interface monitoring, load balancing checking interface uptime and device status.
We had the full suite of products, not just NPM.
What is most valuable?
It is simple to use.
It can be agentless.
The nice thing about SolarWinds is that it's kind of all-in-one. I can manage the status of my networking devices, whether they are up or down, I can see how much traffic is going across an interface, and I can run a report that tells me exactly what that traffic is.
What needs improvement?
Their IPAM component is severely lacking. The process is extremely manual. It just doesn't get in there if you don't manually enter it.
It is not particularly DNS-aware. When it comes to DNS names, you pretty much have to configure everything manually. It will not grab anything on its own.
They need to work on their automation and automatically discover devices. They are not very good at automatically discovering devices.
For how long have I used the solution?
I am been using SolarWinds NPM for 15 years.
I believe that we are working with version nine.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SolarWinds NPM is a stable solution, aside from the fact that they had a major hack a couple of years ago and effectively allowed the Russian government to completely hack their code, making everyone vulnerable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SolarWinds NPM is not very scalable.
We had 10 users.
There was only an IT engineer that was responsible for upgrading.
There was only one administrator. The rest were read-only.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is very good. You always got a live person.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. It is easy to set up.
The initial configuration is simple. Because, they did not use a backend SQL database, their initial setup was extremely simple.
As they grew, they began to use SQL, which made things a little more complicated.
It was extremely simple at first.
It probably took me a week to get it all set up and running, and another month to get everything in it.
The initial configuration to the point where it was up and running took me about a week.
We installed it in a central data center and then began implementing it. We had to manually discover devices, pull them in, and manually add them one at a time.
What about the implementation team?
It was implemented in-house.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a return on investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It was inexpensive when we installed it and gradually became more expensive, but it was a very inexpensive product at first.
It is significantly less expensive than Infoblox.
I don't recall the exact amount, It was approximately 20 years ago, but I recall it being relatively inexpensive to install. The initial part was really cheap, but the licensing cost became really expensive over time.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise people to only use it for monitoring or viewing traffic flows. Don't use the IPAM section, the DHCP section, or the DNS section.
I would rate SolarWinds NPM a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Sep 11, 2022
Flag as inappropriateVice President Of Global Operations at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Easy to deploy and good alarm tuning but cost prohibitive for smaller companies
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup is easy."
- "Technical support can be slow to respond."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for network health.
What is most valuable?
The ease of deployment is great. I also would say that it gave us good capabilities to tune alarms.
I'm overall a huge fan of Solarwinds. To me, it's a top quadrant for a solution and I would be pushing for it internally were it not cost-prohibitive for startups.
The solution is stable.
The scalability is good.
The initial setup is easy.
What needs improvement?
The downside was the expense. At large, large companies, that's okay. However, at companies like mine where we're building a tech startup, it can be cost-prohibitive.
They've had some issues with security, and confidence in their product is probably down.
Technical support can be slow to respond.
I would like to see more of a focus on edge computing and edge device monitoring.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for several years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is good. Aside from the very public hack, from a user's standpoint, it's good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's easy to scale. I'm probably an avid fan and I'd say it's easy to scale.
We have around 100 to 150 people using it at our company.
How are customer service and technical support?
We didn't always get the responsiveness that we needed in terms of the level of urgency. If it was something where it was potentially project-related and very time-sensitive, they didn't match our level of urgency which could be frustrating.
That said, overall, when it came to deployment or wanting upgrades or improvements or changes, that we would get good support.
Still, for incidents where you are in a mission-critical and you have an incident that you need assistance with, they weren't always as quick to respond.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was pretty straightforward and simple. A company wouldn't have any issues with it. It's somewhat easy to deploy, however, I'm not the engineer. I was the business leader. I just know that I never received any complaints.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is expensive and may not be very affordable for startups or smaller companies.
What other advice do I have?
We're just customers and end-users.
We are likely using the latest version of the solution. I cannot speak to the exact version number.
We use both the public and private cloud deployment models.
I led a team of several hundred engineers who used SolarWinds every day. I would be involved in making the decision of a product to go through. Once they came in and recommended me their top three, I would choose it.
I would advise potential users to first take a look at some of the newer vendors on the market who may be a little bit more nimble and are coming out of the box with a focus on edge and edge devices. SolarWinds has a heavy, heavy background. There are lighter options.
I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
SOC Expert at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Easy to use and understand and very quick to set up
Pros and Cons
- "It's easy to understand, even if you are not too technical."
- "There isn't support available to us as they don't offer support in our country."
What is our primary use case?
We use SolarWinds for monitoring internet bandwidth, both outbound and inbound. We also use it to check out network tools like switches, routers, and other things including user monitoring for RAM and CPU. We typically get a report on the internet interface about, for example, HTTP traffic and other software traffic.
What is most valuable?
The solution is easy to use. It's easy to understand, even if you are not too technical.
It's quite stable and reliable.
The reports are excellent. They give good graphical information. It gives a lot of great details about everything that's going on in my network and it's easy to read and understand due to its visual nature.
The scaling is quite good.
It's a very easy solution to set up.
What needs improvement?
If SolarWinds integrated with other solutions, for example, something like in a SIEM, security operations system, it would be more useful for customers. It would be ideal if they could integrate more with security solutions down the line.
There isn't support available to us as they don't offer support in our country.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for more than five years at this point.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability and reliability of the solution are very good. It's got more stability than other software options. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. The performance is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution can scale well. It's not a problem if a company wants to expand it.
Currently, we have more than 50 users on the solution.
How are customer service and support?
Unfortunately, in our country, we do not have access to official support channels. We need to find answers online. It would be ideal if they could establish agents in the country that can help with setup and questions. It would be good for customers like us and good for SolarWinds.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use a different solution previous to SolarWinds.
How was the initial setup?
The implementation process is quite simple and straightforward. In fact, it's easier than a lot of other solutions. I wouldn't describe the process as difficult.
The deployment is fast. It likely didn't take more than ten minutes or so.
We have a technical team of about five or six people that are able to handle deployment and maintenance tasks. Two of those team embers are managers.
What about the implementation team?
We didn't need any assistance with the implementation process. We did not use any integrators or consultants. We did it ourselves.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
You do need to pay for a license in order to use it. We have a license paid for two years.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten. We're pretty happy with it overall. The downside is that there is no official support available in my country.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Specialist at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
High-level, comprehensive, and proactive monitoring in a user-friendly interface
Pros and Cons
- "Monitoring capabilities are at a high level and it is easy to see utilization, access ports, and CPU memory in real time or through a lens for long-term visualization."
- "The solution needs to integrate with additional SDN technologies that are part of the hyper market."
What is our primary use case?
Our company uses the solution to monitor NPM for 100 large accounts that typically have 40,000 interfaces.
Basic monitoring includes CPU memory, errors, and interfaces. Advanced monitoring includes F5 load balancers, in-depth tunnels, and AP alarms.
We also monitor CM for backup parts and integrate monitoring with Azure.
What is most valuable?
The solution's interface is very user friendly and easy to navigate. We provide customers with access and they have no issues learning and exploring the solution.
Monitoring capabilities are at a high level and it is easy to see utilization, access ports, and CPU memory in real time or through a lens for long-term visualization.
The solution always includes new features in their releases.
What needs improvement?
The solution needs to integrate with additional SDN technologies that are part of the hyper market. The solution supports many vendors by default and just included Meraki SDN with the new release, but continued expansion is important. We created a custom method to pair with unsupported vendors but that can produce a lag in performance so future releases should expand SDN support.
The solution does a good job of automating features but could expand that even more.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable but dependent on appropriate licenses.
How are customer service and support?
We reach out to technical support when we need assistance with issues.
I rate support a seven out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup has been made very easy over the last few years because all functions of the server become available on the solution's console upon installation. There is no longer a need to log in on the server side when performing routine tasks.
Deployment takes less than 30 minutes to run on a single machine if pre-requests, servers, databases, and ports are readied in advance. Errors or troubleshooting might add a bit of time to deployment.
What about the implementation team?
We implement the solution for our customers. Each of our technicians manages a group of 20 accounts for NPM and other services such as SAM, PM, NPA, and NTM for backup.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is based on a licensing model with bulk discounts offered annually.
Licenses start with a low-cost option for 100 devices that runs between $2,000-$3,000. With 400 devices the cost is $4,000. With thousands of devices the cost can reach $50,000.
All license levels come with technical support. Engineers are available to assist with challenges and there are no extra fees for that support.
What other advice do I have?
The solution provides comprehensive monitoring that includes proactive items such as advance notifications and engineer tickets for code breaks. This allows engineers to quickly resolve issues before major outages occur.
I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Oct 16, 2022
Flag as inappropriateManager at Barbados Water Authority
A robust and stable product great for monitoring bandwidth utilization
Pros and Cons
- "The ability to quickly identify downtime is the most valuable."
- "The price of the solution can be improved."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case for the solution is to monitor whether certain devices are up or down, monitor bandwidth utilization and have a network performance monitor.
What is most valuable?
The ability to quickly identify downtime is the most valuable because we use the solution for monitoring. For example, a map that shows all of our switches, which make up our core infrastructure, and then the small firewalls that connect to the other locations so that we can see how our devices are running. Hence, the monitoring ability to create those maps and monitor everything on warmup is a very valuable feature for us.
What needs improvement?
The solution works very well for our current use case, but the price of the solution can be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the solution for a while and are currently using version 12.4, but we are considering upgrading it.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have not had issues with stability. I rate the stability a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable, and there is currently only two staff utilizing the solution in our organization, but we have plans to increase usage further.
We have a fairly small environment, but this is because we only have about 15 switches, some servers, and our remote locations, so we're using a couple of hundred nodes altogether, but we can scale up to probably thousands or even tens of thousands because there is room to add additional servers. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
We dealt with customer service and support once for a license issue, and they resolved our concerns swiftly.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
SolarWinds NPM was the first network monitoring solution we used
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was complex as there was quite a bit of work that had to be done in terms of setting up databases and making sure the database was linked to the application.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented the solution through a vendor team the first time, but further installations were done in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing costs are fairly high. I rate it a five out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
I rate the solution a nine out of ten based on our current version. The solution is a robust and stable product but can be improved by reducing its licensing costs. Therefore, I recommend the solution to users considering implementing it.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Feb 4, 2023
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