ServiceNow Discovery vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between ServiceNow Discovery and SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Server Monitoring solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed ServiceNow Discovery vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Report (Updated: May 2024).
771,170 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The best thing about Discovery is maintaining all the CIs in one place. I can sort the data, export it to Excel for manipulation, and build reports like how many computers or servers we have and their capacity.""I like ServiceNow Discovery's overall structure and the way data comes in without creating a different dashboard or interface.""This solution provides excellent insights.""The most valuable feature of ServiceNow Discovery is its performance.""ServiceNow Discovery is useful for discovering the servers, like the servers of Windows and Linux, from the client network.""It does a good job of collecting the data that's necessary for data centers, and IT's operations.""They have a very good network in the infrastructure of Discovery.""The process involving the original setup of the solution is excellent."

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"SolarWinds is a very stable platform compared to others on the market.""The solution is end-to-end from the network and the application to the processes. Everything about the enterprise infrastructure is being covered by the solution. It's easy to use and easy to navigate and one of the leaders among monitoring solutions.""I find it to be a strong product suite, particularly when you need a comprehensive monitoring tool.""Manage Groups: The capability to group appropriate devices gives better visibility of sites, categories, or critical regions. The same can be used to represent a dashboard for higher management.""I adore the NTA module that provides deep details on ingress/egress traffic for any interface. With a few clicks, you can correlate who is accessing what and when, beside the bandwidth consuming applications/users.""AppInsight. Provides a simple way to get very in-depth monitoring configured for our most popular applications. Exchange, SQL, and SharePoint.""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 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."

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Cons
"The product could improve some of the visualization and architecture setups.""ServiceNow Discovery should improve its cloud capabilities.""On the Software Asset Management part of it, I expect additional reconciliation and Discovery features there.""The current limitation requires having mid servers or discovery servers in each data center for proper discovery, hindering the ability to discover assets across continents such as Asia Pacific and Europe.""It is one of the most costly applications in terms of subscription costs.""Whenever you try to discover something with the solution, you get errors that are not descriptive enough.""Its integration with legacy apps is one area for improvement. ServiceNow Discovery offers out-of-the-box reports, and though that's okay, allowing easier report customization would improve the solution.""Improvements are required with the scripts used to collect the information from servers."

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"An additional feature that would improve this solution is the ability to complete root cause analysis.""They should incorporate more artificial intelligence. There should also be more predictive features.""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.""Reporting is the only thing with which we currently have challenges. They have this in two ways. There is the report writer, which is the backend, and we also have web reports, which are on the console. So, they have removed the report writer for the backend reports, and we are making use of the web console, but most of the users are not finding it very interesting to use the frontend reports. I would like them to bring back the report writer. That's the key area within it to improve on the reporting. If they can bring back the report writer, then most users will actually be comfortable. I have some customers who are trying to export their report to an Excel format, but it is not possible because they said any report that has been done from the web console cannot be exported to Excel, but most of the customers need to export their reports to Excel. That's one area they need to work on.""Solarwinds should come up the same monitoring system for other certificate expiration alert apart from SSL.""PerfStack can be made more effective. I am sure SolarWinds already has a plan for the same in coming versions.""It lacks a user experience for measuring things like the end-to-end time for which a user waits for a specific response in the system. In the application layer, it has some very basic stuff. You have to build your own with manuscripts and things like that.""The product does not explain why a problem occurred."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "This solution is a paid option within the ServiceNow framework."
  • "It's a bit expensive compared to other products in the market, but it's worth the money you pay because it's far advanced in terms of features, automation, and capabilities compared to other products."
  • "There is a subscription for ServiceNow Discovery. It's expensive, but I think it's one of the best solutions on the market, so it's worth it."
  • "The price could be better. It's a bit on the pricey side."
  • "It is an expensive product with a price that depends on the models that you wish to purchase."
  • "It costs a lot. It is probably close to over a hundred thousand. It's an expensive platform, but you can't compare ServiceNow's Discovery functionality to other discovery tools. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison of ServiceNow to a configuration management tool to an asset management tool because it does those things, but it's not those things."
  • "You need a subscription to ServiceNow Discovery, so you can use its features. You can also use specific plugins with the tool, and some of the plugins are free. I don't have information on how much my company pays for the subscription to ServiceNow Discovery."
  • "The solution is very expensive."
  • More ServiceNow Discovery Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "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."
  • "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."
  • "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."
  • "I would advise potential buyers to wait until the end of the quarter, end of year, or other time to place orders. There are actually great deals to be had at those times if your budget cycle can match up."
  • "Pricing and licensing is fair for what you get. It does have a great bang-for-the-buck appeal."
  • "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."
  • "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 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."
  • More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The product provides great scalability features.
    Top Answer:Though I am not much involved in the pricing part, I know that it is a bit costly. As per a general discussion I had with the stakeholders, I figured out that it is a costly tool. There is a need to… more »
    Top Answer:On the patent side, my company faced some issues with ServiceNow Discovery. In the subsequent releases of the product, ServiceNow promptly addressed the patent-related issues in the tool. More… more »
    Top Answer:The price is too high. The tool is overpriced. We don't need all the features. The product must minimize the features and reduce the price. It all comes down to pricing. The customers find it pretty… more »
    Top Answer:The biggest pain point is root cause analysis. It is difficult to analyze, assess, and warn my IT department about what will happen in the next five hours. It is also difficult to use AIOps to reduce… more »
    Ranking
    3rd
    out of 42 in Server Monitoring
    Views
    4,283
    Comparisons
    1,920
    Reviews
    26
    Average Words per Review
    614
    Rating
    8.1
    10th
    out of 42 in Server Monitoring
    Views
    1,677
    Comparisons
    1,085
    Reviews
    11
    Average Words per Review
    443
    Rating
    7.3
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    SolarWinds SAM
    Learn More
    ServiceNow
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    Overview

    ServiceNow Discovery finds applications and devices on your network, and then updates the CMDB with the information it finds. Discovery is available as a separate subscription from the rest of the Now Platform.

    SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) delivers powerful application and server monitoring capabilities for IT pros, enabling them to diagnose and troubleshoot performance issues faster. Do not let slow applications and downtime impact your end-users and business services. Pinpoint the root cause of application issues across various layers of the IT stack. SolarWinds SAM is affordable and easy to deploy, use, and customize. You can automatically discover your system's environment and start monitoring in about an hour. No professional services or consultation needed.

    Sample Customers
    York, National Grid, DXC Technology, experian, BEACHBODY
    Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm22%
    Computer Software Company17%
    Retailer11%
    Educational Organization11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Healthcare Company9%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm20%
    Construction Company13%
    Recruiting/Hr Firm7%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization41%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Government8%
    Financial Services Firm6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise51%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise75%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise49%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business11%
    Midsize Enterprise48%
    Large Enterprise41%
    Buyer's Guide
    ServiceNow Discovery vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow Discovery vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    771,170 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    ServiceNow Discovery is ranked 3rd in Server Monitoring with 37 reviews while SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is ranked 10th in Server Monitoring with 38 reviews. ServiceNow Discovery is rated 8.0, while SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of ServiceNow Discovery writes "Valuable relationship building that discovers and auto-builds to make cleanup easy". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor writes "We use this product for base and application monitoring. ". ServiceNow Discovery is most compared with Tanium, Microsoft Configuration Manager, Lansweeper, AWS Cloud Map and Oracle Enterprise Manager, whereas SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is most compared with Azure Monitor, Dynatrace, AppDynamics, Prometheus and PRTG Network Monitor. See our ServiceNow Discovery vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report.

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    We monitor all Server Monitoring reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.