We compared Amazon CloudWatch and SolarWinds NPM based on our users' reviews in five categories. We reviewed all of the data and you can find the conclusion below.
Features: Amazon CloudWatch users liked the solution’s simplicity, intuitive interface, and ability to handle large workloads. Users also praised CloudWatch’s comprehensive monitoring and alerts. SolarWinds NPM is commended for its adaptability and extensive network surveillance functionalities.
Room for improvement: Some reviews mentioned that Amazon CloudWatch could improve performance and dashboard visualization. Others noted that the solution lacked compatibility with some databases. SolarWinds NPM needs improvement in edge computing capabilities and data reporting. Users also said the performance could be better and that they would like to see expanded IPAM functionality.
Service and Support: Customers generally have positive opinions about Amazon's customer service. They commended the support team for its availability and timely issue resolution. While some customers described SolarWinds support as helpful and responsive, others reported delayed responses.
Ease of Deployment: Amazon CloudWatch is generally described as easy to set up. Some users said SolarWinds NPM was straightforward to set up, while others perceived it as complex.
Pricing: Amazon CloudWatch offers a flexible pricing structure based on usage and processing without any separate licensing cost. Some users said that scaling up can be costly due to the need for additional storage space. The cost of SolarWinds NPM varies depending on the customer’s size and requirements. Some users find it costly.
ROI: Amazon CloudWatch offers a return on investment by minimizing the need for manual monitoring. Some users reported immediate benefits from using SolarWinds NPM in terms of security and business outcomes, while others have not.
Comparison Results: Reviewers say that Amazon CloudWatch is a simple, intuitive solution that can handle large workloads, but some mentioned dashboard visualization and customizability as areas for improvement. SolarWinds NPM is a customizable solution that’s easy to deploy and features comprehensive network monitoring capabilities. However, some users consider it costly and voiced concerns about technical support and user experience.
"The monitoring feature is valuable."
"Amazon CloudWatch is a cheap and easy-to-use solution."
"The solution effectively monitors golden signals like CPU, page requests, and queues."
"Amazon CloudWatch's best feature stems from its ability to monitor app performance."
"The initial setup is easy."
"Setting up this product was easy. I found data analytics as its most valuable feature."
"The alarms are one thing I love about AWS CloudWatch. It has alerts that notify us when resource use is approaching the limit."
"The most valuable feature of Amazon CloudWatch is the monitoring and UI."
"The most valuable features of the solution are its graphical interface and reports."
"The most valuable features are language support and technical support."
"It gives us a map of the network setup and one console to see the entire network."
"I like the tracking feature to track devices and see where they are connected. This is very practical."
"A product that is well-tested and trusted in demanding situations."
"Network performance is the main issue clients are facing. SolarWinds checks if a node is down, and we can set thresholds for performance metrics. For example, we set it up to get an alert automatically if a value is over 80 percent. It has a full dashboard that covers CP, hard disk, and node monitoring."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the monitoring capabilities."
"We had some interfaces where the SFP Ports were having some problems after a while. We found which of the SFP Ports was having the error and changed it, so the bandwidth become okay."
"I do not know whether or not CloudWatch can be integrated with on-prem services."
"The product's configuration has some challenges. The solution needs to be more user-friendly."
"The drill-down aspect on the dashboard of the solution needs improvement. We get a very good high-level overview, but when we drill down, it becomes a little less clear. We have given this feedback to AWS as well and hope they will improve this in the future."
"Right now, in relation to monitoring services, there are too many services and too many metrics per service."
"What would make Amazon CloudWatch better is if it includes more on-site checks, particularly status checks on the CPU, network input/output, etc. It would also be helpful if there's built-in swap space, disk, and memory monitoring in Amazon CloudWatch because, at the moment, my team has to configure it manually through a shell script."
"I would like to monitor inbound and outbound transfer. I would also like to control the traffic for load balancing."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing, because they have a premium version, but it's not really a premium version. It's just an enhanced monitoring version, and it can be a bit expensive depending on your usage."
"CloudWatch doesn’t monitor disk throughput by default."
"The evaluation time for the product is too short especially for large corporations."
"The interface could be made more user-friendly."
"Scalability is a bit tricky because it requires more gateways in order to get the performance you may need. It also requires a lot of licensing."
"One of the challenges with SolarWinds is that in order to pull the data, we have to have a lot of false positives."
"The solution could improve in many areas, such as the marketing and description of the products, providing areas of improvement, cloud capabilities, and being able to be more streamlined with the current integration points with other applications."
"The solution does not offer much customization so is somewhat inflexible."
"SolarWinds NPM can be very slow at times. The database optimization can be done to improve the product performance."
"The integration needs to be improved."
Amazon CloudWatch is ranked 9th in Cloud Monitoring Software with 40 reviews while SolarWinds NPM is ranked 6th in Cloud Monitoring Software with 147 reviews. Amazon CloudWatch is rated 8.0, while SolarWinds NPM is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Amazon CloudWatch writes "Instantaneous response when monitoring logs and KPIs". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SolarWinds NPM writes "High-level, comprehensive, and proactive monitoring in a user-friendly interface". Amazon CloudWatch is most compared with Zabbix, Datadog, Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver), Dynatrace and Nagios XI, whereas SolarWinds NPM is most compared with Zabbix, PRTG Network Monitor, ManageEngine OpManager, ThousandEyes and LogicMonitor. See our Amazon CloudWatch vs. SolarWinds NPM report.
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We monitor all Cloud Monitoring Software 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.