Azure Monitor vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

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19,148 views|16,331 comparisons
88% willing to recommend
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5,175 views|3,398 comparisons
87% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Jun 28, 2023

We performed a comparison between Azure Monitor and SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor based on real PeerSpot user reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Azure Monitor's setup is complex and requires guidance for less experienced users. On the other hand, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor's setup time varies and can take anywhere from a few hours to two months. Some users find it easy, while others find it complex. However, both solutions face challenges with upgrades, which can be problematic and time-consuming.
  • Features: Azure Monitor provides customizable monitoring options for cloud resources, log analysis, graphs and charts, and reporting. It also integrates well with Microsoft technologies. On the other hand, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor offers in-depth monitoring of processes and services, infrastructure dependency mapping, and powerful network devices' performance monitoring.
  • Pricing: Azure Monitor charges a monthly subscription fee based on log file size and is tailored to the user's needs and usage, while SolarWinds' pricing is based on a yearly basis and may vary depending on the number of devices and modules included. There are no additional costs associated with SolarWinds.
  • Service and Support: Some users have found Azure Monitor's customer service to be helpful and responsive, while others have had negative experiences with slow response times and unhelpful engineers. Similarly, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor's support has also received mixed feedback, with some users finding the team knowledgeable and responsive, but others experiencing long wait times and a lack of expertise.
  • ROI: Azure Monitor's ROI is mixed among users, while SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is said to improve performance, reduce downtime, and boost productivity with a positive ROI.

Comparison Results: Azure Monitor provides users with greater flexibility, customization options, and better troubleshooting features. The product integrates well with other Microsoft technologies and offers good log analysis, graphs, and charts, as well as reporting. While SolarWinds does have valuable monitoring capabilities, it needs improvement in terms of stability, flexibility, ease of use, performance, integration, and pricing. Azure Monitor has received more positive feedback on customer service and support, initial setup, and pricing, making it the preferred solution.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Monitor vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Report (Updated: March 2024).
768,857 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
"Among the valuable features of this solution, Application Insights stands out as one of the most significant. It provides insights into application performance and helps identify issues and bottlenecks.""We like this searchability and availability of the data.""The solution has tons of valuable features.""Azure Monitor gives us the observability to check everything that we have in the cloud.""The most valuable feature is that it's stable. It hasn't crossed any thresholds.""The tools for logs and metrics are pretty good and easy to use.""The feature that I found most valuable in Azure Monitor is its monitoring abilities. With Azure Monitor, you are able to monitor all of your cloud resources across multiple subscriptions in one dashboard and create solution-specific alerts that can trigger an email to the team responsible for that specific solution.""Azure Monitor's best features are its graphs and charts, the different visibility options, and reporting."

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"Management Console - Managing service to each server enrolled in the Solarwinds is much easier. Using a web base console, you can control your service much convenient way. There is no need to login remotely. It save a lot of time and effort.""SolarWinds is a very stable platform compared to others on the market.""Identifying the problem statement is easy.""SolarWinds SAM has provided us with dynamic thresholds based on historical trends and requirements. The threshold gets configured automatically, so it's no longer necessary to configure it manually every time.""I'd rate technical support at eight out of ten. They are helpful and fast.""Monitoring of processes and services is the most valuable feature. It is not necessarily just the server alone in terms of the CPU or the memory. We can go in-depth into services and processes.""I find it to be a strong product suite, particularly when you need a comprehensive monitoring tool.""There are many valuable features, including the network configuration manager, and the network performance manager."

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Cons
"Setting up this solution is complex. It's also missing the functionality of assigning alerts.""There are a lot of things that take more time to do, such as charting, alerting, and correlation of data, and things like that. Azure Monitor doesn't tell you why something happened. It just tells you that it happened. It should also have some type of AI. Environments and applications are becoming more and more complex every day with hundreds or thousands of microservices. Therefore, having to do a lot of the stuff manually takes a lot of time, and on top of that, troubleshooting issues takes a lot of time. The traditional method of troubleshooting doesn't really work for or apply to this environment we're in. So, having an AI-based system and the ability to automate deployments of your monitoring and configurations makes it much easier.""They should include advanced logging on the database level in the Azure pool.""When something goes down, we want the option to have automation in place to get it back up again as quickly as possible.""This solution has fewer features than some of its competitors, so adding more features to it would make it better.""The biggest one is probably just the user interface. There could be more advanced logging at the database level. They can also improve their query builder to allow you to search for things better, but I last used it about a year ago. They might have already changed a ton of things in the newer versions.""The scalability could be improved as there are some limitations.""The monitoring of Kubernetes clusters needs improvement to be on par with competitors."

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"The major concern in the product revolves around application performance monitoring since end-to-end application monitoring is not possible with the tool.""In terms of the dashboards on offer, they should work to improve them. The types of dashboards that you get in terms of the graphs on offer aren't ideal right now.""One area that could benefit from improvement is its performance""Downside of the tools is the web console are hung or crash. It need to improve the performance.""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 setup was complex. We had local support to assist us.""The current script monitoring feature has limitations, especially when dealing with custom scripts."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Azure Monitor is a low-priced solution, which is why it would work best on small-scale projects."
  • "The price of the solution is reasonable."
  • "Azure Monitor is a competitively priced solution."
  • "Azure Monitor is one of the more cost effective solutions on the market."
  • "The cost of Azure Monitor application performance should be less expensive."
  • "The licensing is a monthly fee."
  • "I would rate Azure Monitor a two out of five for affordability."
  • "The solution is very costly because you have to pay for various things such as adding to logs and internet alerts."
  • More Azure Monitor 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:Splunk handles a high amount of data very well. We use Splunk to capture information and as an aggregator for monitoring information from different sources. Splunk is very good at alerting us if we… more »
    Top Answer:Azure Monitor is a very easy-to-use product in the cloud environment.
    Top Answer:We cannot use AI services with the solution.
    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
    Views
    19,148
    Comparisons
    16,331
    Reviews
    30
    Average Words per Review
    509
    Rating
    7.7
    Views
    5,175
    Comparisons
    3,398
    Reviews
    9
    Average Words per Review
    427
    Rating
    7.4
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    SolarWinds SAM
    Learn More
    Overview

    Azure Monitor is a comprehensive monitoring solution offered by Microsoft Azure. It provides a centralized platform for monitoring the performance and health of various Azure resources, applications, and infrastructure. 

    With Azure Monitor, users can gain insights into the availability, performance, and usage of their applications and infrastructure. The key features of Azure Monitor include metrics, logs, alerts, and dashboards. Metrics allow users to collect and analyze performance data from various Azure resources, such as virtual machines, databases, and storage accounts. 

    Logs enable users to collect and analyze log data from different sources, including Azure resources, applications, and operating systems. Azure Monitor also provides a robust alerting mechanism that allows users to set up alerts based on specific conditions or thresholds. These alerts can be configured to notify users via email, SMS, or other notification channels. Additionally, Azure Monitor offers customizable dashboards that allow users to visualize and analyze their monitoring data in a personalized and intuitive manner.  

    Azure Monitor integrates seamlessly with other Azure services, such as Azure Automation and Azure Logic Apps, enabling users to automate actions based on monitoring data. It also supports integration with third-party monitoring tools and services, providing flexibility and extensibility. 

    Overall, Azure Monitor is a powerful and versatile monitoring solution that helps users gain deep insights into the performance and health of their Azure resources and applications. It offers a wide range of features and integrations, making it a comprehensive solution for monitoring and managing Azure environments.

    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
    Rackspace, First Gas, Allscripts, ABB Group
    Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company33%
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Comms Service Provider14%
    Government10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Government8%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm20%
    Construction Company13%
    Recruiting/Hr Firm7%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization40%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Government8%
    Financial Services Firm6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise51%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise67%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise49%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business11%
    Midsize Enterprise48%
    Large Enterprise41%
    Buyer's Guide
    Azure Monitor vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Monitor vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Azure Monitor is ranked 4th in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability with 44 reviews while SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is ranked 21st in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability with 38 reviews. Azure Monitor is rated 7.6, while SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Azure Monitor writes "A powerful Kusto query language but the alerting mechanism needs improvement". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor writes "We use this product for base and application monitoring. ". Azure Monitor is most compared with Datadog, Dynatrace, Prometheus, Sentry and AppDynamics, whereas SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is most compared with Dynatrace, AppDynamics, Prometheus, ServiceNow Discovery and Nagios XI. See our Azure Monitor vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report.

    See our list of best Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability vendors.

    We monitor all Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability 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.