Datadog vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Jul 4, 2023

We performed a comparison between Datadog and SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

Features: Datadog offers impressive features like interactive displays and data analysis, error detection and centralization of logs, ease of use for developers, and adaptability with AI and ML. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is praised for its straightforward installation process, user-friendly interface, robust monitoring abilities, and AppStack functionality for identifying and resolving problems. Datadog could enhance its usability, integration, user interface intuitiveness, learning curve, monitoring of external websites, SSL security, setup complexity, security features, and customization flexibility. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor could benefit from improvements in stability, flexibility, ease of use, performance, integration, pricing, reporting feature, and code-level monitoring.

Service and Support: Customers have generally praised the availability and promptness of Datadog's customer service and support. However, there have been occasional instances of slow or unresponsive support, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor support services have received mixed feedback. Some customers have recommended enhancements in turnaround time and escalation procedures.

Ease of Deployment: Datadog's initial setup is considered user-friendly and simple, with support readily available. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor does not require installation as it is a cloud solution, however, upgrades can be time-consuming.

Pricing: Some users find Datadog's setup cost to be expensive, while others find it reasonable compared to other solutions. The pricing model for Datadog is considered confusing and lacks documentation. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor's pricing has received mixed reviews, with some finding it overpriced and others considering it reasonable.

Comparison Results: Datadog is preferred over SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor. Users praised Datadog for its user-friendly interface, easy setup, comprehensive dashboards, and reporting options, effective error reporting and log centralization features, and its ability to cater to the needs of development teams. Additionally, users appreciated the wide range of integrations available with Datadog and its flexibility in monitoring and analyzing data.

To learn more, read our detailed Datadog vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 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 network map is crucial in identifying bottlenecks and determining what needs more attention.""The many dozens of integrations that the solution brings out of the box are excellent.""Thanks to the logs, we manage to make better reports through Jira and also to trace the request with more facility than we would be able to do otherwise.""It has a nice UI.""The tool's deployment is easy.""Going from viewing a metric to creating a monitor alerting on a metric is very easy.""Flame graphs are pretty useful for understanding how GraphQL resolves our federated queries when it comes to identifying slow points in our requests. In our microservice environment with 170 services.""Datadog has helped us a ton by allowing us to set up a multitude of easily configurable alarms across our tech stack and infrastructure."

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"The most valuable feature is application monitoring.""Hardware health: It allows for proactive monitoring of the hardware health and is a game changer.""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.""There are many valuable features, including the network configuration manager, and the network performance manager.""The solution is great for monitoring. If something is going wrong, we can immediately find the root cause.""The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is the network devices' performance monitor is the best.""AppInsight for SQL: Enables us to see the relevant error log entries on the same page as performance parameters.""The most valuable feature is the Access Rights Manager."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Pros →

Cons
"Datadog isn't as mature as some of the established players like Dynatrace or Splunk. It's a new product, so they are constantly releasing new features, and I don't have much to complain about.""It lacks consistency in the APIs.""Once Datadog has gained wide adoption, it can often be overwhelming to both know and understand where to go to find answers to questions.""Federated views for Datadog dashboards are critical as large companies utilize multiple instances of the product and cannot link the metrics or correlate the metrics together. This stunts the usage of Datadog.""One thing we have run into is that it is so easy to add monitoring that we turn on things without really understanding the costs.""Since the Datadog platform has so many separate features, solving so many use cases, there are often inconsistencies in feature availability and interoperability between products.""Datadog is expensive.""Datadog lacks a deeper application-level insight. Their competitors had eclipsed them in offering ET functionality that was important to us. That's why we stopped using it and switched to New Relic. Datadog's price is also high."

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"It needs time-based functions for monitoring. Some things need to be polled on a specific schedule or only during a specific window.""Downside of the tools is the web console are hung or crash. It need to improve the performance.""This product has no real downside unless they fail to continue development of its capabilities.""One area that could benefit from improvement is its performance""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.""Currently SolarWinds SAM offers AppInsight for modern versions of: IIS, Exchange, SQL Server. They have shown to be powerful and insightful tools. However, AppInsight needs to be offered for more applications: Citrix, SharePoint, AX, etc.""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."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "​Pricing seems reasonable. It depends on the size of your organization, the size of your infrastructure, and what portion of your overall business costs go toward infrastructure."
  • "It has always scaled for us. Cost scales up too, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. It's reasonable for what they're providing."
  • "Pricing and licensing are reasonable for what they give you. You get the first five hosts free, which is fun to play around with. Then it's about four dollars a month per host, which is very affordable for what you get out of it. We have a lot of hosts that we put a lot of custom metrics into, and every host gives you an allowance for the number of custom metrics."
  • "At my last company, we did see ROI, specifically around response time. We could get to mission critical things that were down and losing revenue on immediately. So, the product paid itself back."
  • "The pricing and licensing through AWS Marketplace has been good. It would be nice if it was cheaper, but their pricing is reasonable for what it is. Sometimes, for their newer features, they charge as if it's fully fleshed out, even though it is a newer feature and it may have less stuff than their other items."
  • "It costs the same amount it would if we were hosting it ourselves, so we are incredibly happy with the cost."
  • "The pricing came up a bit compared to their competitors. It is not that the price has risen, but that the competitors have gone down. They keep adding more features that I would have expected to be baked in at a more nominal price. I have been increasingly dissatisfied with the pricing, but not enough to jump ship."
  • "It didn't scale well from the cost perspective. We had a custom package deal."
  • More Datadog 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:There are many factors and we know little about your requirements (size of org, technology stack, management systems, the scope of implementation). Our goal was to consolidate APM and infra… more »
    Top Answer:With Datadog, we have near-live visibility across our entire platform. We have seen APM metrics impacted several times lately using the dashboards we have created with Datadog; they are very good core… more »
    Top Answer:Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether the Datadog or Dynatrace network monitoring software was the better fit for us. We decided to go with Dynatrace. Dynatrace offers network… more »
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer:Among the major monitoring solutions, especially considering that free monitoring tools are available, it is relatively affordable. When compared to other licensed models in the market, it stands out… more »
    Top Answer:The current script monitoring feature has limitations, especially when dealing with custom scripts.
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    8.6
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    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    SolarWinds SAM
    Learn More
    Overview

    Datadog is a cloud monitoring solution that is designed to assist administrators, IT teams, and other members of an organization who are charged with keeping a close eye on their networks. Administrators can use Datadog to set real-time alerts and schedule automated report generation. They can deal with issues as they arise and keep up to date with the overall health of their network while still being able to focus on other tasks. Users can also track the historical performance of their networks and ensure that they operate at the highest possible level.

    Datadog Benefits

    Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by deploying Datadog include:

    • Gain an integrated view of the services and programs that IT teams are employing across their networks. Users can view and monitor all of the disparate programs that they have running across their networks with this one solution. They can track these programs across the entirety of the data’s life cycle.
    • Analyze and utilize massive amounts of data in real time. Datadog’s dashboards gather data in real time. Administrators can utilize their network’s data the minute that it becomes relevant to them. Decisions can be made based on the most current information available.
    • Keep your cloud network secured against digital threats. Datadog enables users to create alerts that will notify the minute that threats arise. IT teams and administrators can rapidly address any issue that comes up and prevent any existing problem from growing worse.
    • Easily get it up and running. Users can set up Datadog, configure it, and employ API integrations to connect it to external solutions with ease.

    Datadog Features

    • Customizable and prefabricated monitoring dashboards. Administrators are supplied with two different types of dashboards that they can choose from when they are setting up Datadog. They can customize the dashboards to fit any specialized monitoring need. Additionally, users can choose to use prefabricated dashboards that come with the solution.
    • Disaster recovery feature. Datadog has a built-in feature that enables organizations to continue functioning if some disaster strikes their network. If the network suffers damage, Datadog can restore lost data and infrastructure. Should a digital threat do damage to the network, Datadog ensures that the damage is not irreparable.
    • Vulnerability scanning tool. Users can keep ahead of threats to their networks by employing Datadog’s vulnerability scanning feature. This tool scans the entirety of a user’s network and warns them if a vulnerability is detected. Users can then move to patch these holes in their security before the threat to their network can escalate.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Datadog is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. It can offer organizations many advantages. Two major advantages are the dashboards that users can create and the monitoring capability that it gives system administrators.

    A senior manager in charge of site reliability engineering at Extra Space Storage writes, “The dashboards we created are core indicators of the health of our system, and it is one of the most reliable sources we have turned to, especially as we have seen APM metrics impacted several times lately. We can usually rely on logs to tell us what the apps are doing.”

    Housecall Pro’s senior director of DevOps writes, “We value the monitoring capability since it allows us to be pushed alerts, rather than having to observe graphs continually.

    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
    Adobe, Samsung, facebook, HP Cloud Services, Electronic Arts, salesforce, Stanford University, CiTRIX, Chef, zendesk, Hearst Magazines, Spotify, mercardo libre, Slashdot, Ziff Davis, PBS, MLS, The Motley Fool, Politico, Barneby's
    Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm22%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Comms Service Provider11%
    Manufacturing Company5%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization31%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm21%
    Construction Company14%
    Recruiting/Hr Firm7%
    Energy/Utilities Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization41%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Government8%
    Financial Services Firm6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business37%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise43%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise38%
    Large Enterprise46%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business35%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise49%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business11%
    Midsize Enterprise48%
    Large Enterprise41%
    Buyer's Guide
    Datadog vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Datadog vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Datadog is ranked 1st in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability with 136 reviews while SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is ranked 19th in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability with 36 reviews. Datadog is rated 8.6, while SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Datadog writes "Very good RUM, synthetics, and infrastructure host maps". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor writes "We use this product for base and application monitoring. ". Datadog is most compared with Dynatrace, Azure Monitor, New Relic, AWS X-Ray and AppDynamics, whereas SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is most compared with Azure Monitor, Dynatrace, AppDynamics, Prometheus and ServiceNow Discovery. See our Datadog 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.