IBM Application Performance Management vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Application Performance Management and SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
768,578 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 transaction tracking feature from IBM is the most important feature for us. It is something that provides a terrific value for us and our clients. It has a lot of data sources and agents that are collectors. It is also stable.""IBM Application Performance Management helped us increased our response time by 80% and cost 60% less.""The initial setup was straightforward and took minimal effort.""I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten.""It's easy to use.""The most valuable feature is the breakdown that it provides, such as a description of the fields for a particular transaction.""Because we have partnerships with other partners, I can share a bit about what I've noticed with IBM APM compared to other vendor solutions. Specifically, with IBM, the visibility into detailed process information is more tangible. On the OS level, APM displays all processes (or the top 10 processes) that are consuming CPU or resident memory. This is the most important thing that is not always available with other vendors."

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"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is its powerful monitoring capabilities.""It is simple to implement and can provide fairly decent Windows-based monitoring, beyond simple SNMP. It is great for monitoring newbies and smaller shops.""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.""SolarWinds is a very stable platform compared to others on the market.""The most valuable feature is the Access Rights Manager.""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.""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 find it to be a strong product suite, particularly when you need a comprehensive monitoring tool."

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Cons
"With APM, we noticed that the agent can cause a lot of issues for the application, making the agent very unreliable. Many issues are happening, and we've had to discuss it with support to try and get a fix. It affects application availability, and sometimes actions fail because of the agent, degrading the performance of the application.""It's still missing some platforms. For example, if you look to applications itself, it is missing the interface.""The stability is not great and should be better.""Its web user interface is a little bit old in comparison to other solutions, such as New Relic, and it should be improved. Its scalability and technical support should also be improved. Currently, it is scalable, but only in a vertical way. They provide good technical support, but the initial steps for a new case can be improved to fasten the resolution process.""The demo that was provided to us is not working very well. At times, there are errors.""Technical support can be slow and needs improvement.""They should focus on potentially enhancing the dashboard to make it more contemporary and adding some customization options. Furthermore, there might be room for improvement in the pricing policy."

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"One area that could benefit from improvement is its performance""SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor could improve the server monitoring and the web application monitoring features are not good. Microsoft SCOM has better server monitoring.""SAM's software-defined network monitoring capability is also low and could be improved.""SAM AppInsight for SQL: The ability to ignore fragmentation of specific indexes.""They should incorporate more artificial intelligence. There should also be more predictive features.""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.""The tool's AppStack needs to improve in the storage monitoring part. It should also include an analytics and recommendation approach. If I have found a fault in a server or application, I would like to know what caused it and how do I recover from it.""The major concern in the product revolves around application performance monitoring since end-to-end application monitoring is not possible with the tool."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "IBM APM is one of the cheaper products on the market, while everything necessary to get started is included in the license."
  • "The licensing fees can be paid every six months or on a yearly basis."
  • "As I previously indicated, I initiated the IBM and uncovered all its elements. Consequently, I'm not inclined towards a licensing approach."
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  • "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:They should focus on potentially enhancing the dashboard to make it more contemporary and adding some customization options. Furthermore, there might be room for improvement in the pricing policy. The… more »
    Top Answer:I monitor business applications for more than four end users.
    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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    Average Words per Review
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    Rating
    6.0
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    Average Words per Review
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    Rating
    7.4
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    IBM APM
    SolarWinds SAM
    Learn More
    Overview
    The IBM Application Performance Management portfolio provides visibility, control and automation of your mission-critical applications. It helps pinpoint the root cause of application's issue more quickly and resolve the problem. The integrated capabilities cover the five key areas: discovery, end-use experience, transaction tracking, enterprise diagnostics and analytics. It also easily monitors applications to ensure optimal performance to extend your hybrid management environment capabilities, to measure the customer experience from multiple locations and to further eliminate blind spots in your application environment.

    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
    Mibtree, EatDrinkDeals.com, IT Performance Advisor
    Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm19%
    Computer Software Company19%
    Government11%
    University7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm20%
    Construction Company13%
    Recruiting/Hr Firm7%
    Energy/Utilities Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization40%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Government8%
    Financial Services Firm6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business67%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise22%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise69%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise49%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business11%
    Midsize Enterprise48%
    Large Enterprise41%
    Buyer's Guide
    IBM Application Performance Management vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Application Performance Management vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    768,578 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    IBM Application Performance Management is ranked 52nd in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability with 7 reviews while SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is ranked 21st in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability with 38 reviews. IBM Application Performance Management is rated 6.4, while SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of IBM Application Performance Management writes "A multi-functional solution but has poor stability and performance-related issues". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor writes "We use this product for base and application monitoring. ". IBM Application Performance Management is most compared with Instana Dynamic APM, Dynatrace, BMC Compuware Strobe, IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager and AppDynamics, whereas SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is most compared with Azure Monitor, Dynatrace, AppDynamics, Prometheus and ServiceNow Discovery. See our IBM Application Performance Management 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.