Prometheus vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

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Prometheus Logo
6,261 views|5,569 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
SolarWinds Logo
5,175 views|3,398 comparisons
87% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Jun 29, 2023

We performed a comparison between SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and Prometheus 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: SolarWinds and Prometheus have varying initial setup times with SolarWinds taking from a few hours to two months and Prometheus ranging from one hour to several weeks. While SolarWinds' deployment process is generally easy, upgrades can pose difficulty. On the other hand, Prometheus' setup process can be made easier with experience. 
  • Features: SolarWinds offers detailed monitoring of processes, services, and network devices, with infrastructure mapping. Prometheus is known for its flexibility, fast storage, and integration capabilities. It also has a scraping mechanism for high availability. Additionally, the ability to extract data from multiple sources using exporters is a valuable feature.
  • Pricing: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is a paid tool that charges based on the number of devices and modules included in the plan, while Prometheus is an open source solution that is available for free. SolarWinds' pricing is based on a yearly license, while Prometheus pricing depends on the setup on the user's server. Some users feel that SolarWinds can be expensive, while Prometheus is an affordable option compared to other solutions.
  • Service and Support: SolarWinds has received mixed feedback, with both positive experiences and negative feedback on wait times and expertise. On the other hand, Prometheus relies solely on documentation and community support, lacking technical support but providing good forum support.
  • ROI: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and Prometheus are both effective solutions for monitoring, with SolarWinds being reported to improve performance, reduce downtime, and increase productivity resulting in positive ROI. Meanwhile, Prometheus, a free tool, has also proven to be a valuable option for monitoring.

Comparison Results: Prometheus is the preferred choice over SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor due to its flexibility, integration capabilities, and affordability as an open-source solution. While SolarWinds has valuable monitoring capabilities, there is room for improvement in stability, ease of use, and pricing. Prometheus is highly valued for its fast data storage system, scraping mechanism, and ability to collect and compare logs from different resources. 

To learn more, read our detailed Prometheus 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
"The most valuable feature is that we can receive information in different formats.""The feature I found most valuable is the number of integrations. It is the industry standard for metrics.""The best thing about Prometheus is its integration.""Prometheus gives us high availability automatically.""The good thing is it integrates well with the Grafana dashboard. It comes with a UI where you see everything as a graph.""The sky is the limit because the solution is a flexible open box that can be used vastly to do anything you need to monitor applications.""The most valuable features of the solution are metrics scraping capabilities and the open source community and support.""It lets me proactively identify and resolve system issues. This, in terms of, most of the time, really reduces downtime. Because when there are notifications on time when we engage it quickly on time, our downtime is highly reduced. So basically, Prometheus is for monitoring and alerting."

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"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.""The features like trends, capacity planning, recommendations, and diagnostics are the main items I focus on for added value.""There are many valuable features, including the network configuration manager, and the network performance manager.""I'd rate technical support at eight out of ten. They are helpful and fast.""The solution is great for monitoring. If something is going wrong, we can immediately find the root cause.""The most valuable feature is application monitoring.""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.""We use the solution as a central monitoring tool. We use it to monitor every transaction that has a relation to the organization’s infrastructure."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Pros →

Cons
"I would like to see improvement in the analysis tools and customization features.""They could provide efficient logs in terms of clarity and ease of access similar to Datadog’s paid version.""The scalability must be improved.""The alert functionality is kind of lackluster.""The solution has shortcomings regarding security monitoring-oriented features to support custom use cases, like out-of-the-box test scenarios and threat-related use cases of its users.""The primary area where Prometheus could be improved is in terms of pricing, particularly when used with managed services.""Its stability could be even better.""The setup could be made easier for new users because it requires a bit of advance knowledge or experience."

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"They should incorporate more artificial intelligence. There should also be more predictive features.""An additional feature that would improve this solution is the ability to complete root cause analysis.""Support for the IBM Mainframe is needed.""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.""PerfStack can be made more effective. I am sure SolarWinds already has a plan for the same in coming versions.""It needs time-based functions for monitoring. Some things need to be polled on a specific schedule or only during a specific window.""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.""Nodes in Azure are able to be monitored with the use of agents, but this does not apply to cloud service offerings that are not node based."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The price of Prometheus is good, it is affordable because it is open source and there is no cost to it. You put it on your own server and the costs incurred completely depend on how you set it up."
  • "This is an open-source solution."
  • "The solution is not expensive."
  • "The solution is open source."
  • "The solution is free of cost."
  • "We use the solution's open-source version."
  • "The tool is open-sourced."
  • "We have the open-source version, so we don't pay for it."
  • More Prometheus 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 most valuable feature of Prometheus is its ability to collect metrics.
    Top Answer:For a project I am currently working on in my company, I use Grafana, but for the data source part, I use Prometheus. I use Prometheus in a Kubernetes cluster. I use Prometheus for the processes… 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
    Views
    6,261
    Comparisons
    5,569
    Reviews
    29
    Average Words per Review
    384
    Rating
    8.3
    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

    Prometheus is a powerful open-source monitoring and alerting toolkit designed for cloud-native environments. 

    It collects metrics from various sources, including applications, services, and infrastructure components, providing real-time insights into system performance. 

    With its flexible data model and query language, Prometheus enables users to analyze and visualize metrics, facilitating troubleshooting and capacity planning. Its robust alerting system allows for proactive monitoring, notifying users of any anomalies or issues. 

    Prometheus also offers seamless integration with popular tools and frameworks, making it a versatile solution for monitoring and observability.

    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
    Information Not Available
    Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm20%
    Retailer13%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Security Firm7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm28%
    Computer Software Company16%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Government5%
    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 Business41%
    Midsize Enterprise28%
    Large Enterprise31%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise69%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise49%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business11%
    Midsize Enterprise48%
    Large Enterprise41%
    Buyer's Guide
    Prometheus vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Prometheus vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Prometheus is ranked 9th in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability with 32 reviews while SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is ranked 21st in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability with 38 reviews. Prometheus is rated 8.4, while SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Prometheus writes "A very flexible open box that can be used vastly to do anything you need". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor writes "We use this product for base and application monitoring. ". Prometheus is most compared with Azure Monitor, New Relic, Dynatrace, Sentry and Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver), whereas SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is most compared with Azure Monitor, Dynatrace, AppDynamics, ServiceNow Discovery and Nagios XI. See our Prometheus 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.