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AWS Auto Scaling vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

AWS Auto Scaling
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
42nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds Server and Appli...
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
20th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
4.5
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Server Monitoring (5th), Active Directory Management (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of AWS Auto Scaling is 0.5%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.0%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor1.0%
AWS Auto Scaling0.5%
Other98.5%
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
 

Featured Reviews

Ishaka Michael Efe - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer Intern at HNG Tech
Automation has simplified traffic management and improved workload efficiency
I'm not really sure what improvements I would want to see in AWS Auto Scaling because I haven't really used it extensively or explored most of it. To the extent that I've used it so far, I think it is very good. I can't really say for certain what should be improved because I haven't really explored it a lot. However, what I've been using it for has been very good. If there could be training for AWS Auto Scaling, that would be fine. If you could add more training on how to use it correctly and on the functions that I haven't used before or some people have not really used before, that would help. If there could be more documentation and training on it, that would be beneficial.
NikhilKalwint - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Specialist at ServiceIO
Monitoring over a thousand systems has improved decision making and operational visibility
From an advantage perspective, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is comparatively cheaper from a commercial point of view. It is easy to install and configure, very user-friendly, and quick to get up and running, allowing you to see the early value adds in your organization. It is compatible with most technologies for monitoring with very few chances of incompatibility. Configuration also allows us to monitor all the technical parameters we are looking for, making it a very good experience for us. The alerting feature in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is a main advantage, as it alerts based on threshold breaches and can raise tickets to the ticketing system, send SMS, and email notifications, allowing engineers to work on those tickets to resolve issues and avoid further impact. The visibility into server health is a beneficial feature that I am utilizing. We widely use various application performance metrics in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor such as database monitoring and server monitoring, which are quite good enough for any monitoring solution. We utilize the customizable dashboards in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I like the graphs provided by the tool."
"The tool's most valuable feature is vertical auto-scaling, which is easy to use. However, most companies now prefer horizontal scaling. I set up the health check integration to monitor CPU usage. When it reaches seventy percent, it sends me an email notification."
"The solution helps optimize the cost of the AWS environment."
"It is a stable platform."
"The product provides self-healing features."
"Auto Scaling is a cool feature that works well and its automatic scaling capabilities are very useful."
"The setup is not very complex."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it scales automatically without manual intervention based on the metrics we provide."
"There are many valuable features, including the network configuration manager, and the network performance manager."
"The initial setup was relatively easy, and we didn't have to install anything. All we had to do was put on the devices we wanted to monitor."
"It is easy to install and configure, very user-friendly, and quick to get up and running, allowing you to see the early value adds in your organization."
"Hardware health: It allows for proactive monitoring of the hardware health and is a game changer."
"SolarWinds is a very stable platform compared to others on the market."
"The ROI for SolarWinds products is unmatched in the industry."
"I adore the NTA module that provides deep details on ingress/egress traffic for any interface. With a few clicks, you can correlate who is accessing what and when, beside the bandwidth consuming applications/users."
"I have found the visibility into server health with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor very beneficial, which we use on a daily basis."
 

Cons

"The product’s security features need improvement."
"If there could be training for AWS Auto Scaling, that would be fine. If you could add more training on how to use it correctly and on the functions that I haven't used before or some people have not really used before, that would help."
"The setup can be a bit complex in some situations."
"The speed of the solution must be improved."
"There hasn't been a need for improvements."
"Setting up the configuration involves too much work for the cloud engineer, like configuring the ALB, the target group, and all the steps."
"The only area of improvement is the speed at which servers are launched. When cleaning up to six servers at a time, it can take up to 15 to 20 minutes to launch new servers."
"The product’s pricing needs improvement."
"The technical support was better in previous years. With the launch of the premium support service, the normal support has declined."
"It needs time-based functions for monitoring. Some things need to be polled on a specific schedule or only during a specific window."
"As per my view, Solarwinds should come up the same monitoring system for other certificate expiration alert apart from SSL."
"MS Azure Service and user experience monitoring is an area in which the SolarWinds tools are lacking; without a doubt, this is the Achilles heel of the Orion monitoring tools, and I am currently reviewing other vendors for Azure service monitoring tools."
"Scalability was an issue in the past."
"Some custom applications cannot be monitored, and a lot more applications need to be included."
"It would be helpful if the solution could integrate more with the security compliances, like this IDSS, etc."
"There is one feature that is a report writer. And they are currently trying to take it out from being a stand-alone application and integrating to the web. This doesn't give us the flexibility and it doesn't expand what we can get when it comes to reporting. So, putting it on the web is going to make it difficult to get some information. Leaving it where it is now will help us a lot."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"AWS Auto Scaling is a cheap solution."
"AWS Auto Scaling is an expensive solution."
"The product has moderate pricing."
"The pricing is good. I have not had any customers that have complained about the price."
"The product is expensive."
"AWS Auto Scaling's price is high."
"AWS Auto Scaling is a pay-per-use and pay-as-you-use service."
"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."
"I like the pricing for this SolarWinds product."
"The product is expensive."
"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 is inexpensive, starting at 2440 euros. For that, you get the ability to monitor a couple of nodes and one year of maintenance and support."
"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."
"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."
"We are on an annual license to use the solution. The price of the solution is expensive. The price is based on a bunch of factors, such as the number of engines and elements."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
15%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Educational Organization
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Educational Organization
13%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise21
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Auto Scaling?
I'm not sure about the pricing aspect of AWS Auto Scaling or the cost of it.
What needs improvement with AWS Auto Scaling?
AWS Auto Scaling can be improved in many ways, such as providing better visibility into scaling decisions and clarifying why exactly scaling happens. Sometimes, I am not sure why scaling occurs. Ea...
What is your primary use case for AWS Auto Scaling?
My main use case for AWS Auto Scaling is automatically scaling EC2 instances behind a load balancer based on traffic, CPU, and memory usage, as well as custom CloudWatch metrics. I also use it with...
What needs improvement with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?
There is definitely room for improvement besides simplifying its setup. As a non-technical person, I believe the dashboards could be improved. Everything we use appears on video walls, and we need ...
What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?
I am doing research as we currently have both solutions, and I am looking to see if we need both or can manage with one. Currently, the outcome indicates that we need both. The focus point is diffe...
 

Also Known As

AWS Auto-Scaling
SolarWinds SAM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Auto Scaling vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.