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BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management vs SolarWinds NPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

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

BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management
Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software
46th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Management (42nd)
SolarWinds NPM
Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
160
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (4th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Cloud Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 4.1%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SolarWinds NPM4.1%
BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management0.5%
Other95.4%
Cloud Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

VB
Enterprise Solution Architect at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Helps design blueprints in a cloud environment but the support is a major problem
One of the major problems is that support is not so good. I used to have a support expert in Spain but they left two years ago. BMC doesn't invest a lot in network automation but network automation is a major point in CLM. There aren't any experts here in Europe, maybe they have in America, I don't know. The main problem is the support in Europe. We had a lot of problems with the people who got put on our cases. The agents that we were assigned to were not so capable. They wanted to replicate the problem. If you have an incident, it takes a lot of time to troubleshoot the problem. The incident support is not so good. The technicians don't know the platform well. BMC doesn't want to invest in CLM. Two years ago we had a lot of problems. Maybe BMC realized that CLM is an end of life product.
Vivek Jaiswal - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Central monitoring has improved outage alerts and now needs smarter detection and modern dashboards
Regarding the automated network topology and mapping feature in SolarWinds NPM, I am not satisfied with it. For static monitoring, it is acceptable. However, if it is possible, I would need a feature in SolarWinds in the future for some kind of malfunctioning detection, such as malware attacks or that type of environment. We did not have any facility to detect that in SolarWinds. I think it would be better to incorporate those types of features. Regarding customization options in SolarWinds, the ability to customize the dashboard has room for improvement. The dashboard is quite old, and we need some improvement in it. Nowadays, we have multiple tools with AI-based monitoring and web-based dashboards. SolarWinds also has a web-based dashboard, but I think there is scope for improvement in the UI. There may be other areas I would like to improve in SolarWinds NPM.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"You can tie together your public and private cloud infrastructure into a "single pane of glass"."
"CLM has a multi-cloud portal because they have the resources to implement in various environments in various ports."
"By allowing end users to request their own services, the request process for systems is much quicker and more accurate."
"Assesses change impact or completes an audit using multiple dashboard views."
"Automates Java EE Application Deployment from an SCM system."
"Supports unattended installs and image-based, script-based, or template-based provisioning."
"Integrates role-based access control with pre-configured policies for CIS, DISA, HIPAA, PCI, SOX, NIST, and SCAP documentation and remediation."
"SolarWinds NPM has specific modules for monitoring different network capabilities, which provides rich features for carrying out specific tasks."
"The SolarWinds NPM framework, upon which most of their flagship products are built, empowers a wide variety of admins and users to quickly find value in their installed products."
"There are a lot of options for customization of the dashboard, alerts, and reports."
"Their support team is efficient, and it is easy to set up."
"SolarWinds NPM provides an overview of network monitoring, extending its capabilities to cover other aspects, such as virtual machines and servers. The platform has features like NetPath, which is particularly beneficial for end-users, offering insights into issues like latency, packet loss, and connectivity problems with routers, switches, or servers."
"It gives us a map of the network setup and one console to see the entire network."
"It's a very good tool and a very stable tool."
"Feature rich produce suite that addresses many aspects of BSM."
 

Cons

"One of the major problems is that support is not so good."
"The installation and configuration can be tricky due to it being built on Remedy."
"Needs integrations with other providers to provide a custom public cloud environment."
"SolarWinds NPM should be more flexible to accommodate specific customer requirements quickly."
"SolarWinds NPM could improve the graphics of the interface and more customized reporting."
"If they’re going for a “cover everything” approach, then they need to do so and enable a bit more of the "cover everything approach" within every one of the tools."
"The scalability can be better."
"Bulk Node attach is chaos."
"The solution's database performance could be improved."
"I would like to see integration with antivirus or other security endpoint solutions."
"They have had a rather large security breach in the past. It's cost some companies customers."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"SolarWinds NPM has different pricing models available. The cost of the solution is less than some competitors."
"There can be fees in addition to the licensing fees if you add on."
"The cost is based on the number of nodes, so it is expensive when you have a lot of them."
"Though I don't remember the price for SolarWinds NPM, its price is somewhat okay when you compare it with other tools in the market. The price isn't too high and isn't too low, so it's okay."
"We have a multi-year license for the use of this solution. There are additional costs for recourses in the environment."
"The cost of the personal perpetual license for SolarWinds NPM is approximately $2,000."
"The licensing is based on the number of nodes, interfaces, and volumes."
"The price points are more than competitive when compared to other vendors."
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Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
May 31, 2015
Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor
I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise33
Large Enterprise85
 

Questions from the Community

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What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
It actually depends on the exact purpose or kind of devices (network devices, servers, something else). Some tools are better for only network devices while others are better for a cloud monitoring...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We are partners with SolarWinds and we sell a lot of Network management to large enterprises also because of scalability, products like Network Performance Monitor & Netflow Traffic Analyzer ar...
 

Also Known As

BMC CLM
Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

JDA Software, Morningstar, Orange Business Services, Wipro
Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management vs. SolarWinds NPM and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.