Elastic Observability vs SolarWinds AppOptics comparison

Elastic and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Elastic is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.9, while SolarWinds is ranked #57. Elastic holds a 2.2% mindshare in APM, compared to SolarWinds’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Elastic users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

Elastic Observability

Read 29 Elastic Observability reviews

8,553 Views
6,586 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

SolarWinds AppOptics

Read 9 SolarWinds AppOptics reviews

1,822 Views
1,130 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Elastic Observability

SolarWinds AppOptics

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

SolarWinds AppOptics and Elastic Observability compete in the observability and monitoring category. SolarWinds AppOptics edges ahead in pricing and support, while Elastic Observability takes the lead in feature robustness according to user reviews.

Features: SolarWinds AppOptics includes detailed monitoring, integrations, and ease of use. Elastic Observability offers powerful data visualization, extensive search capabilities, and flexibility. Users find Elastic Observability's features more robust and valuable.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds AppOptics users mention enhanced customization and advanced alerting capabilities. Elastic Observability users point to improved simplicity and better documentation. Both products have areas needing enhancements, but Elastic Observability's complexity remains a notable concern.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds AppOptics is praised for straightforward deployment and responsive customer support. Elastic Observability's deployment is more intricate, but its support also has positive feedback. Users find SolarWinds AppOptics simpler to deploy.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds AppOptics is considered cost-effective with quick return on investment. Elastic Observability, although pricier, is perceived as offering better value for its comprehensive capabilities. Users see Elastic Observability as a worthy investment despite higher initial costs.

To learn more, read our detailed Elastic Observability vs. SolarWinds AppOptics Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Observability vs. SolarWinds AppOptics

March 2026

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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

Elastic Observability

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

10th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

15th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

11th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Log Management (15th), Container Monitoring (5th)

SolarWinds AppOptics

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

57th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

60th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

45th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Elastic Observability is 2.2%, down from 5.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds AppOptics is 0.8%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Elastic Observability	2.2%
SolarWinds AppOptics	0.8%
Other	97.0%

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Mohammed-Abdelalim

Assistant Vice President at QualityKiosk Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Has provided powerful customization for unique monitoring needs but needs more out-of-the-box capabilities

In my opinion, the best features of Elastic Observability are their flexibility to integrate with other existing systems and the ability to build a unified monitoring tool that can integrate with existing ones and end-to-end user journeys which require a lot of customizations. The greatest feature in Elastic is the ability to customize. This is similar to my comments about customizable dashboards in Elastic because it's visible to the analyst. However, it's very great. Customizing these dashboards can meet the customer's specific use cases and specific stories that they have in their environment, their special environment that doesn't look like other environments. The dashboarding in Elastic is highly customizable to the level of logos. If the customer wants his company logo in the dashboard, it can be done.

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John Yuko

Assistant Manager ICT - Projects at I&M Bank Ltd

Unique features allow consolidating and combing metrics into a single dashboard, but don't monitor mobile solutions

I would like to see more granular information provided on Unix applications. Also, the integration with Unix services should be a bit more straightforward in terms having an agent to retrieve your credentials rather than having to enter or save them for SSH on SolarWinds. From the outset, we had to set some commands to log into the search console, and they are saved on the solution, which presents a challenge in terms of exposure. The solution is unable to monitor APK solutions completely because we'd then be forced to break down the APK and provide the APIs or go through the source code. They don't have a module that can analyze an application that is maybe under-used.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is very stable, and I would rate it ten out of ten based on my interaction with it."

"I found Elk to be excellent for log analytics, security analytics, application code-level analytics, collaboration with DevOps teams, CI/CD, microservices, and Kubernetes, specifically cloud-native or cloud-specific tasks."

"The price is very less expensive compared to the other solutions."

"Elastic APM has plenty of features, such as the Elastic server for Kibana and many additional plugins. It's a comprehensive tool when used as a logging platform."

"Good design and easy to use once implemented."

"Machine learning is the most valuable feature of this solution."

"The solution has been stable in our usage."

"It has always been a stable solution."

More Elastic Observability pros

"Technical support is always live and they're supportive."

"The reporting of the solution is very good."

"With minimal effort on our part, TraceView provides extraordinary visibility into the requests that flow through our SOA applications."

"AppNeta provides a range of products, all based around intelligent network testing algorithms."

"Some of the most valuable features of SolarWinds are the topology discovery and network performance analysis."

"The product has a great dashboard."

"Customer service is exceptional, as they are very much in tune with our service needs and are always in contact for both enhancement requests and overall satisfaction."

"I have found the most valuable feature is application performance management."

More SolarWinds AppOptics pros

Cons

"The solution needs to use more AI. Once the product onboards AI, users would more effectively be able to track endpoints for specific messages."

"It lacked some capabilities when handling on-prem devices, like network observability, package flow analysis, and device performance data on the infrastructure side."

"In the future, Elastic APM needs a portfolio iTool. They can provide an easy way to develop the custom UI for Kibana."

"Elastic Observability needs to have better standardization, logging, and schema."

"Elastic Observability needs to improve the retrieval of logs and metrics from all the instances."

"There is room for improvement regarding its APM capabilities."

"Elastic Observability could improve asset discovery as the current requirement to push the agent is not ideal."

"Elastic Observability is reactive rather than proactive. It should act as an ITSM tool and be able to create tickets and alerts on Jira."

More Elastic Observability cons

"AppOptics would benefit from having a much more centralized view."

"I'd like to see the ability to use other internal instrumented applications as filters in the overview/aggregation screen."

"The integration with Unix services should be a bit more straightforward."

"Does not perform traditional SNMP/CLI/NetFlow/WMI etc monitoring."

"The solution should be more user-friendly."

"We had a stability issue with a portion of the installation (Sequencer) when it was first introduced and have chosen not to install that specific function."

"I would like to see more integration with other tools that are available on the market."

"The implementation needs improvement. It needs to get modernized with the newer cloud scenario in both public and private deployment models."

More SolarWinds AppOptics cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are two types: cloud and SaaS. They charge based on data ingestion, ingest rate, hard retention, and warm retention. I believe it costs around $25,000 annually to ingest 30GB of data daily. That is the SaaS version. There is also a self-managed license where the customer manages their own infrastructure on-prem. In such cases, there are three license tiers that respectively cost $5,000 annually per node, $7,000 per node, and $12,500 per node."

"The product’s pricing needs improvement."

"Elastic Observability is cheaper than other similar solutions, such as Dynatrace. Its license calculation is based on various factors like data volume and physical infrastructure, particularly related to RAM capacity."

"Since we are a huge company, Elastic Observability is an affordable solution for us."

"We have been using the open-source version."

"Elastic Observability's pricing could be better for small-scale users."

"The product is not that cheap."

"One needs to pay for the licenses, and it is an annual subscription model right now."

More Elastic Observability pricing and cost advice

"Mostly, it's a perpetual license. We don't have any customers using the subscription right now—it's mostly a perpetual license that the customers purchase. The licensing is based on the number of elements, whereas other solutions are node-based."

"Since it's a negotiable rate, I would rate the pricing as a five out of five."

"I believe the current licensing cost is reasonable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

Manufacturing Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	16

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Elastic Observability?

Elastic Observability significantly improves incident response time by providing quick access to logs and data across various sources. For instance, searching for specific keywords in logs spanning...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Elastic Observability?

The problem is their licensing model, which is a bit confusing. Many customers struggle to understand their total cost of ownership because Elastic licensing is not dependent on easy, quantifiable ...

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What needs improvement with Elastic Observability?

After careful consideration about areas for improvement in Elastic Observability, aspects such as pricing, customization, implementation, and scalability could be improved. As a user of the system,...

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Comparisons

Dynatrace vs Elastic Observability

Compared 6% of the time

Grafana vs Elastic Observability

Compared 6% of the time

New Relic vs Elastic Observability

Compared 5% of the time

Sentry vs Elastic Observability

Compared 5% of the time

Datadog vs Elastic Observability

Compared 4% of the time

More Elastic Observability Competitors

New Relic vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 14% of the time

Dynatrace vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 10% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 9% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 6% of the time

More SolarWinds AppOptics Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Observability

March 2026

Download Elastic Observability product report

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

March 2026

Download SolarWinds AppOptics product report

Also Known As

No data available

AppOptics, SolarWinds TraceView, Librato

Overview

Elastic Observability offers a comprehensive suite for log analytics, application performance monitoring, and machine learning. It integrates seamlessly with platforms like Teams and Slack, enhancing data visualization and scalability for real-time insights.

Elastic Observability is designed to support production environments with features like logging, data collection, and infrastructure tracking. Centralized logging and powerful search functionalities make incident response and performance tracking efficient. Elastic APM and Kibana facilitate detailed data visualization, promoting rapid troubleshooting and effective system performance analysis. Integrated services and extensive connectivity options enhance its role in business and technical decision-making by providing actionable data insights.

What are the most important features of Elastic Observability?

Centralized Logging: Streamlines the collection, analysis, and storage of log data.
Powerful Search: Provides robust search capabilities for quick access to relevant information.
Scalability: Supports growing data needs across diverse environments.
Real-time Telemetry: Ensures up-to-date insights and monitoring.
Platform Integration: Seamlessly connects with services like Teams and Slack.
Data Visualization: Enhances visibility with Elastic APM and Kibana.

What benefits and ROI should users explore in reviews?

Cost-effectiveness: Offers significant savings through efficient data management.
Rapid Incident Response: Minimizes downtime with quick troubleshooting tools.
Comprehensive Insights: Supports better business decisions with detailed data analysis.
Performance Tracking: Enables assessment of system effectiveness and improvements.

Elastic Observability is employed across industries for critical operations, such as in finance for transaction monitoring, in healthcare for secure data management, and in technology for optimizing application performance. Its data-driven approach aids efficient event tracing, supporting diverse industry requirements.

Elastic

AppOptics is a SaaS-based simple, powerful and affordable Infrastructure & Application monitoring for custom on-premises, cloud, and hybrid systems.

Your business runs on applications, and when they go down or run slowly, it can impact the business in lost productivity, customers, or revenue. To add to the complexity, your IT environment is changing, and workloads can be spread across data centers, and cloud resources. You need to monitor the availability and performance of applications and infrastructure, regardless of where they are, so you can identify potential issues early and address them before they impact users

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

PSCU, Entel, VITAS, Mimecast, Barrett Steel, Butterfield Bank

TraxoCovea Insurance BTE TechnologyDatarista

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Observability vs. SolarWinds AppOptics

March 2026

Free Report: Elastic Observability vs. SolarWinds AppOptics

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