Elastic Observability vs SolarWinds AppOptics comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Elastic and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Elastic is ranked #12 with an average rating of 9.0, while SolarWinds is ranked #59. Elastic holds a 1.5% 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

12,505 Views
7,628 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

SolarWinds AppOptics

Read 9 SolarWinds AppOptics reviews

4,830 Views
3,043 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: October 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Observability vs. SolarWinds AppOptics

October 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

12th

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 (16th), Container Monitoring (5th)

SolarWinds AppOptics

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

59th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

66th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

44th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Elastic Observability is 1.5%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds AppOptics is 0.8%, up from 0.5% 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	1.5%
SolarWinds AppOptics	0.8%
Other	97.7%

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.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"From my experience with several major customers, the most valued feature of Elastic is its log analytics capabilities."

"The tool's most valuable feature is centralized logging. Elastic Common Search helps us to search for the logs across the organization."

"The Elastic User Interface framework lets us do custom development when needed. You need to have some Javascript knowledge. We need that knowledge to develop new custom tests."

"The customizable dashboards in Elastic Observability allow us to group relevant data to specific aspects of our solution, giving us around 20 interlinked dashboards which provide an overview, and if one aspect shows weird behavior, we can focus on that specific aspect of our software with a dedicated dashboard."

"The architecture and system's stability are simple."

"Elastic Observability is highly stable; we ingested nearly 170 million records in the system and we have tested it, and you get your reports and dashboards within a few seconds, so it doesn't take much time."

"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."

"The solution is open-source and helps with back-end logging. It is also easy to handle."

More Elastic Observability pros

"The product has a great dashboard."

"SolarWinds AppOptics does far more than what an individual may realize; it is not just a SIEM tool."

"It's a solid application."

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

"The sum solution, NTA, and DPA."

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

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

"The reporting of the solution is very good."

More SolarWinds AppOptics pros

Cons

"Improving code insight related to infrastructure and network, particularly focusing on aspects such as firewalls, switches, routers, and testing would be beneficial."

"If we had some pre-defined templates for observability that we could start using right away after deploying it – instead of having to build or to change some of the dashboards – that would be helpful."

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

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

"Elastic support really struggles in complex situations to resolve issues."

"There's a steep learning curve if you've never used this solution before."

"The interface could be improved."

"Elastic Observability is difficult to use. There are only three options for customization but this can be difficult for our use case. We do not have other options to choose the metrics shown, such as CPU or memory usage."

More Elastic Observability cons

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

"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."

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

"The support is not too bad, but also not very good—it's quite standard."

"Because of its inability to monitor mobile solutions, I would rate this solution as a seven out of ten."

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

"In terms of the technology, I think they need to put some more advanced troubleshooting into SolarWinds, in terms of AI capabilities. That's the next generation, especially in the cases of APIs which have already adopted AI capabilities into their products."

"The solution should be more user-friendly."

More SolarWinds AppOptics cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Users have to pay for some features, like the alerts on different channels, because they are unavailable in different source versions."

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

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

"The product’s pricing needs improvement."

"Pricing is one of those situations where the more you use it, the more you pay."

"So far, there are just the standard licensing fees. Several of the components are embedded in the license or are even open source. They're even free depending on what you use, which makes it even more appealing to someone that is discussing pricing of the solution."

"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 is not that cheap."

More Elastic Observability pricing and cost advice

"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."

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Outsourcing Company

Construction Company

13%

Outsourcing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

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 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 ...

See all answers

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,...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Elastic Observability?

My use case for Elastic Observability is observability, as we upload our customers' data, including logs, and when there is an issue, we can analyze what went wrong.

See all answers

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 6% of the time

Dynatrace vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 6% of the time

SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 2% of the time

More SolarWinds AppOptics Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Observability

November 2026

Download Elastic Observability product report

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

October 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

SolarWinds AppOptics offers powerful network performance monitoring and application insights, aiding enterprises in optimizing operations.

SolarWinds AppOptics provides comprehensive tools for network and application performance management. This platform enhances real-time monitoring capabilities, offering topology discovery and hop-by-hop performance analysis. With a focus on minimal configuration, users gain extraordinary visibility into service-oriented architecture applications and are equipped to identify performance issues efficiently. The dashboard's integration capabilities streamline application performance data, empowering organizations with robust reporting features. The deployment is popularly on-premises, yet improvements are desired in pricing strategy and integrations with existing tools.

What are the important features of SolarWinds AppOptics?

Topology Discovery: Facilitates understanding of network structure and connections.
Real-Time Monitoring: Delivers current data to monitor system performance live.
Heat Maps: Provides visual insights into network traffic patterns and performance metrics.
Pathview Monitoring: Enables tracking and evaluation of network performance per segment.
Integration Capabilities: Supports metrics integration for comprehensive system monitoring.

What benefits and ROI should users expect?

Efficiency in Issue Resolution: Swift identification of network bottlenecks and performance issues.
Enhanced Reporting: In-depth reports facilitating data-driven decisions.
Increased Visibility: Comprehensive insights into application and network activities.
Minimal Configuration: Quick setup enabling immediate utility and productivity.

SolarWinds AppOptics is widely used in network operations within enterprises, also extending to server and application monitoring. Deployed to track servers and network devices, it aids in analyzation of logs and data across environments, and is essential for service management. Specific industries benefit from detailed deployment inventory and management portfolios enabled by AppOptics.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

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

TraxoCovea Insurance BTE TechnologyDatarista

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Observability vs. SolarWinds AppOptics

October 2026

Free Report: Elastic Observability vs. SolarWinds AppOptics

Find out what your peers are saying about Elastic Observability vs. SolarWinds AppOptics and other solutions. Updated: October 2026.

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