Lenovo XClarity Controller vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

Lenovo and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Server Monitoring category. Lenovo is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.5, while SolarWinds is ranked #11 with an average rating of 7.4. Lenovo holds a 3.6% mindshare in SM, compared to SolarWinds’s 2.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Lenovo users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

Lenovo XClarity Controller

Read 4 Lenovo XClarity Controller reviews

1,101 Views
1,101 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Read 42 SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor reviews

3,787 Views
795 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Lenovo XClarity Controller

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and Lenovo XClarity Controller both cater to different needs in the IT infrastructure management space. Based on user reviews, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor leads in pricing and support, while Lenovo XClarity Controller excels in features and is considered worth its price.

Features: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is praised for its monitoring capabilities, extensive reporting features, and user-friendly interface. Lenovo XClarity Controller is highlighted for its effective hardware management, automation functions, and advanced diagnostic tools.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds users wish for enhancements in scalability, more intuitive navigation, and faster issue resolution times. Lenovo XClarity Controller users suggest improvements in integration with third-party tools, enhanced compatibility, and better real-time alert capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds receives positive feedback for relatively straightforward deployment and responsive support. Lenovo XClarity also garners positive feedback for ease of implementation but stands out for its superior setup documentation. Users feel Lenovo XClarity offers more comprehensive customer support.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds is considered more budget-friendly, offering good return on investment as per user feedback. Lenovo XClarity, despite higher initial costs, is seen as delivering significant long-term value due to its advanced features, justifying the investment for many users.

To learn more, read our detailed Lenovo XClarity Controller vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Lenovo XClarity Controller vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

July 2025

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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

Lenovo XClarity Controller

Ranking in Server Monitoring

9th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Ranking in Server Monitoring

11th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (20th), Active Directory Management (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of Lenovo XClarity Controller is 3.6%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 2.5%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Server Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Muhammad_Salman

Senior Finance Executive at Texitech

Simplifies RAID computation and technical support resolves issues effectively

The Lenovo configuration tool helps us with the computation of the RAID Controller and the installation of the operating system. If we encounter any sort of issue, we can troubleshoot the problem with the assistance of the Lenovo technical team. Sometimes, we do not receive complaints from the controller. We also receive software issue resolutions by managing the process with the assistance of the Lenovo technical team.

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VIVEK PATHAK

Solutions Architect at Airtel

Offering reasonably good dashboarding features but needs to improve the application performance monitoring

My company uses Riverbed for application performance monitoring. I was doing research so that I could understand if SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor provide APM capabilities similar to Riverbed, which allows our company to get a packet capture of an entire session, and on the basis of it, we look at the application performance monitoring part. With SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor, my company does SNMP polling, so it can drag an entire session, but it focuses more on availability, CPU memory, and server connection status. In Riverbed, my company catches an entire system, so when we deal with two applications, we have end-to-end app visibility. All the application monitoring happens through Riverbed. Our company's main problem is that, as of now, we have two different products in our organization, and we don't want to continue with the multiple products currently. I wanted to understand if SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor already have capabilities like Riverbed, and if they do, then I wanted to figure out why our company should not go with SolarWinds and why we are using products from multiple vendors. My company needs to continue with either Riverbed or SolarWinds. I wanted to see which products are good for the organization and how much I want to continue with Riverbed.

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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

"The remote management capability was also good."

"The most valuable feature of Lenovo XClarity is the ease of use because of the interface browser that is highly compatible and it has mobile web management."

"I would rate Lenovo XClarity Controller ten out of ten."

"The Lenovo configuration tool helps us with the computation of the RAID Controller and the installation of the operating system."

"The product's most valuable feature is its ability to provide insights into server status and alerts."

"Solarwinds has an open database that allows you to do serious integrations. It doesn't matter which service desk you have, you can implement and integrate it with SolarWinds."

"The graphical interfaces, GUI customizations, and alert configurations are impressive."

"I am impressed with the tool's AppStack feature which mainly helps us in the identification process. This feature can give an overview of the fault and help us identify the issues for performance degradation. Instead of looking at multiple places, we can look at a single place to identify the issues."

"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."

"SSL Certificate Monitoring and Expiry Alerting"

"Manage Groups: The capability to group appropriate devices gives better visibility of sites, categories, or critical regions. The same can be used to represent a dashboard for higher management."

"The more valuable feature of this solution is the Exchange feature."

"The solution has good alerts. Notifications are sent via email to technicians. You can filter the kinds of alerts you want to receive as well. It's excellent."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

Cons

"They could enable notifications on emails and phones regarding control panel information."

"Sometimes we do not receive the complaint from the Controller."

"It worked very slowly. It was not well on performance."

"Sometimes we do not receive the complaint from the Controller. However, software issues are managed and processed with the help of the Lenovo technical team, and they sort them out."

"Lenovo XClarity can improve the dashboard integration. For example, graphs could be better. Additionally, more integration with other vendors is needed. For example, VMware has integration with a lot of vendors."

"It would be helpful if the solution could integrate more with the security compliances, like this IDSS, etc."

"For each poller, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor can only monitor up to ten thousand components, which restricts scalability."

"Currently SolarWinds SAM offers AppInsight for modern versions of: IIS, Exchange, SQL Server. They have shown to be powerful and insightful tools. However, AppInsight needs to be offered for more applications: Citrix, SharePoint, AX, etc."

"SAM's software-defined network monitoring capability is also low and could be improved."

"The tool’s report feature created issues for us. We needed to gain skills to use that feature. The tool’s customization is not easy since you have to reconfigure the whole system."

"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."

"The product does not explain why a problem occurred."

"The setup was complex. We had local support to assist us."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The product is expensive."

"I think SolarWinds' pricing is very decent compared to other competitors in the market."

"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."

"We pay around $ 2,000 to $ 5,000 yearly for the solution."

"Pricing and licensing is fair for what you get. It does have a great bang-for-the-buck appeal."

"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 rate the pricing for this solution a three out of five."

"Price can always be lower. It is neither on the expensive side nor on the cheap side. We have worked with them for a lot of years, so we get a discount due to the size of the installation."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

23%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Educational Organization

10%

Retailer

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Lenovo XClarity Controller?

The product's most valuable feature is its ability to provide insights into server status and alerts.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Lenovo XClarity Controller?

Sometimes we do not receive the complaint from the Controller. However, software issues are managed and processed with the help of the Lenovo technical team, and they sort them out.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Lenovo XClarity Controller?

The customer has given me this configuration and is asking for the price of the server along with this configuration. They did not mention what kind of requirement they have. They just shared this ...

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What do you like most about SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

Identifying the problem statement is easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

The initial cost is quite high, but the renewal cost is reasonable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

There are no specific features or functionality I would like to see improved or enhanced in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor at this time. I have not encountered any missing features or fu...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Server Monitoring

August 2025

Download Lenovo XClarity Controller product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

July 2025

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report

Download SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor product report

Also Known As

XClarity Controller, Lenovo XCC

SolarWinds SAM

Overview

Lenovo ThinkSystem servers contain an integrated service processor, XClarity Controller (XCC), which provides advanced service-processor control, monitoring, and alerting functions. This document summarizes the features of XCC and the upgrades available to ThinkSystem servers.

Lenovo

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.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite

Buyer's Guide

Lenovo XClarity Controller vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

July 2025

Free Report: Lenovo XClarity Controller vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

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