ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

Why PeerSpot?

ManageEngine and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Active Directory Management category. ManageEngine is ranked #5 with an average rating of 9.0, while SolarWinds is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0. ManageEngine holds a 7.1% mindshare in ADM, compared to SolarWinds’s 3.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of ManageEngine users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

Read 15 ManageEngine ADAudit Plus reviews

2,362 Views
2,031 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Read 44 SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor reviews

8,842 Views
619 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and ManageEngine ADAudit Plus compete in the IT infrastructure management category. ManageEngine ADAudit Plus holds an advantage in detailed audit capabilities, whereas SolarWinds is superior in comprehensive system monitoring.

Features: SolarWinds monitors server health, application performance, and network traffic with alerting and dashboards for various environments. ManageEngine ADAudit Plus provides detailed audit trails, real-time alerts, and compliance reporting, focusing on security and user activity tracking.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds could enhance their user interface, expand API capabilities, and improve resource usage efficiency. ManageEngine ADAudit Plus may need to improve scalability for larger environments, reduce hardware requirements, and streamline data processing speeds.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds offers a straightforward setup with extensive documentation and efficient customer service. ManageEngine ADAudit Plus features an easy installation process tailored for audit needs and is praised for its supportive service team.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds has a higher initial cost, but it provides substantial ROI in comprehensive monitoring. ManageEngine ADAudit Plus presents a more budget-friendly option with a significant ROI for businesses focused on security and compliance.

To learn more, read our detailed ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

September 2026

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Helped 918,614 peers since 2012

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

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

Ranking in Active Directory Management

5th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Ranking in Active Directory Management

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

4.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (22nd), Server Monitoring (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Active Directory Management category, the mindshare of ManageEngine ADAudit Plus is 7.1%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 3.4%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Active Directory Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
ManageEngine ADAudit Plus	7.1%
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor	3.4%
Other	89.5%

Active Directory Management

Featured Reviews

Md Abdul Hakim

System Engineer at Corporate Projukti Limited

Advanced monitoring enhances user tracking that's cost-effective

I have been involved with this product for the last three years, participating in service and support within our company. We are currently supporting over 30 companies. This month, we deployed the solution for three companies, including two RMGs and one private bank in Bangladesh. The popularity of this product is due to its active directory monitoring abilities. Engineers can receive reports and log details within one to five seconds, which is essential for monitoring user activity swiftly and effectively. This product is very well-liked in Bangladesh due to user tracking, failed logins, and Jar reports for any Barna activity or execution. This solution's popularity extends through comprehensive auditing capabilities.

Read full review

NikhilKalwint

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.

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

"ManageEngine ADAudit Plus provides real-time tracking capabilities through agent installation, which works in real-time to collect information and immediately alerts if anything matches the defined conditions in the application."

"It assists in managing the active directory and modifying the reintegrated GPOs."

"Some of the most valuable features of ADAudit Plus are the granular parts of the reports fetched from Active Directory."

"The documentation for this solution is good."

"I rate this ten out of ten."

"ADAudit Plus's best features are that it's very easy to use with a user-friendly interface, and it gives reports on group policy and object changes that we couldn't find in any other product."

"We are happy with this product; we use it for multiple purposes and we get a lot of useful information from it."

"The Account Lockout Analyzer and the Inactive Users reports are particularly valuable."

More ManageEngine ADAudit Plus pros

"SolarWinds SAM has significantly improved our workflow by allowing us to develop a comprehensive knowledge base of known errors and automate responses to specific alerts."

"From a customers point of view, they get a good return on investment because they are not paying a lot of money when you compare to what they used to pay for IBM and other large vendors."

"We choose the Solarwinds based on the simplication of managing the tool itself."

"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."

"SolarWinds SAM is very stable, and we are using it with hundreds or thousands of customers and there are no stability issues."

"Features like monitoring and infrastructure dependency mapping are valuable to us."

"This product can monitor application environments no matter where they reside and provides capabilities for deep insight into infrastructure."

"It's good at monitoring system-specific things like ports, services."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

Cons

"The solution should include more details on file creation and modification. It also needs to have a quick message for troubleshooting problems which needs to be detailed and generic."

"Some features require more external integration."

"ADAudit Plus can be very tricky, especially if we need to do some high-availability configuration or distributed environment installation."

"Its configuration can be better. There were 44 pages of documented notes of what I had to do to get the product to work during the installation process."

"The initial setup was quite complex and required some research beforehand."

"ADAudit could have a more sophisticated interface design. They are using a plain UI, which is decent. However, customers have said that it looks a little flat compared to other vendors. It's not fancy."

"The interface could be improved, and the log collecting feature should have additional functionalities."

"The initial setup was difficult."

More ManageEngine ADAudit Plus cons

"I think they need to make reporting easier and more simple & dynamic."

"Downside of the tools is the web console are hung or crash. It need to improve the performance."

"PerfStack can be made more effective. I am sure SolarWinds already has a plan for the same in coming versions."

"The templates could use improvement. Currently, they are quite complex. They should have drag-and-drop functionality instead. It would make it easier to use."

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

"It needs time-based functions for monitoring. Some things need to be polled on a specific schedule or only during a specific window."

"Scalability was an issue in the past."

"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."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"ADAudit Plus's pricing is affordable and flexible, with very low prices in the market."

"It's a medium-priced solution."

"Adding features and other functionality it costs you more. Also, the first installation costs an additional amount."

"The tool is affordable, and our company is very happy with it. If ten is the most expensive and one is the least expensive, I rate the tool a three or four."

"My guess is that it was around $4,000 or $5,000 a year, and we bought a license, and then we have maintenance fees. I'm not 100% sure how that worked out."

"The solution's pricing is acceptable."

"The licenses start from USD 3000.00 and go up to USD 20,000.00 for the year. It's a perpetual license. Nothing is free in SolarWinds, anything that you need is an additional cost."

"When compared to other licensed models in the market, it stands out as one of the more cost-effective options."

"The price is too high."

"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."

"The solution's price is reasonable. Though it's on the higher side, the tool is worth the money."

"The tool is available for my company at a good price point."

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

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

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

10%

Outsourcing Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

Educational Organization

13%

University

Financial Services Firm

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	21

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ManageEngine ADAudit Plus?

The price is normal for this type of solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ManageEngine ADAudit Plus?

An area of improvement for ManageEngine ADAudit Plus could be in graphical reporting, as currently, it's limited with old school bar charts, and having more interactive reports with a better graphi...

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What is your primary use case for ManageEngine ADAudit Plus?

The main use case for ManageEngine ADAudit Plus is primarily focused on auditing, so any changes related to Active Directory or Azure Intra ID or even file servers, such as file monitoring, are imm...

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 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 ...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

October 2026

Download ManageEngine ADAudit Plus product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

September 2026

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report

Download SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor product report

Also Known As

No data available

SolarWinds SAM

Overview

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus provides real-time Active Directory monitoring with features like user behavior analytics and event analysis. It offers an intuitive interface and robust reporting capabilities, alerting users to changes for enhanced security and efficient management.

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus is designed for enterprises seeking comprehensive Active Directory auditing. With capabilities like real-time monitoring, file auditing, and activity tracking, it supports security and compliance needs. Efficient user management is achieved through alerts for group additions and changes and features like the Account Lockout Analyzer. Although known for its intuitive interface, there's potential for improved sophistication in its design. Integration with QRadar and Log360, better documentation, and enhancements for non-Microsoft products are areas for growth. The platform is widely used for monitoring login activities, auditing group policy objects, and providing detailed reports that assist IT teams in security and operational efforts.

What are the key features of ManageEngine ADAudit Plus?

Real-time Active Directory Monitoring: Delivers instant insights into changes and incidents.
User Behavior Analytics: Leverages machine learning to understand user actions.
In-depth Reporting: Offers detailed reports to track modifications and compliance metrics.
Event Analysis: Provides tools for analyzing security events comprehensively.
File Auditing: Tracks file access and changes for improved security.
Granular Report Details: Offers detailed information to meet auditing requirements.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Enhanced Security: Alerts for critical changes improve overall network protection.
Efficient User Management: Features like Account Lockout Analyzer streamline processes.
Intuitive Interface: Easy report generation without custom setup.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Monitors login and access activities accurately.

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus benefits industries requiring rigorous monitoring like finance and healthcare by ensuring compliance and security. Organizations utilize its detailed reports and alert systems to maintain operational integrity and protect sensitive data effectively.

ManageEngine

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor provides comprehensive server, application, and infrastructure monitoring, focusing on integration, application dependency, and network insights through user-friendly interfaces and detailed dashboards.

With AppStack and AppInsight support, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor offers service management, detailed resource dashboards, and integration capabilities. It monitors hardware metrics and performance parameters, facilitating database and network insights for cloud and virtual environments. Robust alerting, predictive analytics, and capacity planning ensure efficient management of server health and application performance.

What are the key features?

Integration: Seamlessly connects with existing tools.
AppStack: Provides a holistic view of applications.
AppInsight: Supports widely-used applications.
SNMP Polling: Efficient network data collection.
Diagnostics: Real-time troubleshooting.
Customizable Dashboards: Tailored monitoring views.

What benefits should users expect?

Comprehensive Monitoring: Extends from servers to databases.
Transparent Control: Enhances visibility into performance metrics.
User-Friendly: Simplifies proactive monitoring with alerts.
Predictive Features: Supports capacity and trend planning.

Industries implement SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor to enhance server utilization reporting, network configuration, and AV equipment performance tracking. They benefit from monitoring critical services across diverse deployment models, improving management efficiency and decision-making.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Warsaw City Hall, Acument Global Technologies, Inc., Cosma International, Bank of South Pacific, Life Management Center, Central Bank, UncleBob's Self Storage, Leeds Building Society, California Transplant Donor Network, First Response, Blessing Hospital, Northern Land Council, RMK Marine

Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite

Buyer's Guide

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

September 2026

Free Report: ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

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