New Relic vs SolarWinds NPM comparison

New Relic and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. New Relic is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.2, while SolarWinds is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.5. New Relic holds a 1.4% mindshare in NMS, compared to SolarWinds’s 3.7% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of New Relic users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

New Relic

Read 173 New Relic reviews

18,652 Views
5,223 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

SolarWinds NPM

Read 160 SolarWinds NPM reviews

18,343 Views
14,124 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

New Relic

SolarWinds NPM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

SolarWinds NPM and New Relic compete in the performance monitoring market. New Relic seems to have the upper hand in application performance monitoring due to its real-time insights and integration capabilities.

Features: SolarWinds NPM offers modular pricing and strong network monitoring capabilities, allowing businesses to customize features to their needs. It provides robust performance monitoring and high configurability, which users find flexible and efficient. New Relic is known for its detailed application monitoring, offering real-time insights and robust integration, which help diagnose server and application performance issues swiftly. Its alerting system and SLA reporting are also viewed as valuable features by users.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds NPM could improve in network automation and custom metric creation, which some users find cumbersome. It also has a complex initial setup process. New Relic faces data privacy concerns and could improve its alert precision. Users have also cited challenges integrating third-party plugins and occasional sluggish support response times.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds NPM is typically hosted on-premises and praised for its flexible deployment and active community support through Thwack. However, mixed reviews on technical support responsiveness highlight room for faster assistance. New Relic's SaaS model supports quick deployment on public cloud platforms, but its customer service has slow response times. Deployment ease varies, with SolarWinds suited for extensive on-premises setups, while New Relic offers a cloud-native approach.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds' pricing, based on node and interface counts, can become costly for large deployments, but users report a strong ROI from reduced downtime and efficient management. New Relic's premium pricing is based on data ingestion, seen as cost-effective for application-centric environments, offering significant operational efficiencies. SolarWinds is generally considered more cost-effective for network-heavy operations, whereas New Relic is preferred for its focus on application performance monitoring.

To learn more, read our detailed New Relic vs. SolarWinds NPM Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

New Relic vs. SolarWinds NPM

April 2026

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Helped 893,244 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:

ROI

Sentiment score

6.2

Users report improved performance and reduced downtime with New Relic, highlighting its value in quick issue resolution and efficiency.

Sentiment score

7.0

SolarWinds NPM enhances network management and cost efficiency, providing superior monitoring, fast issue resolution, and significant ROI.

There is return on investment because since we reduced the downtime, we can definitely save a lot of money within that period.

BasilJiji

System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

There is a definite return on investment for New Relic, as we would not have invested in building its infrastructure if there were no returns.

ArjunSharma

Senior Software Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

After implementing New Relic, we have decreased staffing requirements while saving time and money.

reviewer2805771

Senior Observability Engineer I at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the New Relic report

The return on investment is significant as the solution effectively reduces costs while being worth its expense.

Wahyu Krisnamukti

Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance

For more quotes and insights, download the SolarWinds NPM report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

7.4

New Relic's customer service is highly rated for responsiveness and expertise, though some suggest improvements for offline response times.

Sentiment score

6.9

SolarWinds NPM support is knowledgeable and helpful but faces criticism for slow responses and aggressive sales tactics.

If I drop an email to them, they will respond quickly to my email.

Vamsi Busa

Senior DevOps Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Customer support from New Relic is very good, and we rarely need to create support tickets.

ArjunSharma

Senior Software Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

They are very polite and helped him out.

TusharGoel

Cloud Engineer at To The New

For more quotes and insights, download the New Relic report

If there is no timely response, getting a resolution is more difficult.

SJ6

Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

We had contact with SolarWinds regarding the implementation, and they were helpful.

Wahyu Krisnamukti

Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance

They have good technical support.

Tochukwu Uzomba

Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited

For more quotes and insights, download the SolarWinds NPM report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.7

New Relic is a reliable, scalable solution for various business needs, efficiently handling large environments and cloud integrations.

Sentiment score

6.9

SolarWinds NPM offers scalable solutions for various environments, with possible increased costs and challenges on virtual platforms.

We currently use New Relic for tens of thousands of developers and hundreds of teams within our organization, and we have not encountered any scalability issues.

ArjunSharma

Senior Software Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It is also suitable for cloud native architectures, SaaS, or software as a service, and for high volume data ingestion also.

TusharGoel

Cloud Engineer at To The New

Regarding New Relic's scalability, it excels at the enterprise level for cloud integrations that can utilize tags.

reviewer2805771

Senior Observability Engineer I at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the New Relic report

SolarWinds NPM is scalable and effective in handling large network infrastructures.

Tochukwu Uzomba

Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited

For more quotes and insights, download the SolarWinds NPM report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.9

New Relic is generally stable and reliable, with minimal issues and praised for its consistent uptime and robustness.

Sentiment score

7.5

SolarWinds NPM is stable, with issues arising during upgrades; regular updates and support enhance its performance.

New Relic lags sometimes.

TusharGoel

Cloud Engineer at To The New

New Relic is stable based on my experience, as I have not seen any problems with the UI.

Oleksii Barybin

Contingent Worker at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the New Relic report

The NPM product is stable, particularly when used for simple network monitoring.

SJ6

Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the SolarWinds NPM report

Room For Improvement

New Relic users request better alerting, integrations, interface, documentation, AI, pricing, support, data insights, and navigation features.

SolarWinds NPM users seek improvements in network discovery, interface, integration, resource usage, cloud support, security, and pricing adjustments.

If they could improve the customer support by reducing their SLA within three to five days, if they could remediate everything, that will be so much helpful.

BasilJiji

System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

Using real-time data, if there are any malicious patterns or something happening, they can identify those.

Hari Rajendiran

Platform Software Engineer 4 at Nexthink

Because of the pricing model, organizations have experienced uncontrolled costs and were not able to afford New Relic.

Aditya Krishnakumar

Senior SRE Engineer at SentinelOne

For more quotes and insights, download the New Relic report

SolarWinds needs to upscale on observability and add full-fledged observability features, including security features.

Tochukwu Uzomba

Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited

Customers have given feedback about the delayed response times from the technical team.

SJ6

Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

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.

Vivek Jaiswal

Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the SolarWinds NPM report

Setup Cost

New Relic's pricing varies, offering a free tier, but larger operations may find costs high, requiring careful evaluation.

SolarWinds NPM pricing is competitive yet complex, appealing to some while being costly for smaller enterprises or multi-module needs.

Considering the features New Relic offers, the pricing or cost setup has not been a blocker for our budget.

ArjunSharma

Senior Software Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for synthetic monitoring is that minions used to cost a lot.

Palak Bhawsar

DevOps engineer at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the New Relic report

The solution is considered expensive.

Wahyu Krisnamukti

Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance

Pricing-wise, SolarWinds NPM is more expensive than PRTG.

Tochukwu Uzomba

Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited

It is not too pricey and is adequate.

Vivek Jaiswal

Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the SolarWinds NPM report

Valuable Features

New Relic offers comprehensive performance insights with real-time monitoring, efficient error detection, and customizable dashboards for optimized system performance.

SolarWinds NPM offers easy deployment, strong monitoring, and seamless integration, enhancing network management with intuitive dashboards and real-time insights.

Using New Relic speeds up troubleshooting and resolution, giving us a clearer picture of where issues are, thus saving time and effort.

Pietro Dell'Erba

Head of API at a marketing services firm with 11-50 employees

New Relic is very useful for teams that don't have much of a dedicated DevOps team but want to have observability for their platform, and it's an easy way to get started.

Aditya Krishnakumar

Senior SRE Engineer at SentinelOne

New Relic has positively impacted our organization by reducing errors, improving performance, and saving time.

ArjunSharma

Senior Software Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the New Relic report

Whenever any node is down in our network, whether it is a server or any network device, we receive information through email that the device is down.

Vivek Jaiswal

Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The most valuable feature for us is the database performance analyzer, which we use a lot.

Wahyu Krisnamukti

Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance

SolarWinds NPM has specific modules for monitoring different network capabilities, which provides rich features for carrying out specific tasks.

Tochukwu Uzomba

Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited

For more quotes and insights, download the SolarWinds NPM report

Categories and Ranking

New Relic

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

9th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

9th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

173

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (4th), IT Operations Analytics (3rd), Mobile APM (3rd), AIOps (4th)

SolarWinds NPM

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

3rd

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

5th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

8th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

160

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of New Relic is 1.4%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 3.7%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SolarWinds NPM	3.7%
New Relic	1.4%
Other	94.9%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

BasilJiji

System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

Real-time alerts have reduced server outage impact and support fast incident response

In the dashboard, if they could show a little more metrics regarding the application and related things, that would be how New Relic could be improved. Currently, there are things showing from the server level and application level, but it can be improved. That is what I felt. Regarding user interface, I do not feel much concern, but for some kind of issues when we are trying to get support from the New Relic team, their SLA seems to be long. They are taking seven to ten working days for resolving some kind of scenario or issue. That is a bit difficult for us. If they could improve the customer support by reducing their SLA within three to five days, if they could remediate everything, that will be so much helpful. When it comes to the customer support part, I felt they need to be a little more improved on that part. The support overall is good, but they can improve. That is the reason I have given it eight out of ten.

Read full review

Vivek Jaiswal

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.

Read full review

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Comparison Review

it_user174738

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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Outsourcing Company

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	65
Midsize Enterprise	50
Large Enterprise	77

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	59
Midsize Enterprise	33
Large Enterprise	85

Questions from the Community

Any advice about APM solutions?

There are many factors and we know little about your requirements (size of org, technology stack, management systems, the scope of implementation). Our goal was to consolidate APM and infra monitor...

See all answers

What do you like most about New Relic Insights?

The product's initial setup phase was very easy.

See all answers

What needs improvement with New Relic Insights?

I have noticed discrepancies between New Relic's documentation and Terraform resources. For example, there have been instances where new features launched in the New Relic UI have not been updated ...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

From my point of view, SolarWind is the best tool.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 7% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs New Relic

Compared 4% of the time

Elastic Observability vs New Relic

Compared 2% of the time

Azure Monitor vs New Relic

Compared 2% of the time

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ManageEngine OpManager vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 4% of the time

Nagios XI vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 3% of the time

DX Spectrum vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 3% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 3% of the time

Entuity vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 2% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

New Relic

April 2026

Download New Relic product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds NPM

April 2026

Download SolarWinds NPM product report

Also Known As

New Relic Browser, New Relic Applied Intelligence, New Relic Insights, New Relic Synthetics, New Relic Servers, New Relic APM

Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer

Overview

New Relic offers real-time application monitoring and insight into performance bottlenecks. Its customizable dashboards and APM integration provide efficient operational support, while server performance alerts ensure quick issue detection.

New Relic provides comprehensive monitoring of application performance, tracking bottlenecks across databases and front-end components. Users employ it for server and infrastructure monitoring, as well as analyzing key metrics such as CPU and memory usage. The solution's ability to integrate with tools like PagerDuty enhances incident management capabilities. However, users have expressed a need for improvements in query language simplicity, more detailed historical insights, and better mobile app monitoring support.

What are New Relic's most important features?

Real-Time Monitoring: Provides instant visibility into application performance.
Detailed Transaction Tracing: Identifies specific transaction issues quickly.
Error Rate Tracking: Monitors and reports on error occurrences efficiently.
Customizable Dashboards: Tailors dashboard views for specific needs.
APM Integration: Seamlessly integrates with application performance management tools.

What benefits and ROI should be considered?

Operational Efficiency: Quick issue detection reduces downtime.
Improved Debugging: Enhanced error analysis supports rapid problem resolution.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Offers a holistic view of application performance and user behavior.
Incident Management: Integration with incident tools helps streamline responses.
Efficient Alerts: Rapid alert systems ensure timely notifications of issues.

In industries like e-commerce and financial services, New Relic supports application performance monitoring to enhance user experience and system reliability. Organizations leverage its insights for optimizing performance, particularly in server operations and infrastructure management. Its ability to monitor API failures through synthetic monitoring is crucial for maintaining high service levels.

New Relic

SolarWinds NPM is a network performance monitoring tool offering a user-friendly interface with customizable dashboards. It provides real-time tracking of device health, latency, and bandwidth utilization, supporting diverse integration and scalability needs.

SolarWinds NPM's robust features include real-time monitoring of network performance and efficient tracking of device health, latency, and bandwidth utilization. The tool is appreciated for its ease of deployment, scalability, and support for integration with other tools. Features like SNMP monitoring, NetPath, and comprehensive reporting enhance its diagnostic capabilities and network visibility. However, users identify areas for improvement such as real-time analytics, advanced customization options, and enhanced scalability for larger enterprises. Better customer support, improved integrations, and security measures are also desired.

What are the key features of SolarWinds NPM?

User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies navigation and operation.
Customizable Dashboards: Allows personalized data views.
Real-Time Monitoring: Provides instant updates on network performance.
Strong Alerting Capabilities: Offers immediate notifications for issues.
Scalability: Supports growth with ease.
Integration: Works smoothly with other tools for comprehensive monitoring.
SNMP Monitoring: Tracks device stats effectively.
NetPath: Helps visualize network paths and performance.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Improved Network Visibility: Enables proactive issue resolution.
Enhanced Diagnostics: Facilitates quicker troubleshooting.
Real-Time Performance Data: Supports informed decision-making.
Ease of Deployment: Reduces setup time and complexity.
Infrastructure Monitoring: Ensures network stability and reliability.
Custom Integration: Adapts to existing IT environments.

In enterprise environments, SolarWinds NPM is deployed to monitor network health and device status, sending alerts for any issues. It provides visibility into network performance, tracking bandwidth utilization and server metrics efficiently. Its applications span from monitoring routers, switches, and firewalls to supporting infrastructure monitoring across industries.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

World Fuel Services, Verizon, FootLocker, McDonald's, Trainline, Mondia Media, Confused, Costa Coffee, Ryanair, Marks & Spencer, William Hill, Delivery Hero, Skyscanner, BASF, DAZN, Veygo, Virtuo, movingimage, talabat, Australia Post, Tokopedia, Seven Network, Virgin Australia, Zomato, BigBasket, Mercado Libre, Lending Club

Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard

Buyer's Guide

New Relic vs. SolarWinds NPM

April 2026

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