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OpenText Diagnostics vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

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

OpenText Diagnostics
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
67th
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds Server and Appli...
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
20th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
4.5
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Server Monitoring (5th), Active Directory Management (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of OpenText Diagnostics is 0.6%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.0%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor1.0%
OpenText Diagnostics0.6%
Other98.4%
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
 

Featured Reviews

RS
Performance and Fault-tolerance Architect with 1,001-5,000 employees
Very good for transaction level monitoring, but expensive and HP needs better support and training
HP Diagnostics is a very good monitoring tool especially for transaction level monitoring -- it shows hot spots which can be drilled down to DB level, table, query, SP's, record and field level and also at Object level, Classes level,method or Augment levels instead of pinpointing bottlenecks at layer level it goes deep inside for information. It has very good tracing capabilities despite being an agent based tool compared to other agent less monitoring tools. Overall a very good tool for monitoring application diagnostics for quick and easy resolution with help of thread information. Drills down from slow, end-user transactions to the bottle necked component, method, or SQL statement, helping to solve memory, exception, and other common problems Key features and benefits • Automatically detects all components touched by a business process and traces them with no user intervention • Provides complete application visibility across the application lifecycle, enabling higher application quality when applications go live • Reduces mean time to resolution (MTTR) in your J2EE, .NET, ERP, or CRM (SAP, Oracle®, PeopleSoft) environment • Integrates fully with HP Business Availability Center software, HP LoadRunner, and HP Performance Center.
NikhilKalwint - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"For banking and telecom solutions, it's been quite useful."
"The diagnostics and configuration are the solution's most valuable aspects."
"The most valuable feature of Micro Focus Diagnostics is the information reported from an application that has timed out. For example, when you're Googling, or you're booking a ticket for Burj Khalifa here, the longest tower in the world, there are situations where the system can time out. There are times when you might not receive a response on the payment gateway or you are not able to find the reservation. The customer only receives the information that the session has timed out."
"HP Diagnostics is a very good monitoring tool especially for transaction level monitoring -- it shows hot spots which can be drilled down to DB level, table, query, SP's, record and field level and also at Object level, Classes level, method or Augment levels instead of pinpointing bottlenecks at layer level it goes deep inside for information."
"The information from the diagnostics is detailed."
"SolarWinds SAM has provided us with dynamic thresholds based on historical trends and requirements, so the threshold gets configured automatically, and it's no longer necessary to configure it manually every time."
"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is its powerful monitoring capabilities."
"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."
"The solution is end-to-end from the network and the application to the processes. Everything about the enterprise infrastructure is being covered by the solution. It's easy to use and easy to navigate and one of the leaders among monitoring solutions."
"It is simple to implement and can provide fairly decent Windows-based monitoring, beyond simple SNMP. It is great for monitoring newbies and smaller shops."
"We choose the Solarwinds based on the simplication of managing the tool itself."
"Monitoring the components on your devices with out of the box monitors or the ability to create new ones (SAM)"
"It is scalable."
 

Cons

"Price is little expensive for number of license points and HP Diagnostics trainers are not available in market and no proper support from HP for any diagnotics level queries or issues."
"The interface could be more user friendly."
"The interface is very old, and not very user-friendly. Most of our clients don't like the UI."
"The GUI and metrics of Micro Focus Diagnostics can be improved. The metrics the solution gathers can be limited and could be enhanced by giving more details."
"A lot of times, we have to do a lot of manual cleanups."
"Scalability was an issue in the past."
"The product does not explain why a problem occurred."
"This product has no real downside unless they fail to continue development of its capabilities."
"They should incorporate more artificial intelligence. There should also be more predictive features."
"For each poller, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor can only monitor up to ten thousand components, which restricts scalability."
"One area that could benefit from improvement is its performance"
"AppInsight needs to include more applications, the current list is very limited."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The solution is overpriced in terms of application management."
"SAM is not per server so the pricing model can be deceiving. If you have an enterprise environment, you will quickly exceed your licensing quickly. You should know this before going in."
"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."
"I think SolarWinds' pricing is very decent compared to other competitors in the market."
"The product might cost you $30,000 USD to buy, but scaling this solution requires the purchase of additional polling engines at $20,000 USD each."
"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."
"We pay around $ 2,000 to $ 5,000 yearly for the solution."
"When compared to other licensed models in the market, it stands out as one of the more cost-effective options."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Construction Company
15%
Performing Arts
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Educational Organization
13%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise21
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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 ...
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...
 

Also Known As

Micro Focus Diagnostics, MF Diagnostics
SolarWinds SAM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

BSkyB, Alior Bank
Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite
Find out what your peers are saying about OpenText Diagnostics vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.