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Quest Foglight for APM [EOL] vs SolarWinds AppOptics comparison

Quest Software and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Additionally, 86% of Quest Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.
SolarWinds AppOptics
Read 9 SolarWinds AppOptics reviews
  • 1,822 Views
  • 1,130 Comparison Views
80% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between Quest Foglight for APM [EOL] and SolarWinds AppOptics based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Datadog, Dynatrace, Splunk and others in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability.

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To learn more, read our detailed Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Report (Updated: March 2026).
Buyer's Guide
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
March 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

Quest Foglight for APM [EOL]
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds AppOptics
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (57th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (60th), Cloud Monitoring Software (45th)
 

Featured Reviews

AK
Anton Kasimov
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Drill-down monitoring shows us the entire transaction chain, from the front end to back end. It needs HTML5 interface.
I want to see a new interface that contains HTML5 features. The current version of Foglight (on-premise edition) is so fusty in comparison with leaders of Gartner APM Quadrant - i.e. Appdynamics, NewRelic, Dynatrace. If you try to compare SaaS and on-premise Foglight versions you can see differences in UI-design. It's my subjective experiences, but SaaS version looks more modern. Hope this helps
Read full review
John Yuko - PeerSpot reviewer
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

"Having standard monitoring features and a central repository saves us a lot of time and reduces risk of incidents."
"Foglight is an awesome tool and it is able to instrument and integrate easily with any monitoring tool."
"We are able to capture the real time user experience of our solutions and we have an understanding of overall performance."
"We have no hard figures on the ROI on this product, however having the system has saved us time in terms of debugging and getting to the root cause of issues."
"Over all in my organization, this product helped us to maintain health, risk and efficiency of the virtual infrastructure."
"The most valuable feature is drill-down monitoring, which shows us from one interface the transaction chain from the front end to back end."
"This level of viewable monitoring had many benefits such as alerting, scalability, reporting and service dashboard we could promote."
"Our ROI has been great it has saved us many times to resolve issues before customers started complaining."
More Quest Foglight for APM [EOL] pros
"I have found the most valuable feature is application performance management."
"Customer service is exceptional, as they are very much in tune with our service needs and are always in contact for both enhancement requests and overall satisfaction."
"With minimal effort on our part, TraceView provides extraordinary visibility into the requests that flow through our SOA applications."
"The product has a great dashboard."
"Technical support is always live and they're supportive."
"Some of the most valuable features of SolarWinds are the topology discovery and network performance analysis."
"AppNeta provides a range of products, all based around intelligent network testing algorithms."
"The sum solution, NTA, and DPA."
More SolarWinds AppOptics pros
 

Cons

"I recall that the lay-out was rather dull when I used this particular version of Foglight."
"I would perhaps like to see more SSMS connections."
"South African skill is scarce"
"There are some metrics I'd like to track that are difficult to find or implement into a tracking solution without a lot of manual work."
"Migrating to newer versions is always a challenge with Foglight."
"I would perhaps like to see more SSMS connections."
"It needs a more intuitive way to create and implement custom "Cartridges" to be deployed through out a Federated environment."
"We are running a Webmethods stack (Software AG) and Foglight is unable to instrument. We are in a POC with Dynatrace and it was able to instrument with little effort."
More Quest Foglight for APM [EOL] cons
"AppOptics would benefit from having a much more centralized view."
"The integration with Unix services should be a bit more straightforward."
"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."
"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."
"I'd like to see the ability to use other internal instrumented applications as filters in the overview/aggregation screen."
"The solution should be more user-friendly."
"The implementation needs improvement. It needs to get modernized with the newer cloud scenario in both public and private deployment models."
"Does not perform traditional SNMP/CLI/NetFlow/WMI etc monitoring."
More SolarWinds AppOptics cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Since the product split – the licensing is a bit more complex."
"The price is expensive for us."
"Foglight can be expensive I would go with the pricing at a three year deal."
"I recall it being a very expensive solution relative to function and stability."
"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."
"Since it's a negotiable rate, I would rate the pricing as a five out of five."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise13
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise7
 

Comparisons

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Splunk AppDynamics vs Quest Foglight for APM [EOL]
Compared 33% of the time
Oracle Enterprise Manager vs Quest Foglight for APM [EOL] Logo
Oracle Enterprise Manager vs Quest Foglight for APM [EOL]
Compared 25% of the time
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New Relic vs SolarWinds AppOptics Logo
New Relic vs SolarWinds AppOptics
Compared 14% of the time
Dynatrace vs SolarWinds AppOptics Logo
Dynatrace vs SolarWinds AppOptics
Compared 10% of the time
Splunk AppDynamics vs SolarWinds AppOptics Logo
Splunk AppDynamics vs SolarWinds AppOptics
Compared 9% of the time
Zabbix vs SolarWinds AppOptics Logo
Zabbix vs SolarWinds AppOptics
Compared 6% of the time
Netdata vs SolarWinds AppOptics Logo
Netdata vs SolarWinds AppOptics
Compared 4% of the time
More SolarWinds AppOptics Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
March 2026
Quest Foglight for APM [EOL] reportDownload Quest Foglight for APM [EOL] product report
Buyer's Guide
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
March 2026
SolarWinds AppOptics reportDownload SolarWinds AppOptics product report
 

Also Known As

Foglight, Dell Foglight
AppOptics, SolarWinds TraceView, Librato
 

Overview

Manage your application infrastructure by monitoring the IT components that affect application performance.
Quest Software

AppOptics is a SaaS-based simple, powerful and affordable Infrastructure & Application monitoring for custom on-premises, cloud, and hybrid systems. 

Your business runs on applications, and when they go down or run slowly, it can impact the business in lost productivity, customers, or revenue. To add to the complexity, your IT environment is changing, and workloads can be spread across data centers, and cloud resources. You need to monitor the availability and performance of applications and infrastructure, regardless of where they are, so you can identify potential issues early and address them before they impact users

SolarWinds
 

Sample Customers

Anji Automotive Logistics, Unimat, Priceline.com
TraxoCovea Insurance BTE TechnologyDatarista
Buyer's Guide
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
March 2026
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We monitor all Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.