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Quest Foglight for APM [EOL] vs SolarWinds AppOptics comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 (56th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (62nd), Cloud Monitoring Software (44th)
 

Featured Reviews

AK
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
John Yuko - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is drill-down monitoring, which shows us from one interface the transaction chain from the front end to back end."
"Foglight has been our go to monitoring tool for several years in the DB2 and Oracle space."
"Capacity on database and file servers. I found the algorithms to forecast growth and concerns particularly intuitive."
"With the APM you can replay the end user session and see issues quickly by viewing the session."
"Intuitive, Single-pane-of-glass dashboards for real-time statistics and long-term statistics for capacity management and in-depth analytics"
"A lot of features for the price: Java/.Net instrumentation, End User replay (similar to TeaLeaf), and a huge library of monitoring cartridges."
"Dell Foglight does analyze and optimize your virtual infrastructure. It definitely reduces operational cost."
"Excellent monitoring capability and business service views"
"SolarWinds AppOptics does far more than what an individual may realize; it is not just a SIEM tool."
"The sum solution, NTA, and DPA."
"AppNeta provides a range of products, all based around intelligent network testing algorithms."
"Some of the most valuable features of SolarWinds are the topology discovery and network performance analysis."
"With minimal effort on our part, TraceView provides extraordinary visibility into the requests that flow through our SOA applications."
"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."
"Technical support is always live and they're supportive."
"The reporting of the solution is very good."
 

Cons

"The version compatibility needs work."
"They need to improve the stability of FxM and FxV."
"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."
"We have not realized a good ROI on the product due to the fact that we were not able to monitor our core application which runs on Webmethods."
"I recall that the lay-out was rather dull when I used this particular version of Foglight."
"My only complaint from Foglight for monitoring is that you only get a plot for five minute average for metrics like CPU and Memory, on the application side I can see metrics more quickly at 15 seconds for metrics like active sessions, heap. I would like to see the same for CPU and memory."
"We had issues with deployment in the beginning until we had an expert guide us through the process."
"I want to see mobile access application in the next release."
"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."
"Because of its inability to monitor mobile solutions, I would rate this solution as a seven out of ten."
"The integration with Unix services should be a bit more straightforward."
"The solution should be more user-friendly."
"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."
"AppOptics would benefit from having a much more centralized view."
"The support is not too bad, but also not very good—it's quite standard."
"I would like to see more integration with other tools that are available on the market."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
16%
Marketing Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Construction Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

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
 

Also Known As

Foglight, Dell Foglight
AppOptics, SolarWinds TraceView, Librato
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Anji Automotive Logistics, Unimat, Priceline.com
TraxoCovea Insurance BTE TechnologyDatarista
Find out what your peers are saying about Datadog, Dynatrace, Splunk and others in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability. Updated: August 2026.
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