SolarWinds AppOptics vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications comparison

SolarWinds and Broadcom are both solutions in the Cloud Monitoring Software category. SolarWinds is ranked #44, while Broadcom is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.8. SolarWinds holds a 1.1% mindshare in CMS, compared to Broadcom’s 2.3% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of SolarWinds users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

SolarWinds AppOptics

Read 9 SolarWinds AppOptics reviews

2,750 Views
1,073 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Read 14 VMware Aria Operations for Applications reviews

5,709 Views
2,512 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

SolarWinds AppOptics

VMware Aria Operations for ...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

VMware Aria Operations for Applications and SolarWinds AppOptics are two leading application performance management tools. Users are happier with the pricing and support of VMware Aria Operations for Applications but SolarWinds AppOptics offers superior features that users feel justify the price.

Features: VMware Aria Operations for Applications is praised for comprehensive monitoring, advanced analytics, and scalability. SolarWinds AppOptics is recognized for quick setup, real-time visibility, and extensive integration capabilities.

Room for Improvement: VMware users suggest improvements in the documentation and user training materials. SolarWinds users indicate a need for better customization options and enhanced alerting features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VMware Aria Operations for Applications deployment is noted for being complex, but their customer service is highly regarded. SolarWinds AppOptics boasts an easier deployment process but receives mixed reviews for customer service quality.

Pricing and ROI: VMware Aria Operations for Applications users find the setup costs reasonable and believe it delivers a strong ROI. SolarWinds AppOptics users acknowledge higher setup costs but also report a high ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed SolarWinds AppOptics vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds AppOptics vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

April 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

SolarWinds AppOptics

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

55th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

61st

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

44th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

16th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

16th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

12th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Container Monitoring (6th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Cloud Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of SolarWinds AppOptics is 1.1%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Operations for Applications is 2.3%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
VMware Aria Operations for Applications	2.3%
SolarWinds AppOptics	1.1%
Other	96.6%

Cloud Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

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

Ajay Shukla

Consultant at HCLTech

Automation and insightful diagnostics elevate operations while improvements are welcome

The new version 8.18 has brought significant improvements. The main purpose of using this tool is having a single console to manage all entities. The cloud integration capabilities, including private, public, and hybrid, are already well-implemented. The ability to manage multiple vCenters across different geographical locations is very effective. The new Skyline health feature and certificate and licensing management are particularly useful improvements. The dashboard's overview tab provides comprehensive information about current vCenter status, resizable amounts, reclamation opportunities, anomalies, diagnostics, licensing, and certificates. However, there is room for improvement in application analysis. The current functionality lacks detailed monitoring at the kernel level, focusing mainly on CPU, memory, and storage matrices. Enhanced application monitoring capabilities, including tracking downtime for specific types of applications such as transactional or e-commerce applications, would be beneficial.

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

"Technical support is always live and they're supportive."

"AppNeta provides a range of products, all based around intelligent network testing algorithms."

"The reporting of the solution is very good."

"With minimal effort on our part, TraceView provides extraordinary visibility into the requests that flow through our SOA applications."

"The sum solution, NTA, and DPA."

"The product has a great dashboard."

"I have found the most valuable feature is application performance management."

"Technical support is always live and they're supportive."

More SolarWinds AppOptics pros

"Using Wavefront, we have been able to reduce the complexity of our pipeline."

"For us, the ease of deployment in combination with TMZ was the most important part because we don't have to manually deploy a complex monitoring solution. We can more or less do that with the click of a button, and we are not dependent on the developers to provide us with all the necessary features and functions to make that work. We can just deploy it on a workload cluster and monitor at least a good part of the workload. If we want to go into detail, we clearly need to make changes, but for a good part of application monitoring, it gives us good insights."

"Wavefront's monitoring tools and visibility into public cloud platforms are competing with the best out there."

"VMware comes with a support team, and if you have trouble, you can easily create a ticket, and VMware will help you. Therefore, the best aspect is the support."

"It has a familiar interface, which makes it easy to get started."

"Scalability for VMware Aria Operations for Applications is easy to implement and manage."

"This solution allows me to have true visibility for any metrics when it comes to my cloud, and private."

"For us, the ease of deployment in combination with TMZ was the most important part because we don't have to manually deploy a complex monitoring solution, we can more or less do that with the click of a button, and we are not dependent on the developers to provide us with all the necessary features and functions to make that work."

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications pros

Cons

"I'd like to see the ability to use other internal instrumented applications as filters in the overview/aggregation screen."

"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."

"The implementation needs improvement. It needs to get modernized with the newer cloud scenario in both public and private deployment models."

"The support is not too bad, but also not very good—it's quite standard."

"AppOptics would benefit from having a much more centralized view."

"Does not perform traditional SNMP/CLI/NetFlow/WMI etc monitoring."

"Because of its inability to monitor mobile solutions, I would rate this solution as a seven out of ten."

"The solution should be more user-friendly."

More SolarWinds AppOptics cons

"The implementation is a long process that should be improved."

"In the new version, I would love to see more prediction capabilities. It would be great if one could see the alerts get a little more enriched with information and become more human-friendly instead of the technical stuff that they put in there. I think those would be really awesome outcomes to get."

"So far, the solution's learning curve has been pretty high."

"The solution could be expensive, which might be a limiting factor."

"The documentation and integration with Kubernetes could be improved."

"The main problem I have is that the license cost is very high."

"VMware technical support has declined since the Broadcom acquisition. Previously, they were more focused on issue resolution, but now they prioritize licensing verification before providing support."

"They could make it more easy to plug-in data so that a nontechnical person will be able to use it, like accountants or finance people."

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"I believe the current licensing cost is reasonable."

"I would rate the pricing as three out of five."

"Different locations require different setups. In your terms, around 300 to around 400K USD."

"The licensing costs are very high, particularly when you consider that we have to purchase a level 1 license for every integration, such as the load balancer, HAProxy, and the MSSP. And if you want to use vSAN, that's another license. Then, of course, Tanzu Observability has its own separate license."

"I don't have the details. In our case, there is a mixture in place. We have production usage, and we are also doing training for VMware. So, we also have a training instance. It is worth the money you would spend on it. That's because if you were to build all of this yourself by using some of the open source tools, then you would need a lot of time."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Construction Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	10

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

The solution includes cost drivers that can be configured according to your environment. You can input server-wise, CPU-wise, storage, and memory costs per hour or day. Once cost drivers are provid...

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What needs improvement with VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

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What is your primary use case for VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

I have been involved in several projects where I had to implement automation and monitoring alerting. I performed automation using VMware Aria Operations for Applications. There is an automation ta...

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

April 2026

Download SolarWinds AppOptics product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Operations for Applications

April 2026

VMware Aria Operations for Applications report

Download VMware Aria Operations for Applications product report

Also Known As

AppOptics, SolarWinds TraceView, Librato

Tanzu Observability, Wavefront, Wavefront by VMware, VMware Tanzu Observability

Overview

SolarWinds AppOptics offers powerful network performance monitoring and application insights, aiding enterprises in optimizing operations.

SolarWinds AppOptics provides comprehensive tools for network and application performance management. This platform enhances real-time monitoring capabilities, offering topology discovery and hop-by-hop performance analysis. With a focus on minimal configuration, users gain extraordinary visibility into service-oriented architecture applications and are equipped to identify performance issues efficiently. The dashboard's integration capabilities streamline application performance data, empowering organizations with robust reporting features. The deployment is popularly on-premises, yet improvements are desired in pricing strategy and integrations with existing tools.

What are the important features of SolarWinds AppOptics?

Topology Discovery: Facilitates understanding of network structure and connections.
Real-Time Monitoring: Delivers current data to monitor system performance live.
Heat Maps: Provides visual insights into network traffic patterns and performance metrics.
Pathview Monitoring: Enables tracking and evaluation of network performance per segment.
Integration Capabilities: Supports metrics integration for comprehensive system monitoring.

What benefits and ROI should users expect?

Efficiency in Issue Resolution: Swift identification of network bottlenecks and performance issues.
Enhanced Reporting: In-depth reports facilitating data-driven decisions.
Increased Visibility: Comprehensive insights into application and network activities.
Minimal Configuration: Quick setup enabling immediate utility and productivity.

SolarWinds AppOptics is widely used in network operations within enterprises, also extending to server and application monitoring. Deployed to track servers and network devices, it aids in analyzation of logs and data across environments, and is essential for service management. Specific industries benefit from detailed deployment inventory and management portfolios enabled by AppOptics.

SolarWinds

VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront is a powerful tool for monitoring and analyzing the performance and availability of applications and infrastructure in real-time.

With its comprehensive monitoring capabilities, visualizing and analyzing data becomes effortless. The real-time alerting system ensures timely issue resolution, while scalability and a user-friendly interface provide a seamless experience for smooth operations.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

TraxoCovea Insurance BTE TechnologyDatarista

1. Atlassian 2. Cisco 3. Databricks 4. DigitalOcean 5. Equinix 6. Fidelity Investments 7. Google 8. Hewlett Packard Enterprise 9. Honeywell 10. IBM 11. Intel 12. JetBlue Airways 13. LinkedIn 14. Lyft 15. Mastercard 16. Microsoft 17. MongoDB 18. Netflix 19. Nvidia 20. Oracle 21. PayPal 22. Pinterest 23. Qualcomm 24. Red Hat 25. Salesforce 26. SAP 27. Spotify 28. Square 29. TMobile 30. Twitter 31. Uber 32. VMware

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds AppOptics vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

April 2026

Free Report: SolarWinds AppOptics vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Find out what your peers are saying about SolarWinds AppOptics vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.

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