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SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs VMware vCenter comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 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

SolarWinds Server and Appli...
Ranking in Server Monitoring
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
4.5
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (22nd), Active Directory Management (9th)
VMware vCenter
Ranking in Server Monitoring
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 3.2%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware vCenter is 1.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Monitoring Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
VMware vCenter1.6%
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor3.2%
Other95.2%
Server Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Hoang Long Nguyen - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Infrastructure And Architect Specialist at Cmit
Automation and technical support impress with seamless migration and high availability management
We are in the process of implementing Zerto, which is currently in the purchase order phase. While we haven't fully implemented it yet, we have completed the POC. We use VMware vCenter and ESXi. The solution manages high availability effectively, with excellent automation for migration and patch management. The support is good, though the recent license change after the Broadcom acquisition has significantly increased costs. Patch management is controllable and can be managed individually, with automatic downloads available. We use it primarily for managing hosts and updates, without any integration. The performance is excellent, running very smoothly. I rate VMware vCenter a 9 out of 10.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I'd rate technical support at eight out of ten. They are helpful and fast."
"SolarWinds SAM has provided us with dynamic thresholds based on historical trends and requirements. The threshold gets configured automatically, so it's no longer necessary to configure it manually every time."
"Monitoring of processes and services is the most valuable feature. It is not necessarily just the server alone in terms of the CPU or the memory. We can go in-depth into services and processes."
"The most valuable feature is application monitoring."
"AppInsight for SQL: Enables us to see the relevant error log entries on the same page as performance parameters."
"I have found the visibility into server health with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor very beneficial, which we use on a daily basis."
"I am impressed with the tool's AppStack feature which mainly helps us in the identification process. This feature can give an overview of the fault and help us identify the issues for performance degradation. Instead of looking at multiple places, we can look at a single place to identify the issues."
"Management Console - Managing service to each server enrolled in the Solarwinds is much easier. Using a web base console, you can control your service much convenient way. There is no need to login remotely. It save a lot of time and effort."
"The high availability feature is particularly valuable when a host goes down or experiences high usage, as it automatically migrates VMs to other hosts to balance performance."
"One feature I really like about VMware vCenter is its ability to change hosts easily. It is highly available and very useful for our operations."
"Some of the most valuable features of vCenter are LACP and vSphere Distributed Switches, as they simplify VLAN propagation between hosts and enable networking duplication and replication."
"I am using vMotion for live migration and storage migrations. I can use vCenter for both now."
"VMware vCenter is the best from a management perspective, scoring ten on a scale of one to ten."
"We use VMware vCenter for centralization and to manage all the VMs."
"The integration of vCenter server with any software, whether from VMware or a third party, is smooth and straightforward."
"I can say that the product is stable because we have been using the tool for the last fifteen years in our company, and there has been no issue."
 

Cons

"This product has no real downside unless they fail to continue development of its capabilities."
"It should also be easier to upgrade SolarWinds. AppDynamics is harder to deploy but easier to upgrade. So AppDynamics takes a lot of time and effort to install, but you can upgrade it in minutes. SolarWinds is the opposite. It's easy to deploy, but upgrades take forever. To date, nobody can complete it on time, so the production environment is sitting idle."
"There is one feature that is a report writer. And they are currently trying to take it out from being a stand-alone application and integrating to the web. This doesn't give us the flexibility and it doesn't expand what we can get when it comes to reporting. So, putting it on the web is going to make it difficult to get some information. Leaving it where it is now will help us a lot."
"An additional feature that would improve this solution is the ability to complete root cause analysis."
"Some custom applications cannot be monitored, and a lot more applications need to be included."
"It would be helpful if the solution could integrate more with the security compliances, like this IDSS, etc."
"They should incorporate more artificial intelligence. There should also be more predictive features."
"The major concern in the product revolves around application performance monitoring since end-to-end application monitoring is not possible with the tool."
"The web interface is not convenient."
"One notable area for enhancement revolves around cost considerations, as introducing features such as DDoS protection or data compression could reduce expenses."
"The stability could be better."
"vCentre licensing cost is on the higher side as well."
"The technical support team could respond faster."
"The licensing model of VMware vCenter can be improved"
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"The support for the Linux operating system wasn't great when we used it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licenses start from USD 3000.00 and go up to USD 20,000.00 for the year. It's a perpetual license. Nothing is free in SolarWinds, anything that you need is an additional cost."
"When compared to other licensed models in the market, it stands out as one of the more cost-effective options."
"Pricing is inexpensive, starting at 2440 euros. For that, you get the ability to monitor a couple of nodes and one year of maintenance and support."
"The price is too high."
"The product is expensive."
"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."
"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."
"Its licensing is on a yearly basis. It is just the standard price, but it can vary depending on the current rate of the dollar."
"The solution is expensive."
"For the healthcare industry, the price is considerably higher than the education industry."
"The pricing is significantly high."
"We utilize the basic licenses of the product."
"The product's three-year license package is inexpensive."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"The solution is pretty expensive for small businesses because there are few lower-scale VMware vCenter solutions."
"We have purchased monthly licenses for the platform. There are additional costs involved."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Marketing Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise18
 

Questions from the Community

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 do you like most about VMware vCenter?
The filtering capabilities also enhance scalability by optimizing resource allocation.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware vCenter?
The initial package for VMware vCenter is not less than $10,000, which can be prohibitive for smaller organizations. The licensing model now requires purchasing 96-core solutions, even if fewer cor...
What needs improvement with VMware vCenter?
The main concern is the license change following the sale to Broadcom. The license cost has increased significantly, which is the primary negative aspect of VMware vCenter. While technical support ...
 

Also Known As

SolarWinds SAM
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite
1. Amazon 2. Apple 3. ATT 4. Bank of America 5. Cisco Systems 6. CocaCola 7. Dell 8. ebay 9. Facebook 10. Google 11. HP 12. IBM 13. Intel 14. JPMorgan Chase 15. LinkedIn 16. Microsoft 17. Netflix 18. Oracle 19. PayPal 20. SAP 21. Siemens 22. Tesla 23. Toyota 24. Twitter 25. Visa 26. Walmart 27. WeWork 28. World Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. VMware vCenter and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,821 professionals have used our research since 2012.