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SolarWinds NPM pros and cons

Vendor: SolarWinds
4.1 out of 5
Badge Leader

Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

SolarWinds NPM offers highly flexible customization options, allowing it to adapt to various organizational needs.
Its ease of setup and use, from installation to device discovery, is highly appreciated by users.
The platform's monitoring capabilities cover a wide range of network components, servers, and virtual environments.
Users find the alerting and reporting features to be valuable for proactive network management.
SolarWinds NPM is regarded as stable, reliable, and scalable, effectively managing a large number of users.

CONS

SolarWinds NPM requires better license management and integration capabilities.
There is a need for enhanced real-time analytics and better API capabilities.
Documentation is weak, leading to challenges in implementation and platform selection.
Scalability poses issues, requiring additional gateways and complex modular licensing.
Technical support is often slow, with frequent issues and inadequate international availability.
 

SolarWinds NPM Pros review quotes

it_user555 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Apr 29, 2012
Quick to launch. No agents required. Many configuration options.
it_user714 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
May 29, 2012
We moved from nGenius to Orion NPM about 3 years ago and are very happy with the performance, features, and pricing, the company is very pro-active, as in adding additional features and being responsive to customer requests.
it_user1023 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of IT at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Jun 28, 2012
Whether you want basic enterprise network monitoring or a full suite of network diagnostic tools and monitors, I recommend Orion 9 for its full feature set and ease of use.
Learn what your peers think about SolarWinds NPM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user1143 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Manager at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Jul 11, 2012
SolarWinds Orion NPM tracks bottlenecks in your network infrastructure and lets you troubleshoot them before a disaster happens.
it_user1125 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a retailer with 51-200 employees
Jul 12, 2012
The monitoring system of Orion is powerful and has become a positive feature in the company.
it_user2871 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a university with 51-200 employees
Nov 28, 2012
Solarwinds network performance monitor is a strong product that combines management (SNMP), monitoring (SYSLOG) and configuration of routers and switches.
it_user4866 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works with 51-200 employees
Mar 6, 2013
Feature rich produce suite that addresses many aspects of BSM.
it_user5157 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr System Engineer at a outsourcing company with 501-1,000 employees
Mar 31, 2013
Our search finally ended at this Orion’s NPM tool which has great scalability and reliability.
it_user5550 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Mar 31, 2013
Solarwinds NPM has lots of features not found in some other network performance monitoring tools e.g. seamless integration with Microsoft Active Directory.
it_user83385 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jan 29, 2014
Utilize this product to its full potential, NOC will find it very useful and easy to manage.
 

SolarWinds NPM Cons review quotes

it_user555 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Apr 29, 2012
Network discovery missed many devices.
it_user714 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
May 29, 2012
The constant flow of new features and re-designing of the product sometimes presents bugs that were not identified.
it_user1023 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of IT at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Jun 28, 2012
New, web-based interface lacks some features of traditional GUI.
Learn what your peers think about SolarWinds NPM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user1143 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Manager at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Jul 11, 2012
Resource utilization is heavy so you need to analyze the server before using it for multiple roles.
it_user1125 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a retailer with 51-200 employees
Jul 12, 2012
Bulk Node attach is chaos.
it_user2871 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a university with 51-200 employees
Nov 28, 2012
New, web-based interface lacks some features of traditional GUI.
it_user4866 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works with 51-200 employees
Mar 6, 2013
There isn't a great deal of flexibility to create custom metrics that can be discovered easily or custom aggregation schemes.
it_user5157 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr System Engineer at a outsourcing company with 501-1,000 employees
Mar 31, 2013
User Interface needs improvement as it is not very attractive.
it_user5550 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Mar 31, 2013
The user interface is not intuitive enough and needs improvements in certain parts.
it_user83385 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jan 29, 2014
Perhaps they could hire more tech support for this awesome product.