Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users
it_user1143 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Manager at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Orion NPM is a great real time network activity & performance tracking utility. Web interface is great, but needs minor improvements

What is most valuable?

Orion NPM is a mature and reasonably priced product. It is easy to deploy and configure, and has an excellent user and network mapping interface.

What needs improvement?

Resource utilization is heavy so you need to analyze the server before using it for multiple roles. We are unable to use web console to configure new alerts.

What other advice do I have?

SolarWinds Orion NPM tracks bottlenecks in your network infrastructure and lets you troubleshoot them before a disaster happens. It uses protocols and tools like ICMP, SNMP, Cisco NetFlow, and Syslog to provide you with the alerts and statistics you need to run your network at optimal performance and speed. The product is easy to deploy on top of an IIS and .Net framework. It also has excellent built-in thresholds and alerts available to help you get started, yet provides the option to create custom thresholds and alerts as required by your specific network and infrastructure requirements. A comprehensive web interface is available to identify inconsistencies and trouble spots in your network.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user1023 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of IT at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is the SolarWinds Orion entry in the monitoring and alerting systems market.

Valuable Features:

- Powerful network fault & availability management. - Mature SNMP-based network performance monitor; lets you add wireless, VoIP, and NetFlow monitoring support as needed; provides easily configurable custom alerts and reports. - NPM can also receive Syslog output and SNMP traps for error detection and alerting. - NPM’s alerting system is powerful, flexible, and relatively easy to use. - The product features modular pricing, so you can buy only the features you need.

Room for Improvement:

- New, web-based interface lacks some features of traditional GUI. - One of the problems I've had in the past, is building out a dependency structure.

Other Advice:

NPM uses Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) ping requests to gather basic connectivity and response-time information. It allows network devices that support this, to gather additional information, by using SNMP queries and Cisco IOS NetFlow. NPM can also receive Syslog output and SNMP traps for error detection and alerting. Add-on modules let Orion NPM monitor NetFlow devices, wireless appliances, and VoIP networks and also let NPM monitor more devices as your network grows. 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.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
SolarWinds NPM
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about SolarWinds NPM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user714 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
We moved from nGenius to Orion NPM about 3 years ago and are very happy with the performance, features, and pricing

Valuable Features:

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.

Room for Improvement:

1. The constant flow of new features and re-designing of the product sometimes presents bugs that were not identified. 2. Most of the primary support people in Austin do a good job, but they also have outsourced support that also responds to tickets .. and they can be very frustrating to deal with.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
sandeep - PeerSpot reviewer
sandeepSenior Manager of Network at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Top 20Real User

Hi nicodiablo,

What additional features does Orion NPM offer over the GNU NMS tools like Nagios Core and how is the pricing of Orion NPM compared with other NMS tools.

See all 2 comments
it_user555 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Quick to get up and running, but not as granular out-of-the-box as you would expect.

Valuable Features:

Quick to launch. No agents required. Many configuration options.

Room for Improvement:

Network discovery missed many devices. Network mapping & topology was not accurate and does not update automatically. Alerts can not be configured differently for different device categories (e.g., alert comms guys about routers; network people about switches, etc.). While Orion offers many options, many features must be purchased as separate modules.

Other Advice:

It has now been about 3 weeks since we launched the Orion Network Performance Monitor and Netflow Traffic Analyzer. We chose this product based on colleague recommendations.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Juan Pr - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Professional at NTT Security
Real User
Very stable, straightforward setup, technology support very helpful
Pros and Cons
  • "Technical support is very helpful with our upgrades."
  • "I think Solar Winds NPM needs to create a profile with documentation responsibility."

What is our primary use case?

Our clients are using Solar Winds NPM to monitor their network product. Solar Winds NPM is straightforward and you can monitor it very easily.

What needs improvement?

I think Solar Winds NPM needs to create a profile with documentation responsibility.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Solar Winds NPM for about three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is very stable and we have been using the product for around ten years.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is very helpful with our upgrades. I would rate them about an eight or a nine.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The setup is straightforward and takes about a week.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this Solar Winds NPM an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Managed Services Engineer at Loop1 Systems
Real User
Top 20
Is easy to use and install, but security needs improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "SolarWinds NPM has a colorful UI and many easy-to-use features. It does not need to be configured as much and is also easy to install."
  • "It would be good to have high security."

What is most valuable?

SolarWinds NPM has a colorful UI and many easy to use features. It does not need to be configured as much and is also easy to install.

What needs improvement?

It would be good to have high security. This is a concern after the attacks. 

They also need to focus more on the application side.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using it for nearly six months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable.

How was the initial setup?

It was easy to set up.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We compared it to Zabbix. You can do a lot of parameters in Zabbix, but you have to configure them all. Also, it is not as easy to install.

What other advice do I have?

It's good to go for SolarWinds NPM, but make sure that you do all the upgrades on time.

I would rate SolarWinds NPM at seven on a scale from one to ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free SolarWinds NPM Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free SolarWinds NPM Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.