We use SolarWinds NPM to monitor and manage network devices and infrastructure in our environment.
Systems Architect at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Stable, scalable, and responsive support
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup was straightforward. We deployed the solution from new and completed the upgrades."
- "The solution could improve in many areas, such as the marketing and description of the products, providing areas of improvement, cloud capabilities, and being able to be more streamlined with the current integration points with other applications."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
SolarWinds NPM has helped our organization by providing a proactive approach to understanding the current trends in the environment, utilization of the resources, and providing inventory reports of the environment. This has helped us stay ahead of the cost for new infrastructure requirements as well as licenses.
What needs improvement?
The solution could improve in many areas, such as the marketing and description of the products, providing areas of improvement, cloud capabilities, and being able to be more streamlined with the current integration points with other applications.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SolarWinds NPM for approximately two years.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have found the stability of SolarWinds NPM to be good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability has been adequate.
We have multiple users using the solution with various roles, such as network administration, server administration, and reporting users.
We have plans to increase usage. We are currently leveraging the internal infrastructure aspects of the environment. We're going to expand it and we purchased additional infrastructure to expand the visibility across multiple areas.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support offered by SolarWinds NPM is pretty good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. We deployed the solution from new and completed the upgrades.
What about the implementation team?
We coordinate with the vendor to help support the implementation. It can take many days depending on the modules that need to be installed. It took us approximately two days.
We need at least one staff member in each focus area for the implementation of the solution, totaling approximately six, depending on the modules you have.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have a multi-year license for the use of this solution. There are additional costs for recourses in the environment.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing SolarWinds NPM we evaluated other solutions such as Splunk and ScienceLogic. The flexibility and the overall breadth of different modules that SolarWinds has to offer were superior to the other solutions evaluated.
What other advice do I have?
I rate SolarWinds NPM an eight out of ten.
It is a good solution, it provides multiple module options, easy to use, and predominantly easy to find people to support it in the industry.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Vice President, SaaS Operations at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Reliable, easy to install, and well-monitored
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of this solution is the monitoring capabilities."
- "If they did some type of synthetic monitoring, it would have been better."
What is our primary use case?
SolarWinds NPM is used to monitor network components and solutions.
We used it to monitor downtime and latency between applications, as well as the latency between services.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of this solution is the monitoring capabilities.
What needs improvement?
If they did some type of synthetic monitoring, it would have been better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with SolarWinds NPM for 10 years.
We are working on the most up-to-date version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SolarWinds NPM is a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
You could question the scalability. It could be improved.
How are customer service and support?
The technicals support is fair. I would rate them a three out of five.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was pretty straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I believe that we pay approximately $80,000 per year.
There can be fees in addition to the licensing fees if you add on.
What other advice do I have?
I would suggest putting in a larger VM infrastructure than they ask for because, if you don't, it'll probably be a little slow.
I would rate SolarWinds NPM an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
SolarWinds NPM
June 2025

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Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Adfontessoftware
Highly scalable, reliable, and priced well
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is easy to install and it takes a couple of hours."
- "The solution could be more secure."
What is our primary use case?
SolarWinds NPM is useful for any company that has business-critical applications running over a network and they want to monitor the network behavior.
What needs improvement?
The solution could be more secure.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SolarWinds NPM for approximately eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
We have many large global customers using this solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
The support could improve by being quicker.
How was the initial setup?
The solution is easy to install and it takes a couple of hours.
What about the implementation team?
To do the implementation you need to be at an engineering level.
I can do the implementation of this solution myself.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is a permanent license and also a subscription level which has annual fees. The price of the solution is fair.
What other advice do I have?
I would strongly recommend this solution for others.
I rate SolarWinds NPM a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Help Desk Technician at NERIC BOCES
Good alerting helps provide monitoring for physical and virtual devices
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of this solution is the alerts."
- "It is difficult for stakeholders to translate technical requirements, which results in difficulties selecting a platform or implementing a solution."
What is our primary use case?
This solution provides one standardized platform for network device monitoring.
How has it helped my organization?
This solution allows us to monitor physical and virtual devices and applications.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of this solution is the alerts.
What needs improvement?
It is difficult for stakeholders to translate technical requirements, which results in difficulties selecting a platform or implementing a solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for more than ten years.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Implementation & Support Specialist at 360Factors
Helpful support, good alerting and reporting facilitate troubleshooting of network problems
Pros and Cons
- "We have configured multiple alerts for our network devices, including routers and switches, so that we are notified if any interface goes down."
- "Fortigate firewalls are one example of a product that we are unable to monitor properly via SolarWinds NPM."
What is our primary use case?
We have been using this tool to monitor our multiple network devices, interfaces, physical and virtual memory, application servers, databases, and applications to keep a track of what is causing an issue that we are having.
Either it is the network, or it is the application, or it is the database queries that are causing our users to experience slowdowns. Due to alerting mechanism, we get notified if anything is responding slowly or if anything goes down so that we can resolve the issue as quickly as possible and keep providing best services to our customers.
How has it helped my organization?
We had been having some issues recently with network choking at a specific time, and we had been working on multiple things to identify the root cause. Using those methods, we were unable to trace it.
We decided to install a tool that would show us where the issue is being produced, and we can monitor our internal and external network traffic. We are able to determine whether the issue is being caused at the ISP end or our internal network, and with the help of SolarWinds NPM, we were able to track down the root cause of the issue.
What is most valuable?
We have configured multiple alerts for our network devices, including routers and switches, so that we are notified if any interface goes down.
In the event an interface goes down, we have multiple reports that include availability monitoring, network uptime monitoring, and network downtime monitoring. These reports are on multiple schedules such as the end of the day, end of the last business day of the week, monthly, and quarterly. This gives us the ability to provide reports to our management and let them know the performance of our network.
What needs improvement?
Even though SolarWinds NPM provides monitoring for a vast number of vendors and products, they do not support all of them. They should keep in mind that due to ongoing threats and daily malware attacks, companies have deployed network security and hired security professionals who are doing penetration testing. Certain devices provide ongoing security features, which can keep our network secure.
Fortigate firewalls are one example of a product that we are unable to monitor properly via SolarWinds NPM.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using SolarWinds NPM for more than two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of SolarWinds NPM is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability-wise, it is very good.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support from SolarWinds is the best.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used ManageEngineOpManager, but we switched because it did not have enough features.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was pretty straightforward. We had to do some customizations, which was great to provide better visibility of our entire network.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented it through a vendor and their level of expertise made us choose this tool. They gave such a great demo that we didn't even have to consider other options.
What was our ROI?
We achieved ROI within six months.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing is based on the number of nodes, interfaces, and volumes.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We were recommended SolarWinds by a friend so we tried it and purchased it. We did not evaluate other options.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
System Engineer - Infrastructure Lead at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Lightweight, easy to install, useful reports, and the local support is good
Pros and Cons
- "The product is lightweight in terms of memory use, requiring only 10 megabytes or less."
- "The integration needs to be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We use this product to monitor our performance. It gives us visibility of our environment, especially for software.
What is most valuable?
The product is lightweight in terms of memory use, requiring only 10 megabytes or less.
The agent that we use is also light and does not block server memory.
SolarWinds makes it easy for us to monitor our environment.
The reports that it generates are useful for creating documentation.
What needs improvement?
The integration needs to be improved. SolarWinds has many modules for things like application monitoring and network performance monitoring, but sometimes they are not as good as others that are being used. This means that we use other tools and eventually, we want to integrate them into SolarWinds. It might also be the case that we have other tools, like Splunk and Windows Event Collector, and we want to integrate them but can't.
For how long have I used the solution?
We began dealing with SolarWinds NPM about two years ago, in 2018
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SolarWinds is quite stable. In the last couple of weeks, I have heard that they have a bug or a security hold in the RMM platform. Luckily, we do not use it, but instead, just use NPM. Nevertheless, we contacted the supplier and asked them to help us update to patch the security hole.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I think that it is easy to scale.
How are customer service and technical support?
We receive our support from the local vendor and it is good. When we call and ask for support, the response is very good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is quite straightforward. It was easy for us to install and the deployment took about one month to complete. In the first week, we gathered the software that we wanted to install. From there, it took us another week to do the different installations. After that, we deployed the agent and the tools for working with it.
We use BigFix to deploy, so it's easy for us.
The product is updated regularly.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, this is a good product and I can recommend it, especially if you have a Windows environment and network. That would not be complex. My only issue is with the integration.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Security Architecture & Implementation Manager at Banque Saudi Fransi
A comprehensive monitoring system that is reliable and easy to use
Pros and Cons
- "The interface is user-friendly, making it easy to use."
- "Having more technical and support resources available in Saudi Arabia would be helpful."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use this solution for network troubleshooting and monitoring.
What is most valuable?
The interface is user-friendly, making it easy to use.
This is a comprehensive product that covers security, networking, and more.
What needs improvement?
Having more technical and support resources available in Saudi Arabia would be helpful.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with SolarWinds NPM for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Up to now, everything has been reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In terms of scalability, it is very much so. It is not determined by the number of end-users for this type of solution, but rather, by the capacity of network flow. This is something that we expect will increase in the future.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is something that is very important for us. It is the number one factor.
We are dealing with the vendor directly and are satisfied, although having more local engineers, support, and other resources in Saudi Arabia would be helpful.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I find that the pricing is acceptable.
What other advice do I have?
This is a valuable and powerful product that will provide users with more than they expect, all in one place. Other products, by comparison, often have limitations in the features. SolarWinds is comprehensive and covers everything, and I recommend it.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Network Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Feature-rich with good technical support
Pros and Cons
- "The people in technical support are very good."
- "The interface could be made more user-friendly."
What is our primary use case?
We are a solution provider and we evaluated this product, amongst others, for one of our clients. This product is used as a network monitoring tool.
What is most valuable?
This product has a lot of good network monitoring features.
What needs improvement?
The interface could be made more user-friendly. There are lots of features but using them is a little bit difficult. For somebody doing network monitoring for the first time, it is quite difficult to use. For example, they could add better dashboards.
For how long have I used the solution?
We evaluated this solution for one month.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It was used on a daily basis during the PoC and it was stable, once the configuration was completed.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We did not test scalability during the PoC. There were four or five network operators and the infrastructure included more than 200 devices.
How are customer service and technical support?
This product is supported well. The people in technical support are very good.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is a little bit complex and it took me about a week to deploy. It took time to configure everything.
What about the implementation team?
Expertise is required in order to deploy this solution. I received some support during the implementation and deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is more expensive than some other products, such as ManageEngine.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I also tested ManageEngine while I was evaluating SolarWindws, and I prefer ManageEngine so that is what we decided to implement. It was more user-friendly, less expensive, and we didn't need to bring in any help for deployment.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to anybody who is considering this solution is if they have expertise in SolarWinds then they should implement it. If they do not, then they should look at another option.
Overall, SolarWinds is a very good product. However, compared to ManageEngine, there is room for improvement.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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Updated: June 2025
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