SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor Pricing, Features, Reviews & Comparison of Alternatives

Pros
This has to be by far the best networking and services monitoring tool I have ever used. It is rich in features and it just works.

Cons
It is an amazing system and I would recommend to anyone. It is however a little time consuming to set it up, for some people even a little challenging.

Rating breakdown

Pros
I have been using this software for a very long time and its graphical representations and reporting is so top notch and its very easy to install, configure, and troubleshoot and interact with highly skilled individuals on its Thwack Community and share and discuss new ideas and look for guidance/assistance and documentation with labs and we can collect points to exchange with gifts and certification vouchers.

Cons
Its a bit costly and fortigate firewalls are not supported completely to provide its site to site vpn details like it shows for cisco asa. It would be great to be able to monior our vpn and who gets in and out of our network.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Was easy to setup and maintain and their support seems to be great to work with.

Cons
Over time it gets really slow and the server needs rebooted. Nothing I've tried including putting it on a new server seems to rectify this.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
Allows for customized views and alerts to really lock down your essential requirements. (The problem is most users do not customize)

Cons
I do not like that they promote how easily you can roll out this software to start monitoring your network. What they do not tell you that by doing a non customized quick roll out you will receive unlimited number of alerts to the point they will be ignored. By default the system shows you too much irrelevant information and it alerts on way too many general conditions. BE Warned - without tuning the alerts you will get many false positive alerts.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
SolarWinds NPM (Network Performance Manager) is one of the most gratifying products to use. After installing on a server, you can literally in minutes begin collecting actionable network performance if you have previously configured SNMP on your network equipment. Most of the products integrate, building on each other and adding more value. I have always been impressed with how their new versions add significant features and value for just paying maintenance on the product. Their online training is also very valuable.

Cons
More advance features will take more effort to configure and generate actionable results. You can easily be overwhelmed by alerts and syslog if you do not make an effort to manage what you really need to see.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10