TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Nagios Core

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/ANagios provides monitoring of all mission-critical infrastructure components. Multiple APIs and community-build add-ons enable integration and monitoring with in-house and third-party applications for optimized scaling.N/A

    SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor

    Score6.9 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) delivers application and server monitoring capabilities. SAM allows for self-service for easy setup, 1200+ monitoring templates, and customization options, as well as integrate with other SolarWinds products.N/A
    Pricing
    Nagios CoreSolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Editions & Modules
    Single License
    Free
    Single License
    Free
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Nagios CoreSolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsSAM pricing starts at $2,995.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Nagios CoreSolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Considered Both Products
    Nagios Enterprises
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    We also evaluated Nagios Core as a free alternative but being free it could not be trusted to be secure, and it was very difficult to add and manage devices.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    PRGT Network Monitor seems to be very good, initially, but, in our experience, when we reached close to 100 devices, the system kept crashing and behaving erratic. Prometheus was missing many features and required some CLI scripting and the GUI was years behind SolarWinds. The …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Nagios requires far more manual work to configure than SolarWinds does, though that also encourages customization and perfect-fit solutions. Nagios also requires far, far fewer resources to run than SolarWinds: SolarWinds wants great gobs of memory and disk, while Nagios is …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    SolarWinds is cost-effective, we have a great solution provider that helps us with tool integrations and maintenance, the integration capability and extensive documentation also help a lot in the ability to use it in various monitoring models and scripts.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    I can safely say SolarWinds comes up on top versus the individual products we used in the past. SolarWinds was selected because of its ease of use, its visual layout which allows you to easily and quickly browse through the information its currently providing for a monitored …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Each monitoring solution has its strong and weak points. For example SolarWinds has a strong Network orientation and is amazing for network monitoring for switches, routers, firewalls, F5, etc. Nagios on the other hand is stronger in open source monitoring and is better in that …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Migrating from Nagios to SW saved time and expense plus provided broader support services then previously available.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Previously we have evaluated Nagios which at the time was quite limited in the presentation layer and was quite labor-intensive to configure. With SolarWinds, we benefit from the flexibility and ease of implementation as well as the slick user interface and web-based wizards to …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    SolarWinds was more intuitive and faster to implement.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    SAM is more flexible and less monolithic than SCOM, and much easier to configure and manage than Nagios. I've used a great many other monitoring systems in various companies over a 20+ plus year career as a monitoring and server guy, and SolarWinds really does stack up against …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    SolarWind's server and application monitor has a few advantages over an open-source Nagios install that make it worth the additional cost. The modules and plugins work the first time and don't need to be adjusted between upgrades. I don't need to go hunting through forum posts …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    We use Nagios in conjunction so that we have multiple platforms monitoring our production environment. What's nice about SolarWinds is we don't have to dive into text-based configuration files as we do on Nagios. And we don't have to mess around with firewalls when installing …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    SolarWinds is just easier to set up and manage out of the box. I don't want to waste time configuring a solution when that solution is meant to be monitoring my environment.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    SW wins against these two, hands down. They are both good in their own right but the vast amount of items you can use in SolarWinds such as AppInsight, these two cannot compete.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    SolarWinds is comparable to many of the network monitoring solutions above. They are doing similar things. SolarWinds has a great user community called THWACK. SolarWinds is an affordable solution no matter the size of the network. Their support is decent. They are more of a …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    While Nagios Core is free, SolarWinds is much more user-friendly and easy to configure.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    SolarWinds has a might wider product catalogue than Nagios.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Monitoring solutions are usually tricky to install, confgure and maintain. SAM is easy in all of those aspects. It is not super hard to configure or set up and day-to-day operation is simple as well. It is also nice that it is back by a company with a very good support staff if …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    SolarWinds SAM dominates OpenSource solutions. It is straightforward and easy to understand. Built-in application templates make setting up monitors a snap!
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    I've tried other monitoring systems before. Nagios and the free version of PRTG have been used in the past. Even had OpManager once. Spiceworks always got me close. I've worked at associations, non-profits, and for-profits. Everyone wants the most they can get for as little as …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Nagios is fantastically customizable but when we tried it it has a very large and steep implementation curve. Cisco Prime is great at Cisco but less so at other parts, and HVAC software is good for the HVAC. SolarWinds allows us to combine all of that into a single software …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Nagios and Rancid are used internally by a company that was acquired last year. They're a big open source group.

    Other groups also use HostMonitor, Big Brother, and a couple of home grown tools that don't really stack up. Those groups don't want to change the way they do …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    SAM's biggest advantage by far is EASY OF SETUP and USE. This is the one reason I went with SolarWinds...it blows the others away when it come to the simplicity. But it's simplicity paired with power.

    In the past, when rolling out tools like Nagios, I feel like I needed to …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    SAM is stable and not cheap
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Solarwinds has a more comprehensive alerting system than both products
    Solarwinds is easier to set up than Netbrains and Nagios
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    13 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    33 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    13 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    31 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    33 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    26 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    12 Answers
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    28 Answers
    Features
    Nagios CoreSolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Application Performance Management
    Comparison of Application Performance Management features of Nagios Core and SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Feature
    Nagios Core
    -
    Ratings
    SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    8.6
    276 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Application monitoring00 Ratings8.9266 Ratings
    Database monitoring00 Ratings8.4230 Ratings
    Threshold alerts00 Ratings8.9271 Ratings
    Predictive capabilities00 Ratings8.2215 Ratings
    Application performance management console00 Ratings8.2239 Ratings
    Collaboration tools00 Ratings7.7148 Ratings
    Out-of-the box templates to monitor applications00 Ratings7.8256 Ratings
    Application dependency mapping and thresholding00 Ratings8.5216 Ratings
    Virtualization monitoring00 Ratings8.8234 Ratings
    Server availability and performance monitoring00 Ratings9.8269 Ratings
    Server usage monitoring and capacity forecasting00 Ratings9.1250 Ratings
    IT Asset Discovery00 Ratings9.0199 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Nagios CoreSolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Small Businesses
    Veeam ONE
    Score8.2 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Icinga
    Score7.8 out of 10
    SolarWinds AppOptics
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Veeam ONE
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Splunk AppDynamics
    Score8.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Nagios CoreSolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.5
    (44 ratings)
    8.8
    (278 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.9
    (3 ratings)
    8.9
    (10 ratings)
    Usability
    4.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.6
    (29 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.9
    (3 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.0
    (3 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.7
    (9 ratings)
    9.0
    (21 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.5
    (3 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.5
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.9
    (3 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.5
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.5
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Nagios CoreSolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Nagios Enterprises
    Nagios monitoring is well suited for any mission critical application that requires per/second (or minute) monitoring. This would probably include even a shuttle launch. As Nagios was built around Linux, most (85%) plugins are Linux based, therefore its more suitable for a Linux environment.
    As Nagios (and dependent components) requires complex configurations & compilations, an experienced Linux engineer would be needed to install all relevant components.
    Any company that has hundreds (or thousands) of servers & services to monitor would require a stable monitoring solution like Nagios. I have seen Nagios used in extremely mediocre ways, but the core power lies when its fully configured with all remaining open-source components (i.e. MySQL, Grafana, NRDP etc). Nagios in the hands of an experienced Linux engineer can transform the organizations monitoring by taking preventative measures before a disaster strikes.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    For monitoring applications that run on Windows hosts on VMware or HyperV virtualization, SolarWindows offers a nice, vertical view of both the loads and the resources. In such an environment, this makes life really good! But if you have something else -- for example, Linux hosts -- you're on your own to some extent. That is, the things it does well, it does very well -- but everything else is much less polished.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Nagios Enterprises
    • Monitoring of services is one of the biggest benefits for our company. Being able to respond in a timely fashion keeps business smooth.
    • Hardware and device monitoring are easy to set up with proper parameters.
    • Notification to key staff to be able to respond quickly makes issues go away faster.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Monitor Azure Cloud Severs- We use SolarWinds SAM to monitor Active Directory and DNS on Several DCs published on Azure Cloud.
    • Monitor Hyper V and VMware - SolarWinds SAM monitors applications on both Hyper V and VMware, while also monitoring the physical host machines.
    • It also helps us monitor Warranty expiration for physical servers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Nagios Enterprises
    • Nagios could use core improvements in HA, though, Nagios itself recommends monitoring itself with just another Nagios installation, which has worked fine for us. Given its stability, and this work-around, a minor need.
    • Nagios could also use improvements, feature wise, to the web gui. There is a lot in Nagios XI which I felt were almost excluded intentionally from the core project. Given the core functionality, a minor need. We have moved admin facing alerts to appear as though they originate from a different service to make interacting with alerts more practical.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Provides basic monitoring/visibility. Visibility into detailed/fine-grained issues best suited for more specialized/expensive solutions.
    • Licensing per monitored application rapidly uses up purchased license count.
    • More out-of-the-box templates or easier setup of monitoring less-common applications would make the solution more appealing given the target audience of the product.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Nagios Enterprises
    We're currently looking to combine a bunch of our network montioring solutions into a single platform. Running multiple unique solutions for monitoring, data collection, compliance reporting etc has become a lot to manage.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    We are heavily invested in Solarwinds products for a reason. They are generally easy to setup and run with, requiring only some interfacing with support or help articles on rare occasions. They do what we bought them to do and we can't ask for more.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Nagios Enterprises
    The Nagios UI is in need of a complete overhaul. Nice graphics and trendy fonts are easy on the eyes, but the menu system is dated, the lack of built in graphing support is confusing, and the learning curve for a new user is too steep.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is quite easy to use and super versatile. It allows you to do just about anything you can through premade templates or through scripting. You can use an agent on the servers if you want to, or you can monitor through WMI or SNMP credentials. You can customize thresholds for alerting quickly, and you can configure alerts to be as complex or as simple as you want.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Nagios Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    The tool works and monitors items 24x7, it only requires maintenance a little more frequently due to security fixes in the Windows operating system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Nagios Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    The graphical interface and the performance of the database leave a little to be desired, they could be better explored.Some functionality and screens do not work well depending on the browser used. The integrations never had any problems or caused crashes in other systems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Nagios Enterprises
    I haven't had to use support very often, but when I have, it has been effective in helping to accomplish our goals. Since Nagios has been very popular for a long time, there is also a very large user base from which to learn from and help you get your questions answered.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    I think there was only a couple times I had to open a support case for SAM and one time they got multiple engineers on the phone to get a better idea what I was trying to monitor and was able to point me in the best direction to monitor that system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Nagios Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    It was sufficient to read their documentation and watch videos.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Nagios Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Make sure SNMP and WMI are configured ahead of time
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Nagios Enterprises
    Because we get all we required in Nagios [Core] and for npm, we have to do lots of configuration as it is not as easy as Comair to Nagios [Core]. On npm UI, there is lots of data, so we are not able to track exact data for analysis, which is why we use Nagios [Core].
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    It has been a while since we first purchased SolarWinds, but I looked over several other products that I can't remember now. Many other products tried to scan the network to find computers but given that our computers are located in various places across campus with other computers in our buildings that are not ours that type of network scanning was not what we needed. Other services have extra services that we had no need of and I liked the ability to add custom fields in SolarWinds so we can track the information on each computer that we need to know.
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Nagios Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    It is hard to find the recommended SQL setup and convince others that is the way you should configure the server when you set it up
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Nagios Enterprises
    • With it being a free tool, there is no cost associated with it, so it's very valuable to an organization to get something that is so great and widely used for free.
    • You can set up as many alerts as you want without incurring any fees.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Less time spent investigating causes of issues. We are alerted straight away and can find the root cause of the issue in less time.
    • We have been able to ditch all our previous individual monitoring solutions, none of which integrated with each other for a single solution which fully integrates with each of the different modules to provide a single portal for monitoring and alerting.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Screenshots

    Screenshot of Multi-vendor application performance monitoringScreenshot of Multi-vendor server monitoringScreenshot of Application dependency mapping with AppStack™ dashboardScreenshot of Microsoft Exchange performance monitoring with AppInsight™ templateScreenshot of Microsoft IIS performance monitoring with AppInsight™ templateScreenshot of Server hardware health monitoring