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Progress WhatsUp Gold vs. SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Progress WhatsUp Gold

    Score7.2 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    WhatsUp Gold developed by Ipswitch (acquired by Progress Software May 2019) offers network performance monitoring and mapping. It supports core monitoring features, including automated workflows and network capacity planning, and monitors across hybrid environments.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
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details—SAM pricing starts at $2,995.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Considered Both Products
    Progress Software
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is able to provide 90% of the functionality my business requires. SolarWinds is able to scale out functionality by purchasing additional modules to meet the individual needs of its customers. While this functionality provides …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    SAM is one of my favorite Orion modules because of its ability to monitor almost anything using custom templates.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    It provides a wide range of functionality and it is part of an integrated platform (Orion), so a single pane of glass is an appealing aspect of it.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Its been a while since we used WhatsUp Gold, but SolarWinds has many of the same features as WhatsUp, but also goes well beyond what we used of the product back then. I am sure WhatsUp has increased functionality since we used it, so in fairness, this is old information.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    The interface of the SolarWinds Application suites is familiar to us and is fairly intuitive. While there were some year two and year three cost savings associated with migrating to another platform, we decided that the monetary value would be lost in retraining and lack of …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Compared to WhatsUp Gold, SolarWinds has been immeasurably simpler to implement, configure and support.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    We found SAM to be more intuitive to manage than What's Up Gold.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    SAM is more "Enterprise-y", WhatsUp Gold is more useful.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Didn't have a real chance to choose. But having experience with some other solutions, especially comparing with WUG - SAM is a pretty decent solution compared to functionality for the money it costs.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    The last time we did a monitoring and performance shootout was years ago. While I can say we picked SolarWinds' Orion suite over WhatsUp Gold, Zabbix, and several others, it would be unfair to list the shortcomings of each for our needs, because they might not be valid anymore.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    SolarWinds is much more robust and has a ton more built-in application monitors available out of the box. The Dashboards are easier to manage and have a ton more detail. The event engine in SolarWinds has a ton of functionality and there is a built-in Message Center to look …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    A major influence was the overall reputation of SolarWinds as a company. It was obvious that there was a continual roadmap for product improvement and growth. During the evaluation period support was friendly and professional. I had confidence in the information that the …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    More detailed monitoring and features
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    The SolarWinds suite, including Orion, Network Performance Monitor, Patch Manager and SAM provide a cohesive, enterprise level monitoring platform that helps us to quickly diagnose issues at our divisions worldwide. It allows us to pinpoint the exact cause of an outage, and …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Prior to SolarWinds, we used a product called WhatsUp Gold. With each update to WhatsUp Gold it became slower and slower and eventually became so unstable that we could no longer trust it to accurately monitor our systems. That is why we switched to SolarWinds and we have never …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor by far has been the best choice for overall needs of our district. The vast loads of information has been critical when troubleshooting issues or creating system builds. Sometimes it seems like we have too much information with SAM but …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    SolarWinds is much more robust out of the box that WhatsUp Gold was, without having to purchase many more modules
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    in the past we have used Nagios and every monitoring tool that comes from the vendor of the machines that we purchased. Nagios had a lot of administrative overhead and tons of development time. Vendor solutions can be nice, however there is no single pane of glass at that point …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    80%
    Would buy again
    4 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    33 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    31 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    80%
    Happy with the feature set
    4 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    33 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    26 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    28 Answers
    Features
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Application Performance Management
    Comparison of Application Performance Management features of Progress WhatsUp Gold and SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Feature
    Progress WhatsUp Gold
    -
    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
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Small Businesses
    Pulseway
    Score9.9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Cisco Meraki Dashboard
    Score9.3 out of 10
    SolarWinds AppOptics
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Splunk AppDynamics
    Score8.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.3
    (13 ratings)
    8.8
    (278 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.9
    (10 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.6
    (29 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.9
    (3 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.0
    (3 ratings)
    Support Rating
    4.2
    (2 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
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Progress Software
    [Progress WhatsUp Gold (formerly Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold)] is good for what it is. An inexpensive but accurate monitor for alerting on systems and services. However, it is time consuming to configure, The GUI leaves a lot to be desired and the formatting for txt alerts stinks (I just use it now as an alert to check my email to view the actual alert.)
    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
    Progress Software
    • Monitoring the connection; performance, switching, and issues. We use a broadband connection for our primary and a cellular backup for the secondary. While we use routing protocols to make this switch and WhatsUp isn't used for Syslog monitoring. it alerts us within seconds.
    • Backup configurations and archiving. WhatsUp does this particularly well. I use it for both Cisco routers and switches.
    • The diagram feature is nice. Though I don't use it as much because of the size of our structure, it does come in handy for mapping routes of all traffic.
    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
    Progress Software
    • Navigating the new WhatsUp Gold 2018 is a bit complicated and not user-friendly. The best part about using a software is the user's ability to use it with ease.
    • You cannot click sites being monitored from Map Dashboard View. This feature was previously possible in the older version.
    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
    Progress Software
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Progress Software
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Progress Software
    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
    Progress Software
    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
    Progress Software
    We have never had an issue with support. It has always been quick and understandable
    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
    Progress Software
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    It was sufficient to read their documentation and watch videos.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Progress Software
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Make sure SNMP and WMI are configured ahead of time
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Progress Software
    Progress WhatsUp Gold (formerly Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold) is more network focused than some of the other products we looked at, which had basic capabilities but were not as strong on the reporting or programmatic resolution of issues. Progress WhatsUp Gold (formerly Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold) is cost effective compared to some of the other upmarket solutions.
    Incentivized
    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
    Progress Software
    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
    Progress Software
    • Alerts IT team members when things go down after regular business hours. IT team is able to fix the issue before users arrive the next day.
    • Saves on system downtime and lost productivity
    • Remote monitoring means less staff hours spent checking for potential problems.
    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

    Progress WhatsUp Gold Screenshots

    Screenshot of WhatsUp Gold Alert CenterScreenshot of WhatsUp Gold Cloud InfrastructureScreenshot of WhatsUp Gold Configuration ManagementScreenshot of WhatsUp Gold Custom MapScreenshot of WhatsUp Gold DashboardScreenshot of WhatsUp Gold Device Properties

    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