TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued) vs. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/ACisco Prime LAN Management Solution is discontinued. Current users are encouraged to explore Cisco Catalyst Center as a modern solution.N/A

    SolarWinds NPM

    Score7 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds NPM is a monitoring and performance management platform. It provides performance troubleshooting support, auto network discovery, customizable thresholds, and can be rapidly deployed.

    $1,638

    per year

    Pricing
    Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)SolarWinds NPM
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    NPM
    $1,638
    per year
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)SolarWinds NPM
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)SolarWinds NPM
    Considered Both Products
    Discontinued Products
    Chose Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)
    We admire for some main reasons, Cisco's Prime LAN Management Solution is our best choice — It provides detailed information about network device mapping. Configuration management is critical when using wireless technology. Solarwinds and Micro Focus, while powerful, lack …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)
    Although there are many powerful tools available in the market such as Solarwinds, Micro Focus, CA Spectrum with advanced configuration options and customization options available still Cisco Prime [LAN Management Solution] is the preferred tool for following reasons -
    1. If you …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)
    There are various 3rd party tools available in the market which not only supports monitoring of cisco devices but also supports non-cisco devices, even with these capabilities in these 3rd party tools Cisco Prime has maintained a uniqueness in its products being the native tool …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)
    Cisco has more features and integrated with our existing Cisco wireless infrastructure seamlessly.
    Incentivized
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor is dedicated to network devices so it's really efficient, Zabbix or PRTG are trying to do too many things and it's very complicated to achieve same things as with SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    SolarWinds was much more flexible than other solutions, including Cisco Prime and that's why we ended up converting most of our environmental monitoring over to SolarWinds NPM. We still use Cisco Prime for wireless monitoring for the time being but may eventually transition …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    Of all the network monitoring solutions out there, SolarWinds Network Performance monitor is easily the most complete and the easiest to convince management on. For our team, the ability to install on premises was a firm requirement. Follow that up with everyone's familiarity …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    We previously migrated from Nagios, which we were using primarily as a network monitoring solution, and Cisco Prime (running in parallel for more detailed information from our Cisco switches). We ended up selecting NPM as a replacement solution due to the ease of …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    We run SolarWinds NPM, Cisco Prime and VMWare vRealize Ops Manager for monitoring solutions. NPM and Cisco Prime are the only ones that monitor our network infrastructure. Cisco Prime has multiple configs whereas SolarWinds does not. Prime does not scale as well as SolarWinds …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    SolarWinds is so easy to set up and to use. The alerting is better. It is a much cheaper product. I used Cisco Prime, and still do for wireless, for years but Cisco's Licensing is awful. We had it for all of our Cisco devices and we decided to drop it.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    Most have been SolarWinds products for either monitoring and management. As I mentioned, the top usage now is for alerting on up/down. Performance monitoring is mostly on an ad-hoc basis.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    HP Open View is too costly and too hard to configure
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    Multi vendor support and support of the majority of products used in an infrastructure is plus point for SolarWinds NPM.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    7 Answers
    91%
    Would buy again
    31 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    32 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    33 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    28 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    29 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)SolarWinds NPM
    Network Performance Monitoring
    Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued) and SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
    Feature
    Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
    8.2
    231 Ratings
    0% above category average
    Automated network device discovery00 Ratings7.8210 Ratings
    Network monitoring00 Ratings8.8231 Ratings
    Baseline threshold calculation00 Ratings8.6201 Ratings
    Alerts00 Ratings9.4228 Ratings
    Network capacity planning00 Ratings7.9188 Ratings
    Packet capture analysis00 Ratings7.2130 Ratings
    Network mapping00 Ratings7.1190 Ratings
    Customizable reports00 Ratings7.9212 Ratings
    Wireless infrastructure monitoring00 Ratings7.6153 Ratings
    Hardware health monitoring00 Ratings9.4215 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)SolarWinds NPM
    Small Businesses
    Pulseway
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Auvik
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Cisco Meraki Dashboard
    Score9.3 out of 10
    PingPlotter
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco DNA Analytics and Assurance
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Nmap
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)SolarWinds NPM
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.2
    (12 ratings)
    10.0
    (237 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.4
    (27 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (21 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.6
    (3 ratings)
    8.0
    (28 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)SolarWinds NPM
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    Although Cisco Prime [LAN Management Solution] is a nice tool and no other 4rd party tools can match its native monitoring and managing capabilities still i have given less rating and that's because it is only for Cisco vendor Devices. Hence if you have only Cisco infrastructure then go for it or else look for another 4rd party tool in conjunction with Cisco prime.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    Solarwinds NPM is well suited for medium to large networks, it may be a bit heavy for the SOHO environment as most of the tools and reports are designed for monitoring KPIs which may not be critical for a small shop. NPM can handle large networks with several sites and mixed technologies ranging from networks, server systems, storage devices and SLA reporting.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • Wireless file detection and planning mode has helped us expand into new areas of our buildings.
    • Alerting is detailed when we have issues with hardwired and wireless devices, and Rogue Access Points are easily identifiable.
    • Cisco equipment information is much more detailed than other management products' SNMP queries and is an excellent tool for troubleshooting end-device connectivity issues.
    • Our KPI reporting for senior management and centralized management of our WIPS 'Wireless Intrusion Prevention' setup have both benefited significantly from the detailed reporting capabilities.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Out of the Monitoring of almost all Network Devices.
    • Build custom pollers to monitor which is not supported out of the box.
    • Further you can alert on these custom metrics and Out of the box metrics.
    • It provides you great dashboards, Reports features.
    • You can integrate it with any MoM layer tools either using its API or sending out traps.
    • Out of the box Integration with Service Now ITSM Tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • Maps. One thing that I miss is the fact that you can't see both wired and wireless equipment in the same topology map. For visualization and troubleshooting purposes, that would help a lot, and I honestly don' t think it's that much harder to implement.
    • I'd love to see an option to show 'live dashboards,' maps, or other visual tools to publish in a NOC room, or even just to broadcast in a big monitor to allow multiple workmates to check that information. Again, I don't think that would be too hard to implement. I remember a similar feature was available in the first versions of the product, way back in the 90's (yes, I'm that old :-) )
    • Sometimes, depending on what screen you are, the solution can be a little slow. I'm not saying the whole system is slow, but sometimes that slowness can bother a little.
    • Talking about areas for improvement, one area I think can be improved is the upgrade process. Even for not so large deployments, it can take a lot of time. Having this time decreased would be the right thing to do.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • The software upgrade process is a little hairy and has caused me trouble on occasion.
    • The server that it needs to run is a bit of a resource hog along with the SQL server.
    • Some additional features like the network map are a bit clunky compared to some other products that we use.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    The entire IT staff relies on NPM in its daily operations. It would be impossible for us to maintain our level of service without it. If SolarWinds gets to proud of their product and begins to over charge for it, we would be forced to reconsider and use a different product. But as it stands it is worth the price to renew it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is quite an extensive product, covering all our bases and requirements. There are a lot of customizable options and features which you can work with for their alerting which is really useful. I haven't found anything yet which I thought SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) could do, but it actually couldn't so overall it works nicely and does the job.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Always available. Always is important to plan the software available during the machine/application setup.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Pages load slow, especially the bettors map. Could be that my server is old.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    We are very happy using Cisco Prime LAN Management Solution for the following reason: 1- Ease of use with the GUI. 2- Very well organized dashboard which can view many statistics on your devices. 3- Customized dashboard for different views ( for technical team and executives ) 4- Schedule configuration templates to use whenever we need on whatever device we want.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    In all of the times that we called support, someone at SolarWinds had the answer for us in a timely manner. Through thwack and other internet searching, we have been able to resolve all of our issues that arose to our satisfaction. The support staff have always been knowledgeable of their products or had a fellow support staff member to rely on to get the needed answers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    The training is good but during the implementation, you can get situations not learned during the training. The trainer was very open to hearing the questions about use cases and always sharing his experience. I really recommend having official training to take advantage of all features that the NPM can bring.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Make sure your inventory is accurate. Stand up some virtual machines for testing prior to installation. Make sure your database and its credentials are setup. Think about things you want to monitor that may not be obvious - UPS units, Door hardware, PBX systems, Fabric Channel switches, firewalls, routers, switches. Try to setup SNMP on these devices and have an IP that you will assign to the new server. If you do that it will go well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    There are various 3rd party tools available in the market which not only supports monitoring of cisco devices but also supports non-cisco devices, even with these capabilities in these 3rd party tools Cisco Prime has maintained a uniqueness in its products being the native tool from Cisco. The uniqueness is about product supportability for given devices and some of the edge features such as configuration management, detailed heatmaps etc
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    We selected SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor because of the capabilities of the product versus the price. The tools also work well with their other products and support is fairly good. We have never had a problem when we needed to make a call.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    From the direction and information I have been given it is very flexible and scalelable
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • It has helped us with our quarterly wireless security testing by pinpointing the location of non-approved access points vs. hunting for them via signal strength.
    • Saves time by helping to identify network health issues before they become a definitive problem causing downtime.
    • With errors detected early, we have noticed our wi-fi network is much more stable thus freeing up our engineer's time elsewhere.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • SolarWinds allows us to proactively address hardware issues before they impact the business. We recently had a server that was experiencing issues sporadically and we were able to use the data from SolarWinds to track down and correct the issue before it tanked the server.
    • SolarWinds gives our IT department some piece of mind knowing that they'll be alerted of any issues real time.
    • We can use SolarWinds data to justify needed to replace or upgrade certain equipment that is key to our core business.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    SolarWinds NPM Screenshots

    Screenshot of Network monitoring software used to reduce network outages and detect, diagnose, and resolve multi-vendor network performance issues.Screenshot of See relationships for routers, switches, interfaces, volumes, and groups, updated automatically without user intervention to maintain the network, not network maps.Screenshot of Reduce visibility gaps into critical network switches, firewalls, and load balancers with Network Insight for Cisco Nexus, Cisco ASA, and F5 BIG-IP.Screenshot of Reduce the flood of unnecessary network alerts. Create alerts based on simple or complex nested trigger conditions, defined parent/child dependencies, and network topology.Screenshot of Identify dead zones and improve wireless coverage. With its network monitoring tool, users can access out-of-the-box wireless reports, including wireless availability and rogue access points.Screenshot of Configure alerts by calculating dynamic baseline threshold data with network performance monitoring software.