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Progress WhatsUp Gold vs. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)

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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 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
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds NPM
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    NPM
    $1,638
    per year
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds NPM
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds NPM
    Considered Both Products
    Progress Software
    Chose Progress WhatsUp Gold
    The network monitoring tools and suites are abundant and you must be very thorough when evaluating the plethora of solutions out there. SNMP MIBs make it easy to gather information and discover your network, so you should concentrate on usability features, reporting, and …
    Incentivized
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    PRTG has been a very old tool that was good for plotting the utilization graphs of interfaces but lacked comprehensive device views, overall end-to-end dashboards, comprehensive reports, and alerting functions. WhatsUpGold lacked comprehensive Dashboards, Alerts, and Reporting …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    We use all of these at the moment just because we haven't found one that does everything we like. For products like the Aruba Wifi we mainly use Airwave to monitor. For our network switches, we mainly use the Extreme Management Console. Because these are products directly from …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor was chosen at Finastra before I got here however I have weighed the value of SolarWinds against competitors such as Netcool, ManageEngine OP manager, Nagios and NetApp and Splunk to mention a few. SolarWinds really shine when you …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    SolarWinds is an all in one solution. We don't need to install different servers for different packages. It provides easy installation, easy maintenance, easy monitoring by NOC and end-users of NOC. SolarWinds tools have more features than other tools. We have done POC for many …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    I actually like the simpler dashboard look of WhatsUp but after getting through the learning curve on SolarWinds, I realize that NPM overall makes it easier to navigate to any view that I need and this came after a reasonable amount of time working with SolarWinds. SolarWinds …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    We have been using a mish-mash of toolsets to be able to do reports, backups, monitoring, alerting, etc. Each individual tool has its strengths, but each has a major downside in that they don't play nice (AKA do not integrate) with other tools.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    WUG is a very baseline up/down monitoring solution and isn't terribly robust. The functionality built-in to the NCM product far outshines what WhatsUp Gold can do on its very best day. The product is overpriced and underperforms. SolarWinds is pricier, but the …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    I do believe WhatsUp Gold has much better network mapping capability than SolarWinds NPM. Other than that, NPM is better than the alternatives.
    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
    NPM stands out above the other products if seen, specifically in the flow of the tools and customizability.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    We evaluated WUG but were not happy with the offerings compared to SolarWinds. Although their licensing is much simpler, and their costs are considerably lower, it made more sense for us to go with SolarWinds.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    Price and features - SolarWinds won.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    It's a much more robust, defined system that really excels beyond what WhatsUp Gold offers. Between the packed-in features like NetPath, and the ability to monitor without agents for many different types of nodes/devices, there's a lot more value in the offering of NPM vs. …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    Better GUI, intuitive reports and best network analysis.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    I have tried PRTG and WhatsUp Gold prior to selecting SolarWinds at a few institutions. I prefer the features available with SolarWinds and the licensing model as opposed to other solutions. Getting all the features we could benefit from with SolarWinds products, in general, is …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    We still use WhatsUp Gold (old version) in some of our legacy sites, but we prefer SolarWinds NPM which give more features.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    NPM offers many more features and options, and goes much deeper. WhatsUp Gold is good if want to keep things simpler, but as our needs grew more complex it couldn't match the features and options of NPM.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    We switched to Orion many years ago because other tools were tricky to configure and required constant attention to perform correctly.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    They each have their place, but SolarWinds allowed us more and better features and alerts than the implementations of the other two that we were using.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    WUG doesn't perform well in multi-tenant environments, and the SolarWinds Sales Engineer promised that NPM was multi-tenant capable (not a lie, but not entirely accurate, either).
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    SolarWinds goes light-years beyond checking for a simple up or down status. We have had the case where a network switch is up and passing packets but no longer providing PoE. NPM let's us know.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    Cost and simplicity
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    A long time ago we used WhatsUpGold and Nagios. It has been quite a long time since we evaluated and picked SolarWinds. At the time though, it was a very polished and professional product compared to other offerings. I have not recently evaluated other offerings to see if …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    Solar Winds is usually high rated by most users. Pricing is all over the board and depends on the day of the month. It has the main features we were looking for. They are always adding things to it.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    We inherited NPM from our Network Engineers, we then evaluated other providers after the software lifecycle of two years came up. SolarWinds only made it because of price. It was by far the cheapest, so cheap that the far superior products, even with all the improvements could …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    80%
    Would buy again
    4 Answers
    91%
    Would buy again
    31 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    32 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    80%
    Happy with the feature set
    4 Answers
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    33 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    28 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    29 Answers
    Features
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds NPM
    Network Performance Monitoring
    Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of Progress WhatsUp Gold and SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
    Feature
    Progress WhatsUp Gold
    -
    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
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    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds NPM
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    Score9.9 out of 10
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    Score9.3 out of 10
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    Enterprises
    Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Nmap
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds NPM
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.3
    (13 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
    4.2
    (2 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
    Progress WhatsUp GoldSolarWinds NPM
    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
    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
    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
    • 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
    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
    • 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
    Progress Software
    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
    Progress Software
    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
    Progress Software
    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
    Progress Software
    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
    Progress Software
    We have never had an issue with support. It has always been quick and understandable
    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
    Progress Software
    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
    Progress Software
    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
    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
    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
    Progress Software
    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
    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
    • 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

    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 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.