ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

Ranking in Active Directory Management

4th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Ranking in Active Directory Management

10th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (19th), Server Monitoring (11th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Active Directory Management category, the mindshare of ManageEngine ADAudit Plus is 11.1%, up from 10.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.1%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Active Directory Management

Featured Reviews

Md Abdul Hakim

System Engineer at Corporate Projukti Limited

Advanced monitoring enhances user tracking that's cost-effective

I have been involved with this product for the last three years, participating in service and support within our company. We are currently supporting over 30 companies. This month, we deployed the solution for three companies, including two RMGs and one private bank in Bangladesh. The popularity of this product is due to its active directory monitoring abilities. Engineers can receive reports and log details within one to five seconds, which is essential for monitoring user activity swiftly and effectively. This product is very well-liked in Bangladesh due to user tracking, failed logins, and Jar reports for any Barna activity or execution. This solution's popularity extends through comprehensive auditing capabilities.

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Carlos Camargo

Senior Operations Manager at Sencinet

Provides user-friendly API features and has straightforward deployment process

One product area that could benefit from improvement is the synchronization of licensing periods across different modules. The misalignment of licensing terms can present commercial challenges when adding new modules or additional pollers. Additionally, the granularity of polling times for specific components could be enhanced to better meet individual customers' needs without impacting the entire polling pool.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Some of the most valuable features of ADAudit Plus are the granular parts of the reports fetched from Active Directory."

"This solution's popularity extends through comprehensive auditing capabilities."

"I rate this ten out of ten."

"ADAudit Plus's best features are that it's very easy to use with a user-friendly interface, and it gives reports on group policy and object changes that we couldn't find in any other product."

"The Account Lockout Analyzer and the Inactive Users reports are particularly valuable."

"Real-time monitoring of AD changes and logons is valuable."

"The most valuable feature is the control of the file server."

More ManageEngine ADAudit Plus pros

"Extremely user friendly: Any IT professional can learn how to admin NPM in a short time."

"The solution can be deployed quickly."

"Monitoring of processes and services is the most valuable feature. It is not necessarily just the server alone in terms of the CPU or the memory. We can go in-depth into services and processes."

"SSL Certificate Monitoring and Expiry Alerting"

"Identifying the problem statement is easy."

"This product can monitor application environments no matter where they reside and provides capabilities for deep insight into infrastructure."

"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is the network devices' performance monitor is the best."

"AppInsight. Provides a simple way to get very in-depth monitoring configured for our most popular applications. Exchange, SQL, and SharePoint."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

Cons

"The interface could be improved, and the log collecting feature should have additional functionalities."

"The solution's managing file server activity could be improved."

"There is room for improvement, especially in the standard professional edition. Some features require more external integration."

"The initial setup was difficult."

"The initial setup was quite complex and required some research beforehand."

"ADAudit Plus can be very tricky, especially if we need to do some high-availability configuration or distributed environment installation."

"The return on investment for ManageEngine ADAudit Plus is very hard to measure."

"It assists in managing the active directory and modifying the reintegrated GPOs."

More ManageEngine ADAudit Plus cons

"Reporting is the only thing with which we currently have challenges. They have this in two ways. There is the report writer, which is the backend, and we also have web reports, which are on the console. So, they have removed the report writer for the backend reports, and we are making use of the web console, but most of the users are not finding it very interesting to use the frontend reports. I would like them to bring back the report writer. That's the key area within it to improve on the reporting. If they can bring back the report writer, then most users will actually be comfortable. I have some customers who are trying to export their report to an Excel format, but it is not possible because they said any report that has been done from the web console cannot be exported to Excel, but most of the customers need to export their reports to Excel. That's one area they need to work on."

"It should also be easier to upgrade SolarWinds. AppDynamics is harder to deploy but easier to upgrade. So AppDynamics takes a lot of time and effort to install, but you can upgrade it in minutes. SolarWinds is the opposite. It's easy to deploy, but upgrades take forever. To date, nobody can complete it on time, so the production environment is sitting idle."

"The product needs to reduce its price."

"In terms of the dashboards on offer, they should work to improve them. The types of dashboards that you get in terms of the graphs on offer aren't ideal right now."

"SAM's software-defined network monitoring capability is also low and could be improved."

"SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor could improve the server monitoring and the web application monitoring features are not good. Microsoft SCOM has better server monitoring."

"Downside of the tools is the web console are hung or crash. It need to improve the performance."

"Solarwinds should come up the same monitoring system for other certificate expiration alert apart from SSL."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's a medium-priced solution."

"ADAudit Plus's pricing is affordable and flexible, with very low prices in the market."

"My guess is that it was around $4,000 or $5,000 a year, and we bought a license, and then we have maintenance fees. I'm not 100% sure how that worked out."

"Adding features and other functionality it costs you more. Also, the first installation costs an additional amount."

"The solution's pricing is acceptable."

"The tool is affordable, and our company is very happy with it. If ten is the most expensive and one is the least expensive, I rate the tool a three or four."

"The price is too high."

"SAM is not per server so the pricing model can be deceiving. If you have an enterprise environment, you will quickly exceed your licensing quickly. You should know this before going in."

"The product is expensive."

"I would rate the pricing for this solution a three out of five."

"Pricing and licensing is fair for what you get. It does have a great bang-for-the-buck appeal."

"The solution is overpriced in terms of application management."

"We pay around $ 2,000 to $ 5,000 yearly for the solution."

"The solution's price is reasonable. Though it's on the higher side, the tool is worth the money."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Active Directory Management solutions are best for your needs.

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861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Educational Organization

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ManageEngine ADAudit Plus?

The most valuable feature of ManageEngine ADAudit Plus is its reports.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ManageEngine ADAudit Plus?

I consider the pricing for ADAudit Plus a bit high compared to other software solutions, so I would rate it around two or three on the pricing scale.

What needs improvement with ManageEngine ADAudit Plus?

The interface could be improved, and the log collecting feature should have additional functionalities. For example, I would like to generate reports on users who have not logged into the Active Di...

What do you like most about SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

Identifying the problem statement is easy.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

The initial cost is quite high, but the renewal cost is reasonable.

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

There are no specific features or functionality I would like to see improved or enhanced in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor at this time. I have not encountered any missing features or fu...

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Product Reports

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

Download ManageEngine ADAudit Plus product report

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Download SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor product report

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report

Also Known As

No data available

SolarWinds SAM

Overview

In real-time, ensure critical resources in the network like the Domain Controllers are audited, monitored and reported with the entire information on AD objects - Users, Groups, GPO, Computer, OU, DNS, AD Schema and Configuration changes with 200+ detailed event specific GUI reports and email alerts.

ManageEngine

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) delivers powerful application and server monitoring capabilities for IT pros, enabling them to diagnose and troubleshoot performance issues faster. Do not let slow applications and downtime impact your end-users and business services. Pinpoint the root cause of application issues across various layers of the IT stack. SolarWinds SAM is affordable and easy to deploy, use, and customize. You can automatically discover your system's environment and start monitoring in about an hour. No professional services or consultation needed.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Warsaw City Hall, Acument Global Technologies, Inc., Cosma International, Bank of South Pacific, Life Management Center, Central Bank, UncleBob's Self Storage, Leeds Building Society, California Transplant Donor Network, First Response, Blessing Hospital, Northern Land Council, RMK Marine

Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor