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SolarWinds NPM vs ThousandEyes comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.0
SolarWinds NPM enhances network management and cost efficiency, providing superior monitoring, fast issue resolution, and significant ROI.
Sentiment score
7.4
ThousandEyes offers value through time and cost savings, improving network performance and user experiences, yielding high investment returns.
The return on investment is significant as the solution effectively reduces costs while being worth its expense.
Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance
There has been a great ROI from using ThousandEyes, with significant time saved in troubleshooting as I can quickly pinpoint issues rather than spending time isolating them, alongside enhancing customer feedback and experience.
Senior cloud engineering lead and IT project owner at KDD
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
SolarWinds NPM support is knowledgeable and helpful but faces criticism for slow responses and aggressive sales tactics.
Sentiment score
7.1
ThousandEyes is praised for exceptional customer service, with efficient issue resolution and high overall user satisfaction.
If there is no timely response, getting a resolution is more difficult.
Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
We had contact with SolarWinds regarding the implementation, and they were helpful.
Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance
They have good technical support.
Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited
We contacted the support team, and they resolved it within a couple of hours.
System Operation Associate at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
SolarWinds NPM offers scalable solutions for various environments, with possible increased costs and challenges on virtual platforms.
Sentiment score
7.4
ThousandEyes excels in scalability, supporting diverse functions and users but faces licensing cost challenges during expansion.
SolarWinds NPM is scalable and effective in handling large network infrastructures.
Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited
Scalability with ThousandEyes is straightforward as you don't really need to scale; it's designed to monitor multiple applications, accommodating 50 or 100 applications simultaneously.
Network and Systems Engineer at a healthcare company with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
SolarWinds NPM is stable, with issues arising during upgrades; regular updates and support enhance its performance.
Sentiment score
8.0
ThousandEyes is highly stable and reliable, with few bugs and no crashes, receiving positive feedback from users.
The NPM product is stable, particularly when used for simple network monitoring.
Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
From my experience, ThousandEyes has been stable up to 95%; I have not seen any stability issues.
Senior cloud engineering lead and IT project owner at KDD
ThousandEyes is not very stable; sometimes you have to reboot the servers to get actual results.
Network and Systems Engineer at a healthcare company with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

SolarWinds NPM users seek improvements in network discovery, interface, integration, resource usage, cloud support, security, and pricing adjustments.
ThousandEyes should enhance customization, integration, user-friendliness, and analytics while reducing costs and improving documentation and incident management.
Customers have given feedback about the delayed response times from the technical team.
Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
SolarWinds needs to upscale on observability and add full-fledged observability features, including security features.
Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited
I would need a feature in SolarWinds in the future for some kind of malfunctioning detection, such as malware attacks or that type of environment.
Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Introduction of a free version for end-users and enhancements to the user interface for easier navigation.
Senior cloud engineering lead and IT project owner at KDD
An area where ThousandEyes can be improved is in providing more in-depth packet analysis; we've found instances where ThousandEyes indicates everything is okay, but it's actually not.
Network and Systems Engineer at a healthcare company with 11-50 employees
Having a dedicated incident alert system for URL alerts would help manage noise and streamline operations, especially during patch upgrades.
System Operation Associate at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

SolarWinds NPM pricing is competitive yet complex, appealing to some while being costly for smaller enterprises or multi-module needs.
ThousandEyes offers varied pricing based on usage, seen as mid-range, suiting large enterprises but challenging smaller businesses.
It is not too pricey and is adequate.
Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
PRTG's package offers all features in one bundle, which is cost-effective.
Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited
The solution is considered expensive.
Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance
 

Valuable Features

SolarWinds NPM offers easy deployment, strong monitoring, and seamless integration, enhancing network management with intuitive dashboards and real-time insights.
ThousandEyes provides detailed monitoring and diagnostics to enhance user experience and improve troubleshooting with cloud providers and ISPs.
Whenever any node is down in our network, whether it is a server or any network device, we receive information through email that the device is down.
Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It provides a detailed overview of the network, which is valuable.
Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
SolarWinds NPM has specific modules for monitoring different network capabilities, which provides rich features for carrying out specific tasks.
Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited
I measure the 70% improvement in customer experience through customer tickets and feedback after resolving issues, where previously, users faced problems and limited time on the platform, and after using ThousandEyes, the user time reached up to five to six hours a day, even for teams possibly totaling 30 hours a day.
Senior cloud engineering lead and IT project owner at KDD
The best features ThousandEyes offers include monitoring page load times, assessing how long it takes for an application to load, checking for packet loss and jitter, and monitoring the routing path from the user to the server hosted in the cloud or on-premises.
Network and Systems Engineer at a healthcare company with 11-50 employees
ThousandEyes provides the exact error from the client, making troubleshooting more efficient.
System Operation Associate at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

SolarWinds NPM
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
4th
Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
160
Ranking in other categories
IT Infrastructure Monitoring (5th)
ThousandEyes
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
7th
Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 3.4%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ThousandEyes is 2.4%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SolarWinds NPM3.4%
ThousandEyes2.4%
Other94.2%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

Vivek Jaiswal - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Central monitoring has improved outage alerts and now needs smarter detection and modern dashboards
Regarding the automated network topology and mapping feature in SolarWinds NPM, I am not satisfied with it. For static monitoring, it is acceptable. However, if it is possible, I would need a feature in SolarWinds in the future for some kind of malfunctioning detection, such as malware attacks or that type of environment. We did not have any facility to detect that in SolarWinds. I think it would be better to incorporate those types of features. Regarding customization options in SolarWinds, the ability to customize the dashboard has room for improvement. The dashboard is quite old, and we need some improvement in it. Nowadays, we have multiple tools with AI-based monitoring and web-based dashboards. SolarWinds also has a web-based dashboard, but I think there is scope for improvement in the UI. There may be other areas I would like to improve in SolarWinds NPM.
Abdalraheem Asha - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior cloud engineering lead and IT project owner at KDD
Has improved collaboration with providers and pinpointed issues across regional networks
ThousandEyes has been the most user-friendly tool I have seen in the past couple of years, making life easier in troubleshooting and helping us find what's happening while offering vivid options on how to use the agents or the server-side tools with multiple options to trace out the issues. The best features ThousandEyes offers include the ability to place two different points or nodes, such as a server or a node in the cloud in my account, then installing agents and tracing the connectivity which helps me build a perfect user experience to check what's happening while users access my resources. I love the dashboards in ThousandEyes and the way I see the results after placing or doing the tests; this is perfect, and I would say this is the best thing. ThousandEyes has positively impacted my organization by raising the customer experience and positive feedback by over 70% due to the complex situation with local service providers, allowing me to resolve user feedback and issues which enhanced the user experience significantly. I measure the 70% improvement in customer experience through customer tickets and feedback after resolving issues, where previously, users faced problems and limited time on the platform, and after using ThousandEyes, the user time reached up to five to six hours a day, even for teams possibly totaling 30 hours a day.
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Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
May 31, 2015
Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor
I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise33
Large Enterprise85
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
It actually depends on the exact purpose or kind of devices (network devices, servers, something else). Some tools are better for only network devices while others are better for a cloud monitoring...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We are partners with SolarWinds and we sell a lot of Network management to large enterprises also because of scalability, products like Network Performance Monitor & Netflow Traffic Analyzer ar...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
It actually depends on the exact purpose or requirements. Some tools are better for only network devices while others are better from a cloud monitoring or APM monitoring perspective. You can check...
What needs improvement with ThousandEyes?
ThousandEyes could focus more on end-users than enterprises, as the solution is powerful, and collaboration with multiple cloud providers should be developed for better test traceability, with the ...
What is your primary use case for ThousandEyes?
My main use case for ThousandEyes is troubleshooting, with a specific example being testing connectivity through IXP to ensure the fastest route in collaboration with service providers over the reg...
 

Also Known As

Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard
Wayfair, GitHub, Craigslist, Comcast, SurveyMonkey, Lyft, Box, HP, Zendesk, IO Data Centers, Good Technology, NNTCommunications, Proofpoint, Schneider, Crowdstrike, Avera, Pitney Bowes, InstartLogic, Shutterfly, Shutterstock, Condé Nast, Roche, Jive, Actelion, Brocade, Infor, Okta, JLL, DigitalOcean, Zuora, NetSuite, CloudFlare, One, DemonWare, Quantcast, Carbonite, CareerBuilder, Prosper, Oscar, Slack
Find out what your peers are saying about SolarWinds NPM vs. ThousandEyes and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,425 professionals have used our research since 2012.