SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs Splunk AppDynamics comparison

SolarWinds and Splunk are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. SolarWinds is ranked #18 with an average rating of 7.1, while Splunk is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.5. SolarWinds holds a 1.6% mindshare in APM, compared to Splunk’s 4.9% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of SolarWinds users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Read 41 SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor reviews

3,933 Views
2,633 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Splunk AppDynamics

Read 244 Splunk AppDynamics reviews

14,326 Views
9,069 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Splunk AppDynamics

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 6, 2025

AppDynamics and SolarWinds SAM are leading competitors in application performance and server monitoring. AppDynamics has the upper hand in detailed application-level insights, particularly for complex transaction monitoring, while SolarWinds SAM offers broader infrastructure monitoring at a more cost-effective price.

Features: AppDynamics specializes in comprehensive application performance monitoring, focusing on transaction tracking and real-time diagnostics, end-to-end traceability, application flow mapping, and operational dashboards. SolarWinds SAM is known for server and application monitoring with its AppInsight functionality, real-time node monitoring, intuitive interface, and comprehensive alerts. However, it lacks the depth of application-level insights compared to AppDynamics.

Room for Improvement: AppDynamics could benefit from HTML interface updates, improved async call tracking, and better integration with network monitoring systems. Users also desire more robust support for modern technologies like Docker. SolarWinds SAM needs UI navigation improvements, easier system integration, and enhanced robustness in complex environments to address performance issues better.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: AppDynamics is flexible in deployment, offering Public, Hybrid, and On-premises options. It is known for responsive, knowledgeable customer service. SolarWinds SAM primarily focuses on On-premises and Hybrid deployments, with prompt customer service that could improve in response times.

Pricing and ROI: AppDynamics may be perceived as high-priced due to its comprehensive features, positioning it as an enterprise-level solution. Despite its complex licensing model, users see its in-depth monitoring capabilities as offering quick ROI. SolarWinds SAM provides competitive pricing and strong value for organizations seeking extensive server monitoring, making it appealing for diverse business sizes with its broader infrastructure monitoring benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Splunk AppDynamics Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Splunk AppDynamics

March 2025

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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

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

18th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

5.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (10th), Active Directory Management (14th)

Splunk AppDynamics

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

244

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (4th), IT Operations Analytics (2nd), Mobile APM (2nd), Container Monitoring (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.6%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk AppDynamics is 4.9%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Subhajit Nag

Senior Process Associate at Tata Consultancy Services

The component and cable monitoring features are good, but the interface is slow

SolarWinds' interface is slow, and this is a global concern. Every SolarWinds user complains about the sluggishness. The response is slow. If you browse from one page to another, you have to wait. Our company is a massive user with plenty of licenses, so the performance issues could be due to the load per license. Ten thousand components can be mapped under one license. So SolarWinds needs to take care of the speed problem. It cannot be this slow. That is a huge complaint. Otherwise, the tool is good. 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 upgrade time matters because you only install the solution once, but you'll need to upgrade the solution repeatedly over the life of the product. A complex installation isn't an issue, but I mind if the upgrade takes too long because it's already in production.

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Muhammad Zeeshan Siddiqui

Head of Technology and Services at arwentech

Dynamic mapping enhances workflows that are user-friendly

One aspect that requires improvement is the agent. Without an agent, gathering sufficient information on applications is challenging. Additionally, the agent sometimes creates performance issues in production environments. If AppDynamics could develop a means to monitor without an agent, it could significantly improve application performance and reduce potential problems. Moving to an agentless solution, like what some competitors are doing, would be beneficial.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's good at monitoring system-specific things like ports, services."

"I find it to be a strong product suite, particularly when you need a comprehensive monitoring tool."

"The most valuable feature is application monitoring."

"Manage Groups: The capability to group appropriate devices gives better visibility of sites, categories, or critical regions. The same can be used to represent a dashboard for higher management."

"The initial setup was relatively easy, and we didn't have to install anything. All we had to do was put on the devices we wanted to monitor."

"It is simple to implement and can provide fairly decent Windows-based monitoring, beyond simple SNMP. It is great for monitoring newbies and smaller shops."

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

"The most valuable feature is the Access Rights Manager."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

"Data monitoring is the most valuable feature."

"We had no issues with scalability. It was very good for us."

"The analytics are great."

"We have found the scalability to be quite good."

"The most valuable feature is the live reporting on the current health\performance of our application"

"The most valuable feature is the ability to take a report, and in particular, a visual, and link it to actual application performance and then the consequences. This means you can show how an incident or action has an effect on the business."

"The solution helps us provide a better user experience to our customers."

"I like how the AppDynamics dashboard portrays the information flows. When a task is executed, various flows between different applications and databases happen in the background. The dashboard is intuitive and helps visualize the connections, the directions of the flow, and the information related to these specific sessions."

More Splunk AppDynamics pros

Cons

"The technical support was better in previous years. With the launch of the premium support service, the normal support has declined."

"When you implement SolarWinds on a larger scale my customers complain about the speed."

"The product does not explain why a problem occurred."

"One product area that could benefit from improvement is the synchronization of licensing periods across different modules"

"Nodes in Azure are able to be monitored with the use of agents, but this does not apply to cloud service offerings that are not node based."

"I would like to see support for non-Windows or non-Microsoft domains, especially Apache and other non-Windows servers."

"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."

"The stability, flexibility, and ease of use could be improved."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

"AppDynamics scaled well up to around 3,000 agents. The performance deteriorated after that, while Dynatrace could support more than 10,000 agents. We were surprised that AppDynamics' scalability is not so good."

"Sometimes, it is hard to navigate through and find if something is wrong or figure out where an error stemmed from."

"It could do with more than one data centre/multiple AWS accounts in a pane of glass. Also, improved scalability to large environments would be helpful."

"The AppDynamics installation process needs to be more straightforward. Deploying the product is also tricky."

"This product has an issue with initial lag upon opening that we would like to see improved."

"The solution could be more user-friendly for diagnostic purposes. Anyone who is using the solution should be able to infer what that error is about, they should be able to troubleshoot it better."

"The one thing that I find it difficult in using AppDynamics is, for any new user, it's not easy for him or her to configure the transactions in AppDynamics because the UI is pretty complex. The configuration is pretty complex for a new, fresh user. They can make the UI simpler, that'll be very helpful for anyone to configure their website in AppDynamics."

"Their support should be improved. Clusters and monitoring can also be improved."

More Splunk AppDynamics cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Nagios XI, WhatsUpGold, Uptime Software, PRTG, Manage Engine, and SpiceWorks are the other tools that have lower pricing and licensing costs. However, they can't compete with SolarWinds when it comes to the features and functionality that SolarWinds can provide."

"The licenses start from USD 3000.00 and go up to USD 20,000.00 for the year. It's a perpetual license. Nothing is free in SolarWinds, anything that you need is an additional cost."

"We are on an annual license to use the solution. The price of the solution is expensive. The price is based on a bunch of factors, such as the number of engines and elements."

"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."

"I like the pricing for this SolarWinds product."

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

"I have always said SolarWinds is very “proud” of their products, meaning they are expensive. I cannot afford to purchase all the licenses I need for all the SolarWinds products."

"When planning for the number of licenses to purchase, make sure you understand all of the elements within an application required to really understand performance well. In our case, we quickly came to the conclusion that an unlimited license for SAM was the way to go."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pricing and cost advice

"You are required to purchase licenses whether you use it or not. It is not pay-as-you-use."

"This price of this product is expensive."

"It does require licensing to be paid."

"AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring does have licensing cost associated with it."

"It's a very expensive product. Each of the licenses after this month for one server is around $9,000 or $10,000."

"This solution is not the cheapest but it works well. You will end up doing more work with a cheaper solution than if you just spent the extra money on a better solution like this one."

"The pricing model for AppDynamics could be better. You have to subscribe to a yearly or a three-year licensing, which isn't very handy. The solution is one of the most expensive in the market today."

"I believe there was probably an extra charge whenever I wanted to contact the support team."

More Splunk AppDynamics pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

46%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Educational Organization

49%

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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

Identifying the problem statement is easy.

See all answers

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

SolarWinds has a change in pricing strategy. Like most software vendors, SolarWinds has now adopted a "subscription first" policy. Not just this, but they have even made the licensing very simple. ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

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...

See all answers

Any advice about APM solutions?

There are many factors and we know little about your requirements (size of org, technology stack, management systems, the scope of implementation). Our goal was to consolidate APM and infra monitor...

See all answers

APM tools for a Managed Service Provider - Dynatrace vs. AppDynamics vs. Aternity vs. Ruxit

Hi Avi! It's great to see your thorough approach to selecting an APM package for your MSP company. Considering your focus on SMBs and enterprises in Israel, Dynatrace seems like a solid choice with...

See all answers

What do you like most about AppDynamics?

The solution saves time and cost.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 20% of the time

Dynatrace vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 19% of the time

Prometheus Group vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 7% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 5% of the time

Nagios XI vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 5% of the time

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Competitors

Dynatrace vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 16% of the time

Datadog vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 10% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 8% of the time

New Relic vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 7% of the time

Instana Dynamic APM vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 3% of the time

More Splunk AppDynamics Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

February 2025

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report

Download SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk AppDynamics

February 2025

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Also Known As

SolarWinds SAM

No data available

Overview

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

Splunk AppDynamics enhances application performance monitoring with advanced diagnostics and real-time insights, offering seamless end-to-end transaction tracking and infrastructure visibility.

AppDynamics provides critical tools for businesses to analyze application behavior and performance. Through innovative features like transaction snapshot analysis and adaptable dashboards, users can quickly identify and address issues, ensuring high levels of system uptime and efficiency. It is designed to support complex environments including Kubernetes and AWS, enhancing user experience by detecting performance issues early. Despite needing improvements in network monitoring and integration, it remains a robust option for tracking application health.

What are the key features of AppDynamics?

Real-time Performance Monitoring: Offers immediate insights into application behavior.
Business Transaction Tracking: Tracks transactions from start to finish for bottleneck identification.
JVM Memory Monitoring: Provides detailed JVM metrics and memory use information.
Deep-dive Diagnostics: Enables in-depth analysis of code and stack traces.
Adaptable Dashboards: Customizable views for better data interpretation.

How does AppDynamics benefit users?

Improved Incident Resolution: Faster problem detection and solution implementation.
Enhanced Application Performance: Real-time monitoring optimizes system operations.
Comprehensive Visibility: Provides a full view of application infrastructure.
Informed Decision Making: Detailed analytics guide performance improvements.
Customer Satisfaction: Enhances user experience through faster issue resolutions.

In industries like financial services and e-commerce, AppDynamics facilitates performance tracking across distributed systems, optimizing infrastructure to meet consumer demands. It excels in environments needing precise transaction monitoring and is pivotal in delivering high value and satisfaction.

Splunk

Sample Customers

Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite

Cisco, Sony, Nasdaq, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Edmunds.com, Puma, Fox News, DirecTV, Pizza Hut, T-Systems, Cornell University, OpenTable, BITMARCK, Green Mountain Power, Care.com, Overstock, Paddy Power, eHarmony, Kraft, The Motley Fool, The Container Store, and more See more customers

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Splunk AppDynamics

March 2025

Free Report: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Splunk AppDynamics

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