SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs Zabbix comparison

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

Zabbix and SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor are robust monitoring tools used by businesses to oversee their IT infrastructure. SolarWinds often garners higher marks for feature-richness and ease of deployment, though Zabbix still has strong user support for its pricing and customization options.

Features: Zabbix is known for its deep customizations, scalability, and the ability to monitor a diverse range of devices. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor stands out for its comprehensive out-of-the-box capabilities, detailed insights, and advanced alerting options.

Room for Improvement: Zabbix users often mention that the initial setup can be challenging, and the learning curve is steep. Enhancements in documentation and more intuitive initial configurations are frequently suggested. SolarWinds users commonly point out the need for better licensing models, more cost-effective pricing tiers, and optimized system resource utilization.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is frequently highlighted for its straightforward deployment process, which includes detailed guides and responsive customer support. Zabbix is generally reported to have a more complex setup process. Customer service experiences vary, with SolarWinds receiving more positive feedback for support responsiveness.

Pricing and ROI: Zabbix, being open-source, offers substantial cost savings, which is a significant advantage for budget-conscious users. Despite this, the return on investment is perceived to be slower due to the time needed for configuration and optimization. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor users often view the higher price point as justified by the robust features and efficient performance, leading to quicker ROI for enterprises willing to invest in its comprehensive capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Zabbix Report (Updated: February 2026).

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Zabbix

February 2026

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Helped 881,565 peers since 2012

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

22nd

Ranking in Server Monitoring

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

4.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Active Directory Management (9th)

Zabbix

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

9th

Ranking in Server Monitoring

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

108

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (1st), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (1st), Cloud Monitoring Software (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.3%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zabbix is 2.3%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Zabbix	2.3%
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor	1.3%
Other	96.4%

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

NikhilKalwint

Technical Specialist at ServiceIO

Monitoring over a thousand systems has improved decision making and operational visibility

From an advantage perspective, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is comparatively cheaper from a commercial point of view. It is easy to install and configure, very user-friendly, and quick to get up and running, allowing you to see the early value adds in your organization. It is compatible with most technologies for monitoring with very few chances of incompatibility. Configuration also allows us to monitor all the technical parameters we are looking for, making it a very good experience for us. The alerting feature in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is a main advantage, as it alerts based on threshold breaches and can raise tickets to the ticketing system, send SMS, and email notifications, allowing engineers to work on those tickets to resolve issues and avoid further impact. The visibility into server health is a beneficial feature that I am utilizing. We widely use various application performance metrics in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor such as database monitoring and server monitoring, which are quite good enough for any monitoring solution. We utilize the customizable dashboards in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor.

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KamranBhatti

Network Engineer at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

Helps reduce response time but has room to improve customization complexity

We are not working on simple standalone solutions like Kaspersky DDoS Protection or Hybrid Cloud Security. Once you understand Zabbix, then it is easy to customize those web pages and graphs for our customer use. It is fully automated to your requirements. Zabbix is working fine with no issues, and I am satisfied with it. We have combined Zabbix and SolarWinds. The integration works fine, and it is easy to integrate Zabbix with the IT environment. We were trying to purchase MDR (Managed Detection and Response), but we are not working on that. I don't have real experience with MDR. We are using Falcon software for that. We are working with Falcon Complete, not with Sandbox. We are not using Kaspersky for business or cloud protection. For that, we are using Zabbix CrowdStrike Falcon Complete solution. I have given this review an overall rating of 8.

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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

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

"Management Console - Managing service to each server enrolled in the Solarwinds is much easier. Using a web base console, you can control your service much convenient way. There is no need to login remotely. It save a lot of time and effort."

"I have found the visibility into server health with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor very beneficial, which we use on a daily basis."

"The most valuable feature is application monitoring."

"The component and cable monitoring are good. SolarWinds is more intuitive and user-friendly than AppDynamics. The AppDynamics console is more complex because it's a more feature-rich solution, so it's not easy for somebody to pick it up."

"It is easy to install and configure, very user-friendly, and quick to get up and running, allowing you to see the early value adds in your organization."

"Identifying the problem statement is easy."

"We manage SolarWinds ourselves without outsourcing its services."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

"The template system in Zabbix is very beneficial as it saves time in configuration."

"There is less computing power needed for scaling."

"We use Zabbix to monitor our organization's IT infrastructure and workstations. We don't use Microsoft Intune since it's expensive. The tool's real-time alerting system has proved crucial for us, particularly when a new device joins a network that is not one of our own devices. It notifies us about the presence of this new device, allowing us to investigate further. Additionally, it alerts us about disk usage, memory usage, and the software installed on the machine."

"We like the user-interface for this solution, which makes it an easy to use tool."

"It has good graphs of what is going on within the operating system."

"Zabbix is an excellent performance monitoring tool."

"The most valuable feature is monitoring."

"The best feature is that Zabbix can report everything, and everything in Zabbix is free."

More Zabbix pros

Cons

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

"Support for the IBM Mainframe is needed."

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

"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."

"I believe that some of the trends, environmental maps, and items like those found in Orion would be very beneficial."

"One area that could benefit from improvement is its performance"

"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."

"A lot of times, we have to do a lot of manual cleanups."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

"It could be more stable."

"The solution needs to add remote features."

"Correlation of events would be a wonderful addition."

"Zabbix claims that there is an auto-discovery process but my team member was facing difficulty and was told that it's not really automatic, and there are some manual steps."

"When we have a problem, we have to do a lot of research to solve it."

"The graphical user interface could be customized a little bit more, and also the dashboard could be more friendly."

"For us, the initial setup was complex"

"Zabbix can use better documentation and support for troubleshooting."

More Zabbix cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

"The product is expensive."

"Pricing is inexpensive, starting at 2440 euros. For that, you get the ability to monitor a couple of nodes and one year of maintenance and support."

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

"Price can always be lower. It is neither on the expensive side nor on the cheap side. We have worked with them for a lot of years, so we get a discount due to the size of the installation."

"The price is too high."

"The product might cost you $30,000 USD to buy, but scaling this solution requires the purchase of additional polling engines at $20,000 USD each."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pricing and cost advice

"We pay the subscription for support by year."

"It is reasonable."

"The tool's licensing is good."

"Its licensing is fair. It seems to be much cheaper than others."

"It is open source. If you want to have a subscription or official support, you can pay for it. They have different plans, which are not that expensive. The plans are based on per monitoring server, not per monitored equipment. So, it is not at all expensive, and you can also live without the support if you want a cheaper option."

"It’s free of cost."

"There are no licenses."

"For pricing, it's free. We don't pay anything for it. They open-source the code, and people pay for support."

More Zabbix pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability solutions are best for your needs.

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Comparison Review

it_user174738

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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

11%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	21

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	56
Midsize Enterprise	23
Large Enterprise	34

Questions from the Community

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 is definitely room for improvement besides simplifying its setup. As a non-technical person, I believe the dashboards could be improved. Everything we use appears on video walls, and we need ...

What do you like most about Zabbix?

The template system in Zabbix is very beneficial as it saves time in configuration.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zabbix?

I think Zabbix is economical, whereas SolarWinds is expensive. SolarWinds has a lot of secure features, but Zabbix is providing everything free of cost. Zabbix is economical, and you can install it...

What needs improvement with Zabbix?

The potential and customization is a little difficult because you have to learn scripts. I think Zabbix needs to improve the customization better. At present, I am satisfied with the functionality ...

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Product Reports

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

January 2026

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report

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January 2026

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

Zabbix is an open-source monitoring software that provides real-time monitoring and alerting for servers, networks, applications, and services.

It offers a wide range of features including data collection, visualization, and reporting.

With its user-friendly interface and customizable dashboards, Zabbix helps organizations ensure the availability and performance of their IT infrastructure.

Sample Customers

Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite

1. IBM 2. Dell 3. Cisco 4. HP 5. Oracle 6. Microsoft 7. Amazon 8. Google 9. Facebook 10. Twitter 11. LinkedIn 12. Netflix 13. Adobe 14. VMware 15. Salesforce 16. SAP 17. Intel 18. AT&T 19. Verizon 20. T-Mobile 21. Vodafone 22. Ericsson 23. Nokia 24. Siemens 25. General Electric 26. Honeywell 27. Philips 28. Sony 29. Samsung 30. LG 31. Panasonic 32. Toshiba