We compared Pandora FMS and SolarWinds NPM across several parameters based on our users' reviews. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:
Features: Pandora FMS is highly regarded for its straightforward management process, effective dashboards, and efficient network monitoring capabilities. SolarWinds NPM is commended for its adaptability and extensive network surveillance functionalities. SolarWinds NPM is commended for its adaptability and extensive network surveillance functionalities.
Room for Improvement: Users say Pandora FMS could make its dashboards more customizable and improve its integration with other systems. Many also said they would like Pandora to add APIs for integration and offer better out-of-the-box analytics. SolarWinds NPM needs improvement in edge computing capabilities and data reporting. Users also said the performance could be better and that they would like to see expanded IPAM functionality.
Service and Support: Pandora FMS support received high praise for their expertise, kindness, and fast response time. While some customers described SolarWinds support as helpful and responsive, others reported delayed responses.
Ease of Deployment: Most users found Pandora FMS’s initial setup to be relatively easy. Some users said SolarWinds NPM was straightforward to set up, while others perceived it as complex.
Pricing: Pandora FMS is considered reasonably priced, and the total cost depends on the environment. The cost of SolarWinds NPM varies depending on the customer’s size and requirements. Some users find it costly.
ROI: Pandora FMS has also demonstrated advantages in terms of return on investment. Some users reported immediate benefits from using SolarWinds NPM in terms of security and business outcomes, while others have not.
Comparison Results: Users like Pandora FMS’s management and monitoring capabilities as well as its dashboards, but the solution has been criticized for its compatibility issues, limited customization options, and slower performance. SolarWinds NPM is a customizable solution that’s easy to deploy and features comprehensive network monitoring capabilities. However, some users consider it costly and voiced concerns about technical support and user experience.
"The single dashboard is a valuable feature."
"We can manage the entire system across the network and troubleshoot the pain points."
"The official forum is active enough to answer most of the high-end technical questions that you may have."
"Features I have found most valuable with Pandora are the personalized metrics and the simplicity of data."
"The solution is so lightweight that with only 4GB of ram, it allows keeping track of up to two hundred agents from a single console."
"This solution has screens that are easy to understand and provide a wealth of information."
"You can configure several types of architecture for high availability or load balancing."
"Thanks to its flexibility, I have been able to adapt the tool to our servers and find out quickly how their console works."
"It provides us with proactive monitoring and is very easy to configure and maintain."
"The monitoring system within this solution is very good. It is easy to use and navigate, and makes issue alarms easily viewable."
"The solution is very user-friendly."
"It's easy to understand, even if you are not too technical."
"The product covers our needs for the basic care and feeding of servers, whether they are physical or virtual."
"The solution is extremely stable. We haven't had any issues in that regard. We haven't had issues with bugs, glitches, or crashes."
"The alerting and usage tracking notifications on disk space capacity, network and processor utilization."
"With just three modules, I can monitor server performance (whether it’s a VM, in the cloud, or an on-premises server."
"I like that SolarWinds NPM is a strong tool for monitoring network devices, switches, and routers. It's also a user-friendly tool. My team also likes how scalable it is."
"The ability to customize the views and dashboards is nice. SolarWinds also allows us to access the data via the API. That's probably the feature I liked the most."
"The technical support needs improvement."
"The Wi-Fi side needs improvement."
"I think some improvements to the Android app would be good."
"I sincerely believe that Pandora needs new ideas for functionality closer to advanced device security monitoring."
"Improvements are needed for server and network discovery, including service-based discovery."
"Pandora FMS is relatively new, and the interface with the older version crashes at times. We have several different operating systems, such as Linux and Windows, and Pandora does not run as well in these."
"We would like to see improvement in the mainframe integration that this solution is capable of."
"Pandora FMS is an overall great monitoring solution, but it does not have a community that is as large as Zabbix or Nagios."
"Their support is good, but it is just online communication. It would be great to be able to just call someone and talk to them instead of always writing. It works well for me because I am a decent communicator in email, but some people might find it difficult to describe in a written fashion and communicate with them that way. There is a learning curve to the interface, but once you get used to it, it is actually very powerful. They have a lot of options, but people struggle with the interface. They've improved it though, and it is getting better. They need to keep improving the learning curve to help buy-in. I'm the guy that manages it, so I'm comfortable with it. They can refine the upgrade agents to be easier. They can also do more refinement in end-user usability because not everyone is strong technically, and people who aren't strong technically might be averse to the product, even though it has come a long way. It has a complete GUI and everything."
"It would be useful if Pandora FMS included an ISO image (or «software appliance») for each big company that leases virtual private machines (VPS), just like in AWS."
"The aesthetic widgets should be dynamic widgets, so the customization can be even more customizable."
"It has covered everything, so no improvement is required at their end. The only thing is the price."
"The integration needs to be improved."
"The solution needs to integrate with additional SDN technologies that are part of the hyper market."
"The tool can only monitor up to 1000 instances in a single SolarWinds console. Customers may have over 1000 instances. Hence, it needs to support a minimum of 1500 instances. It should also improve support."
"The integration with video apps could be better."
"Being able to detect devices that are trying to connect wirelessly would make using this solution much easier."
"Having more technical and support resources available in Saudi Arabia would be helpful."
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Pandora FMS is ranked 28th in Network Monitoring Software with 22 reviews while SolarWinds NPM is ranked 4th in Network Monitoring Software with 147 reviews. Pandora FMS is rated 9.2, while SolarWinds NPM is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Pandora FMS writes "The open architecture is easy to extend and enhance". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SolarWinds NPM writes "High-level, comprehensive, and proactive monitoring in a user-friendly interface". Pandora FMS is most compared with Zabbix, Wazuh, PRTG Network Monitor, Nagios XI and Netdata, whereas SolarWinds NPM is most compared with Zabbix, PRTG Network Monitor, ManageEngine OpManager, ThousandEyes and Entuity. See our Pandora FMS vs. SolarWinds NPM report.
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We monitor all Network Monitoring Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.