SolarWinds NPM vs Zabbix comparison

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389 views|290 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
SolarWinds Logo
8,706 views|4,756 comparisons
92% willing to recommend
Zabbix Logo
18,193 views|14,010 comparisons
95% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Oct 11, 2022

We performed a comparison between SolarWinds NPM and Zabbix based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Users of both solutions say deployment is straightforward and easy.
  • Features: Users of both products are happy with their stability and scalability.

    SolarWinds NPM users like the customization options of the dashboard, alerts, and reports, and say it is a strong tool for monitoring network devices. Users mention the integration capabilities need to be improved.

    Zabbix users say it is a mature solution that integrates well with Microsoft Office but that its UI needs improvement.
  • Pricing: Users of SolarWinds NPM consider the solution to be affordable. Zabbix is open-source and free of charge.
  • Service and Support: Users of both solutions are satisfied with the technical support.
  • ROI: Reviewers of both products report seeing an ROI.

Comparison Results: In this comparison, Zabbix comes out slightly ahead because it is open-source whereas SolarWinds NPM is not.

To learn more, read our detailed SolarWinds NPM vs. Zabbix Report (Updated: March 2024).
768,886 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Q&A Highlights
Question: Is Zabbix or SolarWinds NPM better for infrastructure monitoring?
Answer: Disclaimer: Following 2+ decades of working with big-vendor IT Ops Mgmt Software - including being technical consultant employed by a global ITOM vendor - I have formed a business focussed on Zabbix. I will do my best to remain neutral. For me, both are flexible, highly configurable, stable solutions with a solid history and reputation. In terms of raw features there very little to choose between them. IT monitoring solutions have, in my opinion, entered a 'Red Queen Game' phase of evolution. This means that big vendors are introducing features purely because other vendors have them rather than because customers need them. In turn, this leads to justifying annual license increases to support features that are not relevant to the vast majority of customers. To balance that statement a little, I'm sure every individual feature in a given product is used somewhere. Big vendors must recoup development costs. For example, if a large multi-national Telco demands a feature then that feature will be developed and incorporated into the product. The cost of that development will be recouped in the following year's maintenance renewal contract and spread across ALL users of the product irrespective of whether a given feature is used. However, I digress. Your question was regarding Zabbix vs. Solarwinds Where there is a significant difference is in the Total Cost of Ownership. Zabbix is a true Open Source solution with zero licensing cost. Paid support is available directly from Zabbix. I can't comment directly on SolarWinds support, however the majority of major vendors typically charge approximately 22% of the original purchase price (plus an annual uplift) for support and maintenance. Zabbix support, directly from Zabbix, is not dependant on the number of devices being monitored. Zabbix's support is based on the number of Zabbix servers and proxies deployed. I believe, albeit only anecdotally, that Zabbix offers better scalability and performance compared to Solarwinds. Where Solarwinds does seem to impress is in the visual side. Graphs and navigation is "prettier" than Zabbix. Both solutions offer agent-based and agentless monitoring, discovery, templates, alerting, correlation etc. In my opinion, because the IT monitoring market has evolved to become almost commoditized there is no "better" or "worse" product. The criteria is no longer which is the better product, but which product meets your specific needs at your specific budget. And don't forget that with any tool you will need to administer and maintain it. At this point, the ability and skills of the administrator needs to be considered as well. For me, it's Zabbix every time but then again, I would say that wouldn't I.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"We can manage the entire system across the network and troubleshoot the pain points."

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"It's easy to understand, even if you are not too technical.""The benefit of this solution is the reporting. We're able to report on and see our network in a graphical form. We are able to detect when a device is added to a network.""It is scalable.""The most valuable features are language support and technical support.""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.""SolarWinds NPM is a scalable solution since it can handle a huge number of users.""We had some interfaces where the SFP Ports were having some problems after a while. We found which of the SFP Ports was having the error and changed it, so the bandwidth become okay.""SolarWinds dashboard is very fast. Also, their interface is very good, it looks very user-friendly. The product allows me to see a summary of the network being monitored at a glance."

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"We detect problems before the customer does and before it actually happens using the predictive functions in Zabbix.""The solution allows you to configure and customize how you want to collect information from servers or other systems.""Zabbix is good for discovery.""I'm supervising all the IT departments, and Zabbix seems quite good for them. It provides graphics and information in real time. We get alerts about crashes on the system, enabling us to quickly repair issues. We can easily find devices with problems.""Zabbix is quite stable once it is set up. We haven't had any post-setup issues.""The solution's design has recently changed and it is visually pleasing with more color, for example, there is blue, black, and white.""The most valuable feature is the alert and alarm monitoring.""The most valuable feature is the monitoring of virtual machines."

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Cons
"The Wi-Fi side needs improvement."

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"The solution could be more secure.""The solution is not always good with new features, so it's take a long time.""SolarWinds NPM needs to increase its elements. One polling engine can only support 10,000 elements then it becomes slow. There are limitations even if you have the full SLX version license.""SolarWinds NPM can be very slow at times. The database optimization can be done to improve the product performance.""This product could improve by adding cloud monitoring. I want SolarWinds NPM to do much more integration, and have more involvement in cloud monitoring, like AWS or Google, or Azure. I feel like it requires lots of improvement for cloud monitoring in NPM.""The integration needs to be improved.""The dashboard of the solution is an area with certain shortcomings that need improvement.""We are looking to change away from this solution because of the documentation and the solution doesn't have enough integration in our country. The documentation is too weak."

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"The solution needs to add remote features.""The event correlation could be better.""There are areas of improvement. The database grows really fast. So, when you install Zabbix, you have to deal with some issues, like the database. We become pretty big very fast.""Outside of the normal standard monitoring, I would like to extend patching, importing patching, and supporting patching for Windows Servers.""As far as improvements, sometimes I get a bit frustrated when I move from a previous version to a new one because some configuration has changed—I need to investigate the documentation to deal with some configuration. But it doesn't take much time, so it's okay.""In an upcoming release, there should be automated reports which we are currently doing manually. For example, if we collect a report file every day and want to send it to a moderator for review. We are expecting this feature to come out soon but it would be valuable to have now.""Zabbix does not draw automatic mapping of the network, this is something they should add in the future. There is a lot of effort that is involved in tailoring some of the settings which could be made easier.""The APM monitoring has room for improvement, although I hear that the new 5.2 version has some improvements in that area, and I'd like to give that a go. I would like to see a few more templates out there for different styles of monitoring. I use the Grafana interface for reporting. I would also like it to have an out-of-the-box ability to email reports. You can create reports, but to be able to email those reports would be really helpful. I've got users who are not interested in logging in and generating a report. They want it all pre-canned and sent to an email address. It would also be really handy if we could pin certain reports up onto platforms such as Teams or SharePoint. A GUI for the proxy server would be cool to have for debugging purposes and for the support teams to have a look at, but I don't know whether that's really feasible to do. I get enough from the log files themselves."

More Zabbix Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
Information Not Available
  • "I’d suggest that people be aware that licensing has tiers."
  • "Excluding the costs of running VMs and physical blade servers, our licensing costs run around US$200,000/year for over 60 polling engines."
  • "I think that the cost has risen, but the functionality and versatility is way above other products."
  • "The licensing model is such that you can purchase only what you need; and then grow into the next level by paying only the difference in price and the associated maintenance costs."
  • "The price points are more than competitive when compared to other vendors."
  • "I believe the original setup cost was around $3500 with an annual cost of around $1200-$1500 to renew the support license. This would bring the average day-to-day cost of around $5-$6 over three years."
  • "You have to license it per year, for the support. You don't really need to have support once you've already set it up. Once you install SolarWinds, you can skip on the licensing. It will still work."
  • "The pricing needs to be improved. It is too high. One full engine costs around $10 000, which is why we don't have high availability right now."
  • More SolarWinds NPM Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "It’s free of cost."
  • "It is a true open-source solution, so there are no licensing costs."
  • "The product is an open source and free solution."
  • "It's free software released under the GNU/GPL license."
  • "There are no licenses."
  • "We’re using the free version, which covers all our current needs."
  • "It is free, which allows us to reduce costs."
  • "I was using the free, Community Edition."
  • More Zabbix Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    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 using these, but they require quite some expertise before you can use them. Then there are the ones that are not open source, the enterprise softwares and cost you some money, but on the other hand, they are extremely easy to set-up and learn. You can have them up and running in a matter of minutes. And then there are those which are completely cloud based. They can be free of cost or charge some money depending on the software. The good thing about these is that you don’t have to install any extra software, and it can be managed completely online but then again these have limited features and you cannot exploit them to the full extent as you can do with the open-source and to some extent the enterprise software, so I won’t suggest you to use these, because these are generally not the complete solutions and require other support software to achieve the same. Below I have listed the outstanding pros and cons of the various Network analyzers that you can look into Nagios Pros: Nagios offers an extensive set of collector plug-ins that allows users to gather performance and availability data from a broad range of operating systems, including  Windows and Netware Nagios… Read more →
    Answers from the Community
    Harikanth N
    it_user1043517 - PeerSpot reviewerit_user1043517 (Head of IT Governance Service at ITGSTORE)
    Real User

    Hello ,

    just to let you know about my modest contribution, indeed its two tools are very practical: The choice of one of the solutions depends on two factors:
    - The price and the competence of the system administrators

    Zabbix is ​​a free tool and requires a strong Linux, Scripting skill for all that is custom supervision. integration with third-party tools ( Grafana Dashbord , Ticketing Tools ...)

    Solarwinds is very intuitive and complete (reporting, view, resources, NOC view) all its features are integrated and easily configurable.

    Regards

    Arsène

    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:We can manage the entire system across the network and troubleshoot the pain points.
    Top Answer:The product is not expensive. I rate the product’s pricing a seven out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.
    Top Answer:The Wi-Fi side needs improvement. In most warehouse environments, there are shortfalls in such conditions. We often face… more »
    Top Answer:It actually depends on the exact purpose or kind of devices (network devices, servers, something else). Some tools are… more »
    Top Answer:From my point of view, SolarWind is the best tool.
    Top Answer:We are partners with SolarWinds and we sell a lot of Network management to large enterprises also because of… more »
    Top Answer:We use Zabbix to monitor our organization's IT infrastructure and workstations. We don't use Microsoft Intune since it's… more »
    Top Answer:In the next release, I'm hoping for features targeted towards larger users with more customizable options. Despite this… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer
    Learn More
    Overview

    Juniper Mist Premium Analytics is a comprehensive network analytics solution that provides organizations with valuable insights into their network performance and user experience. The primary use case of this product is to enable IT teams to proactively monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize their network infrastructure.

    The most valuable functionality of Juniper Mist Premium Analytics is its AI-driven insights and recommendations. Leveraging machine learning algorithms, it analyzes vast amounts of network data to identify anomalies, predict potential issues, and suggest remediation actions. This proactive approach helps organizations minimize network downtime, improve user experience, and optimize network performance.

    By providing real-time visibility into network performance, Juniper Mist Premium Analytics helps organizations quickly identify and resolve network issues. It offers detailed analytics on network traffic, application performance, and user behavior, allowing IT teams to pinpoint the root cause of problems and take immediate action. This not only reduces troubleshooting time but also enhances overall network reliability.

    Furthermore, Juniper Mist Premium Analytics enables organizations to optimize their network infrastructure. It provides insights into network capacity utilization, application usage patterns, and user behavior, allowing IT teams to make informed decisions about network design, resource allocation, and capacity planning. This helps organizations to ensure that their network is efficiently utilized and can support the growing demands of their users.

    SolarWinds NPM is a network monitoring solution that enables you to detect, diagnose, and resolve network performance issues and outages quickly and efficiently. The solution is a powerful tool that can help you increase service levels, reduce downtime with multi vendor network monitoring, simplify the management of complex network devices, improve operational efficiency, and much more.

    SolarWinds NPM Features

    SolarWinds NPM has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Increased scalability
    • Fault, performance, and availability monitoring
    • Dynamic network discovery and mapping
    • Cross-stack network data correlation
    • Customizable topology
    • Dependency-aware intelligent alerts
    • Intelligent maps
    • Automated capacity forecasting, alerting, and reporting
    • Logical and physical network monitoring
    • Monitor Azure vNet gateway visibility

    SolarWinds NPM Benefits

    There are several benefits to implementing SolarWinds NPM. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Comprehensive monitoring for advanced network devices: With SolarWinds NPM, you can gain insight into the health and performance of your load balancers, Cisco ASA and Palo Alto Networks, firewalls, and Cisco Nexus switches.
    • Hardware health monitoring: SolarWinds NPM makes it easy for you to monitor, alert, and report on key device metrics, including power supply, fan speed, and temperature.
    • Customizable performance and availability reports: With this feature, you can choose from more than 100 templates to schedule and also generate custom network performance reports.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the SolarWinds NPM solution.

    PeerSpot user Andrew N., Senior Network Engineer at Element Critical, says, “The "Performance Analyzer" feature is the solution's most valuable aspect. It's able to do the bounded graphs of all the interface stats, from errors to broadcasts and to current traffic. With a click of a button you're able to, in one interface, look at historical data for those items.” He also adds, “From the troubleshooting point of view, just having that peace of mind is great. And, The solution is extremely stable. We haven't had any issues in that regard. We haven't had issues with bugs, glitches, or crashes."

    Daniel S., Systems and Data Warehouse Supervisor at MMSD, mentions, “The alerting and usage tracking is a valuable feature because it alerts us when we're getting near capacity on disk space, network utilization or processor utilization. It helps us manage our capacity and enables us to be proactive.”

    A Senior Vice President and CIO at a financial services firm explains, “As we look to add more servers to our virtual environment and to understand the impact, the solution allows us to dig into the historical charts related to capacity planning. It also gives us visibility of spikes and allows us to track down the reasons for their occurrences. So too, it makes room for potential processes that have gotten hung or runaway and to know when it's time to reboot a server or service.”

    Dinesh N., Digital Innovation at Bobcat Company, states, “The best part of the solution is the sharing display. It gives a general public ID wherein everyone can link to a public display. That's a good feature.”


    Fazal A., Implementation & Support Specialist at 360Factors, comments, “We have configured multiple alerts for our network devices, including routers and switches, so that we are notified if any interface goes down. In the event an interface goes down, we have multiple reports that include availability monitoring, network uptime monitoring, and network downtime monitoring. These reports are on multiple schedules such as the end of the day, end of the last business day of the week, monthly, and quarterly. This gives us the ability to provide reports to our management and let them know the performance of our network.”

    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
    Information Not Available
    Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard
    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
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Government8%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company12%
    Comms Service Provider12%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Healthcare Company9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization50%
    Computer Software Company7%
    Government5%
    Manufacturing Company5%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company24%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Aerospace/Defense Firm7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization33%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Comms Service Provider6%
    Government6%
    Company Size
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise63%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business33%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise49%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business12%
    Midsize Enterprise55%
    Large Enterprise32%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business49%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise31%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise42%
    Large Enterprise41%
    Buyer's Guide
    SolarWinds NPM vs. Zabbix
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about SolarWinds NPM vs. Zabbix and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    768,886 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    SolarWinds NPM is ranked 6th in Cloud Monitoring Software with 147 reviews while Zabbix is ranked 2nd in Cloud Monitoring Software with 98 reviews. SolarWinds NPM is rated 8.2, while Zabbix is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of SolarWinds NPM writes "High-level, comprehensive, and proactive monitoring in a user-friendly interface". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Zabbix writes "Allows any number of customizations but lacks functionality for finding root causes". SolarWinds NPM is most compared with PRTG Network Monitor, ManageEngine OpManager, ThousandEyes, LogicMonitor and Entuity, whereas Zabbix is most compared with Centreon, Checkmk, Nagios XI, Nagios Core and Amazon CloudWatch. See our SolarWinds NPM vs. Zabbix report.

    See our list of best IT Infrastructure Monitoring vendors, best Cloud Monitoring Software vendors, and best Network Monitoring Software vendors.

    We monitor all Cloud 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.