We compared New Relic and SolarWinds NPM across several parameters based on our users' reviews. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:
Features: New Relic offers reliable monitoring capabilities and advanced traceability features. SolarWinds NPM is commended for its adaptability and extensive network surveillance functionalities.
Room for Improvement: New Relic could improve by simplifying server removal and offering more detailed troubleshooting information. Reviewers also said the user experience could be smoother and that the documentation should be more detailed. 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: Some New Relic customers commended the prompt and knowledgeable support, while others expressed dissatisfaction with slow response times and delayed resolutions. While some customers described SolarWinds support as helpful and responsive, others reported delayed responses.
Ease of Deployment: New Relic's setup is perceived as relatively easy, and professional services are available if needed. Some users said SolarWinds NPM was straightforward to set up, while others perceived it as complex.
Pricing: New Relic's pricing is considered a pain point for many customers, but others said it is reasonable for the features provided. There are additional costs for extra features and historical information. The cost of SolarWinds NPM varies depending on the customer’s size and requirements. Some users find it costly.
ROI: Some New Relic users reported a positive return on investment, but others were uncertain or have not observed any ROI. Some users reported immediate benefits from using SolarWinds NPM in terms of security and business outcomes, while others have not.
Comparison Results: New Relic is praised for its robust monitoring capabilities, stellar customer service, and painless setup, but some users say the solution is too pricey and that the user experience could be better. 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.
"We can manage the entire system across the network and troubleshoot the pain points."
"The single dashboard is a valuable feature."
"End-user Synthetics and monitoring are very good."
"It has helped my organization to dive deeper into the application using the APM module is very helpful."
"Working with the solution is very easy. It's user-friendly."
"The versatility of the solution is its most valuable feature."
"The product's initial setup phase was very easy."
"Sometimes, I monitor the user's time of response and use this information to improve the number of servers on the back-end. Or, I can use it to change my back log for front-end developers and improve their response times. It's very important in this case because I can improve the experience of the final user."
"They instrument up from the bottom to the top – every piece of code - they have a very perfect read of what’s being done, and how long it’s taking."
"The service maps that it creates, the health maps that it creates, the insights that it provides, etc., are all quite useful."
"SolarWinds NPM provides an overview of network monitoring, extending its capabilities to cover other aspects, such as virtual machines and servers. The platform has features like NetPath, which is particularly beneficial for end-users, offering insights into issues like latency, packet loss, and connectivity problems with routers, switches, or servers."
"The most valuable features of SolarWinds NPM are network performance monitoring and the overall benefit for servers."
"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."
"The interface is user-friendly, making it easy to use."
"There are a lot of options for customization of the dashboard, alerts, and reports."
"It gives us a map of the network setup and one console to see the entire network."
"The ability to quickly identify downtime is the most valuable."
"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."
"The Wi-Fi side needs improvement."
"The technical support needs improvement."
"The price needs improvement."
"We would like to receive more AWS-specific details from the New Relic Dashboard, like EC2 health."
"Some of our customers see New Relic as a promising product to have, and we would like to deliver it to them. The only way we would be able to do that would be if we had server appliance for clients that we could install in their data centres."
"One thing that we noticed was that historical information was only for a limited period, which was not helpful in certain scenarios. For example, if I want to size my system for an event for New Year or Christmas season based on the historical data, I won't be able to find the historical data. Currently, the data is limited to three months. It would be helpful if they can provide historical data for a longer duration so that we can plan our system accordingly."
"I would like an infrastructure network that provides real-time views, showing the issues."
"I would like the ability to set up certain dummy accounts and do the actual things that the customer is doing, without impacting the production environment."
"It is very difficult to award the service level cycles at an endpoint level."
"The monitoring is only as good as the alerts that it produces. By having it set up fine grain alerting, it is a bit of a pain."
"We'd like to see a bit more automation in the future."
"One of the challenges with SolarWinds is that in order to pull the data, we have to have a lot of false positives."
"The solution does not offer much customization so is somewhat inflexible."
"I would like to see integration with antivirus or other security endpoint solutions."
"Application Performance Monitoring should be included in this solution."
"It is not that stable. As a Windows software, I have seen issues with SolarWinds. The performance is slow."
"An area for improvement would be the use of modular licenses, which are not practical for big clients."
"An area for improvement in SolarWinds NPM is the short retention period. Currently, it's just for seven days of data, which is very low, making it hard for my organization to keep that data. SolarWinds recommended a seven-day retention period, but my organization needs a fourteen-day data retention period. Hence, I'd like an increase in the retention period or the database limit in SolarWinds NPM because you can't go back to the data for any investigation if seven days have passed. Another area for improvement in SolarWinds NPM is the database, which needs to be a bit more mature. I want a modified database in the next release of SolarWinds NPM. I'd also like more options added to groups because, currently, it's very limited."
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New Relic is ranked 6th in Network Monitoring Software with 152 reviews while SolarWinds NPM is ranked 4th in Network Monitoring Software with 147 reviews. New Relic is rated 8.6, while SolarWinds NPM is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of New Relic writes "Has a simple user interface and end-to-end monitoring and self-healing features". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SolarWinds NPM writes "High-level, comprehensive, and proactive monitoring in a user-friendly interface". New Relic is most compared with Dynatrace, Datadog, Elastic Observability, Grafana and Prometheus, whereas SolarWinds NPM is most compared with Zabbix, PRTG Network Monitor, ManageEngine OpManager, ThousandEyes and Entuity. See our New Relic vs. SolarWinds NPM report.
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