TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

AppNeta vs. PingPlotter vs. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    AppNeta

    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    AppNeta provides performance monitoring solutions for distributed, cloud-connected, digital enterprises. AppNeta’s SaaS-based solutions give IT teams application and network performance data, allowing them to constantly monitor user experience across any application, network, data center or cloud.N/A

    PingPlotter

    Score9 out of 10
    N/APingPlotter is a graphical traceroute and ping tool that visualizes network performance in a way that makes identifying the source of problems quicker and easier for everyone from online gamers and video streamers to VoIP admins and IT pros. Features for remote deployment, network monitoring, scripting, and a web interface are included along with several additional capabilities.

    $0

    per user

    SolarWinds NPM

    Score7.8 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds NPM is a monitoring and performance management platform. It provides performance troubleshooting support, auto network discovery, customizable thresholds, and can be rapidly deployed.

    $1,638

    per year

    Pricing
    AppNetaPingPlotterSolarWinds NPM
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    PingPlotter Free
    $0.00
    per user
    PingPlotter Free
    $0.00
    per user
    PingPlotter Standard
    $6.99
    per user per month
    PingPlotter Professional
    $29.00
    per user per month
    PingPlotter Standard
    $39.99
    per user
    PingPlotter Professional
    $349.00
    per user
    NPM
    $1,638
    per year
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    AppNetaPingPlotterSolarWinds NPM
    Free Trial
    NoYesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    AppNetaPingPlotterSolarWinds NPM
    Considered Multiple Products
    Broadcom
    No answer on this topic
    Pingman Tools
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor was chosen at Finastra before I got here however I have weighed the value of SolarWinds against competitors such as Netcool, ManageEngine OP manager, Nagios and NetApp and Splunk to mention a few. SolarWinds really shine when you …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    33 Answers
    91%
    Would buy again
    32 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    24 Answers
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    33 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    33 Answers
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    34 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    21 Answers
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    29 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    31 Answers
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    30 Answers
    Features
    AppNetaPingPlotterSolarWinds NPM
    Network Performance Monitoring
    Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of AppNeta and PingPlotter and SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
    Feature
    AppNeta
    -
    Ratings
    PingPlotter
    8.5
    34 Ratings
    7% above category average
    SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
    9.0
    232 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Automated network device discovery00 Ratings8.724 Ratings9.0211 Ratings
    Network monitoring00 Ratings9.434 Ratings10.0232 Ratings
    Baseline threshold calculation00 Ratings9.624 Ratings9.0202 Ratings
    Alerts00 Ratings6.919 Ratings9.0229 Ratings
    Customizable reports00 Ratings8.018 Ratings10.0213 Ratings
    Network capacity planning00 Ratings00 Ratings7.9188 Ratings
    Packet capture analysis00 Ratings00 Ratings7.2130 Ratings
    Network mapping00 Ratings00 Ratings10.0191 Ratings
    Wireless infrastructure monitoring00 Ratings00 Ratings8.0154 Ratings
    Hardware health monitoring00 Ratings00 Ratings10.0216 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    AppNetaPingPlotterSolarWinds NPM
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Auvik
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Auvik
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Catchpoint
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Paessler PRTG
    Score8.4 out of 10
    PingPlotter
    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Nexthink
    Score7.3 out of 10
    Nmap
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Nmap
    Score8.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    AppNetaPingPlotterSolarWinds NPM
    Likelihood to Recommend
    6.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.1
    (34 ratings)
    9.7
    (238 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.4
    (27 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.3
    (14 ratings)
    10.0
    (22 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (28 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    AppNetaPingPlotterSolarWinds NPM
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Broadcom
    AppNeta is awesome for getting site-to-site statistics or trying to find out why at 3 am every night, this server loses connectivity to another server in a different data center. But we have found the multiple bugs in the hardware hard to deal with when the devices are a 4-hour plane ride away and require someone to console into the device.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pingman Tools
    This tool is best suited to get a quick read on basic network access across multiple hops. It provides immediate, very valuable feedback. If you know your stuff, there are other tools that handle the rest you need: packet capture, port scans, etc. We are all looking for that multi-tool, but this is perfect for the basic need of knowing where in the network a problem might be.
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is excellent on node monitoring, for servers, switches, voice routers, etc. It also provides quick information on the dashboard, so you can take a look an in a few seconds determine is an entire site is down, if portions are down, and what may be causing the issue. We have experienced some difficulty when working with our wireless environment. It is less than natural when attempting to determine if a wireless access point is down itself, or if the switch feeding the access point is down, either port or switch. It does a very good job telling you if a switch is down, but troubleshooting the devices (specifically access points) it struggles.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Broadcom
    • AppNeta provides detailed application availability & uptime.
    • AppNeta provides great longitudinal data regarding how the applications perform including an overall grade or "AppDex."
    • AppNeta sends notifications of service downtime that aids in technical dispatch.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pingman Tools
    • Monitor traffic in network
    • Measure stops when contacting network locations such as websites
    • Measures the lag and latency it takes to contact network locations
    • Gives you both induvidual measurements as well as good oversight
    • identifies when network lag or disconnect occurs
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Out of the Monitoring of almost all Network Devices.
    • Build custom pollers to monitor which is not supported out of the box.
    • Further you can alert on these custom metrics and Out of the box metrics.
    • It provides you great dashboards, Reports features.
    • You can integrate it with any MoM layer tools either using its API or sending out traps.
    • Out of the box Integration with Service Now ITSM Tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Broadcom
    • Hardware has a lot of bugs.
    • Auto-updates cannot be turned off on the hardware, causing blips in monitoring.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pingman Tools
    • Being able to export data would have been helpful for a larger analysis.
    • It is a robust program and probably more than we needed for a small business; some options that were better aligned with our budget would have been good.
    • As a non-technical person in the networking space, I found the data helpful for communicating, but not always easy to understand.
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • The software upgrade process is a little hairy and has caused me trouble on occasion.
    • The server that it needs to run is a bit of a resource hog along with the SQL server.
    • Some additional features like the network map are a bit clunky compared to some other products that we use.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Pingman Tools
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    The entire IT staff relies on NPM in its daily operations. It would be impossible for us to maintain our level of service without it. If SolarWinds gets to proud of their product and begins to over charge for it, we would be forced to reconsider and use a different product. But as it stands it is worth the price to renew it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Pingman Tools
    I installed it and it just started working. I realized I could then tweak it to show what I needed but didn't have to spend a long time configuring it before use, editing YAML files etc. Maybe that's fine for a network professional, but I only need this software if something goes wrong, and then need it to work quickly out of the box.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is quite an extensive product, covering all our bases and requirements. There are a lot of customizable options and features which you can work with for their alerting which is really useful. I haven't found anything yet which I thought SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) could do, but it actually couldn't so overall it works nicely and does the job.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Pingman Tools
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Always available. Always is important to plan the software available during the machine/application setup.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Pingman Tools
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Pages load slow, especially the bettors map. Could be that my server is old.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Broadcom
    Timely support is one of AppNeta's strong suits. But the ability to develop permeant fixes for issues within there product is where they lack.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pingman Tools
    I have not had much contact with the PingPlotter support, only one time have I went to them and it was a positive experience. The questions I had were answered quickly and professionally. I have no issue with the experience I had with the Support team. This was from before and after the purchase of the product.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    In all of the times that we called support, someone at SolarWinds had the answer for us in a timely manner. Through thwack and other internet searching, we have been able to resolve all of our issues that arose to our satisfaction. The support staff have always been knowledgeable of their products or had a fellow support staff member to rely on to get the needed answers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Pingman Tools
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    The training is good but during the implementation, you can get situations not learned during the training. The trainer was very open to hearing the questions about use cases and always sharing his experience. I really recommend having official training to take advantage of all features that the NPM can bring.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Pingman Tools
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Make sure your inventory is accurate. Stand up some virtual machines for testing prior to installation. Make sure your database and its credentials are setup. Think about things you want to monitor that may not be obvious - UPS units, Door hardware, PBX systems, Fabric Channel switches, firewalls, routers, switches. Try to setup SNMP on these devices and have an IP that you will assign to the new server. If you do that it will go well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Broadcom
    We currently use Nagios/GroundWork and Cacti to perform network monitoring. AppNeta's UI is far superior.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pingman Tools
    I used Ping.app and UptimeLog.app on the Mac. These both provided different aspects. These two had a menubar to show me green or red for multiple connections. UptimeLog showed me very clearly when my connectivity was on or off and for exactly how long
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    We use NPM along with PRTG Network Monitor. While NPM is great at monitoring network devices and network links and some aspects of the servers, PRTG provides more in-depth monitoring for Server systems, applications and application ports such as Web Ports etc. PRTG also provides a more comprehensive Root cause analysis.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Pingman Tools
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    From the direction and information I have been given it is very flexible and scalelable
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Broadcom
    • A reduction in network outages and length of network outages.
    • More detailed post outage investigation available.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pingman Tools
    • Great ROI, troubleshooting time has been reduced by 90%
    • Network Discoveries used to take 2 to 3 hours and were inconsistent - now it is a matter of minutes
    • lacks integration into our MSP toolkit, and we now use it as a stand alone product
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • SolarWinds allows us to proactively address hardware issues before they impact the business. We recently had a server that was experiencing issues sporadically and we were able to use the data from SolarWinds to track down and correct the issue before it tanked the server.
    • SolarWinds gives our IT department some piece of mind knowing that they'll be alerted of any issues real time.
    • We can use SolarWinds data to justify needed to replace or upgrade certain equipment that is key to our core business.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    AppNeta Screenshots

    Screenshot of a visualization for monitoring what apps are in use on a network.Screenshot of AppNeta's in-depth diagnostics, used by IT Ops to identify the root cause of network and app performance issues.Screenshot of the enhanced Selenium scripting that can be used for web synthetic monitoring to benchmark and alert on performance for business-critical SaaS apps.Screenshot of monitoring of the actual application path with multi-protocol route determination for TCP, UDP and ICMP. Key network metrics can be tracked, like Latency, Loss, Capacity and Jitter continuously with AppNeta.Screenshot of how AppNeta correlates poor performance per host and--with Active Directory--with users.Screenshot of monitoring the usage of a network for recreational apps to see when they're stealing bandwidth from your business critical apps. Users can segment by location or app to drill into more details across the entire AppNeta Performance Manager dataset.

    PingPlotter Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot

    SolarWinds NPM Screenshots

    Screenshot of Network monitoring software used to reduce network outages and detect, diagnose, and resolve multi-vendor network performance issues.Screenshot of See relationships for routers, switches, interfaces, volumes, and groups, updated automatically without user intervention to maintain the network, not network maps.Screenshot of Reduce visibility gaps into critical network switches, firewalls, and load balancers with Network Insight for Cisco Nexus, Cisco ASA, and F5 BIG-IP.Screenshot of Reduce the flood of unnecessary network alerts. Create alerts based on simple or complex nested trigger conditions, defined parent/child dependencies, and network topology.Screenshot of Identify dead zones and improve wireless coverage. With its network monitoring tool, users can access out-of-the-box wireless reports, including wireless availability and rogue access points.Screenshot of Configure alerts by calculating dynamic baseline threshold data with network performance monitoring software.