LogicMonitor vs. N-able N-central

Well Suited to: - MSPs with multiple clients - Network segmentation where a single device can't communicate to everything and collection devices are needed in each environment Not well suited for: - Management functions that would need to change settings on a device - Self contained environments with no outside network access

Incentivized

N-Able is perfect for an MSP environment. It gives all the standard functionality an IT professional needs out of the box and can be configured to show almost anything required. For example, we have configured a dashboard to show when our backups need attention for each customer. This is achieved by running a small script on repeat via N-Central everyday/evening, and the result gives us information on the dashboard to help us identify exactly what is working and what needs looking into.

Incentivized

• LogicMonitor is very customizable. We can build whatever modules we need, because it uses standard protocols like HTTPS, SNMP and WMI to gather data and metrics.
• We like that LogicMonitor is an agentless solution for our use case. Not all customers will allow an agent-based approach to 3rd party tools.
• LogicMonitor has thousands of out of the box modules, which work on their own and also act as good baselines for the ones that we will end up customizing more. We are rarely starting at zero when we decide to do something new with LogicMonitor.
• LogicMonitor has great documentation, and support has been helpful in the instances where we've needed them.

Incentivized

• Remote tasks - entry-level techs can run basic tasks without physically touching a piece of equipment.
• Remote support - remote controlling user devices is easy and saves a lot of time with having to initiate a remote session.
• Management of devices, particularly patch management and anti-virus management - you can automatically approve and deploy patches and schedule automatic AV scans.

• Because of the rapid change in technology, maintaining DataSources to the most current level can be time-consuming for staff.
• The network discovery and mapping capabilities are not as robust when compared to other solutions
• While it can back-up configuration files on devices, it does not have the ability to push or modify configuration files back to devices.

Incentivized

• Customer support just points to online guides and I feel they aren't helpful.
• During the trial they turn on a lot of features. In my experience, if you play around with the features, they charge you for them. Keep this in mind if you move forward with N-Able - they will charge for "trialed" services.
• In my experience, some services that you're being charged for can't be disabled or monitored by you or your team. You only see them on the monthly invoice.
• In my opinion, the "Scripting Automation" doesn't provide value. You're either going to be writing your own batch or Powershell to make scripting work.
• In my opinion, monitoring software deployments is painful.
• The default monitoring template can't be duplicated, edited, or referenced. You'll find that the default monitors in an unusual way and will throw needless recurring alerts into your ticketing system. To avoid this, you need to create a template from scratch which takes many hours to set up.
• In my opinion, they're more concerned about a quick buck than customer service. "Buyer beware" company.

This product has met virtually all of our needs. It was easy to implement and has been simple to support. Customization has been intuitive with many options available. They keep adding features and expanding available options. The future of LogicMonitor looks even better than it is today which is very promising. The management and support teams at LogicMonitor are always helpful

Incentivized

Overall we have liked our solar winds experience, however, as our company has grown to support larger enterprises, this product does not have the functionality that our teams need in order to fully support them. The lack of granularity with backups and lack of ability to support nutanix environments is slowly drawing us into the use of other tools.

Incentivized

Set up is super easy. Just stand up a small Linux or Windows server to act as a collector. There are no agents to install on monitored devices and all you need is SNMP or WMI access. When creating dashboards, all you have to do is find the widget on the device you want to show up and choose the menu option to add it.

Incentivized

The user interface is fairly straight forward, with logic groupings for objects. I did not deploy this software, but am one of the daily administrators. Once you get the correct agent package (Which can be a challenge) the integration into AD is not bad. The UI could be more customized, but that may have been a design choice.

Incentivized

The sales team support we received was top notch. They worked hand in hand to make sure the product met all expectations. So far we have not really had to work with support that much; we have worked with setup team after purchase to deploy product fully. No issues so far and we are four weeks in.

Incentivized

Every time we have reached out to SolarWinds they are quick to respond, even offering support chat 24/7. Their support team is great and works with you to find solutions to issues. They have taken items we had issues with before and used those to create updates so that the issue is handled better in the future.

Incentivized

Add good training

Incentivized

The training is good but room to improve

Incentivized

We found the LogicMonitor documentation and online guides to be up to date and easy to follow. During our pre-sale proof of concept phase, we learned the basics of creating import CSV files and had the bulk of our devices added the first day. After the purchase, we used the professional services to get training on the entire system and help customizing everything to meet our needs. We also made use of the available certification online training courses for our power users to get them comfortable with the system.

Incentivized

Make sure if you your using a vm you follow the instructions for provisioning to the letter or it will be starting from square one

Incentivized

During the evaluation process we looked a number of other solutions, a detailed technically analysis was carried out to map functionlity, deployment and scalabilty across the solutions. The primary areas that LogicMonitor succeeded are around the simplicity of deployment, scalability and to a lesser extent cost. Of the alternative products, Datadog is a better solution if your focus is on APM. However it will be harder to manage in a scaling MSP environment.

Our version of SolarWinds was old and running on old hardware, but it was way easier to setup and do things with. It did not do everything N-able does such as patch management, or at least we didn't have a module to do so if one existed. However it definitely seemed easier to use and possibly more stable.

Pricing seems to be getting more and more aggressive, I worry that it's going to turn into ServiceNow or SAP and everything minor feature will be an extreme cost that prices out us and our customers

Incentivized

Haven't really used it but our initial onboarding PS was disappointing. Felt like we were being told what we needed to cover as opposed to what we wanted to cover. In addition, we were pushed into using the PS in tight time frames and we were not ready to do so.

Incentivized

• definitely adds a good amount of cost to any account which is not easy to sell to SMBs
• it does give a piece of mind knowing that everything is monitored and alerts will go out before users know something is not working

Incentivized

• We have lost hundreds of hours on the phone/emailing support with no resolution for any of our issues
• We had to move all of our services away which was very painful
• Staff satisfaction was low having to deal with this company