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SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) vs. Zoom Workplace

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is network diagnostics and troubleshooting technology, from Austin-based SolarWinds.N/A

    Zoom Workplace

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AZoom Workplace, Zoom’s open collaboration platform with an AI Companion, empowers teams to be more productive, and strengthen customer relationships throughout the customer lifecycle with Zoom’s Business Services for sales, marketing, and customer experience teams, including Zoom Contact Center.

    $16.99

    per month per user

    Pricing
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Zoom Workplace
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Add-On Zoom Translated Captions
    $5
    per month per license
    Pro
    $16.99
    per month per user
    Business
    $21.99
    per month per user
    Add-On - Conference Room Connector
    $499
    per year
    Basic
    Free
    Enterprise
    Custom
    Add-On - Zoom Whiteboard
    starting at $2.49
    per month per user
    Add-On - Large Meetings
    starting at $600
    per year
    Add-On - Cloud Storage
    starting at $120
    per year
    Add-On Audio Conferencing
    starting at $1200
    per year
    Add-On Zoom Phone Power Pack
    Starting at $300
    per year per user
    Add-On - Quality of Service Subscription
    Contact Sales
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Zoom Workplace
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Discount available for annual billing.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Zoom Workplace
    Considered Both Products
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    Zoom
    Chose Zoom Workplace
    We have found that Zoom works far better than the other tool that we have used.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    92%
    Would buy again
    34 Answers
    92%
    Would buy again
    416 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    89%
    Delivers good value for the price
    31 Answers
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    389 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    35 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    441 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    31 Answers
    92%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    290 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    32 Answers
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    330 Answers
    Features
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Zoom Workplace
    Performance & Compatibility of Online Events Software
    Comparison of Performance & Compatibility of Online Events Software features of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) and Zoom Workplace
    Feature
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Zoom Workplace
    8.5
    1006 Ratings
    1% above category average
    High quality audio00 Ratings8.9998 Ratings
    High quality video00 Ratings8.9998 Ratings
    Screen Sharing
    Comparison of Screen Sharing features of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) and Zoom Workplace
    Feature
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Zoom Workplace
    8.7
    1006 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Desktop sharing00 Ratings9.31005 Ratings
    Online Meetings / Events
    Comparison of Online Meetings / Events features of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) and Zoom Workplace
    Feature
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Zoom Workplace
    8.7
    1012 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Calendar integration00 Ratings9.0923 Ratings
    Meeting initiation00 Ratings9.1986 Ratings
    Record meetings / events00 Ratings9.2961 Ratings
    Online Events Collaboration
    Comparison of Online Events Collaboration features of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) and Zoom Workplace
    Feature
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Zoom Workplace
    8.5
    874 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Live chat00 Ratings9.1856 Ratings
    Online Events Security
    Comparison of Online Events Security features of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) and Zoom Workplace
    Feature
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Zoom Workplace
    8.9
    864 Ratings
    11% above category average
    User authentication00 Ratings8.9755 Ratings
    Participant roles & permissions00 Ratings8.7829 Ratings
    Cloud PBX
    Comparison of Cloud PBX features of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) and Zoom Workplace
    Feature
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Zoom Workplace
    8.1
    236 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Hosted PBX00 Ratings8.3112 Ratings
    Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)00 Ratings7.8141 Ratings
    Directory of employee names00 Ratings8.3218 Ratings
    Call Management
    Comparison of Call Management features of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) and Zoom Workplace
    Feature
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Zoom Workplace
    8.2
    264 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Answering rules00 Ratings8.5192 Ratings
    Call recording00 Ratings8.7240 Ratings
    Call park00 Ratings7.8147 Ratings
    Call screening00 Ratings8.0165 Ratings
    Message alerts00 Ratings8.2210 Ratings
    Business SMS/External Messaging00 Ratings7.9135 Ratings
    Voicemail Transcription00 Ratings7.9183 Ratings
    Mobile apps
    Comparison of Mobile apps features of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) and Zoom Workplace
    Feature
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Zoom Workplace
    8.8
    297 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Mobile app for iOS00 Ratings8.8263 Ratings
    Mobile app for Android00 Ratings8.9181 Ratings
    Unified Communications Platform and Collaboration
    Comparison of Unified Communications Platform and Collaboration features of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) and Zoom Workplace
    Feature
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Zoom Workplace
    8.7
    249 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Centralized communications management00 Ratings8.9199 Ratings
    Team messaging00 Ratings8.9214 Ratings
    Team document sharing00 Ratings8.6193 Ratings
    Call and meeting analytics00 Ratings8.5202 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Zoom Workplace
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Broadvoice | GoContact
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    Webex Calling
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Webex Calling
    Score8.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Zoom Workplace
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (142 ratings)
    8.8
    (1070 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.1
    (6 ratings)
    9.4
    (27 ratings)
    Usability
    7.0
    (9 ratings)
    9.5
    (46 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.7
    (9 ratings)
    6.4
    (46 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    6.4
    (11 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (13 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.8
    (3 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.2
    (8 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Zoom Workplace
    Likelihood to Recommend
    SolarWinds
    Network Configuration Manager is well suited for backing up configurations of all your devices. It also has a great comparison tool for seeing only the differences in config. Another great feature is it's ability to push a script to any number of devices. This is very handy for pushing changes to one, 10 or multiple devices. There are also some great reports that you can run against the devices in inventory
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    In most cases, and I mean almost all, Zoom is vastly superior to Teams in terms of functionality and ease of use. Case in point: I recently tried to join a Teams meeting in the web browser, and it took me multiple attempts to access it. This NEVER happens with a Zoom link.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    SolarWinds
    • Integrates with Network Performance Management for Alerting and Reporting.
    • NetPath and detects issues due to Configuration Change.
    • Keeps a record of which user made the change.
    • Which devices are not being backed up, devices where backups are failing, dashboard and alerting available.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    • Audio quality of phone calls is spot on. Calls are clear and crisp.
    • Video quality of video meetings are clear and there aren't any pixelization artifacts that some systems can have.
    • Having AI summaries have been life changing for us. We no longer have to concentrate on note taking, like we did in the past. The summaries are accurate and enable us to put our efforts in the meeting or conversation. Plus, we can save them into our practice management system as required.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    SolarWinds
    • For our use case, it does everything great and some of the features we underutilize but I would like to be able to set a configuration baseline when initially adding a node instead of after the configuration is pulled but it's not a particularly big deal to let it pull the configuration then set it as the baseline.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    • Love notes - allow insertion of table or grid
    • Allow admin to turn off DND
    • Allow a way to group individual people chats - not channels just individual peeps into groups for ease of finding - like how you can group shared calendars into sections in Outlook
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    SolarWinds
    Medium complexity to set up in the beginning if using any non-standard devices or configurations, else fairly easy (e.g. Cisco Nexus or IOS-based devices). Reports are fairly straightforward to set up. Updates to the platform are fairly straightforward and don't take a major effort. Easy to add or remove devices.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    We're sticking with Zoom for the foreseeable future--given its compelling feature set, ease of use, and advanced technology, there's just no other competition to be excited about. Plus it's a Gartner-recognized industry leader, so it's a rather easy choice.
    Read full review
    Usability
    SolarWinds
    The user interface is lacking. It is difficult to navigate at times and things can be done multiple ways. Quite often I am confused by how their notification structure works. It is not very intuitive. They do offer a free Academy. They also offer a community of other technical folks. I have enjoyed both.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    Zoom is made for the non tech office. It has features that can be made to do what you need to run things on a day to day basis. Immediately we we able to get meetings going with remote employees. The ability to be able to add smartphone connected people was a big plus. Zoom met our needs at the time.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Zoom
    There have been less than a handful of outages during our two years with Zoom, and whenever there was one, an email informing us of the outage went out immediately, and they had the issue resolved shortly thereafter.
    Read full review
    Performance
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Zoom
    Zoom has among the best performance of any video conference platform, as I've mentioned several times. Besides that, their Chat platform works great, and their back end always runs smooth. It's unfortunate that reporting can now only be done by one month at a time, but nonetheless, it only takes a second to run any kind of Zoom report, whether it's an attendee report, Poll results, a user report, a list of meetings from the past month, etc.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    SolarWinds
    To be fair, I have not had to involve Support in a number of years, but when I did, I was greeted with enthusiastic engineers who wanted to understand and solve the issue. It was a fairly complex scenario and I have discovered in my most recent implementation that engineering included that option as a standard now.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    Because I got a response right away, and was assigned one specific individual to work with me from the beginning to the resolution. I had an actual email address and direct contact with this person without having to start over and over every time I contacted Zoom - this singular individual remained attentive and was well informed on the subject matter and quite able to resolve my needs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    SolarWinds
    Solarwinds has actually produced new training since I last used it that is available on their site at any time. Their previous training was more than enough to get us started but now there is significantly more content. Since I'm comfortable with the Orion platform and the products we use I haven't checked the new training out yet but we have new staff go through portions of that training and they always come away with an understanding of the platform and ready to use it
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    SolarWinds
    it was a fairly easy implementation and everything was pretty straightforward. only challenge we had was getting all the snmp communities updated on the networking equipment
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    If you receive any pushback from higher ups, point to any of the various positive reviews like this one. Or show Zoom's excellent Gartner report, or articles describing Zoom's partnership with Sequoia capital. It's not difficult to show how Zoom is a trustworthy industry leader with best-in-class technology.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    SolarWinds
    At the time SolarWinds was the biggest player in the space and their whole portfolio was very comprehensive. As time progressed and newer technologies came about (i.e. SDWAN) their products couldn't keep up with the consumer demands and changing market. Security became such a big focus that once Solarwinds got hacked we had to remove all their products from our environment
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    Zoom Workplace is typically on the more expensive end against other options, but it's the industry leader for a reason. It has the most brand credibility by far, but that doesn't mean it's perfect. There are limitations when it comes to technical performance, customization and video/audio quality. I prefer Slack myself for communication apps, but Zoom Workplace is a good alternative.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Zoom
    The billing and price model is really fair for so many functions that they offer, our remote work requires each of the features that Zoom offers, so accepting payment for a tool like this is the least we can do. I like that billing arrives on time and that they offer opportunities and payment times.
    Read full review
    Scalability
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Zoom
    Because the Basic licenses are completely free, and because it's very easy to configure and install Zoom, and because anyone can join Zoom from a link without needing an account, scaling is a Breeze. There are absolutely no roadblocks. My company keeps adding more Zoom Pro license every week since it's so in demand. We were able to convert users from several different platforms onto Zoom with no trouble at all.
    Read full review
    Professional Services
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Zoom
    Zoom is perfect for our business. We use it to video chat with prospective clients. The name recognition alone gives us credibility and it is very easy to screen share and send content out.
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    SolarWinds
    • Saves 100s of hours a year in man hours over manual configuration.
    • Saved easily 50k in lost revenue when a switch rebooted with months old unsaved configuration. NCM let us quickly restore a snapshot of the running config from the previous day.
    • Saves us several man hours per week of config auditing by reducing all changes to a summary email.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    • We have not lost much productivity in our teamwork during the pandemic because of the ability to have Zoom video calls and keep everyone in touch. This is definitely a positive.
    • We are able to have more people participate in coaching sessions (described earlier) because we don't have room space limitations. This is a big positive.
    • Being able to start a meeting instantly is great when we are doing support and/or training with a client over the phone and need to be able to share a visible
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) Screenshots

    Screenshot of Network Automation -  manage rapid change across complex and multi-vendor networks, reduce time needed to complete repetitive tasks, and maintain standards and service levels for uninterrupted ITScreenshot of Config Backup - rest easy knowing you can locate the most current configuration and quickly apply it to a replacement spare, or to roll back a blown configuration.Screenshot of Vulnerability Scanning - Take the hassle out of vulnerability scanning using NCM's integration with the National Vulnerability Database and access to the most current CVE’s to identify vulnerabilities in your Cisco devices.Screenshot of Inventory Management - Be able to know what devices are connected to your network, their hardware and software configurations, and when they approach end-of-service and end-of-life, with NCM device configuration management tool.Screenshot of User Management - Use NCM's integrated console to lock down devices from unauthorized access, delegate who can view device details and make configuration changes, and determine when network changes can occur.Screenshot of Baselines and Diffs - IT professionals can get a more comprehensive view by leveraging baselines across multiple nodes. Diff view in NCM’s network configuration management tool is designed to highlight only those lines that changed.

    Zoom Workplace Screenshots

    Screenshot of an example collaboration feature. These are used to:
Transcribe, summarize, and capture action items with AI Companion from your in-person meetings.
Improve visibility and alignment by sharing emails to chats
Elevate a chat to a meeting or phone call to get to resolution faster. 
Continue meeting conversations and easily access shared information in Team Chat.Screenshot of an example of Zoom's productivity features. These features are used to:
Improve productivity across teams, locations, and time zones.
Organize project deliverables and assets in a centralized, collaborative doc.
Collaborate and map out projects visually on a whiteboard.
Jumpstart brainstorming sessions using AI and templates.
Gather valuable team input for well-informed decision-making with surveys and polls.
Stay on top of action items surfaced from across Zoom Workplace.Screenshot of some additional collaboration features. These are used to:
Optimize office experiences and in-person time.
Make sure remote participants feel connected with what is going on in the room.
Collaborate across remote and in-person teams on a virtual whiteboard.
Easily know and identify who is in the room and who is speaking in a Zoom Room with smart name tags and smart speaker tags.Screenshot of an example of Zoom's AI companion. This feature is used to streamline communications, improve productivity, increase employee engagement, and optimize flexible work.Screenshot of additional AI Companion features. The tools is also used to:
Launch internal campaigns.
Deliver visually rich updates with live streams, billboards, and videos.
Ensure critical comms are never missed with read receipts.
Send updates to deskless workers with Workvivo TV and Chat.