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SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor vs. Retrace (legacy)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor

    Score7.7 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) delivers application and server monitoring capabilities. SAM allows for self-service for easy setup, 1200+ monitoring templates, and customization options, as well as integrate with other SolarWinds products.N/A

    Retrace (legacy)

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AStackify Retrace provides application performance management across the entire stack. Coupled with aggregated logs from common logging frameworks, find every exception in code. Retrace code with lightweight code profiling and track and monitor all key application and server metrics. The vendor states that with coverage for full lifecycle development, the Stackify Retrace software offering is tailored to be inclusive for multiple role types, and presents everything your team needs to know about…

    $99

    up to 3 servers, 500,000 traces, and 1,000,000 logs

    Pricing
    SolarWinds Server & Application MonitorRetrace (legacy)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Essentials
    $99
    up to 3 servers, 500,000 traces, and 1,000,000 logs
    Standard
    249+
    2,000,000+ traces and 5,000,000+ logs
    Enterprise
    Custom
    Customer number of traces and logs
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SolarWinds Server & Application MonitorRetrace (legacy)
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsSAM pricing starts at $2,995.Pricing is based on trace and log usage.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SolarWinds Server & Application MonitorRetrace (legacy)
    Considered Both Products
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    It does not give you near the detail SCOM does. The CA products are much harder to configure, but they give you a more fluid look and much more reliable information. Out of the four, I would rate SAM at the bottom.
    Incentivized
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    37 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    35 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    36 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    30 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    91%
    Implementation went as expected
    32 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    SolarWinds Server & Application MonitorRetrace (legacy)
    Application Performance Management
    Comparison of Application Performance Management features of SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor and Retrace (legacy)
    Feature
    SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    7.1
    281 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Retrace (legacy)
    6.4
    1 Ratings
    20% below category average
    Application monitoring7.0271 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Database monitoring7.6235 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Threshold alerts7.5276 Ratings00 Ratings
    Predictive capabilities6.6220 Ratings00 Ratings
    Application performance management console7.4244 Ratings00 Ratings
    Collaboration tools6.6152 Ratings00 Ratings
    Out-of-the box templates to monitor applications7.0261 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Application dependency mapping and thresholding6.0221 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Virtualization monitoring7.6239 Ratings00 Ratings
    Server availability and performance monitoring7.6274 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Server usage monitoring and capacity forecasting7.4255 Ratings00 Ratings
    IT Asset Discovery6.3203 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    SolarWinds Server & Application MonitorRetrace (legacy)
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    SolarWinds AppOptics
    Score7.6 out of 10
    SolarWinds AppOptics
    Score7.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Splunk AppDynamics
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Splunk AppDynamics
    Score8.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SolarWinds Server & Application MonitorRetrace (legacy)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.8
    (282 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.9
    (10 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.8
    (33 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Availability
    9.9
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    6.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (21 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    4.5
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    1.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    4.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.9
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    4.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    4.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SolarWinds Server & Application MonitorRetrace (legacy)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    SolarWinds
    It is a well-suited software for monitoring and surveillance of your deployed nodes. The error-readability and filter options for filtering out logs and errors could be improved. But overall, it has a good UI design, is user-friendly, and is very easy to learn and access for new users.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    If I need to change a logo design on the invoice, the new logo is slightly larger or smaller so the type below the logo is in a different area than before. In this case, you would need to load the new version of the document into APM Plus and redo the mapping of the field areas to properly grab the information needed to process the document. Without doing this, the document could fail or go to the wrong archive based on the fields.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    SolarWinds
    • Monitor Azure Cloud Severs- We use SolarWinds SAM to monitor Active Directory and DNS on Several DCs published on Azure Cloud.
    • Monitor Hyper V and VMware - SolarWinds SAM monitors applications on both Hyper V and VMware, while also monitoring the physical host machines.
    • It also helps us monitor Warranty expiration for physical servers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Integration of performance management with log management so you get the parameters sent
    • In-line log and error data in trace
    • Integration of error and log data, so in one click you can see all the logs recorded when an error was thrown
    • Very reasonably priced
    Read full review
    Cons
    SolarWinds
    • Custom application monitors can be a little tricky to configure.
    • Logic in custom alerts can be a little hard to follow and figure out.
    • Inability to monitor certificates on custom applications or SQL Server.
    • Can be a little slow at times with on-prem SQL server.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • To set up the fields that APM Plus monitors, you need to map each field area on each document.
    • APM Plus could use a way to link the documents back into the finance or business software so you can find the document under the PO, Sales Order, Invoice, etc.
    • APM Plus setup is only for the professionals. There are many areas that need tweaking on setup, having a better default setup would lessen the learning curve to set it up for use.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    SolarWinds
    We are heavily invested in Solarwinds products for a reason. They are generally easy to setup and run with, requiring only some interfacing with support or help articles on rare occasions. They do what we bought them to do and we can't ask for more.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is quite easy to use and super versatile. It allows you to do just about anything you can through premade templates or through scripting. You can use an agent on the servers if you want to, or you can monitor through WMI or SNMP credentials. You can customize thresholds for alerting quickly, and you can configure alerts to be as complex or as simple as you want.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Reliability and Availability
    SolarWinds
    The tool works and monitors items 24x7, it only requires maintenance a little more frequently due to security fixes in the Windows operating system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    SolarWinds
    The graphical interface and the performance of the database leave a little to be desired, they could be better explored.Some functionality and screens do not work well depending on the browser used. The integrations never had any problems or caused crashes in other systems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    SolarWinds
    I think there was only a couple times I had to open a support case for SAM and one time they got multiple engineers on the phone to get a better idea what I was trying to monitor and was able to point me in the best direction to monitor that system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    SolarWinds
    It was sufficient to read their documentation and watch videos.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    SolarWinds
    Make sure SNMP and WMI are configured ahead of time
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    SolarWinds
    Nagios requires far more manual work to configure than SolarWinds does, though that also encourages customization and perfect-fit solutions. Nagios also requires far, far fewer resources to run than SolarWinds: SolarWinds wants great gobs of memory and disk, while Nagios is refreshingly humble. Nagios starts working from the first minute, too, whereas SolarWinds needs lots of set-up time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    It is a very impressive tool which doesn't overwhelm you with unnecessary data. They have combination of tools that haven't seen by any other company which makes it a very powerful tool
    Read full review
    Scalability
    SolarWinds
    It is hard to find the recommended SQL setup and convince others that is the way you should configure the server when you set it up
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    SolarWinds
    • Ability to sunset multiple legacy monitoring platforms.
    • A single pane of glass across global locations (Enterprise Operations Console) simplifies monitoring for junior staff.
    • A single toolset allows staff from across the global environment to share knowledge and quickly set up/modify monitoring.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • APM Plus has freed up users from having to manually attach documents to each place they are sending it. APM Plus will do it automatically.
    • APM Plus provides a searchable archive to re-visit sent documents with customers and vendors. Having to reprint a document you risk the potential that something has changed since it was last printed.
    • APM Plus does need IT staff for adjustments and to review sending problems. Not for an average user.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Screenshots

    Screenshot of Multi-vendor application performance monitoringScreenshot of Multi-vendor server monitoringScreenshot of Application dependency mapping with AppStack™ dashboardScreenshot of Microsoft Exchange performance monitoring with AppInsight™ templateScreenshot of Microsoft IIS performance monitoring with AppInsight™ templateScreenshot of Server hardware health monitoring

    Retrace (legacy) Screenshots

    Screenshot of Detailed stack trace with inline error and logsScreenshot of Web Apps Dashboard:
The Apps Page gives you a high-level overview of all applications found and monitored across all servers in each environment. Click on any app to take you to the App Dashboard to view more information for a particular app.Screenshot of Apps Dashboard:
The App Dashboard is a powerful monitoring and troubleshooting perspective that gives you a view of application health across one or more environments.Screenshot of Performance (APM+) Dashboard:
The Performance section will give you a report of how well the application is performing overall, as perceived by your users.  A graph will allow you to view all requests by Satisfaction by viewing "Fast", "Sluggish", "Too Slow", or "Failed" types of requests.  Another report includes graphs of HTTP Error%, Satisfaction Score%, and Page Load Time.  Lastly, you will have the ability to sort each page request of your App by different categories: Satisfaction, Slowest page, Failed pages, pages hit, and total load time.  By clicking on an individual page a Performance Details page with further information about that specific page's health, performance, and errors will be displayed.Screenshot of Performance Traces:
One of the ways we strive to deliver relevant insights is to only collect traces around interesting requests. Some examples of these request types that are interesting would be faster than normal, slower than normal, new web requests, requests introducing new SQL, requests introducing new exceptions, or abnormal satisfaction scores. Under performing requests will be profiled more often than fast requests. As long as the app is getting steady traffic Retrace should be saving a trace every 5 to 15 minutes.Screenshot of Errors Dashboard:
From the Errors Dashboard, you can get an overview of all the exceptions of all your applications across different environments. It gives you a central location to view details about your errors.