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SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN) vs. VMware Workstation Pro

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)

    Score10 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds® Virtualization Manager (VMAN) is a tool for monitoring, performance management, capacity planning and optimization for on-premises or cloud-based virtual environments. It also integrates with other SolarWinds products.N/A

    VMware Workstation Pro

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AVMware Workstation Pro is virtualization software which allows running multiple x86-based operating systems on one PC. Users can run Windows, Linux and BSD virtual machines on a Windows or Linux desktop.N/A
    Pricing
    SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)VMware Workstation Pro
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)VMware Workstation Pro
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)VMware Workstation Pro
    Considered Both Products
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    VMware by Broadcom
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    14 Answers
    95%
    Would buy again
    18 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    14 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    19 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    93%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    18 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    12 Answers
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    13 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    19 Answers
    Features
    SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)VMware Workstation Pro
    Server Virtualization
    Comparison of Server Virtualization features of SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN) and VMware Workstation Pro
    Feature
    SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)
    -
    Ratings
    VMware Workstation Pro
    7.7
    29 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Virtual machine automated provisioning00 Ratings9.222 Ratings
    Management console00 Ratings6.624 Ratings
    Live virtual machine backup00 Ratings7.322 Ratings
    Live virtual machine migration00 Ratings6.021 Ratings
    Hypervisor-level security00 Ratings9.521 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)VMware Workstation Pro
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    Score9.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter
    Score7.6 out of 10
    VMware vSOM (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter
    Score7.6 out of 10
    IBM PowerVM
    Score9.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)VMware Workstation Pro
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (66 ratings)
    7.7
    (30 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.6
    (7 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Availability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.8
    (6 ratings)
    7.7
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)VMware Workstation Pro
    Likelihood to Recommend
    SolarWinds
    On the whole, Solarwinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN) is an excellent product which gives us a single point to monitor our virtual environment. After our initial trial I was sold on the product and what it had to offer. Immediately after implementing VMAN, we were able to spot virtual machines with old snapshots which were never deleted and no longer needed, we could spot virtual machines which either had over allocated resources or under allocated resources meaning we could make changes and fine tune them for best performance. We could also monitor virtual machine latency, IOPS, and show us where our bottlenecks were.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VMware by Broadcom
    I would not recommend using a VM as a complete replacement for your everyday driver, but I would recommend
    it for testing. One way that I use Workstation Pro is with testing GPO's. I can
    make a change to a user or computer GPO, take a snapshot, reboot the computer
    to pull the GPO, see if it worked. If it didn't, I revert to the last snapshot before the GPO was pulled, make some changes to the GPO again, and test on the test VM. The same style
    of testing can be used with creating and changing scripts for computer changes.
    We have a whole computer setup script that installs software and changes a ton
    of settings. On a VM you can test over and over to make sure the script runs
    how you want it to and revert if you didn't like the script outcome. Especially
    handy with software installs, so you don't have to wait for a program to
    uninstall and then edit the script and run the script again. Using snapshots save me so much time in testing!
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    SolarWinds
    • I created custom dashboards, to view the different elements of the virtual environment. For example, you can view the number of online VMs and those off, or disconnected. You can also choose to see the status of every virtual cluster, the storage disk usage on every VM, the RAM usage, CPU usage.
    • I used this application to see the growth of virtual memory in each cluster and accordingly do forecasting for future growth. A capacity planner included in this application would help in doing accurate estimations and setting a future upgrade budget.
    • Another powerful tool was the customized reports, where i could generate reports on any element of the VM or cluster. Reports can be exported to Excel or PDF and are very useful for sharing information with colleagues and management.
    • Alerts can be customized. For example, you can set a rule to get an email alert if any virtual server RAM usage exceeds 85% and send a text message if RAM usage exceeds 90% for more than 10 minutes.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    • It provides a great remote access tool for accessing and managing servers in virtual environment. With the security risks surround remote desktop this provides a good alternative to do the same functions.
    • The app itself is very lightweight and easy to install/maintain.
    • Sandbox testing can be a time consuming thing to setup and do. Workstation makes this easy to create, use, and put away. This make you more willing to put new things in the sandbox and test them before production usage.
    • The cost of workstation is very affordable for the functionality that you get and you can try it for free before you buy it.
    • We use it to run apps that can be difficult to setup or conflict with other apps. We just spin this app VM up run it, and then shut it back down. The startup and shutdown is very quick.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    SolarWinds
    • We did have issues during the setup, with successfully connecting to some of our hosts and vCenters and we found support were just sending us back to articles we had already read, it was also taking long periods before getting a response. The issue is still ongoing, in fact.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    • At the moment, it's incompatible with Microsoft's HyperVM, which is used in Docker and the Linux Subsystem on Windows 2 (WSL 2).
    • VMware shared files sometimes stop working and need to be reset.
    • 3D support is limited to Windows and only certain scenarios.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    SolarWinds
    Currently, there is no other tool that gives us what we need to monitor a geographically disperse environment with multiple non-related instances of VM clusters. In addition, the level of reporting, historical data trending, and alerting that VMAN provides is essential for our business process. Lastly, the effort to customize and set up any monitoring system is not trivial. This makes switching to any other product very difficult without being able to clearly demonstrate a ROI.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    It's a solid product, and if they make it compatible with HyperVM (WSL, Docker, etc.) it would be great
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds VMAN is easy to use for everyone. When I say everyone which literally means anyone e.g. Virtualization Environment SME, Consultant, Support Team, Management Officers etc. Anyone who have worked on IT technologies could easily deploy SolarWinds by reading videos, Thwack posts or Virtual Classrooms (Custom Success Centers) - this makes this application easy to operation and for maintenance support is always there.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    It is well documented since it is a long actor in the virtualization scene. Easy to use for most user cases. Pretty much not maintenance on the software besides the occasional software updates and/or compatibility issues from time to time.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    SolarWinds
    We have yet to enconter any issues in terms of availability. We have a highly available SQL cluster running Orion.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    SolarWinds
    We find page load times to be quite slow at times. Flipping between tabs can also be very slow.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds gives good support. I have never had a time when i was working through a support case where I did not get the support I needed for the required issues to be resolved. I have always had resolutions from SolarWinds support. They are top notch. Issues once had are no more.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    I haven't had to call VMware Workstation support. The majority of the time, whenever I have a problem, I can perform an online search and find the answers I need. Online forums and users with similar situations are generally sufficient to answer any questions I have had, though, from previous experience at another company, their support is outstanding and responsive to circumstances. However, that is generally for a paid support contract and should be expected when you are paying for that support.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    SolarWinds
    Its really the best product on the market for someone looking to have total control over their VM environment. anyone interested should download a demo and try it, I know you will buy it after you do. It changing the way you have to manage on a daily basis
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    SolarWinds
    The operation began using Nagios XI, after a year of use, and based on the results obtained, we realized that what our client wanted was not fully met. Our client asked us to use WhatsUp, however, SolarWinds covered in a more efficient way what was required by our client (IT) and even more.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    VMware ESXi is more enterprise based whereas VMware Workstation offers capabilities at a lower cost and smaller scale. VMware Workstation Pro is also user friendly and easy to install. It can be utilized on a regular desktop system as the name implies. It helps with also demonstrations when needed to clients without having bulky hardware every time.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    SolarWinds
    Purchasing the correct license allows the platform to scale with your environment.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    SolarWinds
    • VMAN has been used for reports provided to executive-level meetings. These reports showed our growth patterns, allowing for easier decisions on purchasing additional hardware.
    • VMAN has provided a positive impact on allowing for near real-time monitoring of resources, able to pinpoint when services are using more memory than expected, not running at all, or other options as defined.
    • VMAN was purchased to help monitor our VMware platform, the added abilities for AWS allowed us to migrate clients from on-prem to cloud-based with the same views.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    • When updating multiple VM's, this is a much quicker option vs trying to either RDP to them or console using Vcenter
    • We are required to run a VM locally for certain tasks, and this has been the most effective way to use it
    • The ability to manage a VM without having to worry about the console freezing up helps with management
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN) Screenshots

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