Skip to main content
TrustRadius
SolarWinds NPM

SolarWinds NPM

Overview

What is SolarWinds NPM?

SolarWinds NPM is a monitoring and performance management platform. It provides performance troubleshooting support, auto network discovery, customizable thresholds, and can be rapidly deployed.

Read more

Learn from top reviewers

A highly recommended network management tool.

Rating: 10 out of 10
May 15, 2025
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
We use SolarWinds NPM to monitor our whole borough (200+ sites). We use it on a daily basis to manage, monitor, and audit our entire network infrastructure. It keeps us one st...
Continue reading
Verified user
Engineer
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)6 years of experience

Easy, Big and Mostly Reliable Network Performance Monitoring for Large Organizations

Rating: 9 out of 10
March 4, 2025
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
Our company uses SolarWinds NPM to monitor the health of our network and servers. We have thousands of devices and it's very helpful to know which are functioning properly in ...
Continue reading
Verified user
Technician
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)5 years of experience

NPM is a great tool for your networking team!

Rating: 10 out of 10
March 21, 2023
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
We choose to use SolarWinds because the legacy Monitor tool was not cover some areas/alerts/vendors. Also, we were looking for a tool able to identify and act in some alerts. ...
Continue reading
Fabio Silva
Engineer - Information Technology
Senior Network Engineer
Fexco
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)6 years of experience

SolarWinds NPM brings all your Network Tools into a single Toolbox

Rating: 8 out of 10
September 8, 2022
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
We use SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) to monitor the availability and performance of our networks across 15 geographically dispersed sites. This includes network...
Continue reading
Jesse Bridgelal
Manager - Information Technology
Network Architect
Ministry of Health
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)4 years of experience

If you're looking for advanced monitoring, NPM has it - but it falls short

Rating: 6 out of 10
April 14, 2022
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
We essentially use it to monitor our network devices - switches, routers, firewalls, ETC. We have our uplink interfaces monitored as well so that we can see usage and report o...
Continue reading
Curt Sminkey
Engineer - Information Technology
Network Engineer
Widener University
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)7 years of experience
Log in with LinkedIn to see content from your network
Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing

NPM

$1,638

On Premise
per year

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee optional
For the latest information on pricing, visithttp://www.solarwinds.com/products/pric…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Return to navigation

Product Demos

Why I Recommend SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)

YouTube
Return to navigation

Features

Network Performance Monitoring

A network performance monitoring system monitors the entire network for performance problems and collects performance data such as network traffic analysis performance bottlenecks, etc.

8.2
Avg 8.1
Return to navigation

Product Details

What is SolarWinds NPM?

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) delivers comprehensive network fault monitoring and performance management that scales and expands with a company's network monitoring needs. Users can collect and view availability, real-time and historical statistics from routers, switches, firewalls, servers, and any other SNMP-, ICMP-, or WMI-enabled devices directly from a web browser.

The vendor states that SolarWinds users can get a full NPM installation up and running the same day they download, and that implementation does not require a team of consultants. NPM provides visibility into the health of network devices and servers on the network, ensuring that users have needed real-time information to keep their network running at peak performance.

Network Performance Monitor helps IT Pros:

  • Detect, diagnose, and resolve network performance issues and avoid downtime
  • Respond to multiple condition checks, correlated events, and device dependencies
  • Automatically calculate capacity exhaustion dates using customizable thresholds based on peak and average usage
  • Streamline network troubleshooting with a Web interface
  • View paths to critical business services hop-by-hop, even into the cloud, with the NetPath™ feature
  • Get deeper visibility into complex network devices with Network Insight™ features for Cisco ASA firewalls, Cisco Nexus switches, and F5 BIG-IP load balancers

SolarWinds NPM Features

Network Performance Monitoring Features

  • Supported: Automated network device discovery
  • Supported: Network monitoring
  • Supported: Baseline threshold calculation
  • Supported: Alerts
  • Supported: Network capacity planning
  • Supported: Packet capture analysis
  • Supported: Network mapping
  • Supported: Customizable reports
  • Supported: Wireless infrastructure monitoring
  • Supported: Hardware health monitoring

Additional Features

  • Supported: Seamless conversion upgrade to AIOps-powered Hybrid Cloud Observability
  • Supported: Multi-vendor device support for any router, switch, firewall, VPN concentrator, wireless access point and other devices that support standard protocols
  • Supported: Intelligent alerts for correlated events, sustained conditions, and complex combinations of device states
  • Supported: Insight on hardware health by monitoring, alerting, and reporting on the state of key device sensors
  • Supported: NetPath for hop-by-hop monitoring of critical business services, on-premises or into the cloud
  • Supported: Network Insight for Cisco Nexus switches, F5 BIG-IP load balancers, Cisco ASA firewalls

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.

SolarWinds NPM Video

Network Performance Monitor overview

SolarWinds NPM Integrations

SolarWinds NPM Competitors

SolarWinds NPM Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Windows® Server 2016; SQL Server 2016 SQL Server 2016 SP1 SQL Server 2017 (including installations on Linux)
Mobile ApplicationNo

SolarWinds NPM Downloadables

Frequently Asked Questions

SolarWinds NPM is a monitoring and performance management platform. It provides performance troubleshooting support, auto network discovery, customizable thresholds, and can be rapidly deployed.

LogicMonitor, OpenText Network Node Manager i (NNMi), and Broadcom DX Unified Infrastructure Management are common alternatives for SolarWinds NPM.

Reviewers rate Alerts and Hardware health monitoring highest, with a score of 9.4.

The most common users of SolarWinds NPM are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews From Top Reviewers

View all reviews
(1-5 of 126)

SolarWinds: Not just a piece of dust in the wind for monitoring

Rating: 7 out of 10
Incentivized
April 27, 2019
JT
JAMEY TITONE
Sr. Director Information Technology
Media Company (Broadcast Media, 10,001+ employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
3 years of experience
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Being a media company there is a large amount of broadcast network traffic between production control rooms throughout the local TV stations. The Network Performance Monitor 12, allows a comprehensive toolset and a single pane of glass to view, troubleshoot, monitor and map my network to be the most efficient. The tool is not being used throughout the entire environment as of today but since the capabilities are superior to most other products on the market, the adoption factor is catching on and we will expand the tool on a large scale across our multiple domestics datacenters.
Pros
  • Using SNMP to automatically discover my network devices, while collecting the network information to produce a detailed network inventory.
  • The automatic discovery of the connection between L2 and L3 devices.
  • Using NetPath across the hybrid clouds is a time saver and pinpoints where to focus resources to fix issues.
Cons
  • Many of the functionality are Cisco-centric and in a mixed vendor environment, this causes some issues.
  • Limitation of the SD WAN tools.
  • The database of NPM should really run on Oracle not SQL.
Likelihood to Recommend
In an on-air environment that broadcast live television, the real-time monitoring is a little slow and there have been some possible delays in reporting or alerting network outages or connectivity loss. It is not a show stopper but the real-time analytics could use some improvement. Monitoring network traffic across a large facility that has both layer 2 and layer 3 switches, the toolset fits perfectly and the ease of setup and the single dashboard is more adaptable than other products which require multiple different licenses and separate dashboards.

SolarWinds to the rescue!

Rating: 9 out of 10
Incentivized
November 16, 2015
JA
Jay Attiya
Director of IT
Toms River Regional School District (Primary/Secondary Education, 1001-5000 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
10 years of experience
View profile
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We are using SolarWinds to monitor and troubleshoot network equipment and servers across all of our 22 school buildings and support facilities. It is our "Go To" solution for quick performance metrics and real time monitoring.
Pros
  • It gives us up to the minute performance data enabling us to make informed troubleshooting decisions.
  • It provides historical data showing us performance trends helping us plan future purchases and upgrades.
  • It provides key data to show management when and why upgrades are needed.
Cons
  • It could be easier to determine which of the many modules available would be beneficial to our organization.
  • Trial licenses could be included when purchasing a base module to make it easy to try other program features and modules.
Likelihood to Recommend
Key questions:
How many end points do you want to monitor? It is often more than initially thought.
Do you have a person you can assign the role of monitoring and tweaking the system? The system will only get better at doing its job if someone is actively working with it.

Network Performance Monitor, Monitor your performance, TODAY

Rating: 7 out of 10
Incentivized
January 25, 2019
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Financial Services Company, 1001-5000 employees
Vetted Review
Verified User
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
4 years of experience
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Our IT department uses it for monitoring and alerting. It allows us to view the almost real-time statistics in order to better gauge an understanding of our network and server infrastructure.
Pros
  • Performance reports based on usage statistics.
  • Managing devices, whether they're servers or network components, is relatively easy.
Cons
  • Real-time monitoring would be the ultimate goal, but that would be resource intensive. Currently, SolarWinds only does it in intervals, depending on what you set.
  • Sluggish interface based on older development platforms. Needs to be modernized and updated.
Likelihood to Recommend
SolarWinds NPM is fantastic for monitoring and viewing historical data. However, it is not a product you would install for real-time traffic and utilization scenarios. NPM monitors devices in intervals, which is beneficial for certain business reasons.

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor Review

Rating: 10 out of 10
Incentivized
July 15, 2020
Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Higher Education Company, 201-500 employees
Vetted Review
Verified User
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
5 years of experience
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
SolarWinds Network Performance monitor is used within the IT department at our institution. The network and server managers have administrative rights within it and then the helpdesk has read only rights. This allows the helpdesk access to see if a ticket should be escalated due to a larger issue. This solution provides visibility for our team across the infrastructure and allows us to be more proactive.
Pros
  • The alert functionality from SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor has been very helpful over the years. It provides us with the real time information needed during critical issues that may occur.
  • The basic syslog and events features allows us to see in our main dashboard if there is something critical to address when we log in to the system.
  • Network atlas also provides an intuitive graphical way to see if our environment has any nodes down or with issues.
Cons
  • It would be nice for there to be a feature that would allow us to click one button to turn all alerting off during a maintenance window. It is required to either turn each type of alert off individually or all alerts on a per node basis.
Likelihood to Recommend
I feel that this solution is well suited for a campus or enterprise network. It provides the visibility needed from end to end on a network and is very helpful for a small team. I'm not sure of a scenario where it would be less appropriate as I see the value in being able to get a full view of your nodes in a network.

SolarWinds Proves Time and Time

Rating: 10 out of 10
Incentivized
August 28, 2018
AG
AJ Gumataotao
IT Network Administrator
Beaufort-Jasper Water and Sewer Authority (Utilities, 51-200 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
7 years of experience
View profile
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Solarwinds NPM is current being used in my organization's network throughout. As for access to the platform it is restricted to the IT team at the moment but are working to get real-time statistics to display on our SharePoint portal for all organization users to see the real-time health of our network and services. NPM has solved a couple of problems that were important to identifying root causes for network or network related issues. This was accomplished by utilizing the built-in features of NPM such as device polling (SNMP/PING) which gives us a status of the health of a device or the reachability to it, and NetPath has helped in cases where we have had ISPs failover and increase latency or increase the amount of network hops to a configured resource.
Pros
  • Easy to navigate UI while still providing powerful monitoring features.
  • Wide range of features to monitor just about any network/service.
  • Configurable (eye candy) reporting for upper management.
  • alerting features are very good for just about of any type of alerting you need
Cons
  • With many services moving to the cloud monitoring can be a challenge depending on your cloud deployments.
  • Pricey but much less work to do than open source / free tools.
  • If not configured to its full potential or to your organization's needs it can appear to be useless for it's price.
  • Alarms in a device can only be acknowledged individually and not on a incident affected basis.
  • For newer devices/platforms you have to customize pollers as the built-in pollers may report incorrect data.
Likelihood to Recommend
Best suited for networks with platforms that have no type of performance/health statistics gathering built-in. May not be appropriate if you have a full cloud managed platform such as Cisco Meraki which has plenty of performance/heath data in its dashboard already.
Return to navigation