TrustRadius Insights
Users have found this product to be extremely versatile and useful in a variety of situations. One key use case is for professional …
Starting at $1,638 per year
View PricingOverview
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.
Recent Reviews
Awards
Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards
Popular Features
- Alerts (228)8.989%
- Hardware health monitoring (215)8.888%
- Network monitoring (231)8.787%
- Customizable reports (212)7.979%
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
Product Demos
Why I Recommend SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
YouTube
Features
Return to navigation
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- Downloadables
- FAQs
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
SolarWinds NPM Video
Network Performance Monitor overview
SolarWinds NPM Integrations
- SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability
- SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
- SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
- SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
- SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)
- SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor (SRM)
- SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
- SolarWinds Web Performance Monitor (WPM)
SolarWinds NPM Competitors
- LogicMonitor
- OpenText Network Node Manager i (NNMi)
- Broadcom DX Unified Infrastructure Management
- Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)
- ManageEngine OpManager
- Nagios Core
- Progress WhatsUp Gold
- DX Infrastructure Manager (formerly CA Unified Infrastructure Management)
- Paessler PRTG
SolarWinds NPM Technical Details
| Deployment Types | On-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Windows, Windows® Server 2016; SQL Server 2016 SQL Server 2016 SP1 SQL Server 2017 (including installations on Linux) |
| Mobile Application | No |
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 highest, with a score of 8.9.
The most common users of SolarWinds NPM are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(600)
Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Recommendations
Users have found this product to be extremely versatile and useful in a variety of situations. One key use case is for professional presentations. Users have praised the product for its ability to create visually appealing and engaging slides that captivate audiences. The ease of use and intuitive interface allows users to quickly create polished presentations without the need for extensive design skills. Additionally, the product's extensive library of pre-designed templates and customizable options provide users with a wide range of choices to cater to their specific needs.
Another important use case for this product is for educational purposes. Teachers and students alike have found value in using this product to enhance their learning experience. With its interactive features such as animations, videos, and quizzes, it enables educators to create engaging lessons that capture students' attention and facilitate better understanding of complex concepts. Users appreciate the product's collaborative capabilities, allowing for seamless group projects and real-time feedback.
Furthermore, this product has proven to be a valuable tool for businesses in creating impactful marketing materials. Users have reported that the product's drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to design eye-catching brochures, flyers, and social media graphics. The ability to seamlessly integrate images, text, and various graphic elements ensures that businesses can create visually appealing marketing materials that effectively communicate their brand identity.
Lastly, users have praised the product's ability to simplify personal projects such as photo albums or event invitations. The variety of customization options allows users to personalize their creations and add their own touch. Whether it's creating personalized greeting cards or designing stunning wedding invitations, this product has been a reliable choice for users seeking high-quality results without the need for extensive design knowledge.
Overall, this product has proven to be versatile and adaptable in various contexts, making it an indispensable tool for professionals, educators, businesses, and individuals alike. Its user-friendly interface combined with its extensive features and customization options allow users to unleash their creativity and achieve impressive results in a wide range of use cases.
Users recommend considering the whole stack of Network Modules on the SolarWinds platform instead of NPM as a standalone product. They believe the other modules are valuable additions for monitoring, managing, and analyzing the network. SolarWinds NPM is considered the best network performance monitoring solution on the market. Users suggest using it for network monitoring and exploring other modules for specific infrastructure monitoring. While NPM is a good tool for network monitoring, users advise looking into alternative options for advanced monitoring needs. Some users suggest improving the navigation to make it more fluid and user-friendly. Overall, users recommend SolarWinds NPM for managing and monitoring network infrastructures due to its reliability and cost-effectiveness. They also recommend trying the live action feature and Meraki for enhanced network analytics. Users suggest considering other products with better UI and capabilities. SolarWinds NPM is worth the price if affordable, especially with sponsorship. Working with third-party services or SolarWinds to properly set up the tool is recommended. Using multiple tools in conjunction with NPM provides more visibility. Users recommend signing up for Thwack and utilizing their resources for assistance with SolarWinds products. Trying the demo first before purchasing is advisable. NPM is considered a core module in every company that chooses SolarWinds as their monitoring tool. It is important to ensure that the server can handle the software. Experienced staff maximizes the benefits of the platform. Users suggest downloading a trial copy of NPM to test it out. NPM outperforms other tools according to user opinions. More theme options and additional ways to export data are requested. Other modules from SolarWinds that work well with NPM, such as Server & Application Manager, should be explored. Support team and Thwack community are highly praised by users. Users should not be overwhelmed by features and take advantage of free trial resources. SolarWinds is recommended for enterprise-level monitoring, but Loop1 consulting is advised for complex environments. Initial setup can be time-consuming. The 30-day evaluation of the full product is excellent. Becoming a Thwack member provides access to extensive resources and support. SolarWinds may have a higher cost but is considered worth it. Proper provisioning of hardware, software, and infrastructure is crucial before deploying SolarWinds. Users recommend setting up the trial version first and getting familiar with the product. SolarWinds NPM receives high recommendations from users and is praised for its great dashboards.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(76-100 of 236)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
February 01, 2020
NPM: The Heart and Soul of SolarWinds
- Easy-to-configure NOC-style dashboards for almost anything on a network you want to monitor.
- Customizable reports for any network metric.
- Customizable email alerts on dozens of different network issues.
- Centralized discovery and inventory for routers, switches, analog gateways, UPSs, access points, and other network hardware.
- SolarWinds is slow to integrate features that users suggest, even when dozens of users have made the same suggestion over time.
- The charts aren't as customizable as we would like (y-scale, plot size, etc.).
- The reports feature has a combination of legacy ReportWriter reports and new reports. They should all be migrated to the new style. The old reports are hard to modify and the output is less usable than the new style.
January 31, 2020
My go-to performance monitor is SolarWinds.
- Alerting
- Reporting
- Easy navigation
- Page load speed
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Every network has a notorious piece of equipment that runs outside of normal thresholds! You can set up individual thresholds for alert notification. It is very important to find the right balance of notifications from your monitoring tools. You can tweak NPM or run with the defaults. I run the defaults until hardware indicates that it needs individual configuration.
- You can add nodes individually or in bulk. You can have NPM discover your network!
- NPM can set up a wireless heat map - you need to input a floor plan - massage the map with Network Atlas; before you know it you will have a live heat map of your wireless network!
- I love the top XX options to view in the NOC - I have the top 100 network events, the top 100 interfaces showing in the NOC. You can detail the NOC pages to show just about anything you are collecting in NPM. Unbelievable information when looking for anomalies!
- NPM is being driven by the user group THWACK! I love the fact that they just added Network Insight for the Palo Alto Firewalls: site-to-site VPNs: discovery, status, bandwidth, failures reason, and protocols. GlobalProtect VPNs: username, public IP, virtual IP, and status
- I can't complain or really say that SolarWinds Network Performance monitor has any particular flaw to report! I am pleased how Solarwinds used the THWACK community to add additional features to the product.
- I would like to be able to reclassify the Unknown nodes - the LINUX flavored servers running my virtual Avaya phone network are not classified at all. I did name and manage all the nodes. All nodes are properly identified, I just don't like that group called Unknown .. .but am glad it is there to catch unidentified objects!
- Demo NPM from Solarwinds Web site. You will not be disappointed!
January 24, 2020
Solarwinds NPM - Single pane network visibility
- NPM does a great job of alerting us to outages, latency, connectivity issues etc...
- NPM provides historical data for monitored devices to the port level.
- NPM provides our customers (we are an MSP) with real-time network information for their environment.
- NPM is ideal for installations where systems are monitored on a local LAN. If you are monitoring over a WAN connection a lot of false positives can be generated based on latency and outages unrelated to the monitored environment.
- The cost to add additional NPM polling engines is high in my opinion. If I could I would have a polling engine local to each LAN but it is cost prohibitive.
- Upgrades of NPM in our case have presented some challenged, likely due to the age of our installation. Solarwinds tech support has been helpful in recommending an upgrade path forward.
January 18, 2020
NPM is a valuable tool for Network Monitoring
- Easy to Navigate Interface - The user interface is laid out very clearly and it is intuitive to navigate.
- Highly Customizable Alerts - You have the ability to fine-tune alerts to meet your needs.
- Detailed Graphs and Reports - NPM does a great job of translating raw analytical data in to easy to read graphs and reports.
- Ability to Monitor a Wide Range of Devices - There are built in MIBs for a wide range of device vendors and you have the Ability to configure more.
- Creation of Custom Charts and Reports - Charts and graphs can take a little time to tweak to get the data that's relevant to you. Creating custom reports also isn't intuitive however the SolarWinds support is great at assisting you when needed.
- Licensing Model - You definitely need a good knowledge of what you're trying to see. Licensing is based on the number of elements being monitored (devices and interfaces). This can get costly so you want to have a good understanding of what areas you wish to target if Cost is an issue in your organization.
- No Real Integration with SD WAN Tools - Solarwinds NPM allows you to link with SD WAN APIs but due to API limitations, you only get surface level info. I would like to see them partner with some popular SD WAN vendors.
- Network Atlas - this is the software you use to upload maps into the system. Currently, its a standalone piece of software on the server. I would like to see this integrated into the online console.
January 17, 2020
SolarWinds NPM - "Nice, Practical, Modular"
- Ease of configuration. SolarWinds NPM is easily configured initially with discovery auto-populating the majority of equipment.
- Ease of management/use. SolarWinds NPM is easily understood by those with less training, allowing them to gain visibility in to and troubleshoot problems that would otherwise require additional assistance.
- Pricing. While there are alternate solutions to SolarWinds NPM, this offering sits in a well-priced space easily adding more value than the sticker price. With the module-based approach the product offering often scales well with company size as well.
- Ease of modification. It is sometimes difficult to understand how to properly modify the details of individual components. This comes with the territory given the constraints of SNMP, etc. but I feel that SolarWinds could streamline the end-user experience.
- Dials. For some things dials are a good indication for system status but I've never liked them for network monitoring as they take up a lot of real estate where a simple color-coded number would suffice in most cases.
January 17, 2020
SolarWinds- makes going home easy
- Notification of equipment down before the user usually even notices there is a problem.
- Insight into processor and memory loads on equipment to allow adjustments before failure.
- Better tools to clean up database bloat.
January 16, 2020
NPM watches our servers and switches so we don't have to
- Adding nodes is easy.
- Status monitoring is efficient and timely (assuming your polling and alert settings are appropriate).
- Dashboards are useful and highly customizeable.
- It's a big animal and takes time and expertise to keep it running smoothly and maintain the monitored nodes. Don't assume some IT tech is going to use this in their spare time.
- Because it is very complex, there can be a steep learning curve. Get some training from Loop1.
- The web interface is slow. Probably can't be helped, but it is frustrating at times.
January 14, 2020
SolarWinds NPM - the backbone of network monitoring
- NPM polls devices consistently for status
- NPM gathers statistical data for logging
- NPM also has reporting and alerting features that aid in logging historical data and diagnosing issues
- NPM can be a bit hard to tame on resources in a large scaled environment
- NPM needs some finesse when running large scaled jobs/reports
- NPM could stand to be more efficient on the back end. It can be a hog.
January 14, 2020
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor is a Great Tool
- Easy to maintain
- Highly customizable interface
- Easy to setup alerts
- Every now and then the web interface starts getting really slow and the server needs reboot
- Licensing needs to be simplified, there are so many moving parts and so many different licenses to maintain
- Has a bug where interfaces show in "unknown" state and you have to remove/re-add the interfaces to make that stop or just ignore them
January 14, 2020
Email alerts a plenty
- Email alerts
- Domain integration
- Not subscription
- Hierarchy settings
- Limit email alerts. I don’t like getting 256 alerts on Monday morning
- Web page interface is very slow
January 13, 2020
SolarWinds has been helpful in managing our infrastructure
- The Dashboard features quickly enable us to evaluate where we are for the day and give a quick look into how clients feel about both the service they receive.
- SolarWinds features a pooling system that lets you install SolarWinds in as many servers as you want besides SolarWinds. You never restrict yourself to the database with this pooling method.
- I dislike its licensing and is a little bit costly as compared to other monitoring tools.
- Not really fair but there is a lot to configure. That is because there is a lot it can do. It is important to spend the time and get full use of it. It can be overwhelming in the beginning while you are setting things up and very time-consuming.
December 28, 2019
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor Review
- Customizable to my needs.
- Reliable.
- Managing alerts is terrible
- You must manage your own server, and database for the solution.
December 20, 2019
SolarWinds NPM: Worth it for HP switches?
- Good technical support
- Easy to use graphical interface
- Better support for HPE Procurve/Aruba equipment
- Flexibility to integrate with other monitoring software.
December 10, 2019
SolarWinds NPM is a great tool to make IT admins look good!
- Alert configurations have mulitple options, giving us the ability to get notified for any defined event we choose.
- Monitors all of our devices in one interface where even the average user can be granted access and take a look at our overall environment.
- Integration with VMWare in the past has been difficult to get working properly.
- In the latest version, it seems to get slow frequently until I reboot the services on the application server.
December 01, 2019
SolarWinds NPM Review
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Ease of installation and monitoring.
- The customizability of alerts and reports let you design what you're looking for.
- The bonus of NetPath and PerfStack makes issues that much easier again to work out where the problem may be.
- The upgrade of how syslogs are handled in the GUI needs more improvement to match the old version it replaced.
November 21, 2019
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor
- Monitor performance. Receiving alerts for latency issues in real-time enables us to track down the root cause more quickly. Recently it helped us discover that an off-site backup copy was not being properly throttled, thereby causing call quality issues weekly at 3 AM.
- Drill down to find details. In the previous example (weekly performance hit) we started at an edge device, saw the traffic spike, traced it to the access switch, and then the switch port. That made it easy to correlate the source of the traffic with the perceived symptom.
- Graphs over time. Again, using the previous example, we were able to use the graphs and look back over the history of the two ports involved (inbound to the edge of one datacenter and outbound from the offending application) to prove correlation as opposed to a one-time coincidence.
- The hardware resources are a bit steep. We have had to restart services a few times when website performance deteriorated over time.
- Being tied to Microsoft is a negative for us. It just seems wrong to have to run one MS SQL Server along with a few dozen MySQL boxes.
November 07, 2019
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor Review
- Set up is easy. It is not complex to set up.
- Solar Winds support is okay. I wouldn't say it is the best, but average.
- NPM does what we need, mainly monitor network bandwidth and critical server (host).
- We really don't use SolarWinds for more than just checking network bandwidth or performance.
- Perhaps they need to evaluate their pricing model. Paying per interface can be very expensive.
November 07, 2019
SolarWinds NPM Review
- Easy to use interface.
- Relatively easy to set up SNMP traps, summary, and graphs.
- Good change management tool for network changes.
- Better wireless heat maps.
- Needs better Netmap services.
- Relatively expensive.
November 05, 2019
Attractive all-around platform
- Dynamic network topology mapping works well
- Flexible monitoring and alerting capabilities
- Very detailled networking statistics
- If topology mapping could be customised for some specific cases, that would be perfect
November 02, 2019
NPM to the rescue
- Ease of use.
- Constant updates.
- Quick setup.
- It can take time to get full use. There are lots of features.
- Cost is high.
October 04, 2019
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor Review
- Trace and monitor your whole network
- Get important alerts from a lot of case scenarios.
- Better support for emergencies
- Add more vendors' functionalities other than Cisco focused utilities.
- Provide an easy way to make alerts from traps or syslogs instead of working inside of the SQL database or learning SolarWinds Query Language (SWQL) .
September 05, 2019
SolarWinds NPM - Hot or Not?
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Its web API is easy to use and pretty intuitive
- The customer support has been pretty decent whenever I have needed to go through them
- It has its own database gui that is easy to see and use in order to create custom queries
- Its real-time topology mapper and "Network Atlas" is being moved to a less functional web-based real time monitoring system that is not intuitive and doesnt support integration with real time monitoring of vcenter devices.
- Its pay per node price scale makes expanding your network less attractive.
- It doesn't support every vendor of networking equipment and in such a case requires extensive knowledge of OIDs and the SQL backend in order to implement the necessary monitoring nodes
- vCenter integration is very basic and needs improvement and customization options available to it that the rest of the program has
- the view based pages are incredibly difficult to set up in any sort of hierarchical sense. And getting menu customization to navigate through the pages is a pain in the butt.
August 28, 2019
SolarWinds is our recipe for success
- I think the shining example that sets SolarWinds apart from the rest is the approach it takes with SNMP. I have served in the Managed Service field and monitored devices for over twelve years and SolarWinds SNMP monitoring design is bar-none the best I have used.
- I appreciate how different aspects of NPM flow togeher. An example of this is when you monitor a wireless controller and how it will automatically populate all of your access points along with statistics into the system. Using this feature along with the Network Traffic Analyzer has been a powerful troubleshooting tool.
- The user community is a large part of the success of NPM. SolarWinds provides a forum that allows others to share their successes and discoveries with others. It is both friendly and professional and has been a major help to me.
- I'm not a big fan of the licensing model which can quickly become bloated as your consider adding additional modules. It would make sense to me to cover device counts in your maintenance contract and then simple pay a straight fee for your modules.
- Getting assistance for setting up monitoring templates is primary found through the user community (especially for unique devices). I would love to see a section in thwack that has a more organized approach to monitoring scripts that are organized by device (perhaps even company).
- Make all functions required for monitoring templates available through the web GUI. Having to configure use the Universal Device Poller for configuring SNMP templates is a nuisance.
August 27, 2019
One of the sharpest tools in your toolbox
- Config management
- Network monitoring
- Change control
- Quicker polling
- More polling options
- More info on less prolific devices