SolarWinds Competitors and Similar Companies

SolarWinds is a software service company that operates as a Network Performance Management (NPM) software company. The company provides system management tools for network and infrastructure monitoring. NPM is made available in technical services to hundreds of thousands of organizations worldwide. The company is an IT performance monitoring system, ‘Orion.’

Among top software product companies that are in the business of handling Network Performance Monitoring, SolarWinds is one of the most reputed software companies. 

NAME	SolarWinds
FOUNDED	1999
HEADQUARTERS	Austin, Texas
SIC CODE	7371
STATUS	Public Company
INDUSTRY SECTOR	Information Technology company
EMPLOYEES	2,147
TRADING SYMBOL	SolarWinds Corp NYSE: SWI

How SolarWinds make money

1. IT Infrastructure Industry

SolarWinds makes money by managing companies’ networks through maintenance services.

2. Software Product Company

SolarWinds generates revenue via software product subscriptions from subscribers who use their products for multiple software databases, analytics, and management services.

Companies Similar to SolarWinds

The biggest rivals to SolarWinds that deliver optimum Network Management server performance analytic services to customers (big and emergent companies) are; 

1. Cisco
2. ManageEngine
3. Nagios
4. Splunk
5. Broadcom

One of the big strengths of these top companies is their quality Security (anti-phishing) management.

Competition in the IT sector in the US is quite dynamic due to the volume of networkers and digitally operating brands that moved in and out of business over the past few years.

Factors such as customer satisfaction, quality network analytics, and competencies in categories such as evaluation and contracting, integration and deployment, service and support, and specific product capabilities, to mention a few, are essential implements for ranking. These quality attributes mentioned also serve as elements that put each company high up in their grade.

As mentioned above, companies that serve as alternatives (and major competitions) for SolarWinds in 2023 are; Cisco, ManageEngine, Nagios, Splunk, and Broadcom (our top 5 picks).

Now, let’s talk about SolarWinds competitors in detail.

In 2021, the United States information technology (IT) market will be dominated by the IT and business services segment, with a 28 percent market share.

Year/ Sector-US Market Share	IT + business services	Telecom/Network Services	Software
2021	28%	19%	22%
2020	29%	21%	20%

This analysis is revealed by an overview of the swing (in the segment) of the market share of Information Technology sectors from 2020 to 2021 (Statista) – https://www.statista.com/statistics/507389/united-states-it-market-share-breakdown/

In 2021, SolarWinds held a 12.47 percent market share in the network management software market – (Statista)

Cisco

As the name implies, ‘CISCO’ – Commercial & Industrial Security Corporation – is an American multinational technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, CA. 

Cisco was established in 1984. The core service of Cisco corporation has been devoted to Hi-Tech specialized markets, including domains like; internet of things (IoT), leading products (e.g., WebEx), and domain security.

Cisco is one of the top most advanced IT solutions in the US, offering packages that cut across a range (in size) of organizations, depending on their Network load, databases, and market size.

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	EMPLOYEES
$49 billion	$97.49 billion	San Jose, California	79,500

Similarities between Cisco and SolarWinds

• Anti-phishing technologies – both brands deploy tools that detect identity sham threats by performing checks and verification on sender addresses using cutting-edge machine monitoring techniques, aided by web supervisory intelligence, e.g., anti-spam and antivirus.

• Performance and Accounting Management – Both are Network Performance Management and data monitoring companies used by big organizations like the United States Army and Comcast Corp.

2. ManageEngine

ManageEngine is the Enterprise IT Management Software division of ZOHO Corporation. 

ZOHO Corporation is an IT software product company for managing web-based business tools. The ManageEngine division in the US is headquartered in San Francisco. ManageEngine IT deals in network and device management, security software development, and others. ManageEngine works with individual software developers and companies to deliver (together) improved IT as an overarching approach to optimizing business IT.

Similarities between ManageEngine and SolarWinds

• Dashboards, alerts, reports, and visualization – there is the ease of setup common to both.
• Auto-discovery – both have this feature available on SNMP.

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	EMPLOYEES
$974 million	$30,400 million	California, United States	4,000+

Nagios

Nagios Enterprises offers monitoring and alerting solutions for servers, switches, applications, and services. Nagios is a SaaS database monitoring software competitor of SolarWinds. 

This IT solutions company was established in 2007 to solve exclusively overwhelming database problems in networking. Nagios helps organizations resolve IT infrastructure problems. Nagios helps with Network Monitoring like; Windows, Linux, SNMP, Log, Application monitoring, etc.

Nagios and SolarWinds are standout performers in the saturated network monitoring space. 

Similarities between Nagios and SolarWinds

• Dashboard visualization – both have live graphs and charts to represent data and analysis visually.
• Alerting systems – both use Email & SMS alert systems.

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	EMPLOYEES
$5 Million	$569,240	Minnesota, United States	28

Splunk

Splunk produces software for probing and measuring machine-generated data via a web-format seam. The IT solution brand was founded in 2003 by Michael Baum, Rob Das, and Erik Swan.

Splunk provides a data log premise that enables access to enterprise observability, harmonized security, and boundless custom applications in fusion settings – with binary modes of operation.

Splunk generates its major revenues from (and pools its resources as well into) software development and cloud computing.

Splunk operates on machine data largely. Software products and tools work on data to identify patterns, provide analytics, diagnose and (maybe fix) bugs. Splunk also provides a brain for business operations.

Similarities between Splunk and SolarWinds

• Easy tool for security – both software are the best tools to search system-generated data for categories and data flow.
• Log management and reporting – both tools provide up-to-date, organized storage and reporting of data.

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	EMPLOYEES
$2 billion	$4 billion (total funding amount)	California, United States	7,000

(https://www.splunk.com/)

Broadcom

Broadcom is a software solutions company in the US that designs, develops, manufactures, and is a global supplier of a wide range of semiconductors and infrastructure software products.

Broadcom’s products serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wireless, storage, and industrial markets.

Similarities between Broadcom and SolarWinds

• Ease of management.
• Unified platform.
• Depth of infrastructure management – have numerous probes which can help you monitor every aspect of your environment.

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	EMPLOYEES
$27.45 billion	N/A	San Jose, California, United States	20,000

CONCLUSION

SolarWinds and alternatives have a large market share due to their Network Performance Monitoring qualities.  SolarWinds users consider these qualities in their purchasing decision. When evaluating solutions, potential buyers compare to competitors and find the best software or service for their organization’s needs.