Can network administrators monitor bandwidth usage and application performance?

Network administrators monitor bandwidth usage and application performance centrally.

What network performance metrics does SolarWinds NPM monitor?

SolarWinds NPM monitors network availability, bandwidth, latency, packet loss, interface errors, CPU/memory usage, and device health.

How can SolarWinds NPM help network administrators monitor the performance and availability of their network devices and servers?

SolarWinds NPM helps network administrators monitor device health, track performance metrics, detect outages, and receive real-time alerts to ensure network availability and reliability.

How does this network performance monitoring software track, analyze, and alert on IT infrastructure health?

This software continuously monitors network devices, servers, and applications, analyzing performance metrics and triggering alerts for anomalies or outages.

How can IT teams monitor, analyze, and manage network performance using this platform?

IT teams can monitor network traffic, analyze performance metrics, detect bottlenecks, and manage infrastructure proactively using this platform.

Reviewed · Updated 2026-06-19

SolarWinds NPM

Monitors network performance, bandwidth usage, and device health with advanced analytics.

Reviewed by the Conversion Gems editorial team · 2026-06-19

Try SolarWinds

Pricing

Free Trial

Best for

Network administrators

Community ratings

4.5/ 5 aggregate · across 1 source

Capterra

4.570+ reviews

Third-party ratings shown verbatim; aggregate weighted by review volume.

What it really is

SolarWinds NPM — enterprise network performance monitoring platform (perpetual license).

Our take

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor is the long-standing gold standard for on-premises enterprise network monitoring, covering SNMP polling, NetFlow analysis, topology mapping, and intelligent alerting across complex multi-vendor and hybrid environments. The DB lists the entry price as $145/license — this is incorrect; the actual entry tier (SL100, 100 elements) is a perpetual license starting at $2,955 with 1 year of maintenance included. The DB price_tier of 'free_trial' is also a mislabel; the product is paid with a 30-day free trial available.

Why we rate it

Few tools match NPM's depth of coverage — multi-vendor SNMP, NetFlow, wireless, virtual environments, and customizable alerting all under one roof. The THWACK community and SolarWinds documentation make onboarding and troubleshooting well-supported for a complex product.

The catch

Windows Server-only installation, steep enterprise pricing (floor ~$3K), and a heavy setup process make it overkill and cost-prohibitive for smaller teams or cloud-first environments.

Best for

Enterprise IT teams monitoring 100+ network elements across multi-vendor hardware

Network ops teams requiring deep SNMP, NetFlow, and topology-path analysis

Organizations already on the SolarWinds Orion platform seeking tight suite integration

Not good for

SMBs or startups without a dedicated network operations team

Cloud-native or Linux-only shops (Windows Server required)

Teams needing SaaS or subscription-based delivery with low upfront cost

Friction report

Time to value

Slow: deployment requires a Windows Server host, SNMP configuration across devices, and network discovery runs — expect days to first meaningful dashboards.

Scale breakpoint

Element-tier licensing means costs jump sharply as monitored interfaces grow past each tier ceiling (100 → 250 → 500+).

Walled garden

Moderate: data lives on-premises in SolarWinds Orion DB; exports are available but workflows are tightly coupled to the Orion platform.

A look inside

Frequently Asked Questions

Alternatives

Step up

SolarWinds SLX (unlimited elements) or full Orion Platform bundle for the largest enterprise environments.

Lighter alternative

PRTG Network Monitor (free up to 100 sensors) for SMBs, or Datadog NPM for cloud-native teams.

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