SolarWinds Pricing: Does It Offer Value for Money?

SolarWinds offers a comprehensive suite of tools for IT professionals to manage their environments. Its flagship product, SolarWinds Service Desk, combines service request handling, asset management, and incident resolution.

SolarWinds offers a range of capabilities, from network performance monitoring and systems management to IT security, database management, and help desk support. 

SolarWinds seems like the perfect solution because it can streamline service strategy by offering a full IT infrastructure library (ITIL) suite, service catalog workflows, automation tools, and AI and ML capabilities for deriving insights.

However, with so many features, the question arises: Is it truly worth the expense?

In this blog, we’ll explain SolarWinds' pricing plans, features, benefits, and limitations to help you make an informed decision that aligns with your needs and budget. We’ll also compare it with Rezolve.ai, a unique employee service desk solution.

SolarWinds Service Desk Pricing Plans: Detailed Breakdown

SolarWinds offers three pricing plans that accommodate different business needs. The pricing is based on the number of technicians, and the asset pricing is provided upon request. All plans, however, support unlimited users.

Here’s a breakdown of the three pricing tiers offered:

All the paid plans include a 30-day free trial when you sign up with SolarWinds Service Desk. Features that you get with the free trial: 

• Full, unrestricted access to the Premier package
• Full capabilities for service management and asset management, with no limitations on usage

SolarWinds Service Desk Costs: What to Know Before Signing Up

It’s important to understand the scope of SolarWinds Service Desk before choosing it. You must know a few essential things before signing up for SolarWinds. 

1. How does the free trial work?

The free trial offers full, unrestricted access to the Premier package, which gives you access to all the features, including advanced tools like Visual CMDB, dependency mapping, and SolarWinds AI. At the end of the trial, you can choose any package that best fits your needs and select the number of agents and devices you need to support.

2. What happens after the trial ends?

When your trial ends, you can upgrade to a paid Service Management and Asset Management subscription. If you choose to upgrade, all your data from the trial period will be carried over to your subscription. However, if you decide not to upgrade, your account will be disabled, causing you to lose the data.

3. How long are the contracts? Can you change plans?

Typically, the service contract is an annual subscription. However, you can upgrade your plan anytime by contacting a representative.

4. Are there any discounts?

SolarWinds Service Desk only discounts large orders, academic institutions, government, and other non-profit organizations. Contact a SolarWinds representative for more details.

5. What other applications and systems does SolarWinds integrate with?

Service Desk allows you to import, merge, and integrate data and resources from various channels, including Google Apps, Salesforce.com, Zendesk, Chatter, OneLogin, and Okta. It also provides security integrations, such as SAML and Google SSO, and offers simple sync between apps using Zapier.

6. How does SolarWinds keep data private and safe?

SolarWinds restricts physical access to its data centers and safeguards the service layer to protect information and data. You can also choose your data center from the U.S., EU, or Australia.

SolarWinds Service Desk Pros and Cons

Our assessment of the SolarWinds Service desk is based on user reviews from G2, Capterra, and GetApp.

Benefits of SolarWinds Service Desk for ITSM

• The SolarWinds web and mobile app interfaces are straightforward to use, and the implementation is also easy, which makes getting started with the tool faster. 

• Users find it to be extremely user-friendly.

• SolarWinds offers a robust asset management feature with comprehensive asset information and auditing capabilities. From the centralized management of any asset type, including hardware, software, mobile, and non-network devices to the automatic discovery of new hardware on your network and software on your devices, SolarWinds can help you manage your full IT asset inventory.

Limitations of SolarWinds Service Desk for ITSM 

• Overall, users are concerned about price, as they find it expensive compared to other ticketing and ITSM tools. 

• The tool lacks robust features for users to create their own tickets, limiting the self-service option. This even led users to switch to other alternatives. 

• The tool is also not scalable, and customer support offers little help adapting the product to meet customers' evolving needs. Reddit users appear to have had mixed experiences with SolarWinds’ customer support, many of them negative.

• It lacks advanced automation, such as auto-attaching related assets to tickets, slows efficiency, increases response time, and adds administrative tasks as IT teams must link assets manually. 

• The tool also needs more versatility for different business functions and is highly tailored for IT teams, limiting its usefulness for non-IT teams like HR and finance.

• SolarWinds was recently charged by the SEC with fraud and internal control failures relating to allegedly known cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities between 2018 and 2020.

Rezolve.ai: The Best Cost-Effective Alternative to SolarWinds Service Desk

Rezolve.ai is a cutting-edge GenAI-powered service desk. It seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Teams and over 1,000 tools. Offering innovative features, Rezolve.ai replaces your traditional ITSM and outdated ticketing system with a robust service desk. It auto-deflects 25-35% of the tickets and auto-resolves 65% of the tickets using a GenAI-enabled knowledge base.

While SolarWinds is popular, users find it expensive, with the starting plan costing $39 per technician per month. Rezolve.ai, on the other hand, offers more robust features at just $3 per user per month. This includes high-quality support and automated updates at no additional cost. Qualified customers can even avail themselves of a two-week free trial.

Rezolve.ai’s powerful features include: 

• GenAI-powered comprehensive ITSM 
• Native MS Teams and Slack integration 
• GenAI-enabled knowledge management
• Low/no code automation studio 
• Task and desktop automation
• Conversational ticketing and live chat 
• Incident management and auditability 
• Advanced analytics and reporting

Let’s check how Rezolve.ai compares to SolarWinds features:

Rezolve.ai truly offers a more comprehensive solution and better ROI with its GenAI-enabled AITSM and GenAI Sidekick, which transforms into a fully functional assistant for your team, freeing up their time for crucial tasks. It also reduces your shared services cost by 20-40%, delivering ROI within 4-6 months.

Its GenAI SideKick significantly increases staff productivity—often by up to 5%. There are no hidden costs; the subscription includes standard support, with SLAs guaranteeing specific support response times.

Rezolve.ai stands out from other ITSM solutions for its self-service bots, intuitive workflows, comprehensive knowledge sourcing, customizable workflows, seamless integrations, reasonable pricing, modern user interface, robust security, and complete audit log functionalities.

If you want to see Rezolve.ai in action with your business, take a free two-week trial to access its capabilities. Sign up for a demo today!

FAQ

Is SolarWinds free or paid?

SolarWinds offers both free and paid versions. All the paid plans come with a 30-day free trial, which includes all advanced features. 

‍Does SolarWinds support a perpetual license?

SolarWinds supports both perpetual and subscription licenses. Effective April 21, 2020, you can decide whether to use a perpetual or subscription-based (term-based) license. (Source) 

‍How can we activate a SolarWinds license?

To activate a SolarWinds license, log in to the SolarWinds Platform Web Console, go to settings, and click License Manager to activate your desired product. Enter your activation key, log in to the customer portal with your Customer ID and password, and go to Manage Licenses. Copy your activation key and paste it into the License Manager to activate your license. (Source)