SolarWinds Pricing - why 4.2/10?

ITQlick Score:	94/100
ITQlick Rating:	(5/5)
Pricing:	4.2/10 - average cost
Category:	VoIP -> SolarWinds -> SolarWinds pricing
Ranking:	Ranked 1 out of 165 VoIP systems
Company:	Samanage
Pricing:	starts at $800 per user/year
Typical customers:	Start up, Small business, Medium business, Large business
Platforms:	Desktop, Mobile, Cloud
Links:	SolarWinds review, SolarWinds alternatives

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Shlomi Lavi / Nov 14, 2021

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What is SolarWinds's cost rating? (4.2/10)

SolarWinds offers two licensing options: subscription license and perpetual license. The license pricing information for both categories is unavailable on its official website. According to ITQlick expert cost research, SolarWinds is cost-rated at 2.1/5, which means it is a low-cost VoIP software. The rating system considers this software rated 1-2 as low-cost and 4-5 as high cost.

When comparing SolarWinds to its competitors, on a scale between 1 to 10, SolarWinds is rated 4.2, which is similar to the average VoIP software cost, read the article below in order to calculate the total cost of ownership (TCO), which includes: customization, data migration, training, hardware, maintenance, upgrades, and more.

Business Phone Systems Software Price Ranges

Organizations would typically have to pay up between $17 and up to $1000 for Business Phone Systems software. However, the Price differs between Hosted systems and on-premise ones, and the majority of vendors charge their software cost per user. Additional billing can be present for services such as VoIP-Traditional Phone switch, Broadband, and Hosting. Users can also consider price points for some of these software products by their fit for company size, such as is follows:

Small scale businesses can expect to pay between $15 and $40 a month for VoIP Business Phone Systems. For example, GoToConnect and RingCentral Office pricing both begin at $20 a month, Dialpad Talk cost price at $15 per month, and Mitel pricing goes for $21 monthly. Furthermore, Ooma Office has a base subscription of $20 per month, with another Pro plan at $25 monthly. Vonage Business Solutions charges $15 per month for each line, and users can get an extension for $40 a month per line.
Medium-sized organizations would typically find software with cost price ranging between $95 and $179 monthly. For example, CallRails Business subscriptions start at $95 a month, REIRail Gold pricing begins at $97 per month, and MeetingSphere costs $99 monthly. Also, Dixa has a Professional plan which costs $99 a month, a Premium and Platinum plan that goes for $139 and $179 per month, respectively.
Large Corporations generally have to pay up to $1500 a month for VoIP BPS software. DCDial, for example, has a Grow plan, which begins at $899 a month, with the option to a Pro subscription, which costs $1499 per month. BoardBookIt Professional pricing starts at $585 a month, with an enterprise plan which has a cost price of $792 monthly. Additionally, Brazen pricing begins at $1999 for each event.

Some of the best of breeds have cost prices that lie within distinct price ranges; the analyses of their pricing are as follows:

VoIP Phone Systems These software products exist within the price range of $30-$45 a month. For example, Versature Essentials cost $30 per month, and its user can opt for the Professional and Enterprise plans, both of which go for $35 and $45 a month, respectively. MiCloud Connect has a starting cost price of $21 per month for each user, with Premier and Elite subscriptions, which costs $27 and $38 monthly. Furthermore, pricing for MightyCall starts at $20 a month, TeamViewer at $49 per month, and ConnectWise One at $19 monthly.
VoIP SoftPhones Users would generally have to pay between $0 and $100 a month for VoIP Softphone software. For instance, Freshcaller Sprout is free, and its users can procure Blossom or Garden subscriptions for $19 and $39 a month, respectively. Furthermore, Nice inContact pricing starts at $100 monthly for each user and Intulse at $15 a month.
Auto Attendant Systems Auto Attendant System products have prices that could reach up to $1000 a month. For example, Voximplant has a Small subscription which starts at $100 a month, and a Medium Messaging plan at $1000 per month. MightyCall pricing goes for $20 a month, and Sharpen cost price begins at $25 monthly – Sharpen also has an Empower plan that costs $119 per month.
Small Business Phone Systems Users can expect a price range of $15-$65 for Small Business Phone Systems software. SIP.US cost price, for example, starts at $25 monthly, ActiveDEMAND pricing begins at $15 a month and goes up to $65 per month.
Online Meeting Software These products have cost prices between $7 and $32 a month. Cisco Webex Starter pricing is $14 per month for each host, Doodle Team costs $32 a month, and SamePage goes for $8 monthly. Livestorm also begins at $39 monthly.
Business Phone Service Providers Vendors of Business Phone Service Provider software generally charge between $20 and $100 per month for starter subscriptions. Genesys Cloud 1 pricing starts at $75 a month, CallHippo Bronze at $18 monthly, and MeetFox at $11 per month.
Conference Calling Software These software products have cost prices up to $199 a month. For example, HighFive pricing starts at $199 per month for each room, LoopUp costs $22 monthly, and Vectera Pro at $9 each month per host.

What is the cost breakdown of VoIP implementation?

When it comes to selecting VoIP tools, buyers are primarily concerned about the cost. In fact, it is the cost that determines whether a potential buyer would go with the product. True, there is no one-size-fits-all formula to determine the “worth” of a business application, but as a software buyer, you want to make sure you get the best value for your money, without having to dig a big hole in your pocket.

Understanding the exact price of a VoIP system isn't easy as the overall cost of software includes the cost of a license, subscription fees, training, customization, hardware, maintenance, support, and other related services. It's essential to take into account all of these costs to gain an understanding of the system's "total cost of ownership."

What are the typical VoIP pricing models?

There are primarily three common pricing models – Perpetual License, Subscription, and Commercial Open Source.

Subscription/Software-As-A-Service: - Relevant for SolarWinds
Under this pricing model, the system is accessed over the internet, as opposed to installed on-premises. The payment is made either on a per user basis or subscription basis. Ideally, customers are required to pay a recurring monthly fee until a specific period for using the tool. Subscription pricing model is more common with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps.
Upfront cost for customization and integration is less compared to perpetual license cost because there is not much flexibility with SaaS systems in this area.
Recurring cost is greater as customers are required to make monthly payments as a subscription fee. Additionally customers using premium support services must pay an extra fee.
All in all, the total cost of ownership in the both cases is almost the same and may span over a period of 7-10 years, though you may have to pay a higher perpetual license fee upfront. The total cost may vary from starter to mid range to enterprise level apps in both cases.
Perpetual license: - Not relevant for SolarWinds
A common pricing model for on-premise applications, perpetual license requires a customer to pay an upfront sum to own the tool or other intellectual property on-premises for a fixed term.
Upfront cost involves the fee for installation, customization, and integration with existing systems, besides perpetual license fee.
Recurring cost is low in this pricing model and may include the cost for updates, maintenance, upgrades, and patches. Some vendors do offer premium support services, which come for an extra price.
Commercial open source: Not relevant for SolarWinds
The customer can acquire the system free of cost without having to incur any upfront license fee. As a customer, you’re solely responsible for the ongoing maintenance, upgrading, customization, and troubleshooting of the application to meet your specific needs. You are on your own for providing end-user support, since you are not locked in with a vendor-supplied system solution.

How much would it cost to customize SolarWinds? (and is it relevant)

If you need specific features in your system catering to your specific business requirements, the vendor will charge customization cost, depending on your needs and feature requirement. Ideally customization cost is more complex to calculate compared to licensing cost.

Some apps allow you to easily combine data from multiple sources, without any complicated query requirements, while some others can be embedded into different applications to provide enhanced reporting. If you seek products that support customizable dashboards and predictive analysis to identity possible trends and facilitate decision making, you may have to pay higher for all the customization features.

Additionally, the following factors may affect the cost of customization:

User interface changes
Configurable dashboards
Data elements required for tracking
Forms to collect additional data
Dashboard, management and operational reports that are needed.
Workflows and how complex they are
Forms to collect additional data

Here are some questions to answer: How much customization is needed? How many systems do you want to integrate to? Does your company work like industry standards or does it have its own customized processes? What kind of special reports are needed?

In order to calculate the cost of customization you can use the following estimates:

Minimal customization - integrate with 1-2 systems: $2,500
Standard customization - integrate with 3-5 systems: $10,000
Fully customized system - integrate with more than 5 systems: $25,000

Cost of data migration when migrating to SolarWinds? Relevant for SolarWinds

Most companies opt for data migration services from a vendor, which raises the cost of product ownership. If you choose to transfer data on your own, you can avoid paying the cost of data migration.
Data migration cost depends on the amount of data to be transferred, your current software, availability of migration tools, complexity of data, and gaps between the existing system and the new system.

If your data is stored in Excel spreadsheets, then it may incur you a lot of time and money to migrate data from Excel.
By involving a business services provider in data migration, you are asking them to offer additional services, for which you may have to pay extra.

As a rule of thumb the cost of data migration depends on how many records you want to migrate. Records can include the number of customers, invoices, financial transactions, products, versions, etc. Here is a list you can use as a rule of thumb:

1,000 records: $500
10,000 records: $2,500
100,000 records: $10,000
1,000,000+ records: $25,000

What is the cost of training for SolarWinds? Relevant for SolarWinds

As a buyer, you are required to pay extra for in-person training, though some vendors offer web-based solutions as part of the package. The cost may involve end-user training, video/self, group, department, and training the super users.

The cost is mainly derived from the approach that you select for your organization:

End-user training
Group/Department
Video /self
Train the trainer/super user

Here are some questions to answer: How many groups (different departments, usages, type of users) are needed?

In order to calculate the cost you can use the following estimates:

1-2 Sessions: $500
3-4 Sessions: $1,500
5-7 Sessions: $2,500
8-10 Sessions: $5,000

How SolarWinds pricing compares to alternative VoIP solutions?

When comparing SolarWinds to alternative systems, on a scale between 1 to 10 SolarWinds is rated 4.2, which is similar to the average VoIP cost.

SolarWinds compete with other VoIP systems like PRTG Network Monitor, LogicMonitor, and Cacti. We will compare these VoIP systems in some specific aspects below.

Functionality: SolarWinds offers features like Call Detail Record Analysis, Network Jitter, Packet Loss, Cisco Call Manager Support, IP SLA Monitor, WAN Monitor, VoIP Statistics, Avaya VoIP Troubleshooting, VoIP Troubleshooting, VoIP Monitor, Network Jitter Monitor, Call Quality, etc. Compared to its alternatives, PRTG Network Monitor offers unique features (and little similarities with SolarWinds) like Integrated Technologies, Maps, dashboards, Alerting, Multiple User Interfaces and Cluster failover solutions and Distributed Monitoring. LogicMonitor also offers unique features with many similar features to PRGT Network Monitor. Such features include Infrastructure Monitoring, Log Analysis, Network, Cloud, Servers, Websites (lacking in SolarWinds and PRTG Network Monitor), Containers, Remote Monitoring, Application Performance Monitoring, Storage, and Database Monitoring.
Customers/Industries: SolarWinds targets IT professionals in help desk, service desk, operations, etc., who are trying to bridge the gap between VoIP infrastructure management, and network transport infrastructure. Compared to its alternatives, PRTG Network Monitor targets healthcare, Buildings, industrial, Education, Finance, and government industries. Customers like 7eleven, Virginia Tech, National Theater, and Rexroth (a Bosch Company) use PRTG Network Monitor. LogicMonitor targets ITOps teams, service providers, and DevOps teams. Teams using LogicMonitor can be found in companies like Accruent, Rehrig Pacific Company, etc.
Cost: The license cost information for SolarWinds is unavailable on its official website. According to ITQlick expert cost research, SolarWinds is cost-rated at 2.1/5, which means it is a low-cost VoIP software. The rating system considers this software rated 1-2 as low-cost and 4-5 as high cost. The license cost information for LogicMonitor, PRGT Network Monitor, and Cacti is unavailable on their respective official websites.
Cloud-based/On-premise: SolarWinds and its alternatives are cloud-based. PRGT Network Monitor offers On-premise for windows.
Popularity: SolarWinds (1999) is publicly-traded on the NYSE under the SWI symbol. SolarWinds has 300,000+ customers in 190 countries, including 498 of the Fortune 500. When compared to its alternatives, PRTG Network Monitor (1997) is privately held and trusted by 500,000 companies worldwide. LogicMonitor (2008) is privately held and trusted by over 2000 global enterprises.
Scalability: PRTG Network Monitor can accommodate small, medium, and large infrastructures. LogicMonitor can accommodate Managed service providers and enterprises.
Support: SolarWinds and its alternatives share similar support channels like FAQs/forums. SolarWinds, PRTG Network Monitor, and LogicMonitor offer email/help desk, a knowledge base, and Chat. SolarWinds and LogicMonitor offer Phone support and 24/7 live rep.

How can the team at ITQlick help?

The science of TCO (total cost of ownership) may not be easy to calculate. If you seek to get detailed info about the TCO, get in touch with ITQlick experts. Contact us today and get up to date, detailed quotes.

Author

Shlomi Lavi

Shlomi holds a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Information System Engineering from Ben Gurion University in Israel. Shlomi brings 15 years of global IT and IS management experience as a consultant, and implementation expert for small, medium and large size (global) companies.