SolarWinds Pricing - why 4.2/10?

Shlomi LaviShlomi Lavi / Sep 08, 2020

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SolarWinds Total Cost Rating: (4.2/10)

When comparing SolarWinds to their competitors, on a scale between 1 to 10 SolarWinds is rated 4.2, which is similar to the average VoIP software cost. SolarWinds are offering few flexible plans to their customers, the basic cost of license starting from $800 per user/year, read the article below in order to calculate the total cost of ownership (TCO) which includes: customization, data migration, training, hardware, maintnance, updgrades, and more.

You can also leave your info with us to get a free custom quote with the break downs for your business needs.

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.

VoIP - Total Cost Breakdown

When it comes to selecting VoIP software product, buyers are primarily concerned about its 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 software product, 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 VoIP Software isn't easy as The overall cost of software includes the cost of software license, subscription fees, software training cost, customization cost, required hardware, and the cost of maintenance & support and other related services. It's critical that you account for all of these costs to gain an understanding of the system's "total cost of ownership."

3 Software 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 software pricing model, the software 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 software. 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 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 software 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 software or other intellectual property on-premises for a fixed term.
  • Upfront cost involves the fee for installation, customization, integration with existing systems, besides perpetual license fee.
  • Recurring cost is low in this pricing model and may include 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 software 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 software solution.

SolarWinds - cost of customization:

If you need specific features in your software 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 system you want to integrate to? Does your company work like industry standars or has it's own customize 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

SolarWinds - cost of data migration: 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 software 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 depents on how many records you want to migrate. Records can include 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

SolarWinds - cost of training: Relevant for SolarWinds

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

Training cost derived from the training approach that you select for your organization:
  • End-user training.
  • Group/Department training.
  • Video /self training.
  • Train the trainer approach.

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

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

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

Cost of Hardware & IT: - Not relevant for SolarWinds

This can be a major expense for on-premise software buyers that need their own servers and other infrastructure to install the solution. This may be a costlier alternative than cloud solutions. In that case, you may want to go with cloud services that do not involve infrastructural investments and you can rely on the vendor’s web-based solutions.

Software pricing may also depend on software capabilities, including marketing automation, sales automation, help desk, and call center.

Cost of support for SolarWinds - An Important Factor:

As a customer investing in a software product, you are looking for constant support, besides the price of the software. Support has become a crucial part of value-based pricing that you are willing to pay as a customer.

There is no use buying a software product and facing inconvenience due to some technical glitches that you know nothing about and are reliant on the vendor to give you a solution. It is crucial that you go for a product from a vendor that provides solutions to ongoing problems.

Shift From Licensing Fee to Subscription Fee Models: - Relevant for SolarWinds

In an effort to build more sustained relationships with customers, most software vendors have chosen to offer the managed services model to accommodate changing customer behavior. There has been a significant drop in licensing revenue, thanks to the emergence of software-as-a-service model and downfall of the packaged software.

The new pricing model requires customers to pay little upfront fee and ongoing subscription fee on a monthly basis. The alternate pricing model stretches payments over a period of few years compared to lump-sum licensing fee.

Customers are happy to pay small monthly installments for subscribing to the ongoing support and maintenance services from vendors, without having to pay large upfront payment which can be too much for small businesses.

Compare SolarWinds pricing to Alternarive VoIP solutions:

When comparing SolarWinds to alternative software tools, on a scale between 1 to 10 SolarWinds is rated 4.2, which is similar to the average VoIP software cost. The two main competitors of SolarWinds include Freshservice and LiveChat. Freshservice is cloud-based help-desk solution designed for businesses of all sizes just like SolarWinds. Freshservice vendor is Freshworks which is a company that was founded in 2010 and based in the United States but SolarWinds vendor is SolarWinds which was founded in 2007 and based in the United States.

Both Freshservice and SolarWinds offers a free trial. Both Freshservice and SolarWinds offers support online, during the business hours and via a 24/7 live rep. Both SolarWinds and Freshservice offers training via documentation, webinars, live online and in-person.

Both LiveChat and SolarWinds are cloud-based help-desk solution designed for businesses of all sizes. SolarWinds vendor is SolarWinds which was founded in 2007 and based in the United States. Whereas LiveChat vendor is LiveChat software which was founded in 2002 and based in the United States.

LiveChat offers support online, and via a 24/7 live and in contrary SolarWinds offers support online, during the business hours and via a 24/7 live rep. LiveChat offers training via documentation, webinars and live online and in comparison SolarWinds offers training via documentation, webinars, live online and in-person.

How Can We Help?

The science of software cost/pricing may not be easy to understand. If you seek to understand software pricing model, get in touch with ITQlick experts. Contact us today and find solutions to all your questions. We will match software vendors that offer the best pricing on technology that fits your needs.

SolarWinds specifications

ITQlick Score: 94/100
ITQlick Rating: (5/5)
Company: Samanage
Address: Cary, NC
Pricing: Starting from $800 per user/year
Typical customers: Start up, Small business, Medium business, Large business
Platforms: Desktop, Mobile, Cloud
Operating Systems: Mac OS, Windows, Linux