SolarWinds pricing starts at $8 per node a month for SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted, on a multi-year contract billed annually. The SaaS version is priced per module: $15.75 per node a month for Network and Infrastructure Observability, $27.50 per service for Application Observability, $5 per GB of logs, $70 per database instance and $10 for every 10 synthetic uptime checks. Service Desk starts at $39 per technician a month and Incident Response at $15 per user.
Every figure here was read from solarwinds.com/pricing, the SolarWinds Observability SaaS pricing page and its pricing FAQ, and SolarWinds' licensing documentation. Prices are US dollars and are the "starts at" list rates SolarWinds prints. It sells volume discounts through sales, so a quote for a large estate will land lower per node. The arithmetic below is ours and every step is shown.
The SolarWinds headline rates for 2026
SolarWinds now sells two ways. SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted is the successor to the Orion platform (Network Performance Monitor, Server & Application Monitor and the rest), installed on your own servers or in your own cloud account. SolarWinds Observability SaaS is the hosted platform, sold as separate modules. Around them sit ITSM, incident response, database and a shelf of single tools.
| Product | Starts at | Billing unit | Per year, one unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Observability Self-Hosted | $8 a month | Per node | $96 |
| Observability SaaS: Network and Infrastructure | $15.75 a month | Per node (device or host) | $189 |
| Observability SaaS: Application | $27.50 a month | Per service instance | $330 |
| Observability SaaS: Log | $5.00 a month | Per GB ingested | $60 |
| Observability SaaS: Database | $70.00 a month | Per database instance | $840 |
| Observability SaaS: Synthetic | $10.00 a month | Per bundle of 10 uptime or 2 transaction checks | $120 |
| Observability SaaS: Real User Monitoring | $10.00 a month | Per 100,000 page views | $120 |
| Database (main pricing page) | $142 a month | Per database | $1,704 |
| Service Desk | $39 a month | Per technician, unlimited requesters | $468 |
| Incident Response | $15 a month | Per user | $180 |
One footnote applies to almost every line: SolarWinds marks these prices as monthly figures on multi-year contracts billed annually. So "$8 a month" in practice means an annual invoice for a contract that runs more than one year. There is no month-to-month option on the pricing page. Trials run 30 days on the Observability products and 14 days on most tools.
How much does SolarWinds cost per node?
SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted costs $8 per node a month at list, or $96 a year per node, and SolarWinds Observability SaaS costs $15.75 per node a month for network and infrastructure, or $189 a year. So the hosted version lists at almost twice the self-hosted rate, before you count the servers, database and staff time the self-hosted version needs.
What counts as a node decides the bill, and the rules are generous in places. On the SaaS, a router, switch or host with the agent counts one to one, but wireless access points count ten to one, standalone VMs three to one, non-host cloud services three to one and containers ten to one. Billing uses the highest number of active nodes the previous day. On the self-hosted side, SolarWinds' licensing documentation says ICMP nodes do not consume a license when you monitor availability only, meaning ping. Add an application monitor or poll interfaces on that node and it starts counting.
Self-hosted comes in Essentials, Advanced and Premier tiers, with an Enterprise edition available from 500 nodes and required above 1,500. SolarWinds does not print a separate price for each tier; the $8 is the entry rate, and the tier you need is set in the quote.
Three worked SolarWinds bills
List prices, before volume discounts. These show how the bill is built, not what your account team will offer.
| Estate | How it is priced | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 servers and switches, self-hosted | 100 nodes x $8 | $800 | $9,600 |
| 200 nodes, self-hosted, three-year term | 200 x $8, three annual invoices | $1,600 | $19,200 ($57,600 over the term) |
| SaaS mid-size stack | 40 hosts $630, 10 services $275, 50 GB logs $250, 5 databases $350, 30 uptime checks $30 | $1,535 | $18,420 |
The SaaS example shows where the money goes once you add modules. Infrastructure is only 41% of it. Databases and application services, the two smallest counts in the list, are 41% between them, and logs are another 16%. Log volume is the line most teams underestimate: ingesting 200 GB a month instead of 50 would add $750 to the bill on its own.
Because the contracts are multi-year and billed annually, the renewal invoice deserves the same scrutiny as the first one. Put it through your normal accounts payable approval with the node count attached, rather than letting a large annual software charge pay itself because it matches last year's vendor.
How much does SolarWinds synthetic monitoring cost?
SolarWinds Observability SaaS sells synthetic monitoring at $10 a month per bundle of 10 uptime checks or 2 transaction checks. That works out to $1 a month per uptime check and $5 per transaction check. Checks can run as often as every 60 seconds, and the price does not change with frequency.
The catch is how SolarWinds counts a check. Its FAQ gives the formula: tested protocols multiplied by locations. Checking one website over HTTPS from three locations is three checks. Checking it over both HTTP and HTTPS from London and Los Angeles is four. So an uptime check is really a check per location.
| 20 public URLs, HTTPS | Checks counted | Bundles | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| SolarWinds, 1 location, every 60 seconds | 20 | 2 | $20 |
| SolarWinds, 3 locations, every 60 seconds | 60 | 6 | $60 |
| AlertPing Starter, 2 regions, every 60 seconds | 20 monitors | n/a | $49 |
| AlertPing Team, 2 regions, every 30 seconds | up to 100 monitors | n/a | $59 |
Credit where it is due: at $1 per check, SolarWinds is one of the cheaper places to buy synthetic uptime checks inside a big platform, far below per-run metering. Dynatrace, for comparison, bills $0.001 per request per location, so one URL checked every minute from one location is $43.83 a month. The SolarWinds limit is the floor: 60 seconds is the fastest interval, and multi-location coverage multiplies the check count.
That multi-location coverage is where a dedicated uptime service is simpler. AlertPing checks every monitor from two regions and only alerts when both agree the site is down, with SMS, email, Slack and webhook alerts and a public status page on every plan. Twenty monitors cost $49 a month ($24 billed yearly), and 30-second checks start at $59 on Team. There is no free plan, and we do none of the internal monitoring SolarWinds does.
How much does SolarWinds NPM cost?
SolarWinds no longer lists Network Performance Monitor as a separately priced product on its pricing page. NPM, Server & Application Monitor and the other Orion modules are now sold inside SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted, which starts at $8 per node a month on a multi-year contract. The exact rate for a network-only deployment comes from a quote.
The licensing model changed with it. SolarWinds' documentation describes Self-Hosted licenses as multi-year contracts billed annually, and says that when a subscription ends, polling new data for the product stops. Under the old perpetual model the software kept running after maintenance lapsed. If you are on an old perpetual NPM license, that difference is the first thing to raise at renewal.
SolarWinds tool prices
The single-purpose tools are still sold on their own, most of them as one-off purchases rather than per-node subscriptions. These are the "starts at" prices SolarWinds lists.
| Tool | Starts at |
|---|---|
| Kiwi Log Viewer | $199 |
| Dameware Mini Remote Control | $370 |
| Dameware Remote Support | $520 |
| Web Help Desk | $533 |
| Serv-U FTP Server | $666 |
| Dameware Remote Everywhere | $972 |
| Kiwi Syslog Server | $999 |
| Kiwi CatTools | $1,095 |
| Network Topology Mapper | $1,977 |
| Engineer's Toolset | $1,997 |
| Serv-U Managed File Transfer Server | $4,019 |
One tool is missing from the list: ipMonitor, SolarWinds' old standalone uptime monitor. Its documentation now says the product has reached end of life. If that is what you were pricing, our SolarWinds ipMonitor alternative page covers what replaces it.
Is SolarWinds cheaper than PRTG or LogicMonitor?
Cheaper than LogicMonitor, yes; cheaper than PRTG, not at small sizes. SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted starts at $8 per node a month and LogicMonitor at $16 per Hybrid Unit on Essentials. PRTG starts at $200 a month for 500 sensors, about 50 devices, which is roughly $4 per device, so PRTG is the cheapest per device at that size.
| Vendor | Entry list price | Unit | Hosting |
|---|---|---|---|
| SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted | $8 a month | Per node, multi-year | You host it |
| SolarWinds Observability SaaS | $15.75 a month | Per node | Hosted |
| LogicMonitor Essentials | $16 a month | Per Hybrid Unit | Hosted |
| PRTG 500 | $200 a month, paid annually | 500 sensors, about 50 devices | You host it |
| Dynatrace Infrastructure Monitoring | $29 a month | Per host | Hosted |
List price is only part of it. Self-hosted SolarWinds and PRTG need a Windows server, a database and someone to patch them. For the rate cards in full, see our LogicMonitor pricing and PRTG pricing breakdowns, and the LogicMonitor vs Dynatrace comparison if a hosted platform is on the shortlist. We also priced six estates in LogicMonitor vs SolarWinds, where the 3:1 VM ratio decides most of them, and the whole field on one virtualized estate in SolarWinds alternatives priced. If ManageEngine is the other shortlist name, OpManager vs SolarWinds pricing runs the two from 25 to 1,000 devices.
Do you need SolarWinds to monitor website uptime?
Not if public uptime is the job. SolarWinds earns its price on the inside view: SNMP polling, interface traffic, server and application health, config backups, logs. If what you need is to know within a minute that the website, the API or the checkout is down for customers, and to page someone by SMS, a node-based platform with a multi-year contract is more tool than the problem.
Many teams run both: SolarWinds inside the network, and an outside check that does not share the network's failure. If the data center link drops, the monitor inside it goes quiet too. See how the options compare on price in our uptime monitoring pricing table.
SolarWinds pricing FAQ
How much does SolarWinds cost per year?
SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted lists at $96 per node a year ($8 a month), so 100 nodes are $9,600 a year before volume discounts. The SaaS lists at $189 per node a year for network and infrastructure, with applications, logs, databases and synthetic checks priced as separate modules.
Does SolarWinds have a free trial?
Yes. SolarWinds Observability SaaS and Self-Hosted are fully functional for 30 days, and most tools such as Kiwi Syslog Server and Engineer's Toolset for 14 days. There is no permanent free tier for the Observability platform.
Is SolarWinds a subscription?
Yes, for the Observability platform. SolarWinds describes Self-Hosted licenses as multi-year contracts billed annually, and states that polling new data stops when the subscription ends. Several standalone tools, such as Kiwi Syslog Server, are still sold with no monthly fees.
Does SolarWinds charge for ping-only nodes?
Not on Self-Hosted. SolarWinds' licensing documentation says ICMP nodes do not consume a license when you monitor availability only. The SaaS FAQ also says ICMP nodes are included and do not count against the node total. Adding any other monitoring to the node makes it count.