# SolarWinds: how AI models rank it, September 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Named in 15 judge labels across 6 categories by 8 of 12 models. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/vendors/solarwinds/

## Standing by category

| Category | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Application performance monitoring | 0% | 18 | 0% | 5 |
| Log management | 0% | 58 | 100% | 4 |
| Infrastructure monitoring | 0% | 60 | 50% | 2 |
| Patch management | 0% | 86 | 100% | 2 |
| Incident management and on-call | 0% | 46 | 100% | 1 |
| Observability platforms | 0% | 52 | 0% | 1 |

## What the models said for it

- "SolarWinds is recommended for mid-size teams with hybrid IT environments." (Kimi K2, APM)
- "Best Value for Hybrid/IT-Focused B2B" (Grok 4.1 Fast, APM)

## And against it

- "Its reputation was severely damaged by the infamous SolarWinds123 security breach... complex setup... poor customer support" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, Infra monitoring)
- "Multiple users in sysadmin forums explicitly recommend avoiding SolarWinds' log and monitoring suite" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, Logs)
- "A sysadmin comment explicitly says to "avoid at all costs," reflecting strong negative sentiment" (Perplexity Sonar, Logs)
- "log management platforms that users should be cautious about or avoid, such as Solarwinds" (Llama 4 Maverick, Logs)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.