Microsoft SharePoint has become one of the world’s most popular tools for creating websites. However, it needs to be monitored closely to ensure that resources are performing correctly.
The performance of servers, applications, and services must all be managed and monitored to ensure long term performance. SharePoint Administrator tools are key for keeping an eye on these resources.
SharePoint administrator tools with performance monitoring provide network administrators with visibility over network resources. This means better troubleshooting and a better experience delivered to the end-user. For More on SharePoint check out our post on Microsoft SharePoint Primer & Resources.
Here is a list of the best SharePoint administrator tools:
- SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor EDITOR’S CHOICE A complete server monitor that is able to keep track of physical statuses and logical activity. This tool includes synthetic modeling to test new systems and identify performance issues in existing SharePoint implementations. Start a 30-day free trial.
- ManageEngine SharePoint Manager Plus (FREE TRIAL) A web-based tool that includes user management and performance tuning utilities. Start a 30-day free trial.
- Paessler PRTG Network Monitor (FREE TRIAL) A monitoring system that covers networks as well as servers and applications. Runs on Windows Server. Start a 30-day free trial.
- SPDocKit Performance analysis, auditing, permissions management, and documentation for SharePoint implementations.
- Martello Vantage DX Monitoring and performance analysis for SharePoint and Office 365. Includes autodiscovery and an alerting mechanism.
- eG Enterprise Monitors all aspects of a SharePoint system and offers real-user monitoring for site and service testing.
- Metalogix Diagnostic Manager A live monitoring tool for SharePoint that also has analytical functions for capacity and performance assessments.
As one of the most widely-used website creations, document management and storage solutions, SharePoint comprises an incredible number of different services.
Servers, farms, and applications are all instrumental in delivering the SharePoint services modern enterprises are familiar with. Yet each of these components needs to be managed effectively in order to ensure a stable service.
With a SharePoint administrator tool, you can monitor these components for problems like latency and conduct more detailed troubleshooting if a problem is found. When small performance issues can have a big impact on end users, it is even more important to keep a close eye on SharePoint performance.
Our methodology for selecting a SharePoint administrator tool
We reviewed the market for SharePoint administrator systems and analyzed tools based on the following criteria:
- Server and application performance monitoring
- Full-stack observability down to the network
- Forecasting for resource requirements
- Activity monitoring and user management
- Performance tuning facilities
- A free trial or a demo package that enables an assessment without a long-term commitment
- Value for money from a performance monitoring tracking system that is offered at a reasonable price
With these selection criteria in mind, we identified application monitoring systems that have SharePoint integrations and can provide monitoring for other applications while supporting SharePoint, thus saving money.
1. SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (FREE TRIAL)
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is an application monitoring solution that can be used to manage SharePoint performance. With this tool, you can troubleshoot to reveal the cause of slow page load times and latency.
Key Features:
- SharePoint integration: Plus other applications
- Watches server resources: Correlates resource usage to application activity
- Tracks application activity: Can forecast resource requirements
- Calculates resource metrics: Enables historical analysis
- Alerts for performance issues: Forwarded by email or SMS
Why do we recommend it?
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is able to monitor many applications along with SharePoint. It is particularly strong at following the performance of the 1,200 systems for which it has integrations. These are extensions to the console of the SolarWinds system and there is one for SharePoint.
Issues can be divided up depending on their location, server infrastructure, and application. All of this information is shown to you in a dashboard view with tables and meters providing you with key metrics.
Key metrics monitored with SolarWinds Server & Application monitor include requests per second, request wait time, throughput, and rejected requests. When put together this information gives you all you need to know to measure the performance of SharePoint resources.
For the most effective troubleshooting, SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor offers native integration with SolarWinds Web Performance Monitor. With this integration, you can pinpoint specific transactions or connections that are causing pages to load slowly.
Who is it recommended for?
This is a solution for large organizations. There isn’t a cloud version for the tool and the software package runs on Windows. However, the system can monitor other operating systems and cloud platforms across a network connection. The system can be used to monitor multiple sites from one location.
Pros:
- Suitable for large organizations: Has a lot of monitoring capacity
- Auto-discovery: Creates an application dependency map
- SharePoint activity metrics: Throughput measurements and response times
- Drag and drop widgets: Make screen customizations ease
- Robust reporting system: Pre-configured compliance templates
Cons:
- No SaaS option: Only available for Windows Server
If you’re looking for a lightweight and easy-to-use SharePoint monitoring tool, SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is a good choice. The price for SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor starts at $2,995 (£2,308). There is also a 30-day free trial version you can try here.
EDITOR'S CHOICE
The SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is our top choice for SharePoint administration because it offers analytical tools as well as constant performance monitoring. The SAM will monitor all aspects of a SharePoint implementation and also underlying services right down to the physical properties of the host. Synthetic modeling allows analysts to examine any part of a SharePoint system to identify inefficient processes and that facility is also a good testing tool to make sure everything is working properly before a site goes live.
Get 30-day Free Trial: solarwinds.com/server-application-monitor/
OS: Windows Server
2. ManageEngine SharePoint Manager Plus (FREE TRIAL)
ManageEngine SharePoint Manager Plus is a SharePoint management tool built specifically for SharePoint. Through this web-based tool the user can configure individual or bulk user permission changes and create groups. For monitoring SharePoint there are SharePoint Usage Analytics. Usage analytics are divided into search reports and traffic reports.
Key Features:
- SharePoint management and monitoring: A specialized package
- Usage analysis: Constant activity tracking
- Activity ranking: Lists the biggest users and uses
- Query optimization: Speeds up response times
Why do we recommend it?
ManageEngine SharePoint Manager Plus is able to monitor multiple instances of SharePoint on-premises and in the cloud. The system is able to track activity on many sites and platforms simultaneously. The tool helps you to improve the security of AS accounts for SharePoint and track user activity.
Search reports show the user a list of users’ most popular search keywords and the frequency of object searches for individual users. In addition, rank reports show you the top sites (by hits) and the top pages (by page views and unique visitors). Audit reports are available in XLS, CSV, PDF, and HTML so that they can be easily passed on to other members of your team.
ManageEngine SharePoint Manager Plus is an available download for Windows. For SharePoint management specifically, this is one of the best tools on this list. However, if you’re looking for more of a performance monitoring solution, there are many other tools that are a better match.
Who is it recommended for?
You would need to be heavily dependent on multiple SharePoint implementations to justify taking on a specialized package that only manages that one technology. The system is only available as a software package for installation on Windows Server. There isn’t a Free edition of this package but you can get a 30-day free trial.
Pros:
- Built specifically for SharePoint: Integrates well with existing organizational structures and SP permissions sets
- Can monitor SharePoint performance and utilization: Provides pre-built reports in the Usage Analytics section
- Can optimize query performance: Based on user search history
- Can be accessed anywhere: Has a web-based portal
Cons:
- Lacks some performance monitoring features: Doesn’t have infrastructure monitoring or baseline analysis
There are three versions of ManageEngine SharePoint Manager Plus: the Trial Edition, the Standard Edition, and the Professional Edition. The Trial Edition is available for 30 days with all the features of the Professional Edition.
The Standard Edition is a limited version which costs $945 (£728) with 50 out-of-the-box reports. The Professional Edition includes all the features of the Standard Edition but offers permissions management for $1195 (£921). You can download the 30-day free trial.
3. PRTG Network Monitor (FREE TRIAL)
PRTG Network Monitor is an infrastructure monitoring platform that can monitor SharePoint servers and applications. PRTG Network Monitor comes with pre-configured sensors for SharePoint Server and be customized to measure the performance of connected servers.
Key Features:
- Free option: Provides up to 100 sensors
- Monitors activity: Time-based activity reports
- Server resource tracking: Examines application performance
Why do we recommend it?
Paessler PRTG Network Monitor is a general system monitoring package that can be tailored to track specific assets all customers receive the same software bundle and then decide which sensors to activate – you buy an allowance of these monitoring tools. There is a number of SharePoint-specific sensors in the package.
For example, the WMI SharePoint Process Sensor is a sensor designed specifically for monitoring SharePoint servers. On the WMI SharePoint Process Sensor you can monitor the number of current page requests, number of active threads, number of executed SQL queries, CPU utilization, global heap size, template cache size, and more.
Other preconfigured sensors like the Windows IIS Application Sensor and the PerfCounter IIS Application Pool Center are also capable of monitoring SharePoint resources.
Every sensor is monitored by alerts as well. The alerts system is one of PRTG Network Monitor’s strongest features. Once a predefined threshold has been crossed inside a sensor, the user is sent an alert.
For example, if the CPU usage of a SharePoint server goes above a certain limit the user is sent a notification via email, SMS or push notification. All thresholds are customizable so that you can decide when and how you want to be notified.
Who is it recommended for?
The full PRTG package is very large and only suitable for large businesses. However, you can reduce the price of PRTG considerably by not activating those parts of the system that you don’t need. This makes the package accessible to all sizes of businesses and it is free if you only activate 100 sensors.
Pros:
- Fully customizable dashboard: Great for both lone administrators as well as NOC teams
- Drag and drop editor: Makes it easy to build custom views and reports
- Performance alerts: Can be forwarded by SMS, email, and third-party platforms, such as Slack
Cons:
- Doesn’t provide any management features: PRTG is a monitoring-only package
PRTG Network Monitor is available for free for less than 100 sensors, making it a great option for smaller enterprises. The paid versions of PRTG Network Monitor start at $1600 (£1,233) for 500 sensors. The pricing model is scalable and can be increased depending on the amount of sensors and server installations you require. There is also a 30-day free trial version available.
4. SPDocKit
SPDoCKit is a SharePoint administration tool with auditing and analytics included. This tool can generate SharePoint documentation, best practice reports, audit reports, analytics reports, and manage permissions.
Key Features:
- SharePoint administration: Also provides auditing
- Manages user permissions: Tightens up security
- Activity reporting: Time-series analysis
Why do we recommend it?
SPDocKit specializes in monitoring SharePoint clusters. Like the ManageEngine tool on this list, SPDocKit doesn’t manage any other technology and, in fact, its focus is even narrower because this system doesn’t monitor cloud-based SharePoint systems. This package lets you manage account and server space for your SharePoint implementation and track performance.
Creating farm documentation allows you to eliminate the need to paste data into the platform manually. The tool does this by scanning your network and pulling configuration settings from your SharePoint resources. All of this information is then generated into a Word, Excel, or PDF document.
For managing permissions, SPDocKit provides you with a real-time perspective of user permissions. You can see this in a table that lists the name of users and the permissions that they hold. SharePoint groups can be created and deleted as needed in just a few clicks.
When it comes to monitoring SharePoint usage, SharePoint Analytics and Usage Reports are the features that make this happen. With SharePoint analytics, you can view usage data such as number of hits per farm, site or subset, time of last assess and the list of site visitors. This information is shown to you as tables and meters.
There are two main pricing categories for SPDocKit: Farm and Consultant. Farm packages are intended for use by those managing on-premises farms. Conversely, the Consultant packages are for those enterprises that work with clients.
Who is it recommended for?
SPDocKit is an on-premises package and it monitors on-site implementations of SharePoint. If you want to monitor Microsoft SharePoint Online, you should look at a sister product, called SkyKit Pont. This system is suitable for use by data centers and large businesses that are heavily dependent on SharePoint servers.
Pros:
- Built specifically for Sharepoint: Includes auditing and administration
- Comes prebuilt with best-practice reports: Also permission audits and analytics insights
- Designed for larger SharePoint deployments: Great for enterprise use
Cons:
- Focused on SharePoint: Won’t monitor other applications or infrastructure
A Farm annual subscription costs $2,499 (£1,926) per farm per year. If you want to add SysKit Insights then this price increases to $3,499 (£2,697) per production farm. The Consultant annual subscription costs $1,999 (£1,541) per year. There is also a free trial version that you can download here.
5. Martello Vantage DX
Martello Vantage DX specializes in monitoring Microsoft 365 components on the cloud and on site and it will also track the performance of Microsoft Teams. SharePoint monitoring is part of this remit.
Key Features:
- Discovers SharePoint servers: Creates an inventory
- Performance tracking: Live monitoring
- Alerts for problems: Draws attention to performance issues
Why do we recommend it?
Martello Vantage DX helps you to unify the monitoring of all of your Microsoft productivity suite tools, including Exchange Server, Outlook, and SharePoint. You can track issues in the Microsoft cloud-based tools as well as the on-site elements if you choose to have local installation. The tool particularly tracks and warns about service outages.
Once the servers have been discovered, the SharePoint Overview display shows the status of your servers broken down into different roles. Servers are categorized as SQL servers, applications servers, and web front-end servers.
The monitoring experience offered by Martello Vantage DX is sophisticated enough to detect and troubleshoot a variety of performance issues common with SharePoint. Latency, mail connectivity, and DNS resolution are just a handful of the things that Martello is capable of monitoring. For instance, you can create a graph of the response time of a SharePoint web service.
For further control, you can configure profile alerts. Alerts are sent by email, SMS, pager, pop-up messages, and SNMP traps to update you on changes to SharePoint. Alerts can be prioritized by severity and escalated to another member of staff if there is no response.
Who is it recommended for?
Using cloud-based services takes a lot of responsibility for performance management out of the hands of your in-house technicians. However, you have to assume Microsoft’s services will always be available. Naturally, this will not always be the case, so your support team needs to know when users are unable to reach Microsoft service.
Pros:
- Monitors the entire Microsoft 365 suite: Watches the cloud platform and on-premises systems
- Resource consumption metrics: Tracks availability and shortages
- Latency examination: Helps avoid downtime and tickets
Cons:
- Only tracks Microsoft applications: Doesn’t cover infrastructure
Martello offers the right balance of SharePoint performance monitoring and administrative capabilities. The combination of the two makes this package one of the standout tools on this list. You can assess Martello Vantage DX with a 14-day free trial.
6. eG Enterprise
eG Enterprise is another widely-used SharePoint monitoring solution. With this tool, you can monitor everything from sites, web applications, web parts, databases, logs, and events. All of this information is available to you through one user interface.
Key Features:
- SharePoint application dependency mapping: Watches demand
- Real user monitoring: Tracks response times
- Root cause analysis: Quickly pinpoints the real problem
Why do we recommend it?
eG Enterprise is a cloud-based system that is able to monitor cloud and on-premises systems. You can get SharePoint monitoring with this system alongside monitoring for other infrastructure and applications. The system is particularly strong at monitoring infrastructure applications such as file management systems and Web servers.
You can monitor the availability of SharePoint services to make sure that a key service hasn’t gone down. There is also real-user monitoring so that you can view the quality of the user experience delivered on your site. In other words, you can find performance issues before your end-user does.
To make sure that you can respond to issues promptly, eG Enterprise automatically discovers SharePoint applications and infrastructure dependencies. You can view this infrastructure as a map which shows you how each service connects to the next. This is invaluable for running troubleshooting and pinpointing the root cause of a problem.
There are a variety of versions of eG Enterprise to purchase, including cloud-deployed versions to on-premises installations. There is a free cloud-based Easy Evaluation package, an on-premises Perpetual License, an on-premises Subscription version, an SaaS cloud-based version, and an Audit Service based on-premises or in the cloud.
Who is it recommended for?
Although eG Enterprise is a cloud system, customers who want to run all of their monitoring systems themselves can request the software package to install. The service is available for a monthly subscription or, in its on-premises version, on a perpetual license. The price is pitched to appeal to mid-sized businesses.
Pros:
- Good activity visualizations: Shows charts and graphs
- Full-stack observability: Tracks networks and infrastructure as well as applications
- Deployment options: Available for both on-premise and cloud-based deployments
Cons:
- Pricing is not transparent: You have to request a quote from the sales team
In order to view the price of eG Enterprise you’ll need to request a quote. You can download the free trial of eG Enterprise via this link here.
7. Metalogix Diagnostic Manager
Metalogix Diagnostic Manager is another SharePoint administrator tool and performance monitoring solution. Metalogix Diagnostic Manager supports SharePoint Server 2016, Server 2013, Foundation 2013, Server 2010, Foundation 2010, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 or later, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 or later. Monitoring the health status of SharePoint resources is very straightforward.
Key Features:
- Examines SharePoint: Component identification
- Live status reporting: Able to monitor server farms
- Alerts for performance problems: Spots sudden status changes
Why do we recommend it?
Metalogix Diagnostic Manager is a Quest brand – which is a highly-respected IT monitoring systems provider. This tool covers SharePoint and database environments, with a particular focus on server farms. This tool is able to automatically monitor the interactions between physical servers and the data management services that run on top of them.
On the dashboard, you can view the health status of SharePoint broken down into different segments. For instance, there is a pie chart showing the status of Farms, Server Groups, Servers, and Pages in isolation. Resources are categorized as Critical, Warning, or Ok so that you know if you need to take action.
However, you can also configure alerts to keep you notified automatically. Alerts on Metalogix Diagnostic Manager are configured by setting performance thresholds. Notifications will let you know if a key service goes down or if content growth is occurring. Alerts are sent regardless of whether resources are located on-premises or in the cloud.
Who is it recommended for?
The Metalogix system is ideal for use by data centers. Its combination of file and database server performance enables administrators to optimize data request responses and avoid outages through continuous preventative maintenance. This is an on-premises package that runs on Windows or Windows Server.
Pros:
- Covers many SharePoint versions: Supporting versions as old as SPS 2007
- Drill-down details: By farm, servers, pages, and groups
- Server content inventory: Provides file counts per type
Cons:
- No price list: Must contact sales for pricing information
The simplicity and health monitoring features offered by Metalogix Diagnostic Manager render it one of the more accessible SharePoint administrator tools on this list. To see the price of this product, you need to contact the sales team directly. However, you can download the free trial version of Metalogix Diagnostic Manager available here.
What are the best SharePoint administration tool?
If you are unfamiliar with SharePoint administration tools then SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor, PRTG Network Monitor, and ManageEngine SharePoint Manager Plus are some of the most user-friendly tools available.
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor can detect the most common performance issues that plague SharePoint users. The dashboard doesn’t overcrowd you with information so you are unlikely to miss anything.
PRTG Network Monitor is notable because it offers the use of 100 free sensors and sensor-driven monitoring experience that can be easily established and configured. Having alerts tethered to these sensors maintains visibility over SharePoint and increases the effectiveness of performance monitoring.
For managing users and other administrative tasks, ManageEngine SharePoint Manager Plus has the design and features to function well within an enterprise environment. Changing user permissions and provisioning groups is easy to do compared to many other tools on the market.
No matter what the needs of your organization are, we recommend that you try out at least one free trial before committing to a product. Testing out a product before deployment will make sure that it has all the capabilities you need to monitor SharePoint effectively.
SharePoint is a collaboration tool for teams that allows several people to work on the same document. OneDrive is a cloud file storage system. One Drive can offer a common folder for shared files.
A SharePoint developer creates custom processes that exploit the workflows and macros to automate file processing through SharePoint. A SharePoint administrator is in charge of setting up accounts and setting the configuration of the SharePoint instance. A developer creates and an administrator manages.
