This discussion has been locked. The information referenced herein may be inaccurate due to age, software updates, or external references.

You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a similar question you can start a new discussion in this forum.

Would people pay more for WHD if SolarWinds added additional development resources?

cchambersCAP over 5 years ago

It seems that WHD is the redheaded stepchild of the SolarWinds ecosystem. From what I can tell, very little development goes into the product (which could be one of the best products on the market if it was given the proper development resources).

So my question is would you be willing to pay more for WHD if they actually committed to additional development? Just curious, as I would certainly we willing to pay quite a bit more in maintenance fees if I knew it would result in product improvements. My renewal is next summer and I will be looking hard at replacements, why I love a lot of features, especially for the price, I'm just finding too many issues that are not getting solved and it's making it harder and harder to justify keeping WHD around.

So what about you? Is the low cost a major feature for you?

Top Replies

0 cerniuk over 5 years ago

I think that the payment for support is indicative of paying for development. There is very little that happens between versions and frankly it does not make sense to pay for a year of support every year based upon the low value of the updates.
What confidence is there that anything would get enhanced if more money was charged?
Where is a Mobile App?
The mobile app was a step in the right direction but is dead now. It should have been updated to provide a real mobile end customer experience but instead it was a messy hybrid web and mobile app thing that never really got updated.

There needs to be a full mobile app developed for customer use and for admin/tech use.
Where is Mobile Responsiveness for Web?
Even government web sites are commonly mobile responsive, but not WHD.
Where is a modern "Chat" function?
I can even get chat support with the techno-backwards cable TV providers but not WHD
Where is integration with a vCal services
instead of using an internally developed calendar for anything in WHD.
What is my support contract paying for? I can't quite figure out why I should keep it current...
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Cancel
0 marklmco over 5 years ago in reply to cerniuk

It was my decision to introduce WHD in to my company and we have used it now for a few years. To be honest I feel really let down by this product, it is light on features and shows little sign of development.
I can see no reason why I would give the company more money to further develop it when I have paid maintenance for the past few years and got nothing for it, Could I trust them to further develop it if I paid more, no I couldn't. Would I pay more, yes probably with another supplier..
Cancel
Vote Up +2 Vote Down

Cancel
0 eber123 over 5 years ago

Good afternoon,
Well, at the moment I am not convinced to pay even more for WHD. We use WHD in the 6th year with almost 50x licenses. This is a lot of money over the years. Why was this money not used to develop the WHD product?
Looking back, if WHD would have been developed licenses could have been increased in the past. Now SolarWinds is in a bit of trouble. Either the management decides to develop the product to meet the user community needs or to start to let it go. If the lack of upgrades is not addressed I believe the latter option will happen actually automatically.
In the first instance money can be made simply with an improved product. I am convinced that there is a marked even with existing users to purchase additional licenses if the product is good and meets the needs. If word spreads new customers can be convinced to purchase the product. On an improved product, marketing can be improved. Why isn't there nation wide WHD forum with yearly meetings (online or live)?
During the tender process we researched the market, evaluated various options and at the end of the process chose WHD. At the time it was the best solution for us. If we go through an evaluation process now, I am not sure if WHD still would be on top of the list. Listing to all the comments here on Thwack I believe this might be the case with many other users. Shouldn't this not trigger all alarm bells from SolarWinds?
Regards,
Eberhard
Cancel
Vote Up +2 Vote Down

Cancel