PocketNOC vs SolarWinds Mobile Admin
Last updated: 2026-05-24
SolarWinds Mobile Admin was retired. Here is what fills the SolarWinds Orion mobile gap, how PocketNOC works, and where each option fits.
Short answer
SolarWinds Mobile Admin no longer exists as a way to monitor SolarWinds Orion from a phone. The product that shipped under that name was retired. The "SolarWinds" app you find on the App Store today is the Service Desk mobile client. It manages ITSM tickets, not Orion infrastructure. If you're looking for the mobile NPM/SAM/NTA experience Mobile Admin used to provide, you have two real options: the responsive mobile view of the Orion Web Console (browser-based, awkward on phones), or a purpose-built mobile client that speaks the SWIS API directly. PocketNOC is the latter.
At a glance
| PocketNOC | SolarWinds Mobile Admin | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Active, current | Retired |
| Talks to Orion (NPM/SAM/NTA/NCM/IPAM/DPA) | Yes, via SWIS API | Historically yes |
| iOS | Yes | Retired |
| Android | Yes | Retired |
| Vendor lock-in for Orion data routing | None, direct device-to-server | N/A |
| Cloud intermediary for monitoring data | None | N/A |
| Push notifications for alerts | Yes (Pro) | N/A |
| Pricing | Free demo, $99.99/yr Pro (pricing) | N/A |
How we got here
Mobile Admin was a SolarWinds product aimed at IT operations, covering admin tasks across Active Directory, VMware, Exchange, and SCCM, with some Orion integration. It went away. The mobile experience SolarWinds invested in next was the Service Desk app, which is a fine ITSM client but does not pull node health, performance counters, or alert state from an Orion server. Customers who relied on mobile Orion access were left with the Orion Web Console's mobile-responsive view, which works but is a browser experience designed primarily for a 1080p desktop.
PocketNOC was built to fill that gap honestly, without rebuilding the web console as a webview wrapper. The app is native iOS and native Android. It calls the SWIS API directly from the device to your Orion server. There is no SaaS in the middle. The only WeaveHub-hosted infrastructure is the licensing/entitlement check, which sees subscription state and nothing else.
What you give up moving from "wait for Mobile Admin to come back" to PocketNOC
It is a third-party app, not a SolarWinds product. If you have a strict no-third-party policy for tools that touch Orion, that is a real consideration. The mitigations: monitoring data never leaves your network, the app uses a read-only account by default, and the credentials are stored in the device keychain (iOS) or EncryptedSharedPreferences (Android), never on PocketNOC servers.
It is a subscription. $99.99/year per device or $9.99/month (pricing), billed through the App Store or Google Play. A free demo mode is available to evaluate the UI against sample data before you point it at production.
What you get back
- Mobile-native UI for Orion. Real touch targets, native navigation, biometric app lock, push notifications for alerts. Not a webview.
- Module-aware. PocketNOC auto-detects which Orion modules are licensed on your instance and only shows the relevant screens. If you don't have NTA, you don't see a broken NetFlow tab.
- TOFU for self-signed certs. Mobile Admin required certs that mobile browsers accepted; PocketNOC's Trust On First Use model lets you keep your existing internal CA or self-signed cert without rolling out a public certificate just for a mobile app.
When PocketNOC is the wrong answer
If your team's mobile monitoring requirement is just paging: "when an alert fires, route it to the right person, escalate after 5 minutes, override Do Not Disturb." Then a dedicated paging platform like OnPage or PagerDuty is what you want. PocketNOC will show you the alert and let you acknowledge it from the device, but it is not an on-call rotation engine.
If you need full administrative control over the Orion server (creating nodes, editing alert definitions, managing groups, running reports), PocketNOC is intentionally scoped to monitoring. The Orion Web Console remains the right tool for configuration.
When PocketNOC is the right answer
You're on call. The first thing you need at 3am is what is wrong and how bad is it: node down, alert severity, recent performance graph for that host. You don't want to wait three minutes for the laptop to wake up, decrypt the disk, connect to VPN, log into Orion, and load the dashboard. You want it on the phone, with the same data you'd see in the web console, secured the same way.
That's the workflow PocketNOC was built around.
Setup
- Install PocketNOC on iOS or Android.
- Make sure the device can reach your Orion server. Options documented under Docs:
- Corporate VPN (the option most teams already have)
- Cloudflare Tunnel (no inbound port exposure)
- Tailscale, ZeroTier, WireGuard
- Create a dedicated read-only Orion account for the app (we strongly recommend this over reusing your admin account).
- Point PocketNOC at
https://your-orion-server:17778. The app handles self-signed certs via TOFU on first connection. - Log in. The app auto-detects your licensed modules and configures the relevant screens.
Full setup walkthrough at /docs.
Bottom line
SolarWinds Mobile Admin is not coming back, and the Orion Web Console mobile view is what's left in-band. PocketNOC is a focused, current, mobile-native option for the people who need to see Orion from a phone, built by network engineers who got tired of trying to read a desktop dashboard on a 6-inch screen at 3am.
For how PocketNOC compares with other tools in this space, also see PocketNOC vs the Orion Web Console mobile view and PocketNOC vs Grafana Cloud.
FAQ
Is SolarWinds Mobile Admin still available?
SolarWinds Mobile Admin was retired. If you search the App Store or Google Play for "SolarWinds" today, you find the Service Desk client. That app connects to SolarWinds Service Desk (the ITSM product), not to the Orion Platform. There is no current SolarWinds-branded mobile app that reads node health, active alerts, or performance data from NPM, SAM, NTA, NCM, IPAM, or DPA.
Can I still get something close to Mobile Admin?
Not from SolarWinds directly. The supported alternatives are the responsive mobile view of the Orion Web Console (browser-based, requires a network session to the Orion server) or a third-party app that talks to the SWIS API directly. PocketNOC is the latter. It is read-only by design, which fits the monitoring use case and keeps the attack surface small.
Does PocketNOC require my Orion server to be on the public internet?
No. PocketNOC connects to Orion the same way you connect from a workstation on the corporate LAN. Reach it over your corporate network, a VPN (Tailscale, WireGuard, ZeroTier, or traditional IPSec), or a secure tunnel like Cloudflare Tunnel. Exposing Orion to the public internet is not recommended with or without PocketNOC.
Does monitoring data pass through PocketNOC servers?
No. The app on the device makes SWIS API calls directly to your Orion server over HTTPS. WeaveHub's licensing service sees account state only: never monitoring data, credentials, node names, or alert content.
What does PocketNOC cost?
Free tier is demo mode with sample data. It is useful for evaluating the UI before pointing it at a real Orion server. Pro is $99.99 per year or $9.99 per month per device (pricing), billed through the App Store or Google Play.