ControlUp vs Zabbix comparison

ControlUp and Zabbix are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. ControlUp is ranked #37 with an average rating of 7.7, while Zabbix is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7. ControlUp holds a 1.0% mindshare in IM, compared to Zabbix’s 13.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of ControlUp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Zabbix users who would recommend it.

ControlUp

Read 11 ControlUp reviews

1,347 Views
907 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Zabbix

Read 105 Zabbix reviews

15,671 Views
11,943 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

ControlUp

Zabbix

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Zabbix and ControlUp are strong contenders in the monitoring solutions category, each offering unique benefits. Zabbix appears to have an advantage in cost-effectiveness due to its open-source nature, while ControlUp stands out with advanced endpoint monitoring and real-time insights necessary for environments requiring detailed analysis.

Features: Zabbix offers powerful monitoring with low-level discovery, automated network discovery, and flexible configuration options. It supports extensive integrations and historical data retention without charging for these features. ControlUp provides real-time endpoint monitoring, capacity planning, and detailed user and application performance metrics.

Room for Improvement: Zabbix users recommend enhancing reporting and user interface to better serve non-technical users and increasing available templates for devices. ControlUp could improve its integration capabilities and expand network monitoring features while refining reporting and alert setups for thorough insights.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zabbix supports deployment across on-premises and hybrid cloud environments, backed by strong community support and documentation though it lacks built-in direct support without extra purchases. ControlUp adapts well to hybrid and cloud environments, offering more direct support options, but faces integration challenges and limits direct support without additional services.

Pricing and ROI: Zabbix, being open-source, is free and delivers high ROI through savings on licensing and support, favored for zero-cost deployment and community support. ControlUp, despite higher licensing costs, is considered cost-effective due to advanced features and seamless integration within IT infrastructures.

To learn more, read our detailed ControlUp vs. Zabbix Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

ControlUp vs. Zabbix

April 2025

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Helped 848,476 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

ControlUp

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

37th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (5th)

Zabbix

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

105

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (8th), Network Monitoring Software (1st), Server Monitoring (1st), Cloud Monitoring Software (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of ControlUp is 1.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zabbix is 13.2%, up from 11.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Richasvi Tripathi

Solutions Developer at HCL Technologies

Used to monitor several devices, but most reports do not give information of all the devices

We have approximately 10 to 20 feature requests pending on the vendor side. Most reports give information about the top 100 devices, but not all of the devices. In our case, we are monitoring 200000 devices. So, we need details for all those devices, but that is limited to 100, which they have improved to an extent in some reports. I'm thinking of one feature request for ISPs because the dashboard does not provide a detailed list of ISPs, and it provides the wrong list. I feel some firewall issues are blocking that, and the team cannot send that detail. That may be the case. One feature request pending on the vendor side is the data format change. Once you see a detail in the report, it is mentioned in some other format, which is hard to analyze sometimes.

Read full review

ASM Naushad Alam

Network Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Allows any number of customizations but lacks functionality for finding root causes

We have not yet purchased the commercial version so have a lack of technical ability. We do not yet fully know the key points or key features of the solution. We just use what we use along with WhatsUp Gold. Based on our use only, stability is rated a seven out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"When using ControlUp, the core feature that we have found valuable is its UI. It is a valuable tool to view the analysis reactions of a base core Level 2 or Level 1 team so that they can complete the necessary troubleshooting."

"The most valuable feature is the granularity of visibility into the resources that are in use by our applications."

"The most valuable features in ControlUp are endpoint monitoring and the many features that are available."

"The script-based actions have allowed us to extend the core reporting capabilities."

"ControlUp has an easy installation process."

"It has a great career time monitoring tool."

"ControlUp is beneficial as it provides a web interface through which you can access all your infrastructure—servers, devices, and VDI infrastructure—all on the same platform. It supports gathering all infrastructure components in a single, unified dashboard. This helps you identify performance issues or high resource utilization, allowing quick troubleshooting. I appreciate the solid interface that ControlUp offers."

"It shows you so many details of what's going on in that log-on that, if there's a problem, you can identify it in five minutes."

More ControlUp pros

"Templates are good. We download them from the official Zabbix site or the community. If the information we need isn't available, we create custom templates based on client requirements."

"Zabbix is a cost-effective solution. We're a small organization with a few dozen devices to monitor, and it was available for free. We can see what we need. We haven't done an in-depth analysis on it, but we're currently okay with the product."

"The template system in Zabbix is very beneficial as it saves time in configuration."

"It's the best solution. Great. I would rate the overall solution ten out of ten."

"Zabbix helps to save time."

"The most valuable features of Zabbix are flexibility and a single interface for different types of monitoring."

"The solution's design has recently changed and it is visually pleasing with more color, for example, there is blue, black, and white."

"We are able to monitor our virtual infrastructure, virtual machines, windows servers, databases, and the network using a simple network management protocol. We are able to pull almost all the metrics that we want, receive notifications, and have them integrate with telegrams for certain devices that are critical, such as UPSs."

More Zabbix pros

Cons

"We'd like to see the mobile app working again so that we can get alerts 24/7. This is especially useful for the person on call."

"The graphical user interface needs to be improved from version to version."

"There was some lag earlier, and reports pulled from the dashboard would sometimes be half an hour old. But now, the information provides real-time status, which is greatly appreciated. Overall, I've seen improvement in the product."

"Solve is a quick and intuitive tool for quickly mapping data together, however, once you have the view of the data that you like, it is difficult to share this with colleagues."

"Integration is always a problem, and we feel that we are doing our best and the service provider thinks they are doing their best. I guess if ControlUp's system could be more capable or if people could understand the integration part, that would be better."

"It can be improved by including script-based scheduling."

"This solution be improved by including load throttling tools. For example, I can identify a service where we spend a lot of CPU but I cannot restrict the service from ControlUp. I have to use another tool like AppSense."

"ControlUp could improve the integration. Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop monitoring has better integration."

More ControlUp cons

"Implementing Zabbix is difficult. I've deployed many solutions over the years, and Zabbix is the hardest to implement. You have to do some development to get it to work with IBM, Micro Focus, or HP products."

"Zabbix can use better documentation and support for troubleshooting."

"I'm using the free version of Zabbix, and I'd like to see more customization options, especially for setting trigger thresholds."

"Its UI needs to be improved a little bit more so that an end-user is also able to handle it. I can handle it, but others should also be able to handle it in a better way. It becomes complex when we are growing and need to add proxies. We need more scalability features and documentation for different use cases. A lot of articles are available, but they need to be in proper documentation. For example, when you have thousands of servers that have to be monitored in different regions of the world, there should be some kind of documentation to describe how you can create proxies and add them. Sometimes, when you are using the database, it can get overloaded. When the network is growing, the number of transactions becomes very high, and the database gets overloaded. There should be information about how to reduce the load on the MySQL database, which is what Zabbix is using. The market is growing a lot, and it should be enhanced for a lot more things. We are currently bringing enhancements at our end for different use cases. For example, when dockerization is going on, how can we check the logs inside the Dockers. We should also be able to monitor and check the number of logins and add features such as SSO login and two-factor authentication as a protocol. These are the security features and concerns that we have to deal with. Currently, we are developing modules to add features to Zabbix, but they should also work on these features."

"Zabbix does not draw automatic mapping of the network, this is something they should add in the future. There is a lot of effort that is involved in tailoring some of the settings which could be made easier."

"The integration of the product is not so easy, especially when it comes to the application database."

"There's a small module of APM, however, it is not an enhanced version. People usually ask for a full-fledged APM solution."

"The main problem with Zabbix is that you have to spend time writing templates for all of the products that you have."

More Zabbix cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Personally, I would say that the only thing I could compare it to is another monitoring tool that we use, Nagios."

"We are satisfied with the price compared to other solutions."

"Based on my experience, ControlUp is not that expensive."

"It is a true open-source solution, so there are no licensing costs."

"There are no licenses."

"The solution is free. However, many open-sourced tools start out free but eventually start charging."

"For pricing, it's free. We don't pay anything for it. They open-source the code, and people pay for support."

"It’s free of cost."

"We use the open-source version of Zabbix."

"If you have 20,000 hosts, the support costs around €95,000 for a year."

"It is free, which allows us to reduce costs."

More Zabbix pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user174738

IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

May 31, 2015

Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor

I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

14%

Healthcare Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

34%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ControlUp Real-time?

Based on my experience, ControlUp is not that expensive. It is a cheap tool because it is deployed to many devices where I work.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ControlUp Real-time?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for ControlUp Real-time?

We use the tool to monitor approximately 2,00,000 devices for a client. We check how the devices are doing in terms of hardware and software. We also check their health and alerts every day. If som...

See all answers

What do you like most about Zabbix?

The template system in Zabbix is very beneficial as it saves time in configuration.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zabbix?

The cost is minimal. It is literally free.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zabbix?

For me, Zabbix is very straightforward. I cannot think of any improvements needed. It's a very mature product. The only issue I can note is that it's Linux-based, and Linux documentation is not the...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 26% of the time

Citrix uberAgent Monitoring vs ControlUp

Compared 20% of the time

eG Enterprise vs ControlUp

Compared 9% of the time

Liquidware Stratusphere UX vs ControlUp

Compared 8% of the time

Goliath Performance Monitor vs ControlUp

Compared 4% of the time

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LibreNMS vs Zabbix

Compared 10% of the time

Checkmk vs Zabbix

Compared 9% of the time

Icinga vs Zabbix

Compared 8% of the time

NetXMS vs Zabbix

Compared 4% of the time

Centreon vs Zabbix

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ControlUp

April 2025

Download ControlUp product report

Buyer's Guide

Zabbix

March 2025

Download Zabbix product report

Overview

ControlUp is a digital experience monitoring management platform that makes it possible for IT teams to deliver a work-from-anywhere experience for employees. The solution makes fixing and preventing issues easy, enabling IT teams to make smarter decisions. It also provides monitoring performance, availability, and useful productivity metrics.

The ControlUp platform supports:

Any digital workstyle
Physical endpoints
Virtual desktops
Apps
SaaS
Web apps
Unified communications tools

ControlUp Features

ControlUp has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Out-of-the-box device and performance metrics
Custom metric and device data collection
Non-intrusive, secure agents with offline mode
Custom reporting
Easy-to-use dashboards
Scalable SaaS infrastructure
Built-in troubleshooting & remediation actions
Remote assist
Custom script actions
Multiple scripting languages
Automation and alerting

ControlUp Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing ControlUp. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Wide range of platform options: ControlUp offers multiple platform options including Windows, macOS, Linux, and IGE, independent of device location.

Powerful analytics: With ControlUp, you can analyze across your entire infrastructure or you can collect detailed individual device performance.

Optimizes performance: The solution enables you to remediate issues and optimize performance with its support of both manual and automated actions.

Minimize user downtime: ControlUp helps you catch common issues that lead to workflow interruptions. Self-correcting capabilities and comprehensive early-warning systems address issues before they impact employee productivity.

Resolve issues faster: The solution enables you to spend less time on support calls and more time driving value via its real-time troubleshooting and remediation solutions.

Increased visibility of remote environments: Gain real-time visibility across your entire network and find new ways to deliver the best end-user experience possible.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the ControlUp solution.

A Chair, IEEE Consumer Technology Society - Dallas,Texas, USA at a non-profit says, “In terms of the public cloud, ControlUp's features make us feel very secure. Security, uptime, and reduced capital expenditures are the main reasons we use ControlUp. So basically, the money that we consume is based on the amount of time we are using a service. ControlUp offers a return-on-investment type of approach that helps us.”

A VP Virtualisation and Citrix Engineer at BlackRock mentions, “Solve is quickly becoming one of the most-used features. Its interface allows us to connect to all 54,000 monitored endpoints in real-time. The script-based actions have allowed us to extend the core reporting capabilities. Combined with the triggers, we have been growing their usage to fix things before they become an issue. Lastly, the controller view allows us to compare the configurations of settings side-by-side which is extremely helpful when tracking down the RCA of an issue.”

A Senior Citrix Remote Access Engineer at Rabobank comments, “The high-level view of the estate coupled with powerful administration tools has been great. We can see real-time performance and trends and can create triggers for common issues with associated scripts that can automate a lot of the previous manual remediation steps.”

ControlUp

Zabbix is an open-source monitoring software that provides real-time monitoring and alerting for servers, networks, applications, and services.

It offers a wide range of features including data collection, visualization, and reporting.

With its user-friendly interface and customizable dashboards, Zabbix helps organizations ensure the availability and performance of their IT infrastructure.

Zabbix

Sample Customers

B/E Aerospace, North Carolina SECU, Vancouver Island Health Authority, University of Florida

1. IBM 2. Dell 3. Cisco 4. HP 5. Oracle 6. Microsoft 7. Amazon 8. Google 9. Facebook 10. Twitter 11. LinkedIn 12. Netflix 13. Adobe 14. VMware 15. Salesforce 16. SAP 17. Intel 18. AT&T 19. Verizon 20. T-Mobile 21. Vodafone 22. Ericsson 23. Nokia 24. Siemens 25. General Electric 26. Honeywell 27. Philips 28. Sony 29. Samsung 30. LG 31. Panasonic 32. Toshiba

Buyer's Guide

ControlUp vs. Zabbix

April 2025

Free Report: ControlUp vs. Zabbix

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