FortiMonitor vs Zabbix comparison

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FortiMonitor

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Zabbix and FortiMonitor compete in network monitoring solutions. Zabbix has favorable pricing and support, while FortiMonitor is advantageous with advanced features and scalability.

Features: Zabbix offers comprehensive monitoring for servers, applications, and networks. It features a customizable dashboard and strong reporting capabilities. FortiMonitor integrates seamlessly with the cloud and provides advanced automation, ideal for dynamic IT environments.

Room for Improvement: Zabbix could enhance its cloud integration and streamline its user interface. FortiMonitor might improve in terms of cost-effectiveness for smaller businesses and expand its support for additional non-cloud infrastructures.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zabbix provides a detailed installation process with community support, requiring more initial technical expertise. FortiMonitor offers easy cloud deployment with professional customer service, making it accessible for businesses of various sizes.

Pricing and ROI: Zabbix is open-source, offering minimal initial investment but potential additional costs for professional support. FortiMonitor has a higher upfront cost but provides solid ROI with its enhanced features and scalable architecture. Zabbix suits budget-conscious buyers, while FortiMonitor justifies its expense through comprehensive solutions.

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

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FortiMonitor vs. Zabbix

February 2025

Helped 845,040 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

FortiMonitor

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

14th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

14th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Alerting and Incident Management (7th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (3rd)

Zabbix

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

1st

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), Server Monitoring (1st), Cloud Monitoring Software (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of FortiMonitor is 0.7%, down from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zabbix is 13.0%, up from 11.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

JaimeVasquez

Commercial Manager at IT-Experience

Monitoring capabilities keep operations running smoothly and alerts enhance proactive system management

We use FortiMonitor to monitor the infrastructure of our customers. We check on what is happening with their operations, monitor bandwidth, ensure configurations are appropriate for the customer, and identify if anything is going wrong The most valuable features of FortiMonitor are its redundancy…

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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

"FortiMonitor is 100% stable."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is what the devices are used for. We have big backups for our Cradlepoint solutions, but FortiMonitor is a great routing device and we love working with them."

"The tool continuously improves, adapting to support new vendors and technologies. Importantly, it automates the process, triggering alerts when devices require attention, and eliminating the need for manual intervention."

"FortiMonitor has a very intuitive dashboard, which makes it particularly helpful for analyzing traffic, alerts, and other information."

"It provides the best firewall features."

"With FortiMonitor, you can get all the logs of the traffic information of the destination or the source."

"The most valuable feature of FortiMonitor is user monitoring. We are able to see if the user is following the policy or not from their system. Additionally, the solution integrates well with Fortinet FortiGate and has centralized management."

"The product's initial setup phase is easy."

More FortiMonitor pros

"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."

"Dashboard and the customization of the items and triggers are the most valuable features."

"Zabbix can use old data to current data to set the threshold. We can use previous data to set the threshold."

"The most valuable function for me is the auto-discovery of interfaces in devices. When you integrate devices into the tool, it automatically finds the interfaces, which is very helpful for my job. Integration and configuration run smoothly in my experience with Juniper and Aruba devices."

"Zabbix helps to save time."

"Health and communication links availability."

"The basic setup is very easy."

"I'm supervising all the IT departments, and Zabbix seems quite good for them. It provides graphics and information in real time. We get alerts about crashes on the system, enabling us to quickly repair issues. We can easily find devices with problems."

More Zabbix pros

Cons

"FortiMonitor could be improved by making it more convenient for smaller workloads, such as when configuring a few branches."

"The solution's initial setup process is time-consuming."

"Sometimes, during high CPU usage, we cannot access FortiMonitor and must refresh it."

". Enhancements in the dashboard, such as clearer alerting, maintenance window management, software version tracking, and better visualization, would be beneficial."

"FortiMonitor's monitoring could be much better. It should be like, in Palo Alto."

"Sometimes, we get corruption when upgrading from firmware to the new generation, causing a lot of issues."

"Additionally, there are no AI features in FortiMonitor, which might be an area for enhancement."

"FortiMonitor needs to improve its alert system."

More FortiMonitor cons

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

"Documentation terminology could be improved."

"To improve Zabbix, adding more features to support the monitoring of modern workloads like containers would be beneficial."

"There is a bit of a learning curve during installation."

"There are a lot of areas for improvement, specifically in the dashboards and reports functionalities."

"The APM monitoring has room for improvement, although I hear that the new 5.2 version has some improvements in that area, and I'd like to give that a go. I would like to see a few more templates out there for different styles of monitoring. I use the Grafana interface for reporting. I would also like it to have an out-of-the-box ability to email reports. You can create reports, but to be able to email those reports would be really helpful. I've got users who are not interested in logging in and generating a report. They want it all pre-canned and sent to an email address. It would also be really handy if we could pin certain reports up onto platforms such as Teams or SharePoint. A GUI for the proxy server would be cool to have for debugging purposes and for the support teams to have a look at, but I don't know whether that's really feasible to do. I get enough from the log files themselves."

"If you want to use all of the features then you have to pay a licensing fee."

"We would like to monitor other touchpoints such as ATM machines. It would be great if it can provide monitoring of ATM machines. Compatibility with other products would also be great."

More Zabbix cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"On a scale from one to ten, I rate the pricing a nine since it is a good solution that is available at a cheap price."

"There are additional costs needed for certain functionality, such as scalability."

"FortiMonitor's price is very high."

"In terms of licensing, while it may not be the most expensive option on the market, it's relatively cost-effective. You can obtain licenses at a lower cost, with the calculation being straightforward. For example, if you onboard around 5,000 devices, you'll need approximately 5,000 licenses, as each device typically counts as one license."

"Compared to other solutions, FortiMonitor is a very expensive solution."

"We have a large customer base for Fortinet, and the additional buying power got us really great discounts."

"The price of FortiMonitor is approximately $200 annually for 225 users. The price is competitive."

"The tool's pricing model in Vietnam is a bit high. I rate the product price as an eight out of ten."

"We purchased Zabbix for a good price, including support"

"This is an open-source solution that can be used free of charge."

"The solution is open source so is free."

"It is open source. If you want to have a subscription or official support, you can pay for it. They have different plans, which are not that expensive. The plans are based on per monitoring server, not per monitored equipment. So, it is not at all expensive, and you can also live without the support if you want a cheaper option."

"This is an open-source solution that can be used free of charge."

"Zabbix and Grafana are both open source products, we only needed to go to their website and download the application and we began to use them. The solutions are free."

"The solution is free to use but they offer support as a paid service. If you can go read the manuals and do the fine-tuning based on your needs, you do not need to pay anything and you will have a full solution."

"Zabbix is free but if you use it in production then you have to pay for it."

More Zabbix pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.

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845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.

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

Computer Software Company

28%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Healthcare Company

Educational Organization

37%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

I have a clear bias because I work for Panopta. We aren't a fit for everyone, but I can confirm that Panopta is a lot less work to stand up and maintain. It's also a lot easier to use and onboard n...

What do you like most about FortiMonitor?

In FortiMonitor, we're linked up with our Netgear, CactusServer, and NOC. It's really valuable because everything's migrating to one dashboard for us system engineers. We can keep an eye on traffic...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FortiMonitor?

FortiMonitor does save time but not significantly on costs, as there are still expenses related to procurement, installation, and licensing.

What do you like most about Zabbix?

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

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zabbix?

The cost is minimal. It is literally free.

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...

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Product Reports

Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)

March 2025

Download FortiMonitor product report

Download Zabbix product report

March 2025

Also Known As

Panopta

No data available

Overview

FortiMonitor is a comprehensive, SaaS-based digital experience monitoring (DEM) platform that helps organizations modernize their performance-monitoring tools. It provides visibility into endpoint application performance and digital experience—no matter where the user resides or where the application is hosted.

Fortinet

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.

Sample Customers

SONY, GoDaddy, HCL, ING, ARMOR, billboard

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