Icinga vs ServiceNow Discovery comparison

Icinga and ServiceNow are both solutions in the Server Monitoring category. Icinga is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.7, while ServiceNow is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.4. Icinga holds a 9.4% mindshare in SM, compared to ServiceNow’s 4.3% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Icinga users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of ServiceNow users who would recommend it.

Icinga

Read 17 Icinga reviews

2,103 Views
1,865 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

ServiceNow Discovery

Read 41 ServiceNow Discovery reviews

2,622 Views
1,285 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Icinga

ServiceNow Discovery

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

Icinga and ServiceNow Discovery are tools used for IT infrastructure monitoring, but they differ in several key areas. ServiceNow Discovery seems to have the upper hand due to its advanced feature set and support, despite Icinga's flexibility and open-source nature.

Features: Icinga users value its customizable setup and integration with various plugins. It offers flexible monitoring configuration and community-supported plugins. ServiceNow Discovery is praised for its comprehensive asset discovery capabilities, automation features, and integrated workflows, making it suitable for larger organizations with complex needs.

Room for Improvement: Icinga users suggest improving documentation, simplifying setup, and enhancing user interface design. ServiceNow Discovery users desire more frequent updates, better scalability options, and improved integration capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Icinga’s deployment process is intricate but flexible, with a community-driven customer service experience. ServiceNow Discovery has a streamlined deployment process and robust professional support, which is advantageous for enterprise environments.

Pricing and ROI: Icinga is cost-effective for small to medium enterprises due to low setup costs and its open-source model. ServiceNow Discovery, while more expensive, offers significant ROI through its advanced features and automation capabilities. Users generally find ServiceNow Discovery worth the higher price due to its comprehensive benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Icinga vs. ServiceNow Discovery Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Icinga vs. ServiceNow Discovery

April 2025

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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

Icinga

Ranking in Server Monitoring

7th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (17th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (16th), Cloud Monitoring Software (14th)

ServiceNow Discovery

Ranking in Server Monitoring

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Asset Management (4th), Cloud Resource Discovery Services (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of Icinga is 9.4%, up from 5.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Discovery is 4.3%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Server Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Harrison Bulley

Senior Infrastructure Engineer at Net Consulting

A stable, scalable and cost-effective solution that helps with inbuilt scripts for easy modification

I think the software is quite good, but we have had problems with getting it to recognize certain areas and amend certain checks, where we needed so we would have to create backend scripts for those checks. Though, being open source, it has the support to create backend scripts, it would be better to have these scripts in-built.

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Kaustubh Partha

Technical Support Analyst at CLSA

Scans servers and network devices through SNMP and reduces manual maintenance for our infrastructure team

I like how ServiceNow Discovery scans servers and network devices through SNMP. Most fields on our forms are auto-filled, reducing manual maintenance for our infrastructure team. Post Discovery implementation there is hardly any maintenance. There are three to four fields that are customized. Otherwise, 90% of the data is auto-filled. Discovery can also run in bulk, which is helpful for organizations that cannot run it during weekdays. With identification rules, if a configuration item (CI) isn't in the CMDB, you can simply add the IP address, and it will be automatically added based on criteria like name or serial number, making CMDB maintenance easier.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like the ability to amend and adjust things really easily, which is useful in a case where you could make it auto-discover and then set a template to say all of these applications or servers under this template have an automatic threshold set that you’d set up manually."

"This solution has a self-healing handler where if the service is down, it is automatically restarted."

"We have found the solution to be stable."

"The apply rules feature saves a lot of time."

"The best thing about the solution is how it highlights errors, the issues, and what needs my attention. The solution directs me to areas that I should look for first."

"Icinga does the job and is fairly stable."

"The value of Icinga is that it has hundreds of plugins, so it's really easy to monitor pretty much anything."

"Icinga has multiple automation and integration features. There is an API for everything and a web UI for configurations. The APIs enable you to automate tasks in Icinga. We can also use plugins to talk to the API. The Icinga Director talks to a database in the background, and you can import settings from the CMDB to all systems in Icinga."

More Icinga pros

"It has been stable since deployment."

"ServiceNow Discovery has played a vital role in improving service visibility through automated IT service management processes, including change and problem management."

"We can scale the solution."

"I find that the Discovery and scripting features are the most useful."

"The solution can prioritize the discovery of IP ranges. The product automatically places all Discovery CIs into the correct class within the CMDB."

"The most valuable feature is its integration with CMDB, as it collects all the data."

"It has given us an understanding of each layer from a server application."

"The service management and operations management modules are valuable."

More ServiceNow Discovery pros

Cons

"There is room for improvement in multi-tenancy. It's not perfect, not even really good. It's average, but it should be improved."

"In general, the product does not look good. However, it does what it is supposed to do. So, the improvements should focus on usability and UI."

"Icinga is a complex solution that's hard to learn. It's a powerful product for monitoring, but new users will have a hard time figuring out what to do."

"The installation and configuration are very complex."

"The user interface should be improved."

"One of the areas that are frustrating is remote monitoring for more than one machine."

"At this time, the layout of the website is a bit difficult. It should be more user-friendly for changing the background and logos."

"I think the software is quite good, but we have had problems with getting it to recognize certain areas and amend certain checks, where we needed so we would have to create backend scripts for those checks. Though, being open source, it has the support to create backend scripts, it would be better to have these scripts in-built."

More Icinga cons

"The solution needs to improve the cost of the solution. There are a few different solutions and they do act the same and have the same types of capabilities, however, the cost is quite high."

"Improvements are required with the scripts used to collect the information from servers."

"On the Software Asset Management part of it, I expect additional reconciliation and Discovery features there."

"What needs improvement in ServiceNow Discovery is the reporting UI because I didn't find it as friendly compared to other tools. Other tools have better reporting UI than what's currently in ServiceNow Discovery. What I'd like to see in the next release of ServiceNow Discovery is more user-friendly out-of-the-box reporting that would be helpful for non-technical users. Some users such as managers would want to just do a few clicks to access the reports and shouldn't be required to do search queries, but right now, reporting in the tool isn't very user-friendly."

"ServiceNow has a constant development environment. Hence they get constant bugs which result in incorrect performance. It should also improve customer service."

"When you switch versions, for example, when you go from Paris to Quebec they will introduce many new things and occasionally things break when they do that."

"It's an expensive platform."

"The manual pattern-matching process is not only time-consuming but also presents challenges during system upgrades, demanding revisits to ensure compatibility."

More ServiceNow Discovery cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We're using the free version of Icinga."

"This is an open-source solution with paid support."

"The solution is cheap."

"Even though Icinga's financial cost is low, it is an expensive product regarding the resources required to maintain and operate it."

"It's an open-source solution."

"It is cost-effective, and the return on investment can be very interesting because the price is low."

"The product is inexpensive compared to other DBM products."

"The solution is free to use."

"It's on a yearly basis. We renew our contract for three years at a time."

"The solution is not inexpensive so pricing is rated a three out of ten."

"The solution is very expensive."

"If the product is not deployed properly, it can be very expensive."

"You need a subscription to ServiceNow Discovery, so you can use its features. You can also use specific plugins with the tool, and some of the plugins are free. I don't have information on how much my company pays for the subscription to ServiceNow Discovery."

"ROI (Return on Investment) is good. ServiceNow don't disclose the price publicly. They'll assess your organization's needs and then come up with a price."

"The pricing is determined based on the CIs."

"ServiceNow Discovery has very broad pricing, so it becomes costly. It would be better if it had a pay-as-you-use licensing model because the total cost of ownership is quite high."

More ServiceNow Discovery pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Icinga?

The best thing about the solution is how it highlights errors, the issues, and what needs my attention. The solution directs me to areas that I should look for first.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Icinga?

It is cost-effective, and the return on investment can be very interesting because the price is low. If you want to include this product in the services you offer to your customers, the return on i...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Icinga?

There is room for improvement in multi-tenancy. It's not perfect, not even really good. It's average, but it should be improved. For instance, multi-tenancy for monitoring the virtual infrastructur...

See all answers

What do you like most about ServiceNow Discovery?

The solution can prioritize the discovery of IP ranges. The product automatically places all Discovery CIs into the correct class within the CMDB.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Discovery?

ServiceNow is considered more expensive compared to other products. If I were to rate the pricing on a scale from one to ten in terms of expense, I would rate it quite high.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ServiceNow Discovery?

Improvements could include implementing chatbots to simplify ticket creation. Currently, each new product must be manually created if it is not already available in ServiceNow, which can be cumbers...

See all answers

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Lansweeper vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 23% of the time

BMC Helix Discovery vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 7% of the time

Zabbix vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Icinga

April 2025

Download Icinga product report

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Discovery

March 2025

Download ServiceNow Discovery product report

Also Known As

Icinga Cloud Monitoring

No data available

Overview

Icinga monitors systems, network devices, infrastructure, and services, helping manage and analyze server resources. It automates ticket incidents and alerting, providing oversight of client Windows and Linux systems.

Icinga offers comprehensive monitoring of servers including CPU utilization and RAM space, facilitating automated incident management and alerting. Frequently deployed on-premises, this monitoring tool is key for managed services providers and organizations to oversee and ensure optimal performance of various environments, including applications like databases and web servers. It provides extensive features for creating custom plugins, stabilization, scalability, and high customization capabilities suitable for different infrastructure needs.

What are the key features of Icinga?

Event Handler: Facilitates automatic self-healing of systems.
Extensive Plugin Library: Offers a wide range of plugins for monitoring.
Ease of Use: Simplifies user experience with an intuitive interface and Icinga Director for easy configurations.
Open-Source Nature: Free to use, modify, and distribute.
Automation Capabilities: Integrates with APIs and Ansible Collections for automation.
Custom Plugins: Users can create and integrate their own plugins.
Stability and Scalability: Provides reliable performance across different scale infrastructures.

What are the benefits or ROI to look for when evaluating Icinga?

Critical Issue Highlighting: Effectively identifies and notifies about critical problems.
High Customization: Offers flexibility for diverse monitoring needs.
Automated Alerting: Reduces manual effort and improves response times.
Extensive Integration: Works seamlessly with other tools and platforms.

Icinga implementations span multiple industries, providing essential monitoring for IT infrastructure in healthcare, finance, and education. Managed services providers utilize Icinga to maintain and monitor client systems across various environments while ensuring optimal performance and compliance. It is highly valued in these sectors for its ability to customize monitoring, improving operational efficiency and reducing downtime.

Icinga

ServiceNow Discovery finds applications and devices on your network, and then updates the CMDB with the information it finds. Discovery is available as a separate subscription from the rest of the Now Platform.

ServiceNow

Sample Customers

Puppet Labs, Audi, Spacex, Debian, Snapdeal, McGill, RIPE Network Coordination Centre

York, National Grid, DXC Technology, experian, BEACHBODY

Buyer's Guide

Icinga vs. ServiceNow Discovery

April 2025

Free Report: Icinga vs. ServiceNow Discovery

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