Icinga vs vRealize Network Insight comparison

Icinga and VMware are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Icinga is ranked #16 with an average rating of 7.7, while VMware is ranked #23 with an average rating of 8.8. Icinga holds a 4.0% mindshare in IM, compared to VMware’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Icinga users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Icinga

Read 17 Icinga reviews

3,310 Views
2,955 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

vRealize Network Insight

Read 46 vRealize Network Insight reviews

885 Views
526 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Icinga

vRealize Network Insight

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

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Icinga and vRealize Network Insight compete in network monitoring and management. Icinga is preferred for its cost-effectiveness and support, while vRealize Network Insight offers extensive features that justify its higher price, giving it an edge for comprehensive network insights.

Features: Icinga supports numerous plugins allowing monitoring of infrastructure and services, providing significant flexibility and robust community backing. Its integration capabilities ensure seamless operations with existing systems. vRealize Network Insight provides advanced analytics and detailed network troubleshooting abilities. Its features include deep insights into network flow and performance, network visualization, and capacity planning which cater to enterprises with complex networks.

Room for Improvement: Icinga could enhance its user interface for a more intuitive experience, offer more detailed documentation, and improve scalability for large-scale deployments. vRealize Network Insight might integrate more third-party tools, streamline its installation process, and reduce its overall operational costs for better access to smaller enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Icinga offers straightforward open-source deployment, supported by a responsive community. It integrates well with existing tools but requires technical expertise. vRealize Network Insight provides cloud-based deployment, easing complexities with professional support and managed services, ideal for enterprise environments seeking simplified setup processes.

Pricing and ROI: Icinga's implementation costs are minimal, enhancing cost-efficiency and ROI for small to mid-sized businesses due to its open-source nature. vRealize Network Insight, while having a higher initial setup cost, offers substantial ROI through advanced insights and automation, positioning it as a preferred choice for large enterprises requiring comprehensive network visibility.

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To learn more, read our detailed Icinga vs. vRealize Network Insight Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Icinga vs. vRealize Network Insight

April 2025

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Helped 848,253 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

Icinga

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

17th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

16th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (7th), Cloud Monitoring Software (14th)

vRealize Network Insight

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

23rd

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

23rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Icinga is 4.0%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vRealize Network Insight is 0.5%, down from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure 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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NiteshKumar1

Principle consultant at Infosys

The tool's configuration is easy and artifacts are easily accessible through professional services and the web

The product is highly regarded, and many customers have been using it along with other VMware products like vSphere and VMware vCloud Usage Insight. However, recently, there's been a trend among customers, especially those using VMware for a considerable period, to explore the potential of migrating to the public cloud. The common concern among these customers is how the VMware products will perform in the public cloud environment. Migrating instances from VMware to different platforms is not easy, especially when dealing with many instances across multiple customers. Customers are keen to maintain the functionality of their existing VMware products but prefer to run them on the public cloud instead of on-premise servers. Our clients for vRealize Network Insight are enterprise businesses. I rate it a nine out of ten.

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

"An affordable solution for small organizations to do basic network monitoring."

"Icinga does the job and is fairly stable."

"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."

"Macros and the ability to connect it to Google Maps are valuable features."

"The drafts are easy but what I like about Icinga is that there are many add-ons that you can download."

"It is really easy in Icinga to create your own plugin and integrate it without any fuss. And it works just perfectly fine."

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

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

More Icinga pros

"The initial was straightforward. You can have it up and running in one hour."

"We haven't had any complaints about the stability of the solution or heard of any issues. None of our clients have mentioned running into bugs or glitches. There haven't been crashes."

"I find that the interface of most VMware products is very similar, which I consider an advantage due to its ease of use compared to other tools like Splunk."

"We can see everything going on in NSX and get a good picture of our environment."

"vRNI can trace the flow of each and every packet and it is easy for us to troubleshoot all the issues that we do have with the networking. We can trace down the packet to a point where it has been dropped."

"We're a smaller company so it automates a lot of the tasks and lets us focus in on building out our own solution. It's quicker, there is less building of manual solutions, and less downtime. It allows our developers to quickly develop, get provisioning done, de-provisioning, etc; the stuff that you would expect to be able to make it streamlined."

"With this product, we can precisely identify communication patterns between virtual machines within our data center, whether it's east-east or east-west communication."

"If we deploy NSX it shows us how the workflow will flow in the organization, what the roadblocks are, and what we need to do to overcome those hurdles. When we run this product, it gives us reports which describe problems with physical switches. We work with the network team to get them all resolved."

More vRealize Network Insight pros

Cons

"We have found some problems with Nagios, and support isn't very responsive."

"The installation and configuration are very complex."

"One thing that Icinga lacks is the capability to create advanced and customized dashboards within the tool itself."

"The solution lacks many features important to higher-level IT management and network support."

"The user interface should be improved."

"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."

"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’s automation could be improved."

More Icinga cons

"The virtual appliance has rebooted."

"The only real improvement they can make is to add more third-party vendors into the environment, mostly switch manufacturers, because it's really limited to Cisco equipment and there are a lot of companies out there other than Cisco."

"I would like to see them expand the capabilities to infrastructure types other than just VMware."

"Support could be much better."

"It needs to be a little easier to use and to understand the information it's putting out. That would make it more helpful. If you're not a network person you need to understand things like network policies and concepts. If you gave it to a regular admin, it would be nice if it were easier for them to pick up what is going on, understand the flows and whether or not stuff should be talking to each other, as opposed to just port groups and IP addresses."

"The only issue we have is that the solution does not always capture the host names."

"There are some random glitches in the Web UI, but they are usually pretty cosmetic in nature. I don't really seem to use any browser other than Chrome with it. I also get some weird errors from time to time on the hardware NetFlow Collectors, where it doesn't sync data."

"The only reason I would not give it a nine or a 10 is for cost reasons. It seems to be one of those things that really belongs as part of the product inherently and not as an add-on. That would be my only concern."

More vRealize Network Insight cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is cheap."

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

"The solution is free to use."

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

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

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

"It's an open-source solution."

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

"It's a little expensive, but for what you're getting out of the product, you often see the trade-off. It depends on the type of licensing you have. It might be a little too pricey for some."

"It has brought more money into our company."

"I rate vRealize Network Insight's pricing a seven point five out of ten."

"We have spent less time investigating network flows, so it is absolutely cost-effective."

"They should include the product in NSX because it's important to have it for deployment."

"It reduces costs. It takes something that may be challenging and makes it more usable and visual by being able to bring in tools, seeing what their impact is, such as microsegmentation and application rationalization, and seeing it quickly."

"The solution has helped us to reduce time, increase performance, reduce costs, and even easily manage networks. We are probably seeing 10 to 20 percent labor savings because we are able to be very specific and focused on what we want to do. It ends up saving the customer money and makes us be more efficient on our cost deliveries."

"Cost always has room for improvement, you could always make it cheaper. But I think it's a good value for what you pay for it."

More vRealize Network Insight 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

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

10%

Manufacturing 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 vRealize Network Insight?

The tool's ease of configuration and use and the availability of information and artifacts through professional services and the web are key factors that customers find valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vRealize Network Insight?

Broadcom is known for increasing product prices, making them expensive compared to what people used to pay. I liken the subscription model to not truly owning what you pay for.

See all answers

What needs improvement with vRealize Network Insight?

Right now, I do not see a specific area for improvement. My main concern is understanding the intentions of Broadcom, which has acquired VMware. Broadcom should improve by going back to what was wo...

See all answers

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Compared 3% of the time

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Compared 3% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

AppNeta by Broadcom vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 10% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Icinga

April 2025

Download Icinga product report

Buyer's Guide

vRealize Network Insight

March 2025

Download vRealize Network Insight product report

Also Known As

Icinga Cloud Monitoring

Arkin

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

VMware vRealize Network Insight delivers intelligent operations for software-defined networking and security. It helps customers build an optimized, highly-available and secure network infrastructure across multi-cloud environments. It accelerates micro-segmentation planning and deployment, enables visibility across virtual and physical networks and provides operational views to manage and scale VMware NSX deployments.

VMware

Sample Customers

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

NTTi3, VCIX-NV, VMware Networking and Security Business Unit, Illumio, CompuNet

Buyer's Guide

Icinga vs. vRealize Network Insight

April 2025

Free Report: Icinga vs. vRealize Network Insight

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