Nagios Core vs WhatsUp Gold comparison

Nagios and Progress Software are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Nagios is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0, while Progress Software is ranked #26 with an average rating of 9.5. Nagios holds a 3.0% mindshare in NMS, compared to Progress Software’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Nagios users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Progress Software users who would recommend it.

Nagios Core

Read 51 Nagios Core reviews

4,253 Views
3,272 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

WhatsUp Gold

Read 24 WhatsUp Gold reviews

1,789 Views
1,432 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Nagios Core

WhatsUp Gold

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

WhatsUp Gold and Nagios Core are competing network monitoring solutions. WhatsUp Gold has the upper hand in user-friendliness and customer support, whereas Nagios Core is preferred for its advanced feature set, appealing to users who seek complex customization.

Features: WhatsUp Gold offers intuitive network mapping, robust performance monitoring, and efficient alerting features. Nagios Core provides vast plugin architecture, comprehensive monitoring capabilities, and strong community support, allowing extensive customization options.

Room for Improvement: WhatsUp Gold could enhance its customization options, expand its plugin integrations, and offer more competitive pricing. Nagios Core might benefit from improving its user interface, simplifying configuration processes, and providing direct customer support options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: WhatsUp Gold is known for a straightforward installation process and proactive customer support, minimizing setup time. Nagios Core requires more technical expertise and primarily relies on community-based support, necessitating more time for deployment.

Pricing and ROI: WhatsUp Gold typically has a higher initial cost but promises a quicker ROI through ease of use and support efficiency. Nagios Core's open-source model allows low-cost setup, offering long-term flexibility but with slower ROI due to necessary technical investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Nagios Core vs. WhatsUp Gold Report (Updated: February 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core vs. WhatsUp Gold

February 2025

Download the complete report

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

Nagios Core

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

8th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

11th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

WhatsUp Gold

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

26th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

27th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (24th), Server Monitoring (14th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nagios Core is 3.0%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhatsUp Gold is 1.2%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Nishith-Vyas

Tech Lead at STL Digital Limited

Valuable reporting and alert system with room for PDF export improvements

The NetEase reporting structure needs improvement, especially the availability report, which is weak. It should be generated automatically with minimal human intervention and should be exportable as a PDF. Besides that, an integrated PDF export feature for reports is necessary. Also, the alert mechanism and graphing mechanism need to be integrated properly into Nagios Core. Currently, integrating these requires advanced Linux knowledge. Integration of more visualization tools like Grafana and Prometheus for better graphing and visualization is also recommended.

Read full review

Tom Condo

Supervisor Information Services Operations at Seminole County Public Schools

If CPU, memory, or disk space is over-utilized, it alerts us immediately via text or email if there is an issue

When it comes to the intuitiveness of the topology mapping feature, our network architect created a vision diagram of our entire network and then created the links tied into the WhatsUp active monitoring to different spots on our topology map. It's one of the more critical functions we do here. We have the map displayed in different places in our room and help desk. We get alerted via emails but we can also see it visually. It does what it says it's going to do. We find this feature very helpful. The interactive mapping interface for scrolling, zooming, and drilling down on an element to learn about a network issue is good. When we see a network there will sometimes be a spot that has one link. You can go into a particular part of the topology map, scroll in, and see exactly which module it is. All the information is provided. This feature really helps. You can see the correlation between that link and what failed. This feature is very helpful. The interface is fairly intuitive. Some of our users used SolarWinds and Nagios, and WhatsUp is easy in comparison. Once you get set up, the look, feel, and configuration are good. Our network architect had never used it before but he was able to create the Visio and map. It was very simple. He has no problems with it.

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

"Key features include the GUI interface, its notification capabilities, and the real-time reporting."

"Nagios Core integrates with tools like Splunk, Datadog, or Dynatrace. It is usually used as a feed to provide more technical information about devices or hosts to another system."

"Dashboard provides monitor of total assets."

"The solution is quite efficient."

"The application performance monitoring feature is valuable."

"We mostly use Nagios Core to integrate with Python and Bash Script."

"The most valuable feature of Nagios Core is it allows us to develop and add as many plugins as we want."

"Monitoring with Nagios Core is helpful because it provides immediate alerts if something goes down, such as a server, or wireless router, or if there's a cable break. This allows us to respond promptly to any issues."

More Nagios Core pros

"We no longer have to manually search for problems because we are alerted when something in the network goes down."

"The interface in the last few years it has been a lot greater, they are much more user-friendly. I like the interface."

"This is a good, stable network monitoring solution for devices."

"Our local support team provides excellent service."

"NetFlow monitoring, real-time monitoring, and surveys have been the most valuable features for our business."

"The product is reasonably priced."

"The threshold alerting is the most valuable feature."

"The most valuable feature is the auto-discovery function."

More WhatsUp Gold pros

Cons

"Nagios Core can improve the graphical interface, it would make things a little easier."

"It is a bit slow due to latency."

"Would benefit from aggregations if a particular server goes down."

"I believe Nagios Core will need to provide an option for big data platforms in the future."

"The UI is a little outdated and graphics could be displayed in a better way."

"There is room for improvement in the graphics."

"Nagios Core could improve by adding a user interface. If you want the user interface you have to use Nagios XI."

"The dashboard should be improved."

More Nagios Core cons

"Improvements are needed in integration, especially for WhatsApp call and messages."

"Users want SMS available via Whatsapp Gold. They don't want to go through third party SMS servers. The solution should work to make this possible."

"Improvements are needed in integration, especially for WhatsApp call and messages. Our region heavily uses WhatsApp Messenger for communication, and integration with this platform would be beneficial."

"The interface needs some work."

"The product is old and not updated."

"I would like to see better integration with switches so that you can see what is connected to each port, what the traffic is, and have a network map automatically generated."

"I might like to see a better interface in the future."

"WhatsUp Gold should work on real-time monitoring and configuration management. If they succeed in doing this, the solution will cover all the network troubleshooting aspects and will be a benefit."

More WhatsUp Gold cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Lessening the price point would be an improvement."

"We are using the free version of Nagios Core."

"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."

"It's free."

"Nagios Core is an open source solution, and there are no licensing fees."

"The solution is expensive."

"It's free."

"Nagios Core is free to use."

More Nagios Core pricing and cost advice

"There is a license needed to use WhatsUp Gold."

"I'm not sure, but it's expensive. We don't pay any additional fees."

"There are some subscription charges that are quite heavy. I need to pay for support every year and these charges can be quite expensive. Aside from the initial cost for the tool, you need to pay additionally for support."

"The price of WhatsUp Gold is good."

"The most valuable feature is the cost compared to other solutions."

"This is a well priced solution."

"The tool's price is reasonable. WhatsUp Gold is cheaper than SolarWinds."

"The pricing can be on the expensive side when considering competing products."

More WhatsUp Gold 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.

See recommendations

845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Nagios Core?

What I like about Nagios Core is that it helps me ensure everything is running smoothly by checking the status of hosts and services.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nagios Core?

Nagios Core is a free and open-source product. We don't charge for the product itself, but we charge for the man-hour costs related to installation, configuration, ongoing operation, and maintenance.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Nagios Core?

The dashboard should be improved. It's very simple. I don't have a very clear or specific suggestion. You can change the skin of the dashboard, however, it's good for me.

See all answers

What do you like most about WhatsUp Gold?

The interactive mapping interface for scrolling, zooming, and drilling down on an element to learn about a network issue is good. When we see a network there will sometimes be a spot that has one l...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for WhatsUp Gold?

Clients find the licensing calculator confusing, but we simplify this for them by collecting relevant information first. The licensing is based on devices, providing better cost-effectiveness than ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with WhatsUp Gold?

Improvements are needed in integration, especially for WhatsApp call and messages. Our region heavily uses WhatsApp Messenger for communication, and integration with this platform would be benefici...

See all answers

Comparisons

Icinga vs Nagios Core

Compared 27% of the time

Nagios XI vs Nagios Core

Compared 19% of the time

Zabbix vs Nagios Core

Compared 15% of the time

Centreon vs Nagios Core

Compared 9% of the time

OP5 Monitor vs Nagios Core

Compared 3% of the time

More Nagios Core Competitors

Grafana vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 14% of the time

Zabbix vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 9% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 9% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 8% of the time

ManageEngine OpManager vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 6% of the time

More WhatsUp Gold Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core

March 2025

Download Nagios Core product report

Buyer's Guide

WhatsUp Gold

March 2025

Download WhatsUp Gold product report

Overview

This is IT infrastructure monitoring's industry-standard, open-source core. Free without professional support services.

Nagios

Explore and manage your entire network infrastructure effortlessly with WhatsUp Gold's robust layer 2/3 discovery, creating a detailed interactive map from the edge to the cloud. Monitor devices, wireless controllers, servers, virtual machines, applications, and traffic flows across various environments. Real-time alerts ensure optimal performance, allowing you to meet or exceed SLAs. The platform offers customizable maps, dashboards, and alerts for easy network management. Quickly resolve issues with intuitive workflows, reducing Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR). WhatsUp Gold's integrated log management provides easy visibility and control of device log data, allowing monitoring, filtering, searching, and alerting on syslogs or Windows logs. Archive logs to comply with regulatory requirements and preserve historical data, all through a user-friendly interface. Streamline network monitoring and issue resolution with WhatsUp Gold, making network management efficient and hassle-free.

Progress Software

Sample Customers

Airbnb, Cisco, PayPal, FanDuel

Artoni Trasporti, Austin Independent School District, Banca Marche, Burke County North Carolina, Cambridge University School of Clinical Medicine, Clayco, Community Integrated Care, Desca, Deutsche Bergbau, Flexi-Van, Gropper, Hamleys, Hammonds Furniture, Knowledge IT, Idras S.P.A., Sibeg, Swann Engineering, Trivium Lindenhof

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core vs. WhatsUp Gold

February 2025

Free Report: Nagios Core vs. WhatsUp Gold

Find out what your peers are saying about Nagios Core vs. WhatsUp Gold and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Nagios Core vs. WhatsUp Gold report.

See our list of best Network Monitoring Software vendors and best IT Infrastructure Monitoring vendors.

We monitor all Network Monitoring Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.