Nagios Core vs Zabbix comparison

Read 103 Zabbix reviews

18,040 Views
13,947 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Nagios Core

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Zabbix and Nagios Core are competing in the open-source monitoring solutions category. Zabbix appears to have the upper hand due to its automation and scalability advantages, making it suitable for complex environments.

Features: Zabbix offers automation with Low-Level Discovery, network mapping, and a customization API. Its flexibility and comprehensive templates are highly valued. Nagios Core focuses on extensibility with a wide range of plugins. It is reliable, with a lightweight design and easy text file configuration for customization.

Room for Improvement: Users of Zabbix often seek better reporting, user experience customization, and integration features. Enhancing the interface and graphical capabilities is also desired, particularly for non-technical users. Nagios Core users face a steep learning curve in deployment and configuration and desire an updated user interface and advanced management capabilities. Its centralized architecture may limit scalability in complex environments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zabbix supports versatile deployment options, including on-premises and hybrid clouds, and receives praise for its community and professional support. Nagios Core primarily deploys on-premises and requires expertise for setup, relying heavily on community support due to limited built-in options. While challenging, Zabbix offers more structured support for resolving issues.

Pricing and ROI: Both Zabbix and Nagios Core are free open-source solutions, offering cost savings over commercial alternatives. Zabbix may incur professional support and training costs but is often viewed as providing greater ROI for enterprises. Nagios Core provides a zero licensing fee solution but may incur additional operational expenses due to the need for skilled administrators. Zabbix's extensive features contribute to quicker ROI recoupment for large enterprises.

To learn more, read our detailed Nagios Core vs. Zabbix Report (Updated: November 2024).

Download the complete report

Nagios Core vs. Zabbix

November 2024

Helped 824,053 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

Nagios Core

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

7th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zabbix

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

1st

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

103

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (9th), Server Monitoring (1st), Cloud Monitoring Software (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nagios Core is 3.4%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zabbix is 11.3%, down from 12.0% 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

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.

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

"Nagios monitors our servers, so we know if anything goes wrong and can solve the problem before it happens."

"Other products are good but from the configuration point of view Nagios is really very lightweight. The price is really good in my opinion. Another important thing is that my Nagios engine still works with Dual core 8GB ram for the last 10 years."

"We use the product to monitor server applications."

"I like the way the solution sends alerts and how it keeps on escalating them."

"Our customers like that Nagios Core is an open source solution. It can be customized to our customers' specific needs."

"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."

"Nagios Core is stable."

"Dashboard provides monitor of total assets."

More Nagios Core pros

"Our customers also like that they don't have to use multiple modules. Micro Focus and major vendors typically require you to buy several modules and plugins. Our customers do not like that. We offer them a single product for all their monitoring needs."

"There is a problems page that shows us every warning or problem that occurs on our VMs globally. The map screen is also really useful because this is something that was missing. I don't know every other tool in the market. So, I don't know if this is a good point of only Zabbix, or other tools are also doing it, but from my point of view, this is the most useful page that I use, along with the problems page that efficiently lists the problem, recovery time, ending hours, starting hours, and so on."

"The most valuable feature is the protocol to manage anything."

"The most valuable feature is monitoring."

"Every new asset placed in the environment can be automatically detected, predicting human failures."

"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."

"There is less computing power needed for scaling."

"It not only provides the preconfigured item monitoring feature, but it is also easy to configure custom items."

More Zabbix pros

Cons

"It would be nice if the company offered a sales or contract manager that was dedicated to our company so that we would have some sort of link to Nagios, and if we had issues or questions, we'd be able to contact them directly."

"The dashboard and monitoring features could be improved."

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

"The alerting mechanism in Nagios Core could be improved."

"The core version is no match for the XI version."

"There is room for improvement in the graphics."

"The scalability needs improvement, it's not scalable at this time."

"Cloud monitoring is an area for improvement because there aren't too many plugins available."

More Nagios Core cons

"I think the reporting part of Zabbix can be improved in terms of more user-friendly graphics to display the collected data. Many simple users who don't know how to use Zabbix properly might get confused by the reporting, although at the same time it is very versatile for my company."

"The product could be more secure and more stable."

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

"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."

"I would like to see a more flexible mobile client, and better HA out of the box."

"Outside of the normal standard monitoring, I would like to extend patching, importing patching, and supporting patching for Windows Servers."

"The only improvement I would suggest, revolves around its AI and ML capabilities."

More Zabbix cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Most the plugin features are free."

"It's free."

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

"We are using the free version."

"Lessening the price point would be an improvement."

"The Nagios Core (PNP4Nagios + Core) is free and can be setup by Netadmin within a few hours. The only additional cost is the cloud server."

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

More Nagios Core pricing and cost advice

"We are using the free, open-source version."

"This solution is completely open-source, so it is quite affordable."

"Zabbix is an open-source tool, and it's free to use."

"The tool's licensing costs are yearly."

"There is a license required for this solution and we pay annually for our license."

"There is no license but we need to pay for support."

"It is freeware. We still use the free version of Zabbix."

"It's an open-source solution that can be used free of charge."

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.

See recommendations

824,053 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

15%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

39%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

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.

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.

What needs improvement with Nagios Core?

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?

I use the tool's free version.

What needs improvement with Zabbix?

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

OP5 Monitor vs Nagios Core

Comparisons

Icinga vs Nagios Core

Compared 24% of the time

Nagios XI vs Nagios Core

Compared 22% of the time

Centreon vs Nagios Core

Compared 9% of the time

Compared 4% of the time

New Relic vs Nagios Core

Compared 2% of the time

More Nagios Core Competitors

LibreNMS vs Zabbix

Compared 9% of the time

Icinga vs Zabbix

Compared 7% of the time

Checkmk vs Zabbix

Compared 7% of the time

Centreon vs Zabbix

Compared 4% of the time

SCOM vs Zabbix

Compared 2% of the time

More Zabbix Competitors

Product Reports

Download Nagios Core product report

Nagios Core

December 2024

Download Zabbix product report

November 2024

Learn More

Nagios

Overview

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

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

Airbnb, Cisco, PayPal, FanDuel

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