Nagios, a stalwart in system monitoring, has been a go-to choice for many users for a long time and has paved the way for network monitoring to be what it is today. Known for its reliability and robust community support, Nagios has been a steadfast choice for IT professionals seeking dependable monitoring solutions.

However, with the evolving technology landscape, it’s prudent to explore good Nagios alternatives that offer enhanced user-friendliness, scalability, and integrations.

Let’s explore the top alternatives to Nagios that offer equally capable or even more advanced functionalities to stay ahead of the monitoring game. But before we begin let us look at what Nagios is.

What is Nagios?

Nagios is a popular open-source tool for network monitoring that was developed during the 90’s. It is a great solution for companies and organisations to recognise and rectify infrastructure issues in the IT field.

But Nagios has been around for quite some time and it can sometimes struggle to meet the demands of the modern dynamic technological environment. Added to that the tiresome task of using config files and constantly having to rely on plug-ins and add-ons to keep it up to date make it cumbersome to use. And many engineers and developers today would rather prefer to work on Windows Server instead of the Linux/Unix system.

Let us look at some of these highly functional and capable Nagios alternatives.

10 Best Alternatives to Nagios

1.ManageEngine OpManager

OpManager from ManageEngine is a popular integrated network management tool which gives you a detailed network performance monitoring solution. It is a Nagios alternative for those that are tired of Nagios’s cluttered interface. OpManager is hassle-free and easy to use and it monitors everything including your storage, VM, WLC and server. OpManager lets IT engineers and admins get deeper into issues relating to network performance and solve them easily. Some of its features are:

Scheduled/custom reports for network performance as well as snapshot-based custom reports.
Monitors virtualization platforms like Nutanix, Hyper-v, and Citrix XenServer.
Offers bulk configuration options.
Enables network planning and mapping, along with network visualization.
Dashboards and widgets.
Device discovery feature and group network elements.
Has role-based access control which is customizable.

OpManager can be used on a 30-day free trial and you can contact the support team for a quote on the paid version.

2. Auvik

Specifically built for IT service providers, Auvik is a network monitoring and management solution that excels in the field of network visibility and control. Auvik stands out as a good Nagios alternative, with its network mapping capabilities, creating detailed visualizations of your network. It can also automate device discovery and offer configuration backup and insights into traffic analysis. Its features are:

Single dashboard to visualize everything.
Automated alerts for any issues that pop up.
Uses centralized syslog for all network devices, making troubleshooting easier.
Backup, view and restore all changes.
Provides IT asset management.
Provide network traffic analysis.

You can use this tool on a 14-day free trial. You can also ask for a custom quote for the paid version.

3. Zabbix

Zabbix is a powerful open-source monitoring solution that can be seen as a reliable Nagios alternative due to the fact that it excels in real-time monitoring and scalability, quite seamlessly. It is widely used to monitor servers, networks, and applications and it can also predict future behaviour and changes by using historical data accurately. The best part about Zabbix is that it has highly customizable graphs, maps and dashboards, that make network monitoring easier. Its other features include:

Manage home, enterprise and multi-tenant environments easily.
24×7 uptime and zero risk of data loss.
Sensitive information is stored in secure external vaults.
Central Web UI enables easy deployment and scaling of your distributed Zabbix infrastructure.
Data gathering is extendable and highly flexible.

Zabbix is open-source and free to download.

4. OP5

OP5 Monitor is a scalable network monitoring and management solution designed especially for enterprises. OP5 is built based on Nagios and it focuses on delivering a unified view of IT infrastructure and is highly efficient compared to many primitive network monitoring tools. Its features are:

Displays the health, status and performance of your IT systems.
Provides service level reports.
SNMP and API monitoring.
Interactive and customizable dashboards.

OP5 prices start at $135 per month and it also has a free version too.

5. Zenoss Core

Zenoss Core is an open-source IT monitoring platform that will give you a unified view of your IT infrastructure, whether it is on-premise hardware, software or cloud-based resources. Zenoss has a free version that can monitor up to 1000 devices which makes it one compelling Nagios alternative to consider. The community forum too is active and provides you with answers and support in no time. Some of its features include:

A simple plugin to enable Fortinet monitoring.
New devices that enter the network are automatically pulled in using network discovery.
Cisco Layer 2-4 devices are supported.
Great analytic reports.
Can be installed on CentOS, Redhat Linux, Ubuntu and Debian.

For pricing you can visit their website and based on the features that you want choose from the versions and request a quote.

6. Site24x7’s Network Monitoring

Site24x7 offers a very comprehensive network monitoring solution that can do a lot more than Nagios. It can monitor websites, apps, servers, enterprise networks and more. This network monitoring solution also integrates well with other tools and platforms like JIRA, Slack, Microsoft Teams etc. It is a one-stop solution for all your monitoring needs. Its best features are:

Auto-discovery of devices within a defined IP range.
Monitors network availability, traffic, performance and much more.
Has topology and Layer-2 maps for easy visualization of your network.
Intelligent reporting and instant forecasting.

The pricing for Site24x7’s Network Monitoring starts at $9 per month and also offers a 30-day free trial.

7. Paessler PRTG

Paessler PRTG is a comprehensive network monitoring solution known for its ease of use and extensive sensor types. It offers a range of predefined sensors for monitoring various aspects of your network using their technologies that include sniffing, SQL, REST APIS etc. Its best features are:

Monitoring of all systems, apps, websites, traffic, servers etc.
Integrates easily with flow protocols including IPFIX, sFlow, jFlow etc.
Auto-discovery of new devices and auto-creation of sensors.
By pinging defined IP ranges, it scans network segments.
Offers customizable reporting, maps and dashboards.

For buying Paessler PRTG contact their team to know the pricing.

8. Shinken

Shinken is an open-source monitoring framework that aims to be a drop-in replacement for Nagios. It’s designed to be highly flexible and scalable making it a very competent network monitoring platform. You also use Shinken to load data from Puppet, Msql and similar sources. Some of its features include:

Offers fast server and application monitoring.
Auto-configuration capabilities.
Recognizes dependency links and locates accurately the root cause of issues.
Custom dashboards and web interface.

For a quote, you can request the sales team. Shinken also has a 30-day free trial.

9. Spiceworks

Spiceworks is a free IT management and monitoring tool designed for small to medium-sized businesses. It also offers a suite of IT tools in addition to monitoring. Spiceworks is extremely easy to use and the IT management tools are also well integrated, making it a very functional platform. Some features of Spiceworks include:

Has a connectivity dashboard that lets you start monitoring instantly.
Modifiable alert thresholds and you get notified through email or in-app.
Recognizes slow and faulty systems and gives you quick insights.
Free support and dedicated technical help from the community.

10. Icinga

Another great Nagios alternative that offers more flexibility and usability is Icinga, an open-source service monitoring solution. Created in 2009 as an extension to the Nagios tool, it is a more user-friendly alternative. Icinga covers all the areas of monitoring effectively and can seamlessly integrate with most systems. Icinga’s features include:

Monitor a high volume of objects.
Can synchronize third-party data.
Recognizes relations and patterns, allowing you to create reports from existing data.
Sends instant alerts when issues arise.
Offers a lot of configurations and templates.

Icinga has a free demo, and for pricing you can contact their sales team.

5 More Great Nagios Alternatives!

Conclusion

Considering all the limitations of Nagios, it becomes necessary for most developers and IT teams to look for Nagios alternatives that can step in as the right solution. By taking into account the functionality, efficiency and reliability, we have compiled the above list of worthy Nagios alternatives that might meet your server/system monitoring requirements.

The best ones will have the right combination of features and user-friendliness in their design, so be sure to give it good thought so that you make the right pick.