Icinga vs ServiceNow IT Operations Management comparison

Icinga and ServiceNow are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Icinga is ranked #25 with an average rating of 8.3, while ServiceNow is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.4. Icinga holds a 4.0% mindshare in IM, compared to ServiceNow’s 2.2% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Icinga users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of ServiceNow users who would recommend it.

Icinga

Read 17 Icinga reviews

3,915 Views
3,289 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

ServiceNow IT Operations Ma...

Read 42 ServiceNow IT Operations Management reviews

4,916 Views
2,950 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Icinga

ServiceNow IT Operations Ma...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Icinga and ServiceNow IT Operations Management compete in IT operations management. ServiceNow IT Operations Management is often considered superior for comprehensive enterprise solutions, offering more extensive IT service management capabilities.

Features: Icinga offers strong monitoring capabilities, a modular design, and integration with various systems, suitable for customizable monitoring solutions. ServiceNow IT Operations Management provides a holistic IT platform with robust incident management, predictive analytics, and automation tools, ideal for enterprises.

Room for Improvement: Icinga could benefit from easier setup for those with limited technical expertise, enhanced scalability, and more intuitive user interfaces. ServiceNow IT Operations Management may improve by offering more affordable pricing options, simpler customization processes, and faster implementation times.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Icinga's straightforward deployment process is appealing but may require technical expertise for optimal setup. ServiceNow IT Operations Management offers cloud-based deployment and comprehensive training and support, suitable for larger organizations seeking a seamless setup.

Pricing and ROI: Icinga's open-source model provides a low initial investment with significant ROI for monitoring solutions. ServiceNow IT Operations Management involves a higher setup cost but justifies it with enhanced capabilities and integration options, delivering greater long-term value for enterprises needing extensive IT management solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Icinga vs. ServiceNow IT Operations Management Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Icinga vs. ServiceNow IT Operations Management

June 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 IT Infrastructure Monitoring

25th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (17th), Server Monitoring (12th), Cloud Monitoring Software (18th)

ServiceNow IT Operations Ma...

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

8th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Event Monitoring (1st), Cloud Management (11th), AIOps (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Icinga is 4.0%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow IT Operations Management is 2.2%, down from 2.8% 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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PriyankaBachu

Senior Consultant at Infosys

Provides templates which reduces duplications in rule configuration

Currently, we are integrating LogicMonitor with ServiceNow IT Operations Management to manage IT event management and auto-ticketing for alerts from the monitoring tool to ServiceNow The solution is saving time by providing templates, reducing duplication in rule configuration, and offering…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."

"Icinga does the job and is fairly stable."

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

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

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

"We have found the solution to be 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."

"There's a module called Icinga Director, which helps us configure the product using an intuitive interface through clicks instead of creating a text configuration. It's very helpful for us."

More Icinga pros

"It provided out-of-the-box integrations, requiring only minimal effort, typically a couple of days, to massage those systems into a seamless operation."

"The way this solution has helped us is that it improved our communication."

"From my perspective as an asset manager, the most valuable feature of the solution is the configuration management portion, where I can actively add something to the database."

"It is a stable solution. I have not experienced any system outages during my time using the solution."

"The auto remediation feature has been most valuable. They have also introduced an AOP feature of ServiceNow that we are keen to explore."

"Has service mapping, impact management, metric intelligence and health of analytics."

"It includes a valuable feature called Discovery, that aids in application portfolio management, enabling visibility into IT infrastructure from top to bottom."

"I consider the stability to be very high, rating it ten out of ten."

More ServiceNow IT Operations Management pros

Cons

"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."

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

"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."

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

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

"The installation and configuration are very complex."

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

"The user interface should be improved."

More Icinga cons

"The initial setup phase was hard and could be made easier."

"Service mapping is pretty limited."

"The service discovery tool should include HR automations that automatically remove an employee who is leaving."

"It should have better integrations with other solutions."

"If you are new to using the solution, you will find the setup complex."

"Regarding ServiceNow, there is room for improvement in terms of customization, particularly in the area of self-customization."

"The pattern part can be improved. Patterns are used in the Discovery feature. Although it is easy to create new patterns and modify the existing ones, it would be better if this solution can have more out-of-the-box patterns. In terms of new features, they can include artificial intelligence, something like machine learning."

"ServiceNow's pricing is expensive. A more streamlined configuration process tailored to use cases and industry would be beneficial."

More ServiceNow IT Operations Management cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's an open-source solution."

"The solution is cheap."

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

"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."

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

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

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

"It is moderately expensive. The pricing itself and the licensing options are depending on the model and the customization."

"My customers pay for the ServiceNow IT Operations Management license annually. I'd rate the pricing based on value. ServiceNow IT Operations Management is a premium product as it has better features than competitors."

"It is expensive. It is around 10 Euros per server per month."

"The solution is costly compared to the products offered by its competitors."

"The solution offers yearly licenses and a subscription model for add-on features."

"While not entirely sure, I believe the solution costs at least a million dollars annually."

"There are additional costs, you have to pay more for everything."

"The pricing is high and may be excluding the small to medium-sized enterprise businesses."

More ServiceNow IT Operations Management pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

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 IT Operations Management?

From my perspective as an asset manager, the most valuable feature of the solution is the configuration management portion, where I can actively add something to the database.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow IT Operations Management?

ServiceNow's pricing is expensive. We consider it a Tier 1 product, but it requires significant investment.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ServiceNow IT Operations Management?

ServiceNow ( /products/servicenow-reviews )'s pricing is expensive. A more streamlined configuration process tailored to use cases and industry would be beneficial. We needed some external help to ...

See all answers

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Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 3% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus vs ServiceNow IT Operations Management

Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Icinga

June 2025

Download Icinga product report

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow IT Operations Management

June 2025

ServiceNow IT Operations Management report

Download ServiceNow IT Operations Management product report

Also Known As

Icinga Cloud Monitoring

ServiceNow ITOM

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 IT Operations Management (ITOM) is a cloud management and infrastructure tool that facilitates the administrative and development process of creating, planning, and operating digital services, technology, application requirements, and components for organizations. Service Now ensures effectiveness, performance, and availability throughout an organization's processes and services.

ServiceNow ITOM will help organizations facilitate consistent policies with regard to deployment, support, and services to ensure trustworthiness and quality of service (QoS). ServiceNow ITOM will ensure that all applications, services, and infrastructure are consistently available and stable.

ServiceNow IT Operations Management Features

Help Desk: ServiceNow ITOM help desk enables IT and operations administrators to better communicate issues concerning managing data latencies, controlling the monitoring of user profiles, executing disaster recovery plans, and any other problematic incidents.
Device and server management: ServiceNow ITOM will ensure IT operations teams can better handle general maintenance, upgrading, and patching for server-related concerns. The solution will also help to maintain the health of organization devices such as laptops, phones, tablets, mobile devices, and desktops.
Infrastructure maintenance: ServiceNow ITOM helps organizations set up remote access networks, maintain network security, regulate communication with external servers and firewalls, and also monitor and manage internal telephone systems.

ServiceNow IT Operations Management Benefits

Improve DevOps: ServiceNow ITOM improves the ability to inspect microservices, which enables DevOps and SRE teams to improve incident response.
Improve data control: The solution will help to manage the entire digital lifecycle, and will also enhance the organization's configuration management database (CMDB) to enable a more robust data foundation.
Problem-solve: ITOM is able to proactively identify anomalies before they become issues/problems with tremendous accuracy. ITOM helps organizations minimize outages and reduce the negative impact to end users so that they do not experience any downtime or service degradations. ITOM will also use artificial intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps) along with machine learning (ML) to reduce the possibility of false positives, saving time and increasing productivity.
Automate workflows: ITOM offers a pre-designed workbook and no-code/low-code workflows to reduce redundant tasks and improve recovery times. ITOM provides intuitive workable processes to be shared easily with all teams throughout the organization.

ServiceNow ITOM enables organizations to become robust, strategic operations able to successfully anticipate issues before they have an impact on the organization. Organizations that use ServiceNOw ITOM will be able to easily automate workflows and improve how their IT teams communicate and work together to deliver successful outcomes and maintain productivity and profitability 24/7.

Reviews from Real Users

“With this solution, operational costs will be reduced. Your maintenance cost will be reduced when you use the item model. You will deliver a fast solution to the customers. If something happens on the server-side or router-side, it will be immediately caught. Efficiencies are improved. “ - Rupesh J., Solutions Architect at Globant

“It has been very useful for tracking. It has evolved a lot over time, and there is a single pane of glass where you can track and see everything.” - Uday T., Project Manager at MindTree

ServiceNow

Sample Customers

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

servicenow, TransAlta, NATS, Symantec

Buyer's Guide

Icinga vs. ServiceNow IT Operations Management

June 2025

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