Centreon vs Observer GigaStor comparison

Centreon and Viavi Solutions are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Centreon is ranked #27 with an average rating of 7.3, while Viavi Solutions is ranked #84. Centreon holds a 1.3% mindshare in NMS, compared to Viavi Solutions’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Centreon users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Viavi Solutions users who would recommend it.

Centreon

Read 31 Centreon reviews

8,080 Views
6,545 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Observer GigaStor

Read 7 Observer GigaStor reviews

2,562 Views
1,588 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Centreon

Observer GigaStor

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

Centreon and Observer GigaStor are competitors in network monitoring and packet analysis. Centreon is recognized for its pricing and customer support, while Observer GigaStor is noted for its advanced technical features and packet capture capabilities.

Features: Centreon delivers integrated dashboard capabilities, alerting systems, and comprehensive monitoring across servers, applications, and network views. Observer GigaStor provides long-term packet data capture and forensic investigation potential, with robust data mining and packet-capture technology, benefiting detailed analysis needs.

Room for Improvement: Centreon can enhance its ability to process and automate polling server configurations and reporting capabilities. Observer GigaStor could improve by simplifying the deployment process, enhancing the ease of integration with other systems, and offering broader plugin support for diverse environments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Centreon is valued for its easy deployment and strong customer support structure, facilitating setup and troubleshooting. Observer GigaStor, while requiring technical expertise for deployment, offers commendable customer service for complex query resolution.

Pricing and ROI: Centreon appeals to small to medium enterprises with economical pricing, leading to a rapid positive ROI. Observer GigaStor's higher initial investment suits businesses focusing on extensive data analysis, justifying the cost through superior functionality and higher long-term value.

To learn more, read our detailed Centreon vs. Observer GigaStor Report (Updated: June 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Centreon vs. Observer GigaStor

June 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 902,988 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

Centreon

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

27th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (27th), Cloud Monitoring Software (20th)

Observer GigaStor

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

84th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Troubleshooting (14th), Network Packet Broker (NPB) (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Centreon is 1.3%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Observer GigaStor is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Centreon	1.3%
Observer GigaStor	0.5%
Other	98.2%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Sulesh PK

Monitoring and Operations Pilot at Egis S.A.

Experience enhanced monitoring with real-time alerts and efficient support

I would like to see automation in the poller features, as currently, the poller is not automated. If we could automate the addition or removal of hosts in the poller, it would improve efficiency. Sometimes, Centreon does not show the status of services as updated, which should be addressed. Additionally, enhancements are needed in identifying configuration issues, providing real-time alerts in case of issues, and improving the HTTP configuration tasks, as Centreon does not currently display issues with HTTP links, requiring manual investigation.

Read full review

Jeroen-Dubbelman

Director at Bitrate

Aids significantly in the threat-hunting process and provides a score-based evaluation of user experience

There are many valuable features, but understanding end-user response times stands out. It provides a score-based evaluation of user experience, helping customers quickly pinpoint whether issues originate from the network, server, client, or application. Additionally, it facilitates in-depth analysis of application dependencies. The retrospective network analysis capability of Observer GigaStor has been beneficial. It's a pivotal feature for network performance solutions. However, I prefer to consider the entire solution suite - GigaStor, along with GigaFlow and Apex - for comprehensive network visibility and monitoring. So, I prefer to integrate all three solutions to provide the best visibility. They complement each other well, with Apex aggregating and correlating data from both GigaStor and GigaFlow to enhance environmental understanding and troubleshooting efficiency.

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

"Predetermined templates allow for simple and fast service monitoring configuration."

"Centreon's user-friendly dashboard and minimal resource requirements lead to significant time and cost savings."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that most of its plug-ins are free."

"I can't point to one valuable feature. All of Centreon is good."

"What I like most about Centreon is that it is very flexible and customizable, based on the user and/or business needs."

"Centreon provides timesaving and costsaving benefits as it lets us manage multiple devices on a single platform."

"What I like most about Centreon is that it is very flexible and customizable, based on the user and/or business needs. Centreon is very flexible when it comes to monitoring parameters. We can use scripts found on the internet or scripts created by our infra/apps team. Also, the data visualization features are very simple and straightforward, yet very informative."

"We picked Centreon because, after an open-source comparison, and given what we want to do, and our skills and experience as well, it was the best solution for us, the most reliable for our services."

More Centreon pros

"Go take a look at it. It's a great product and has great capabilities."

"I have no regrets using this product, I am very satisfied for what I paid for it and for the things I am able to do with the product."

"I also have the ability to see an application's performance, to see what's going on, why a network is slow, why this program for this user is experiencing a delay or some network issue"

"It's able to capture packets and, after a long time, you can come and use that information; to check, to analyze - everything you would want to do. So it's very good and helpful if you want to protect your data. It is stored in a certain place where you can access it every time you want to analyze it."

"There are many valuable features, but understanding end-user response times stands out. It provides a score-based evaluation of user experience, helping customers quickly pinpoint whether issues originate from the network, server, client, or application. Additionally, it facilitates in-depth analysis of application dependencies."

"If you have the opportunity, I would strongly encourage you to get it, because it makes the IT experience easier and more flexible, by providing the ability to see things in your networks like the directory packet label."

"Industry-leading line rates, packet-capture technology and data-mining capabilities are the most valuable features."

"It can help to write your rules, organize firewalls, your block, and also your protocols and IP address to come in or out of your network."

More Observer GigaStor pros

Cons

"Currently, we have to go through all of the different templates and take a look at how the template is configured, and how specific parameters may change across different templates with different precedents, megatons, etc. It's a lot of work and involves trial and error. I wish they could simplify the process."

"Centreon needs to improve the granularity of the data as well as the graphical data. It would also be better to if there was improvement to the filtering/grouping system as well as the creation of views."

"It is necessary to improve service monitoring of database services in the free version."

"They only sell four hour slots for support, so if you have just one question, then you need to pay for four hours."

"There are improvements that they need to make to their API. When we're using different systems and we want to disable monitoring for a specific server, we still can't do that through the API. That's something that's lacking."

"Sometimes, when the GUI and some of the search fields are being reset, and I return to the page, then I have to set them again. Therefore, some improvement on the UI and the filtering is needed."

"I would like to see an improvement of the communication with big data systems, because Centreon is a monitoring system. In our point of view, Centreon should be a part of a source for a big data system, not a big data system itself. So, it should be easier to add data from the Centreon system to a big data system. For example, it should be able to teach machine learning."

"Centreon technical support is only available during Central European business hours. When it comes to critical business solutions, there should be a 24/7 hotline that customers can rely on."

More Centreon cons

"Maybe the graphical user interface could be simplified to allow people to use it more easily. It's already good, but they can work more on it to make it even easier."

"The Observer Console UI is consistent and stable, but could use some updating to be more modern."

"The interface is pretty complex, so for the average user, it takes a while to get up to speed with it. I would like it to be more user-friendly."

"There are some issues, in our environment that puts processing restraints on the Gigastor when turning on trending data to be sent to APEX."

"I would like to have more than 4TB of storage available in the portable version of this solution."

"GigaStor feeds into Apex. So, the area where there could be improvement would be in artificial intelligence. For example, the incorporation of more advanced machine learning or AI capabilities could enhance its functionality."

"Graphics need improvement. Because a lot of the information there you have to input first in some case to have full potential. It could be more automated."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You purchase a package. You have a support contract (there is also a platinum support contract) and it is per module. That means you have to pay, e.g., for the MBI module or the BAM module. Or, if you want to save a lot of money, you can pay for IMP, which is the complete package."

"The price is not too high. Licensing is driven by how many hosts you monitor, but because you can run the agentless version, you don't have to declare every host to Centreon, one at a time. That means you can drive your infrastructure supervision with a very low number of declared hosts."

"In terms of licensing, you have to think through if the components that need licensing are really needed. For example, the Map module: If you don't need a map to be shown, I don't see a point in paying for those licenses, if you just use it a couple of times a month or a couple of times a week... You can use the Centreon free version and get the main features. The licensing part is, I would say, only for bigger customers who have the option to pay more and who really need those kinds of modules, fancy reports, etc."

"The solution has a free part and after that threshold, you will need to pay. For example, if you believe you can create an interesting map, most of the time, you will have to pay 10,000 Euros per year for having access to these components."

"It is perfect and very cheap if you are a little company or startup. After that, it is quite expensive for a big company."

"Centreon is an open source product. Thus, there is no need for licensing."

"The tool is cheaply priced."

"They only sell four hour slots for support, so if you have just one question, then you need to pay for four hours. Or, you need to wait until you have enough questions to fill those four hours. They are not flexible in this."

More Centreon pricing and cost advice

"It's quite expensive."

"It depends on the requirements you have. There are three types of license. There's the updates license, the work group license, and the workstation license."

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

902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Construction Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Construction Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	14

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Centreon?

Centreon's pricing is not very expensive. Initially, I rated it seven, but corrected to five out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Centreon?

I have certain concerns with Centreon, such as being unable to set downtime for multiple devices at once due to the limitation of adding only 50 devices in a single go. Increasing this limit would ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Centreon?

We are using Centreon for monitoring devices, both LAN and WAN devices. There are subsidiaries for my company, so if any devices go down or there are any service alerts, we receive alerts through C...

See all answers

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Comparisons

Zabbix vs Centreon

Compared 10% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Centreon

Compared 9% of the time

Datadog vs Centreon

Compared 7% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Centreon

Compared 7% of the time

WhatsUp Gold vs Centreon

Compared 5% of the time

More Centreon Competitors

Wireshark vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 15% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 6% of the time

IxChariot vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 6% of the time

Gigamon Deep Observability Pipeline vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 6% of the time

Viavi Observer Platform vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 6% of the time

More Observer GigaStor Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Centreon

June 2026

Download Centreon product report

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor

June 2026

Download Observer GigaStor product report

Overview

Centreon offers a robust IT infrastructure monitoring platform, featuring user-friendly dashboards and real-time monitoring. It excels in scalability and integration, making it suitable for monitoring diverse network environments.

Centreon stands out with its unified monitoring capabilities, providing businesses with user-friendly dashboards and extensive plugins for customization. Its scalability ensures companies can expand monitoring tasks without incurring additional costs. Integration capabilities allow seamless interaction with ticketing systems and automation tools. Centreon offers customizable reporting and effectively manages downtimes, providing real-time feedback and proactive maintenance through Business Activity and Anomaly Detection features. Despite its strengths, users find areas for improvement including downtime scheduling, API functionalities, UI enhancements, end-to-end monitoring, and documentation. Businesses are increasingly demanding better automation, network discovery, cloud monitoring, and notification options.

What are Centreon's standout features?

Unified Monitoring: Delivers a comprehensive monitoring platform for IT infrastructure.
User-Friendly Dashboards: Offers intuitive and customizable dashboards for efficient monitoring.
Extensive Plugins: Enables flexibility and customization through numerous plugins.
Scalability: Allows expansion of monitoring duties without additional costs.
Integration Capabilities: Seamlessly integrates with ticketing systems and other tools.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Cost Efficiency: Minimized resolution time through proactive maintenance features.
Ease of Use: Simplifies monitoring with its user-friendly interface.
Proactive Issue Resolution: Real-time monitoring and alerts help prevent service outages.
Customizable Reporting: Adapts reports to meet specific organizational requirements.
Diverse Network Management: Capable of handling diverse IT environments efficiently.

Centreon is implemented across industries to monitor IT infrastructures, including networks, servers, and applications. Companies leverage it to track server performance, manage network devices, and receive timely alerts on device status. Its ability to integrate with ticketing systems and automation tools streamlines operations, enhancing global IT infrastructure monitoring and customer service management with real-time feedback and issue resolution.

Centreon

Observer GigaStor provides detailed network visibility and data capture for efficient troubleshooting and analysis. It's a robust tool designed to manage today’s complex network environments, offering reliability and performance insights.

Observer GigaStor specializes in long-term network traffic capture, delivering comprehensive forensic analysis capabilities. It stands as a trusted resource for IT departments aiming to resolve network performance issues swiftly. By capturing and storing packets with high precision, it aids in identifying both current and past anomalies, ensuring network health and performance continuity through proactive monitoring.

What are the key features of Observer GigaStor?

Long-term Data Capture: Enables storage of vast amounts of data for extensive historical analysis.
Comprehensive Protocol Support: Offers support for diverse protocols, enhancing troubleshooting accuracy.
Retrospective Analysis: Provides the ability to trace issues back to their origin point, improving issue resolution speed.
Scalability: Adapts to network growth without sacrificing performance capabilities.

What benefits and ROI can be expected from reviews?

Increased Troubleshooting Efficiency: Provides quicker resolution times, reducing network downtime.
Enhanced Network Visibility: Improves understanding of network performance and traffic patterns.
Reduced Operational Costs: Limits the need for manual troubleshooting, saving on labor costs.
Improved Decision Making: Data insights aid in strategic planning for infrastructure improvements.

Observer GigaStor's implementation spans across various industries, from telecommunications to finance, where maintaining robust and secure network performance is crucial. Its ability to analyze and retrieve historical network data supports compliance and operational stability demands in these sectors.

Viavi Solutions

Sample Customers

Airbus, Bollore, BT, Canal Plus, Kuehne Nagel, Limagrain, LVMH, Oberthur Technologies, Orange, Darty, Addax Petroleum, Plastic Omnium, Auchan, Valeo, Saint Gobin, Clarins, Hugo Boss, JC Decaux, French Government (Defense, Justice, Environment, Agriculture), OptiComm, Thales, Zeiss.

Cisco Systems, Hawaiian Telecom, Renown Health, State of Nevada, U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Allstate Insurance, Jack Henry & Associates, United States Airforce, US Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Chicago Board Options Exchange

Buyer's Guide

Centreon vs. Observer GigaStor

June 2026

Free Report: Centreon vs. Observer GigaStor

Find out what your peers are saying about Centreon vs. Observer GigaStor and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Centreon vs. Observer GigaStor report.

See our list of best Network Monitoring Software 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.