Icinga vs Nagios Core vs Zabbix comparison

Icinga and Nagios are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Icinga is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.0, while Nagios is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.3. Icinga holds a 2.8% mindshare in NMS, compared to Nagios’s 2.5% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Icinga users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of Nagios users who would recommend it.

Icinga

Read 17 Icinga reviews

3,873 Views
3,370 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Nagios Core

Read 51 Nagios Core reviews

3,994 Views
3,475 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Zabbix

Read 107 Zabbix reviews

23,317 Views
14,223 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Icinga

Nagios Core

Zabbix

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Icinga, Nagios Core, and Zabbix based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Zabbix, Auvik, SolarWinds and others in Network Monitoring Software.

To learn more, read our detailed Network Monitoring Software Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Network Monitoring Software

September 2025

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Helped 869,089 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:

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Icinga is 2.8%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nagios Core is 2.5%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zabbix is 11.4%, up from 11.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Zabbix	11.4%
Nagios Core	2.5%
Icinga	2.8%
Other	83.3%

Network Monitoring Software

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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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.

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B Ahmed

Manager, Information Technology Zara & Inditex at Cenomi

Enables seamless global client monitoring with reliable remote connectivity

I use the solution to provide a perfect environment for remote connectivity with my clients. Many tools that I require for system maintenance are included. I can easily monitor all of my clients throughout the world I did not give much thought to it, however, improvements could be made to Zabbix.…

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

"Icinga does the job and is fairly stable."

"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."

"This solution has a self-healing handler where if the service is down, it is automatically restarted."

"We have found the solution to be 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 value of Icinga is that it has hundreds of plugins, so it's really easy to monitor pretty much anything."

"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."

"The ability to customize scripts and build your own queries to request information from the infrastructure elements you want to monitor. This level of personalization and customization is highly appreciated."

More Icinga pros

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

"It has made the life of the network operations staff more proactive in managing the resources of the infrastructure. It prevents disasters long before they can take place."

"The most valuable features are the reports and the way it generates the report in a graphical manner."

"Alert calls occur anytime a service goes down or a matrix is difficult and that helps us to quickly restore service and transfer work."

"The notifications are definitely one of the most valuable features of Nagios Core. We know what to look for and what to expect when things are down."

"The solution is quite efficient."

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

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

More Nagios Core pros

"It is a great product. The SNMP protocol tracking feature is good. I really like how it tracks SNMP. The alerts are also great."

"During my testing, the features that I like the most are that it can be integrated with my system, and it provides me with reports of all of my servers."

"It's the best solution. Great. I would rate the overall solution ten out of ten."

"Zabbix has a roadmap and they are continuously and frequently adding new features."

"We detect problems before the customer does and before it actually happens using the predictive functions in Zabbix."

"It's one of the best products available."

"Zabbix is an excellent performance monitoring tool."

"The most valuable feature is network traffic monitoring."

More Zabbix pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

"In general, the product does not look good. However, it does what it is supposed to do. So, the improvements should focus on usability and UI."

"Icinga’s automation could be improved."

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

"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."

"The user interface should be improved."

More Icinga cons

"Nagios Core does not have a graphic display."

"I would like to see a sensor that shows the traffic of a user and what they're doing on the network."

"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."

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

"The dashboard and monitoring features could be improved."

"The NetEase reporting structure needs improvement, especially the availability report, which is weak."

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

"The initial setup process could be easier."

More Nagios Core cons

"The user interface could be a bit better. They could update it a bit."

"As far as improvements, sometimes I get a bit frustrated when I move from a previous version to a new one because some configuration has changed—I need to investigate the documentation to deal with some configuration. But it doesn't take much time, so it's okay."

"In terms of user-friendliness, large maps could be more interactive. We should be able to click on some areas and move some objects. It would make it simpler to see things while analyzing some dedicated parameters."

"The reporting features need improvement, especially detailed inventory reporting. Since it's freeware, reporting may not be a major focus."

"Its UI should be improved. They did some improvements in version 5, but it could benefit from some more work. Its integrations should also be improved. They've been active for one year, and they seem to have noticed that. It has new integrations, but it could benefit from more integrations. As far as I know, there is no model to push statistics, metrics, or events towards Zabbix. This type of API isn't yet there, whereas some other tools provide an API for this."

"The user interface could be better."

"If you want to use all of the features then you have to pay a licensing fee."

"The networking monitor is not too easy to work with."

More Zabbix cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The solution is cheap."

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

"It's an open-source solution."

"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."

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

"Nagios Core is free to use."

"Lessening the price point would be an improvement."

"The enterprise version has technical support. The version we are using is free."

"Most the plugin features are free."

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

"It's free."

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

"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."

More Nagios Core pricing and cost advice

"It is free, which allows us to reduce costs."

"The product is an open source and free solution."

"Zabbix is open-source so if one wishes to implement it in-house, they must have qualified professionals to set up and optimize databases, Linux/Unix OS, PHP, Apache, and depending on what is monitored, a full-stack network and systems administrator may be needed."

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

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

"The tool's licensing is good."

"It is a true open-source solution, so there are no licensing costs."

"We use the open-source version of Zabbix."

More Zabbix pricing and cost advice

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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

Comms Service Provider

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	22

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	53
Midsize Enterprise	23
Large Enterprise	34

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 ...

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 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 b...

See all answers

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 hos...

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...

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 ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Zabbix?

The template system in Zabbix is very beneficial as it saves time in configuration.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zabbix?

If you want to save costs, you can use Zabbix.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zabbix?

The reporting is lacking because this is an open-source tool, and nowadays, management's expectation is that the repo...

See all answers

Comparisons

Checkmk vs Icinga

Compared 11% of the time

Nagios XI vs Icinga

Compared 5% of the time

LibreNMS vs Icinga

Compared 3% of the time

Datadog vs Icinga

Compared 3% of the time

Centreon vs Icinga

Compared 3% of the time

More Icinga Competitors

Nagios XI vs Nagios Core

Compared 14% of the time

Centreon vs Nagios Core

Compared 7% of the time

Checkmk vs Nagios Core

Compared 6% of the time

OP5 Monitor vs Nagios Core

Compared 4% of the time

New Relic vs Nagios Core

Compared 3% of the time

More Nagios Core Competitors

Checkmk vs Zabbix

Compared 10% of the time

LibreNMS vs Zabbix

Compared 9% of the time

NetXMS vs Zabbix

Compared 5% of the time

Centreon vs Zabbix

Compared 4% of the time

Amazon CloudWatch vs Zabbix

Compared 2% of the time

More Zabbix Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Icinga

September 2025

Download Icinga product report

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core

September 2025

Download Nagios Core product report

Buyer's Guide

Zabbix

September 2025

Download Zabbix product report

Also Known As

Icinga Cloud Monitoring

No data available

Overview

Icinga is a robust tool for monitoring IT infrastructure, known for its distributed monitoring capabilities and seamless integration with multiple platforms. It efficiently observes servers, network devices, and environments like Linux and Windows, enabling proactive issue identification and resource management.

With a focus on task delegation and clustering, Icinga offers an intuitive interface through its GUI and Icinga Director, simplifying configuration. The extensive plugin library supports diverse technologies, while the API allows automation with tools like Terraform and Ansible. Despite its strengths, users report challenges with data display in the GUI, a need for improved dashboards, and complex configuration processes. Users benefit from its SNMP alerts, email notifications, and automated incident handling, making it essential for managed service environments and enterprises.

What are the key features of Icinga?

Task Delegation: Streamlines monitoring tasks across distributed systems.
Event Handler: Enables automatic service recovery with minimal intervention.
Plugin Library: Offers extensive support for integrating diverse technologies.
API Accessibility: Facilitates automation with popular tools like Terraform.
Custom Plugins: Allows easy creation and personalization for monitoring needs.

What benefits should you consider in Icinga reviews?

Flexibility: Tailors monitoring to specific requirements with community support.
Scalability: Successfully manages growing infrastructure demands.
Proactivity: Enhances issue identification and resource allocation.
Integration: Seamlessly works with existing IT operations platforms.

Icinga is widely adopted in IT environments for monitoring servers, networks, and applications across industries such as finance, healthcare, and technology. Its ability to integrate with various operating systems and automation platforms makes it a versatile choice for industries prioritizing comprehensive surveillance and proactive management of their infrastructure.

Icinga

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

Nagios

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.

Zabbix

Sample Customers

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

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

Buyer's Guide

Network Monitoring Software

September 2025

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