Icinga vs ServiceNow Discovery comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Icinga and ServiceNow are both solutions in the Server Monitoring category. Icinga is ranked #17, while ServiceNow is ranked #8 with an average rating of 7.4. Icinga holds a 3.9% mindshare in SM, compared to ServiceNow’s 2.3% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Icinga users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of ServiceNow users who would recommend it.

Icinga

Read 17 Icinga reviews

7,834 Views
3,290 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

ServiceNow Discovery

Read 46 ServiceNow Discovery reviews

6,116 Views
2,630 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Icinga

ServiceNow Discovery

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

Icinga and ServiceNow Discovery are tools used for IT infrastructure monitoring, but they differ in several key areas. ServiceNow Discovery seems to have the upper hand due to its advanced feature set and support, despite Icinga's flexibility and open-source nature.

Features: Icinga users value its customizable setup and integration with various plugins. It offers flexible monitoring configuration and community-supported plugins. ServiceNow Discovery is praised for its comprehensive asset discovery capabilities, automation features, and integrated workflows, making it suitable for larger organizations with complex needs.

Room for Improvement: Icinga users suggest improving documentation, simplifying setup, and enhancing user interface design. ServiceNow Discovery users desire more frequent updates, better scalability options, and improved integration capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Icinga’s deployment process is intricate but flexible, with a community-driven customer service experience. ServiceNow Discovery has a streamlined deployment process and robust professional support, which is advantageous for enterprise environments.

Pricing and ROI: Icinga is cost-effective for small to medium enterprises due to low setup costs and its open-source model. ServiceNow Discovery, while more expensive, offers significant ROI through its advanced features and automation capabilities. Users generally find ServiceNow Discovery worth the higher price due to its comprehensive benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Icinga vs. ServiceNow Discovery Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Icinga vs. ServiceNow Discovery

September 2026

Download the complete report

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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 Server Monitoring

17th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (44th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (50th), Cloud Monitoring Software (34th)

ServiceNow Discovery

Ranking in Server Monitoring

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Asset Management (9th), Cloud Resource Discovery Services (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of Icinga is 3.9%, down from 8.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Discovery is 2.3%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Server Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
ServiceNow Discovery	2.3%
Icinga	3.9%
Other	93.8%

Server Monitoring

Featured Reviews

reviewer2292201

Innovation Service Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Easy to use, and it's possible to customize the product as per the needs we may have but average multi-tenancy aspect

It's supported by the community. We use Icinga, which is not part of the Open-Source platform but is wrapped into a commercial solution from another provider, a local provider in Italy. Icinga is an open-source platform, so it is supported by the community. It's quite easy to use, and it's possible to customize the product as per the needs we may have. So it's not expensive, and it's quite a general purpose. We can easily monitor any kind of infrastructure we encounter. 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. The alerting is the same as any other monitoring platform. It's not a "wow" feature that has changed our lives, but it's perfectly adequate.

Read full review

Abhinay Sharma

Service Now Developer at Bangmetric services pvt ltd

Cloud discovery has improved asset visibility and reporting but still needs smarter automation

The impact of ServiceNow Discovery on my organization's strategic planning depends on various factors. Some customers have their own discovery tools which they do not want to switch from, even if we explain why ServiceNow might be better, because they have been using them for a long time. Some customers are dynamic, so we need to have some kind of proposition that comes with ServiceNow. Sometimes, we need to talk with ServiceNow people themselves to give them a bundle offer in which we can have Discovery and ITSM at a much more affordable price than the competitors, so that is our main goal. Currently, I would say there might be a possibility if we can use some AI discovery features that could be helpful for our organization. If we can get discovery jobs running based on AI schedules, that would be beneficial. I believe in the coming future that I want to see myself working more with ServiceNow in this capacity.

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

"If you have a small infrastructure or a small number of devices that you want to monitor, then I think it's a good solution."

"Macros and the ability to connect it to Google Maps are valuable features."

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

"The apply rules feature saves a lot of time."

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

"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."

"Icinga does the job and is fairly stable."

"We have found the solution to be stable."

More Icinga pros

"The initial setup is pretty easy."

"ServiceNow Discovery helps with operations, audits, and allows people to assess how a particular change in infrastructure impacts other components."

"The solution can prioritize the discovery of IP ranges. The product automatically places all Discovery CIs into the correct class within the CMDB."

"Most fields on our forms are auto-filled, reducing manual maintenance for our infrastructure team. Post Discovery implementation there is hardly any maintenance."

"ServiceNow Discovery provides significant benefits as an end-user tool by reducing the effort required to understand the estate environment."

"The solution is stable and reliable."

"This is one of the best tools for organizations looking for a tool with agentless applications."

"The most valuable feature is its integration with CMDB, as it collects all the data."

More ServiceNow Discovery pros

Cons

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

"Sometimes, it is very hard to keep an overview of what's happening."

"It is not really adequate for our current needs. It causes additional issues which we have to work around and takes us time that a better solution would not."

"Network Discovery capabilities would be extremely helpful."

"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."

"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 installation and configuration are very complex."

"The connection between Icinga and Icinga Web."

More Icinga cons

"The solution is too high priced."

"I am not seeing significant ROI beyond breaking even on what I spend."

"Between SolarWinds and ServiceNow, there is some communication gap."

"In future releases, I would like to see more AI-oriented enhancements in the solution. It would automate most of the things that we have to do manually write the scripts and go on the teleservice, what to do. So if we have something in place and if we can train the module, then AI would be a good thing."

"I believe there is room for improvement in ServiceNow Discovery, particularly in providing more detailed information about network usage and communication between ServiceNow and the infrastructure."

"In my opinion, it's quite slow compared to other tools, like Device42. Also, there are predefined fields in Device42 that are not available in ServiceNow. These are the basic things I think can be improved here."

"ServiceNow Discovery should be updated to provide its users with more out-of-the-box information and attributes to support the routers and switches from Cisco."

"On the Software Asset Management part of it, I expect additional reconciliation and Discovery features there."

More ServiceNow Discovery cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The solution is cheap."

"Even though Icinga's financial cost is low, it is an expensive product regarding the resources required to maintain and operate it."

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

"It's an open-source solution."

"The solution is free to use."

"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."

"ServiceNow Discovery's licensing is not a very small investment, but it definitely pays off."

"There is a need to make payments every quarter of a year towards the licensing costs of the solution. ServiceNow Discovery is an expensive tool."

"ROI (Return on Investment) is good. ServiceNow don't disclose the price publicly. They'll assess your organization's needs and then come up with a price."

"ServiceNow Discovery has very broad pricing, so it becomes costly. It would be better if it had a pay-as-you-use licensing model because the total cost of ownership is quite high."

"It's a bit expensive compared to other products in the market, but it's worth the money you pay because it's far advanced in terms of features, automation, and capabilities compared to other products."

"ServiceNow Discovery is expensive, but the company has a monopoly and we need to use the solution. We use it because we do not have a choice."

"It is not recommended for smaller companies because of the price."

"This is expensive, but it meets our needs."

More ServiceNow Discovery pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

14%

Comms Service Provider

13%

University

12%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	25

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Discovery?

Regarding pricing, I have not dealt much with it. I am more focused on the feature side of things, so I cannot comment on the latest pricing because it is dynamic as well. Sometimes it is cheaper f...

See all answers

What needs improvement with ServiceNow Discovery?

ServiceNow could improve ServiceNow Discovery by integrating artificial intelligence capabilities. The system could study frequently created queries for the CMDB, whether related to applications, c...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for ServiceNow Discovery?

I mainly use ServiceNow Discovery for asset inventory in the estate. I primarily use it for linking applications versus inventory and creating disaster recovery plans, recovery time objectives, and...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 8% of the time

Checkmk vs Icinga

Compared 5% of the time

Nagios XI vs Icinga

Compared 5% of the time

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs Icinga

Compared 4% of the time

Nagios Core vs Icinga

Compared 3% of the time

More Icinga Competitors

Lansweeper vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 7% of the time

BMC Helix Discovery vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 7% of the time

Tanium vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 7% of the time

HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Icinga

September 2026

Download Icinga product report

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Discovery

September 2026

Download ServiceNow Discovery 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

ServiceNow Discovery automates relationship building with agentless discovery and accurate dependency mapping. It seamlessly integrates with CMDB, offering secure operations and efficient data management, suitable for multi-cloud operations.

ServiceNow Discovery transforms IT infrastructure management by automating the mapping of hardware and software components, enhancing application visibility, and supporting predictive monitoring. It boasts expansive plugin options, low maintenance, and centralized data storage, all while operating effectively across cloud and on-premises environments. Users benefit from robust performance, comprehensive impact analysis, and easy setup. However, improving unnecessary data elimination, simplifying debugging, and enhancing global deployment could make it more effective. It requires more intuitive interfaces and code-free customization for better reconciliation and discovery of remote devices. Improved reporting, competitive pricing, and seamless integration with legacy and newer applications are valued enhancements.

What are the key features of ServiceNow Discovery?

Automated Relationship Building: Facilitates seamless integration with CMDB.
Agentless Discovery: Offers accurate mapping without the need for additional agents.
Dependency Mapping: Provides detailed infrastructure insights.
Multi-cloud Support: Ensures operations are streamlined across cloud environments.
Centralized Data Storage: Supports efficient data management.
Comprehensive Impact Analysis: Enhances capacity management.

What benefits and ROI should be considered?

Integration with CMDB: Enhances asset tracking and management.
Secure Operations: Minimizes security risks across IT environments.
Efficient Data Management: Streamlines processing and analysis of data.
Low Maintenance: Reduces operational overhead and downtime.
Robust Performance: Ensures reliability in diverse settings.

Companies in diverse sectors use ServiceNow Discovery for asset tracking, CMDB population, and identifying Configuration Items. This enables IT teams to map hardware and software components, enhance visibility, and facilitate predictive monitoring and auto-remediation processes. Integrating with other systems, ServiceNow Discovery provides valuable insights from IT environments, supporting both cloud and on-premises operations.

ServiceNow

Sample Customers

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

York, National Grid, DXC Technology, experian, BEACHBODY

Buyer's Guide

Icinga vs. ServiceNow Discovery

September 2026

Free Report: Icinga vs. ServiceNow Discovery

Find out what your peers are saying about Icinga vs. ServiceNow Discovery and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.

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