Icinga vs ServiceNow Discovery comparison

Icinga and ServiceNow are both solutions in the Server Monitoring category. Icinga is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.7, while ServiceNow is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.4. Icinga holds a 9.5% mindshare in SM, compared to ServiceNow’s 4.0% 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

2,103 Views
1,865 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

ServiceNow Discovery

Read 41 ServiceNow Discovery reviews

2,622 Views
1,285 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: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Icinga vs. ServiceNow Discovery

April 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 Server Monitoring

7th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (17th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (16th), Cloud Monitoring Software (14th)

ServiceNow Discovery

Ranking in Server Monitoring

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Asset Management (4th), Cloud Resource Discovery Services (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of Icinga is 9.5%, up from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Discovery is 4.0%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Server 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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Kaustubh Partha

Technical Support Analyst at CLSA

Scans servers and network devices through SNMP and reduces manual maintenance for our infrastructure team

I like how ServiceNow Discovery scans servers and network devices through SNMP. Most fields on our forms are auto-filled, reducing manual maintenance for our infrastructure team. Post Discovery implementation there is hardly any maintenance. There are three to four fields that are customized. Otherwise, 90% of the data is auto-filled. Discovery can also run in bulk, which is helpful for organizations that cannot run it during weekdays. With identification rules, if a configuration item (CI) isn't in the CMDB, you can simply add the IP address, and it will be automatically added based on criteria like name or serial number, making CMDB maintenance easier.

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."

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

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

"We have found the solution to be stable."

"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."

"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

"We mostly use the solution's ITSM and ITOM capabilities in most workflows."

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

"The workflows are beneficial as they allow tasks to be assigned to respective teams without the need for coding."

"One of the most valuable features of ServiceNow Discovery is the automated discovery that helps identify dependencies and generates reports."

"I am impressed with the tool's incident problem change management."

"The workflows are beneficial as they allow tasks to be assigned to respective teams without the need for coding."

"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."

"The process involving the original setup of the solution is excellent."

More ServiceNow Discovery pros

Cons

"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."

"One thing that Icinga lacks is the capability to create advanced and customized dashboards within the tool itself."

"It needs Trap SNMP. I saw the documentation for Zabbix, that it has its own built-in product which handles SNMP traps, and there's nothing similar in Icinga or Nagios. I think this feature is most important for me."

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

"Icinga’s automation could be improved."

"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."

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

More Icinga cons

"Improvements are required with the scripts used to collect the information from servers."

"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."

"In terms of improvement, I would like for it to be possible to use without coding. I would like a dropdown so that every customer can do it easily for himself and can understand it."

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

"I find it valuable to enhance IP address management. I've been in this field since around 2011, and my experience since then has revolved around automation, deployment, distribution, and comprehensive inventory management, all crucial for deploying various components, including patches. When we talk about patch management or vulnerability management, it's more complex than just applying patches; sometimes, you need to undergo significant upgrades or phase out old components for new ones, and this can turn into a substantial project, explaining why vulnerabilities persist. Now, the role of ServiceNow Discovery and security operations, or at one point, looking at vulnerability management in ServiceNow Discovery, is crucial. It allows you to identify vulnerabilities on assets and, with the addition of discovery, service mapping, and event management, you gain a business context for these vulnerabilities. It's not merely about knowing they exist on a server; it's about understanding which services are responsible for critical business processes or transactions, like payroll. This knowledge changes the approach and execution of vulnerability remediation."

"The product could improve some of the visualization and architecture setups."

"Without improvement in the patters, applications can't be discovered"

"ServiceNow Discovery should improve its cloud capabilities."

More ServiceNow Discovery cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's an open-source solution."

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

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

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

"The solution is free to use."

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

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

"The solution is cheap."

"The product pricing is fair and reasonable for the value it provides."

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

"It's on a yearly basis. We renew our contract for three years at a time."

"This solution is a paid option within the ServiceNow framework."

"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."

"The solution is very expensive."

"The price could be better. It's a bit on the pricey side."

"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."

More ServiceNow Discovery pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

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 Discovery?

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

See all answers

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

ServiceNow is considered more expensive compared to other products. If I were to rate the pricing on a scale from one to ten in terms of expense, I would rate it quite high.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ServiceNow Discovery?

Improvements could include implementing chatbots to simplify ticket creation. Currently, each new product must be manually created if it is not already available in ServiceNow, which can be cumbers...

See all answers

Comparisons

Zabbix vs Icinga

Compared 46% of the time

Nagios Core vs Icinga

Compared 22% of the time

Checkmk vs Icinga

Compared 10% of the time

Nagios XI vs Icinga

Compared 3% of the time

Centreon vs Icinga

Compared 3% of the time

More Icinga Competitors

Tanium vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 27% of the time

Lansweeper vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 22% of the time

BMC Helix Discovery vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 7% of the time

Zabbix vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 5% of the time

More ServiceNow Discovery Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Icinga

April 2025

Download Icinga product report

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Discovery

April 2025

Download ServiceNow Discovery product report

Also Known As

Icinga Cloud Monitoring

No data available

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 Discovery finds applications and devices on your network, and then updates the CMDB with the information it finds. Discovery is available as a separate subscription from the rest of the Now Platform.

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

April 2025

Free Report: Icinga vs. ServiceNow Discovery

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