Icinga vs SolarWinds NPM comparison

Icinga and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Icinga is ranked #41, while SolarWinds is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3. Icinga holds a 1.1% mindshare in NMS, compared to SolarWinds’s 3.7% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Icinga users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

Icinga

Read 17 Icinga reviews

7,233 Views
5,352 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

SolarWinds NPM

Read 161 SolarWinds NPM reviews

23,097 Views
18,016 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Icinga

SolarWinds NPM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

SolarWinds NPM and Icinga compete in the network monitoring category. While SolarWinds offers ease of use and comprehensive features, Icinga provides customization and flexibility, highlighting distinct advantages in user experience and adaptability.

Features: SolarWinds NPM offers SNMP monitoring, modular pricing, and support for multiple vendors. Its robust alert system and an active online community enhance its value. Icinga delivers a robust automation and integration ecosystem with numerous plugins, enabling extensive customization and open-source flexibility.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds NPM faces criticism for resource-heavy requirements, a complex dependency structure, and unintuitive alert configurations. Its vast feature set can be overwhelming, with additional modules necessary for full functionality. Icinga could improve dashboard usability, automation for repetitive tasks, and integration with third-party solutions.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds NPM offers multiple deployment options, such as on-premises and hybrid cloud, with a steep learning curve due to its comprehensive features. Customer service is generally reliable but can be slow on non-critical issues. Icinga is mostly deployed on-premises, known for its straightforward setup, though lacking broad cloud support. Its community-driven support is a strong point but may occasionally lack timely responses.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds NPM has a high initial license cost, especially with extra modules, though the ROI is significant due to its powerful features. Icinga, being open-source, offers a cost-effective alternative with optional paid support. Despite its lower financial entry point, Icinga requires more manual maintenance, potentially increasing operational costs indirectly.

To learn more, read our detailed Icinga vs. SolarWinds NPM Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Icinga vs. SolarWinds NPM

August 2026

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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 Network Monitoring Software

41st

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

48th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

32nd

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (17th)

SolarWinds NPM

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

2nd

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

6th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

7th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

161

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Icinga is 1.1%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 3.7%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SolarWinds NPM	3.7%
Icinga	1.1%
Other	95.2%

Network Monitoring Software

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.

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Vivek Jaiswal

Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Central monitoring has improved outage alerts and now needs smarter detection and modern dashboards

Regarding the automated network topology and mapping feature in SolarWinds NPM, I am not satisfied with it. For static monitoring, it is acceptable. However, if it is possible, I would need a feature in SolarWinds in the future for some kind of malfunctioning detection, such as malware attacks or that type of environment. We did not have any facility to detect that in SolarWinds. I think it would be better to incorporate those types of features. Regarding customization options in SolarWinds, the ability to customize the dashboard has room for improvement. The dashboard is quite old, and we need some improvement in it. Nowadays, we have multiple tools with AI-based monitoring and web-based dashboards. SolarWinds also has a web-based dashboard, but I think there is scope for improvement in the UI. There may be other areas I would like to improve in SolarWinds NPM.

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."

"I would recommend Icinga; it's an open-source solution, it's quite easy and simple to use, and checks can be run with Python code and Shell Script code."

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

"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."

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

"An affordable solution for small organizations to do basic network monitoring."

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

"I use it for monitoring infrastructure and it was very good for that issue."

More Icinga pros

"I like that SolarWinds NPM is a strong tool for monitoring network devices, switches, and routers. It's also a user-friendly tool. My team also likes how scalable it is."

"Feature rich produce suite that addresses many aspects of BSM."

"There are a lot of options for customization of the dashboard, alerts, and reports."

"SolarWinds makes it easy for us to monitor our environment."

"Monitoring capabilities are at a high level and it is easy to see utilization, access ports, and CPU memory in real time or through a lens for long-term visualization."

"It's the best solution on the market so far."

"The simplicity of this product is a valuable feature; everything you need is easily accessible and the maintenance is low."

"Whether you want basic enterprise network monitoring or a full suite of network diagnostic tools and monitors, I recommend Orion 9 for its full feature set and ease of use."

More SolarWinds NPM pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

"The user interface should be improved."

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

"The tool currently fails to provide notifications to users."

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

More Icinga cons

"The price of the solution can be improved."

"SolarWinds NPM needs to increase its elements. One polling engine can only support 10,000 elements then it becomes slow. There are limitations even if you have the full SLX version license."

"An area for improvement in SolarWinds NPM is the short retention period. Currently, it's just for seven days of data, which is very low, making it hard for my organization to keep that data. SolarWinds recommended a seven-day retention period, but my organization needs a fourteen-day data retention period. Hence, I'd like an increase in the retention period or the database limit in SolarWinds NPM because you can't go back to the data for any investigation if seven days have passed. Another area for improvement in SolarWinds NPM is the database, which needs to be a bit more mature. I want a modified database in the next release of SolarWinds NPM. I'd also like more options added to groups because, currently, it's very limited."

"New, web-based interface lacks some features of traditional GUI."

"The product is scalable, but at a cost. Extra modules have to be purchased for each extra server. The initial set up isn't complex, but will require someone who is experienced with the network monitoring system"

"Technical support is average. Sometimes it took days to get responses and the responses were via email."

"SolarWinds NPM could improve by adding the deepest inspection, performance networking, and IP address discovery."

"The only thing that can be improved is to continually add to the existing capabilities of the product."

More SolarWinds NPM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"It's an open-source solution."

"The solution is free to use."

"The solution is cheap."

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

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

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

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

"Price could be improved on"

"There are a lot of sub-products and it just continued to increase the price."

"The solution can become very expensive and commercially not viable in countries, such as India."

"It was inexpensive when we installed it and gradually became more expensive, but it was a very inexpensive product at first."

"We have a perpetual license for this solution, and my impression is that this solution is cheap."

"The pricing needs to be improved. It is too high. One full engine costs around $10 000, which is why we don't have high availability right now."

"I believe the original setup cost was around $3500 with an annual cost of around $1200-$1500 to renew the support license. This would bring the average day-to-day cost of around $5-$6 over three years."

"I would rate the pricing a five out of ten"

More SolarWinds NPM 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

Educational Organization

14%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

University

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Outsourcing 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	59
Midsize Enterprise	33
Large Enterprise	87

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

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What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

It actually depends on the exact purpose or kind of devices (network devices, servers, something else). Some tools are better for only network devices while others are better for a cloud monitoring...

See all answers

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

From my point of view, SolarWind is the best tool.

See all answers

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

We are partners with SolarWinds and we sell a lot of Network management to large enterprises also because of scalability, products like Network Performance Monitor & Netflow Traffic Analyzer ar...

See all answers

Comparisons

Zabbix vs Icinga

Compared 9% of the time

Checkmk vs Icinga

Compared 6% of the time

Nagios XI vs Icinga

Compared 5% of the time

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs Icinga

Compared 4% of the time

Network Instruments Observer vs Icinga

Compared 2% of the time

More Icinga Competitors

ManageEngine OpManager vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 3% of the time

Nagios XI vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 3% of the time

DX Spectrum vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 3% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 3% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs SolarWinds NPM

Compared 2% of the time

More SolarWinds NPM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Icinga

August 2026

Download Icinga product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds NPM

July 2026

Download SolarWinds NPM product report

Also Known As

Icinga Cloud Monitoring

Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer

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

SolarWinds NPM is a network performance monitoring tool offering a user-friendly interface with customizable dashboards. It provides real-time tracking of device health, latency, and bandwidth utilization, supporting diverse integration and scalability needs.

SolarWinds NPM's robust features include real-time monitoring of network performance and efficient tracking of device health, latency, and bandwidth utilization. The tool is appreciated for its ease of deployment, scalability, and support for integration with other tools. Features like SNMP monitoring, NetPath, and comprehensive reporting enhance its diagnostic capabilities and network visibility. However, users identify areas for improvement such as real-time analytics, advanced customization options, and enhanced scalability for larger enterprises. Better customer support, improved integrations, and security measures are also desired.

What are the key features of SolarWinds NPM?

User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies navigation and operation.
Customizable Dashboards: Allows personalized data views.
Real-Time Monitoring: Provides instant updates on network performance.
Strong Alerting Capabilities: Offers immediate notifications for issues.
Scalability: Supports growth with ease.
Integration: Works smoothly with other tools for comprehensive monitoring.
SNMP Monitoring: Tracks device stats effectively.
NetPath: Helps visualize network paths and performance.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Improved Network Visibility: Enables proactive issue resolution.
Enhanced Diagnostics: Facilitates quicker troubleshooting.
Real-Time Performance Data: Supports informed decision-making.
Ease of Deployment: Reduces setup time and complexity.
Infrastructure Monitoring: Ensures network stability and reliability.
Custom Integration: Adapts to existing IT environments.

In enterprise environments, SolarWinds NPM is deployed to monitor network health and device status, sending alerts for any issues. It provides visibility into network performance, tracking bandwidth utilization and server metrics efficiently. Its applications span from monitoring routers, switches, and firewalls to supporting infrastructure monitoring across industries.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

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

Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard

Buyer's Guide

Icinga vs. SolarWinds NPM

August 2026

Free Report: Icinga vs. SolarWinds NPM

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