Nagios Core vs NetMon vs Zabbix comparison

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Nagios Core

NetMon

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Nagios Core, NetMon, 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).

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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:

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nagios Core is 2.6%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetMon is 0.4%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zabbix is 11.7%, up from 11.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Zabbix	11.7%
Nagios Core	2.6%
NetMon	0.4%
Other	85.3%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

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.

A stable and scalable tool useful for network behavior analysis, DPA, and network forensic services

AshishDubey

Product manager at Tata Communications Ltd

I have not worked much on LogRhythm NetMon to be able to comment on what needs improvement in the product since there is another team in our company that is working on the solution presently. LogRhythm NetMon's pricing model is an area of concern that should be made a little bit cheaper in comparison to the other players in the market currently. With players like IBM QRadar that propose QNI or Darktrace in the market, LogRhythm NetMon needs to consider a reduction in its pricing model.

Enables seamless global client monitoring with reliable remote connectivity

B Ahmed

Manager, Information Technology Zara & Inditex at Cenomi

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.…

More Nagios Core pricing and cost advice

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The application performance monitoring feature is valuable."

"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."

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

"The solution is quite efficient."

"Dashboard provides monitor of total assets."

"I would rate the overall solution ten points out of ten."

"Other products are good but from the configuration point of view Nagios is really very lightweight. The price is really good in my opinion. Another important thing is that my Nagios engine still works with Dual core 8GB ram for the last 10 years."

"The most valuable feature is the performance parameters of the system."

More Nagios Core pros

"LogRhythm NetMon's most impressive feature is that it's a bundled package, so you're not just relying on monthly data; you get a six-month view for more comprehensive indicators of compromise. This dual approach is precious. We implement LogRhythm NetMon in our cybersecurity strategy mainly for compliance and correlation of network, user, and decision activities, particularly for network firewalls and access control."

"The most valuable feature is the log, which can be analyzed by our SIEM solution."

"The protocols with which you see the traffic for a particular website that a client has in their environment, for example, are valuable. We can monitor whether the traffic is up to the mark or whether they need to add more bandwidth. Also, we can see if we're able to get real-time environment data as well. The customization dashboard is really good. LogRhythm NetMon has its own in-built dashboards which are helpful in guiding customization."

"It has a very strong artificial intelligence engine."

"The analytics feature is the most valuable feature."

"NetMon's best feature is traffic analysis."

"The initial setup is straightforward because we can deploy an open server."

"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."

More NetMon pros

"Zabbix is very easy to implement."

"It has an intuitive UI with beautiful graphs and customizable maps."

"The most valuable feature is the alert and alarm monitoring."

"The overall functionality of Zabbix is very good. The monitoring of bank applications that Zabbix provides is great. The information is displayed on a dashboard that is easily viewed."

"The solution is open-source, easy to manage, and user-friendly making it easy for anyone to use."

"Zabbix helps to save time."

"Every new asset placed in the environment can be automatically detected, predicting human failures."

"It has good graphs of what is going on within the operating system."

More Zabbix pros

Cons

"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."

"Bandwidth monitoring is the pain point for me because Nagios Core does not monitor bandwidth effectively like Cacti does."

"The tool needs to improve the integrations."

"I would like to see more training videos."

"Making it a little easier to configure and set up from the start would help. There are multiple layers that you have to wade through to be able to set it up, to do it the right way, and to get it to do what you want it to do."

"It is a bit slow due to latency."

"There is room for improvement in the graphics."

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

More Nagios Core cons

"Some of the automated tasks we can perform on QRadar cannot be performed on LogRhythm because the solution has limitations."

"I would like to see better integration with multiple products. Integration is not something that is readily available for most of the products."

"There is an issue with tunneling in relation to how the connectivity is established between the end devices and where NetMon is installed. On the console, I often observe that there's a difference of a few seconds or maybe a minute, and this lag time should not be there."

"The training for this product is not very good and needs to be improved."

"LogRhythm NetMon's pricing model is an area of concern that should be made a little bit cheaper in comparison to the other players in the market currently."

"Sometimes it's hard to find the network devices' self-audit logs."

"The platform's integration features often need to be improved."

"Could use a topology diagram which would help get an exact visual."

More NetMon cons

"The product delivers false positives during reporting because of flapping. Other reasonably priced alternatives may have better performance."

"The only improvement I would suggest, revolves around its AI and ML capabilities."

"In the next release, I'm hoping for features targeted towards larger users with more customizable options. Despite this, I think pre-canned reports that can be used straight out of the box would be beneficial rather than having to configure each report individually. Additionally, a deeper dive into software configurations on the machines would be useful, although I understand there may be challenges in implementing this due to scripting requirements. More documentation would also be appreciated."

"The solution needs to add remote features."

"I'm using the free version of Zabbix, and I'd like to see more customization options, especially for setting trigger thresholds."

"There are a lot of areas for improvement, specifically in the dashboards and reports functionalities."

"The solution needs to add features for finding loopholes or problems and their root causes."

"Documentation terminology could be improved."

More Zabbix cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Nagios Core is free to use."

"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."

"It's free."

"Lessening the price point would be an improvement."

"It's free."

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

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

"The solution is expensive."

"I don't have visibility into the pricing of LogRhythm NetMon as it's handled through our commercial partnerships."

"NetMon's licensing costs about $85k per year, with some extra costs for support."

"The price of this solution is too high, so it should be made more practical and more valuable for the customer."

"LogRhythm's licensing part is something that depends on the license you want since they offer it on a perpetual and subscription basis."

"The product is expensive for smaller companies."

"Pricing is okay. There were some competitors that were extremely expensive and there were some which were really inexpensive but LogRhythm stayed in the middle of them."

"This is an open-source solution that can be used free of charge."

"This solution is completely open-source, so it is quite affordable."

"The solution is open source so is free."

"The tool's licensing is good."

"Zabbix and Grafana are both open source products, we only needed to go to their website and download the application and we began to use them. The solutions are free."

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

"It is open source. If you want to have a subscription or official support, you can pay for it. They have different plans, which are not that expensive. The plans are based on per monitoring server, not per monitored equipment. So, it is not at all expensive, and you can also live without the support if you want a cheaper option."

"For pricing, it's free. We don't pay anything for it. They open-source the code, and people pay for support."

More Zabbix pricing and cost advice

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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.

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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…

What do you like most about Nagios Core?

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

No data available

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	20
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	22

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	6

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

Questions from the Community

What I like about Nagios Core is that it helps me ensure everything is running smoothly by checking the status of hos...

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...

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 ...

What do you like most about LogRhythm NetMon?

It has a very strong artificial intelligence engine.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for LogRhythm NetMon?

I don't have visibility into the pricing of LogRhythm NetMon as it's handled through our commercial partnerships.

What needs improvement with LogRhythm NetMon?

The main concern is that LogRhythm has not improved NetMon but instead introduced a separate product, which many cust...

What do you like most about Zabbix?

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

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zabbix?

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

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...

OP5 Monitor vs Nagios Core

Comparisons

Icinga vs Nagios Core

Compared 23% of the time

Nagios XI vs Nagios Core

Compared 15% of the time

Centreon vs Nagios Core

Compared 7% of the time

Checkmk vs Nagios Core

Compared 6% of the time

Compared 4% of the time

More Nagios Core Competitors

SCOM vs NetMon

Compared 21% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs NetMon

Compared 16% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs NetMon

Compared 14% of the time

Opmantek NMIS vs NetMon

Compared 14% of the time

Niagara Visibility Controller vs NetMon

Compared 13% of the time

More NetMon Competitors

Checkmk vs Zabbix

Compared 9% of the time

LibreNMS vs Zabbix

Compared 9% of the time

Icinga vs Zabbix

Compared 6% of the time

NetXMS vs Zabbix

Compared 4% of the time

Amazon CloudWatch vs Zabbix

Compared 2% of the time

More Zabbix Competitors

Product Reports

Nagios Core

Download Nagios Core product report

NetMon

Download NetMon product report

Download Zabbix product report

August 2025

Also Known As

No data available

LogRhythm Network Monitor

No data available

Overview

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

Nagios

NetMon offers significant capabilities in log aggregation, traffic analysis, and real-time network insights. Its ease of use accommodates both entry-level and advanced functionalities, enhancing network visibility and threat detection.

NetMon provides seamless analytics with its real-time dashboards and advanced AI integration. The platform is designed for comprehensive monitoring and detailed analysis, making it indispensable for identifying network traffic, origins, destinations, and facilitating threat detection through lateral traffic visibility. Despite its powerful analytics and customization features, improvements in product integration, customer support, and pricing could increase its competitive edge. Connectivity, topology visualization, and server performance are areas noted for enhancement. Integration with protocols like Gflow and Netflow might alleviate agent-based restriction challenges. NetMon sends correlated data to LogRhythm SIEM for enhanced threat analysis and is used for tasks like traffic analysis and DPA.

What are NetMon's key features?

Log Aggregation: Seamless collection of diverse network logs for analysis.
Traffic Analysis: Detailed inspection of network traffic for identifying irregular patterns.
AI Integration: Advanced analytics powered by robust AI capabilities.
Customizable Dashboards: Real-time insights tailored to user requirements.
Correlation Engine: In-depth correlation of network activity for comprehensive reports.
Deep Packet Analytics: Thorough examination of data packets for granular insights.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Enhanced Threat Detection: Significant improvements in identifying lateral threats.
Comprehensive Insights: Complete visibility into network and user activities.
Efficient Monitoring: Real-time analytics streamline network monitoring processes.
Compliance Support: Strong integration supports adherence to compliance standards.

NetMon is widely adopted in industries requiring detailed traffic monitoring and security, such as finance and healthcare. Its capabilities in traffic type identification and correlated analysis make it essential for environments where detecting irregular patterns is critical. It's utilized for network security through comprehensive analysis and integration with SIEM systems.

Exabeam

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.

Sample Customers

Airbnb, Cisco, PayPal, FanDuel

Sera-Brynn

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

Network Monitoring Software