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

"We use the product to monitor server applications."

"The application performance monitoring feature is valuable."

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

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

"Nagios monitors our servers, so we know if anything goes wrong and can solve the problem before it happens."

"The most valuable feature depends on the project. It's great if you need to check to ensure a service is running 24/7. I can use the full solution for free, and it's flexible. If I need to add a dashboard, I can integrate it with Nagios. Cloud synchronization is wonderful."

"The good thing about Nagios Core is it covers everything."

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

More Nagios Core pros

"Visibility is a valuable feature, the ability to see even if the traffic is not going into the firewall"

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

"NetMon's best feature is traffic analysis."

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

"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 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."

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

"The analytics feature is the most valuable feature."

More NetMon pros

"The solution is quite mature and very stable."

"Our customers also like that they don't have to use multiple modules. Micro Focus and major vendors typically require you to buy several modules and plugins. Our customers do not like that. We offer them a single product for all their monitoring needs."

"Zabbix helps to save time."

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

"The flexibility of this solution is amazing."

"We are able to monitor our virtual infrastructure, virtual machines, windows servers, databases, and the network using a simple network management protocol. We are able to pull almost all the metrics that we want, receive notifications, and have them integrate with telegrams for certain devices that are critical, such as UPSs."

"The integration with third-party tools and the alerts are most valuable."

"The most valuable feature is the protocol to manage anything."

More Zabbix pros

Cons

"It is a bit slow due to latency."

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

"t was a little hard to get our setup represented in the configuration."

"The initial setup process could be easier."

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

"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."

"The dashboard should be improved."

"There is room for improvement in the graphics."

More Nagios Core cons

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

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

"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."

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

"The main concern is that LogRhythm has not improved NetMon but instead introduced a separate product, which many customers, including us, would prefer to be integrated into a single platform for easier management."

"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."

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

More NetMon cons

"There are not too much documentation or manuals. We found the tutorials very easy to understand but do not go deep enough in the use of Zabbix. We need more manuals, proper use, documentation, etc."

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

"Zabbix is powerful, but it is difficult to understand initially. There are many things that can be improved, but we might not be using Zabbix to its fullest extent. The software has more features than we need."

"They should open an SSH session from the web interface."

"Having a more customizable interface and dashboard would be an improvement."

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

"I want Zabbix to improve the UX/UI. Zabbix doesn't use a JavaScript chart for images, and I want them to improve this."

"We would like to see the addition of automatic push functionality to this product. This would save time when monitoring our servers and networks as, at present, we have to manually install the Zabbix agent on any hardware to be monitored."

More Zabbix cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's free."

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

"We are using the free version."

"Nagios Core is a cheap solution."

"Lessening the price point would be an improvement."

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

"Most the plugin features are free."

"The solution is expensive."

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

"The product is expensive for smaller companies."

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

"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."

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

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

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

"There is a license required for this solution and we pay annually for our license."

"Zabbix is free but if you use it in production then you have to pay for it."

"Its licensing is fair. It seems to be much cheaper than others."

"The tool's licensing is good."

"If you have 20,000 hosts, the support costs around €95,000 for a year."

"Zabbix is a free solution but the support contact costs money."

More Zabbix pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

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

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