NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG vs Nagios Core comparison

Nagios and NETSCOUT are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Nagios is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.7, while NETSCOUT is ranked #75. Nagios holds a 1.6% mindshare in NMS, compared to NETSCOUT’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Nagios users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of NETSCOUT users who would recommend it.

Nagios Core

Read 51 Nagios Core reviews

7,235 Views
5,933 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Read 13 NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG reviews

1,853 Views
1,742 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Nagios Core

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Nagios Core and NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG compete in network performance monitoring. Nagios Core is favored for its affordability while NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG stands out for its comprehensive feature set, providing justified investment returns.

Features: Nagios Core supports robust network monitoring, alerting capabilities, and benefits from numerous community plugins. NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG offers advanced traffic analysis, packet capture capabilities, and application performance management.

Room for Improvement: Nagios Core could improve with easier setup processes and more formal support channels. Its customization options might seem daunting for users seeking out-of-box solutions. NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG might enhance its offering by lowering entry-level pricing, expanding community plugin options, and simplifying some in-depth features for greater accessibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nagios Core requires a potentially complex setup with community-driven support, considered less formal. NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG provides streamlined deployment and professional support services, emphasizing enterprise-grade customer assistance.

Pricing and ROI: Nagios Core has a minimal setup cost, appealing to budget-conscious firms while offering a high ROI via low operating expense. NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG has a higher initial investment, justified by extensive insights and analytics, delivering substantial ROI for organizations needing detailed performance data.

To learn more, read our detailed NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG vs. Nagios Core Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG vs. Nagios Core

April 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

Nagios Core

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

11th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (10th)

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

75th

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nagios Core is 1.6%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Nagios Core	1.6%
NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG	0.5%
Other	97.9%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Husham Yaqoob

Senior System Administrator at Interactive Group

Monitoring solution provides comprehensive visibility across IT infrastructure

The good thing about Nagios Core is it covers everything. Everything in the IT domain, you can monitor anything. You can even monitor printers, the ports of printers, Core workstations, and storage. You can monitor the workflow Core and the utilization of computes. If you want to grasp everything of your IT equipment on a single interface, you can use Nagios. It's the best one. It provides dashboards, and you can also configure your emails and alerts with it. If something is critical, you can configure it to notify via emails. It has a very handy dashboard, providing live alerts and visibility for everything.

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Michael Gideon Genita

Associate System Engineer at SMS Global Technologies, Inc.

Easy to set up with good documentation and helpful support

I'm using it for a customer The packet flow switch is the most valuable aspect of the solution. It's an easy product to set up. We can scale the solution if we need to. It's stable. The documentation is well-written and quite useful. It's compatible with other products. Under the pocket flow…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This is a fit for purpose product which means that if you have a definite list of requirements and are not willing, or unable, to spend money on big enterprise tools, then Nagios is a tool to go to."

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

"It is fairly easy to set up, and we can monitor pretty much everything we want to."

"We've got a medium size distributed system with a lot of locally installed machines, and Nagios provides us with a solid and reliable monitoring solution for these machines."

"Nagios Core integrates with tools like Splunk, Datadog, or Dynatrace. It is usually used as a feed to provide more technical information about devices or hosts to another system."

"It sends alerts to the right people which ensures there is no delay in the correct person or team looking into issues, and it has helped to reduce downtime in the production environment to almost zero so we now spend less time on network or server administration."

"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."

"Provides timely notifications."

More Nagios Core pros

"The most valuable features are speed and cost."

"It is very rock solid. We hardly have any hardware issues."

"It's an easy product to set up."

"Because we are doing proactive monitoring instead of reactive, the end users don't even see that there is something wrong."

"It allows us to get quicker resolutions. We can see exactly what is using up the bandwidth, so we can assist end users."

"An issue that used to take days is now fixed within minutes to an hour."

"The tool has the ability to look back within a month's data. It is very easy to navigate within the tool and troubleshoot the problem, compared to other solutions that we've used in the past."

"It has cut our group's troubleshooting time down significantly, e.g., depending on the issue, what would normally take maybe a couple of hours will now take minutes."

More NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG pros

Cons

"The scalability needs improvement, it's not scalable at this time."

"The tool needs to improve the integrations."

"We're using the free version, which limits us in terms of the things that we can do. If we had the paid version, a lot of our issues would probably go away. For example, we can't isolate instances that are being built or updated with the production ones. When they're being built, on Nagios, they're showing in red. It'd be nice to be able to partition those off until they're all green, and then we can bring them into the environment. This is probably because we've got the free version and not the paid version. If we went for the paid version, it would probably allow us to do exactly what we want to or remove the restrictions that we have, but if we are able to isolate instances in the free version, it would make life much easier."

"Nagios Core can improve the graphical interface, it would make things a little easier."

"I like to have the option to configure Nagios using the web interface."

"The configuration and reporting modules need to be improved."

"The UI is a little outdated and graphics could be displayed in a better way."

"They should simplify the features so it becomes easier to setup out of the box."

More Nagios Core cons

"Only problems that we have had are fiber issues going into the TAPs or vSTREAMs, which are usually local site issues."

"It's not able to communicate with our probes."

"There is a timeout feature that we have been asking for awhile."

"We don't use the single pane of glass view, even though we own it."

"The NetFlow Collectors could handle more flows per minute."

"The scalability has some limitations and quirks to it. I would like to be able to upgrade rather than replace the whole thing."

"The solution is not great, but it is not bad."

More NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's free."

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

"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."

"Nagios Core is free to use."

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

"Nagios Core is a cheap solution."

"We are using the free version."

"Most the plugin features are free."

More Nagios Core pricing and cost advice

"The scalability is good, but it comes at a cost. E.g., if you need 100 InfiniStream because you are sending gigs or terabytes of data to one InfiniStream, then you will have to purchase another InfiniStream, which are not cheap."

"To capture more with the solution that we bought, you have to buy another InfiniStreamNG, and there are only four ports in the back."

"It can be scalable. It just costs too much. With a company as big as ours, it gets too expensive to accommodate every single site."

"The price is a little high."

"This product could be cheaper."

"I would like it to be more scalable with less spend."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Construction Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	24

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

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 costs related to installation, configuration, ongoing operation, and maintenance.

See all answers

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 the skin of the dashboard, however, it's good for me.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Nagios Core?

I was a senior system administrator. I've been using Nagios Core for more than ten years now. It can be used to monitor hosts, such as machines, and monitor services of any kind. I'm using it to mo...

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Comparisons

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Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 14% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Compared 11% of the time

NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Compared 10% of the time

NIKSUN NetVCR vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Compared 8% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core

April 2026

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Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

April 2026

Download NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG product report

Also Known As

No data available

InfiniStreamNG, NETSCOUT ISNG, Infinistream

Overview

Nagios Core offers a versatile monitoring solution that efficiently manages notifications, reporting, and resource usage. Its open-source architecture provides flexibility and customization options for comprehensive infrastructure health management.

Nagios Core, known for its extensible plugin architecture, proactively enhances infrastructure management with customizable notifications and reliable reporting. Seamlessly integrating various plugins, it offers real-time dashboards and efficient alerting systems for thorough monitoring. Its adaptability and ease of configuration make it popular among users seeking flexible monitoring solutions. However, improvements in the web interface, scalability, performance, and visualization are needed to enhance accessibility. Users seek better alert mechanisms, more robust PDF export features, and simpler setup processes for increased efficiency.

What are the key features of Nagios Core?

Customizable Notifications: Tailor alerts to suit specific needs.
Reliable Reporting: Provides detailed insights into system performance.
Light Resource Usage: Operates efficiently with minimal resource demands.
Extensible Plugin Architecture: Supports a wide range of third-party integrations.
Real-Time Dashboards: Offers instant insights into system health.

What benefits should users expect from Nagios Core?

Flexibility: Allows detailed customization for unique monitoring requirements.
Open-Source Nature: Encourages community-driven enhancements and support.
Integration Capabilities: Facilitates seamless interaction with other tools and platforms.
Adaptability: Supports monitoring across different environments seamlessly.

In many industries, Nagios Core is integral to monitoring infrastructure and services, including cloud servers, applications, and network devices. Users rely on it for issue detection, capacity planning, and maintaining system stability in environments like AWS and on-premise servers. Its capabilities in CPU, memory, and bandwidth monitoring along with alert systems support sectors needing real-time oversight of critical equipment.

Nagios

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG delivers fast, cost-efficient network visibility with a single pane of glass view, featuring real-time traffic analysis, dependency mapping, and performance metrics for comprehensive management.

InfiniStreamNG stands out for its real-time insights into network activity, providing a unified platform for managing network components. Its deep packet inspection, scalability, and compatibility make it an essential tool for IT professionals looking to optimize network performance and resolve issues quickly. User-friendly interface enhancements are anticipated for improved usability, alongside early product lifecycle notifications due to extensive certification periods.

What are the key features of NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG?

Speed: Enhances real-time traffic analysis and performance monitoring.
Network Visibility: Provides a comprehensive view with single pane device management.
Packet Inspection: Supports deep packet inspections for detailed data analytics.
Stability and Scalability: Ensures reliable performance and adapts to varying network sizes.
Compatibility: Seamlessly integrates with other technologies for smooth operations.

What are the benefits and ROI of using NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG?

Quick Issue Resolution: Identifies and addresses network issues swiftly.
Efficient Utilization: Offers insights for optimizing resource use and network management.
Proactive Monitoring: Facilitates early detection of potential issues to maintain performance.
Application Performance Tracking: Monitors app connectivity and performance effectively.
KPI Evaluation: Provides comprehensive data for informed decision-making.

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG is implemented across industries for packet collection and analysis, serving network monitoring and troubleshooting needs. Companies in telecommunications monitor LTE roaming traffic, while financial institutions rely on it for analyzing banking data. It supports application connectivity checks and proactive remote site monitoring, becoming integral in evaluating KPIs and reporting network issues.

NETSCOUT

Sample Customers

Airbnb, Cisco, PayPal, FanDuel

U.S. Department of Defense

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG vs. Nagios Core

April 2026

Free Report: NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG vs. Nagios Core

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