NETSCOUT vSTREAM 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 8.2, while NETSCOUT is ranked #79. Nagios holds a 3.0% mindshare in NMS, compared to NETSCOUT’s 0.3% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Nagios users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of NETSCOUT users who would recommend it.

Nagios Core

Read 51 Nagios Core reviews

4,161 Views
3,242 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

NETSCOUT vSTREAM

Read 3 NETSCOUT vSTREAM reviews

432 Views
333 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Nagios Core

NETSCOUT vSTREAM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Nagios Core and NETSCOUT vSTREAM compete in the network monitoring and management category. NETSCOUT vSTREAM appears to have an advantage due to its advanced features that may justify its higher cost.

Features: Nagios Core offers customizable plugin options, extensive alerting capabilities, and an open-source platform for community-driven development. NETSCOUT vSTREAM provides sophisticated data analytics, deep packet inspection, and detailed traffic visibility.

Room for Improvement: Nagios Core could improve by offering professional support, simplifying setup, and enhancing its graphical user interface. NETSCOUT vSTREAM may benefit from more cost-effective solutions, increased flexibility in plugin integrations, and better community engagement.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nagios Core's deployment benefits from extensive community resources, suitable for those familiar with open-source environments, with community-based support. NETSCOUT vSTREAM provides professional assistance and a structured deployment model, supported by expert customer service catering to enterprise environments.

Pricing and ROI: Nagios Core is cost-effective due to its open-source nature, ensuring a faster ROI for those willing to manage configurations and rely on community support. NETSCOUT vSTREAM, requiring a higher initial investment, offers strong ROI through thorough analytics and network performance insights, ideal for enterprises needing robust solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. Nagios Core Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. Nagios Core

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

Nagios Core

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

11th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (13th)

NETSCOUT vSTREAM

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

79th

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nagios Core is 3.0%, up from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NETSCOUT vSTREAM is 0.3%, down from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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.

Read full review

Moreno Musardo

Consultant

Troubleshooting at the packet level helps us resolve issues more quickly

The solution provides increased visibility during an IT deployment. It enables us to troubleshoot a service when it is down. As we expand our company, more users are using the tool to quickly resolve issues. It helps us and them get to root cause quickly. For example, last week a DNS was not running anymore. We checked the packet and saw that there was a buffer overload. It has cut our overall troubleshooting time. Sometimes it took a month to troubleshoot something that we can now do within days. nGenius has helped increase application or network uptime. The DNS I mentioned is now a better server with more capacity than before, because of our troubleshooting. We see a measurable decrease in mean time to know and mean time to repair. We see that when our customers are using this tool, their stability on the link is getting better and better, every time they use it. Also, we use the solution for unified communication application performance and it helps with uptime and end-user experience. Sometimes the quality of voice calls is not good enough, so we use the Media Monitor to check the quality in real-time.

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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

"Monitoring with Nagios Core is helpful because it provides immediate alerts if something goes down, such as a server, or wireless router, or if there's a cable break. This allows us to respond promptly to any issues."

"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 solution is quite efficient."

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

"The most valuable feature of Nagios Core is the ability to check the availability of the server for network connectivity. Additionally, the interface is good."

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

"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."

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

More Nagios Core pros

"vSTREAM gives us better visibility and reporting about our network infrastructure, allowing for cost-optimization."

"One of the valuable features is the packet decoding."

Cons

"The dashboard and monitoring features could be improved."

"I believe Nagios Core will need to provide an option for big data platforms in the future."

"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 interface could be improved."

"It's not that easy to install the product itself. Also, the UI is a bit hard for regular users to navigate through."

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

"I would like to see more training videos."

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

More Nagios Core cons

"Room for improvement exists in filtering in the packet decode."

"I would like to see improvements made to the user guide."

"I would like for it to have a smaller footprint of the virtual appliance and better performance."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have saved a lot of time, money, and effort in reducing disaster times, which is owed to Nagios quick alerting."

"Nagios Core is a cheap solution."

"It's free."

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

"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."

"Nagios Core is free to use."

"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."

More Nagios Core pricing and cost advice

"Licensing is quite expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

12%

Energy/Utilities Company

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Nagios Core?

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

See all answers

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

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Comparisons

Icinga vs Nagios Core

Compared 26% of the time

Nagios XI vs Nagios Core

Compared 17% of the time

Zabbix vs Nagios Core

Compared 14% of the time

Centreon vs Nagios Core

Compared 9% of the time

OP5 Monitor vs Nagios Core

Compared 4% of the time

More Nagios Core Competitors

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs NETSCOUT vSTREAM

Compared 100% of the time

More NETSCOUT vSTREAM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core

April 2025

Download Nagios Core product report

Buyer's Guide

Network Monitoring Software

April 2025

Download NETSCOUT vSTREAM product report

Also Known As

No data available

vSTREAM

Overview

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

Nagios

The vSTREAM virtual appliance complements existing Adaptive Session Intelligence (ASI)-based instrumentation to provide the same level of visibility within virtualized and cloud infrastructures that is already possible in physical environments. The vSTREAM virtual appliance is ideal for monitoring service-critical traffic running within virtualized or cloud infrastructures, either locally on a host or as an aggregation point for multiple hosts. With complete visibility across physical, virtual and cloud networks, the vSTREAM virtual appliance presents real-time views of end-to-end call trace data and network-wide KPIs, to protect the reliability and availability of networks and application services.

NETSCOUT

Sample Customers

Airbnb, Cisco, PayPal, FanDuel

Metropolitan Police Agency, Banpara, PropertyRoom.com

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. Nagios Core

April 2025

Free Report: NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. Nagios Core

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