Nagios Core vs Observer GigaStor comparison

Nagios and Viavi Solutions are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Nagios is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.7, while Viavi Solutions is ranked #89. Nagios holds a 1.9% mindshare in NMS, compared to Viavi Solutions’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Nagios users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Viavi Solutions users who would recommend it.

Nagios Core

Read 51 Nagios Core reviews

4,463 Views
3,749 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Observer GigaStor

Read 7 Observer GigaStor reviews

964 Views
588 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Nagios Core

Observer GigaStor

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Observer GigaStor and Nagios Core compete in network monitoring and analysis. Observer GigaStor appears to have the advantage due to its comprehensive packet capture and support satisfaction.

Features: Observer GigaStor provides high-speed packet capture, detailed network performance analysis, and faster data retrieval. Nagios Core includes robust monitoring capabilities, flexible configuration options, and an open-source framework.

Room for Improvement: Observer GigaStor could reduce hardware complexity, enhance its user interface, and improve integration with third-party systems. Nagios Core could benefit from more official support, streamlined configuration processes, and enhanced out-of-the-box reporting tools.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Observer GigaStor requires complex hardware setup but provides strong customer support for a smoother deployment experience. Nagios Core is simpler to deploy with minimal infrastructure requirements but predominantly relies on community support for assistance.

Pricing and ROI: Observer GigaStor has higher initial costs due to its hardware dependencies but offers substantial ROI through advanced features. Nagios Core's open-source nature results in lower expenses, presenting a cost-effective solution with significant customization potential.

To learn more, read our detailed Nagios Core vs. Observer GigaStor Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core vs. Observer GigaStor

December 2025

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Helped 881,114 peers since 2012

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

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (11th)

Observer GigaStor

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

89th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Troubleshooting (14th), Network Packet Broker (NPB) (11th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nagios Core is 1.9%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Observer GigaStor is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Nagios Core	1.9%
Observer GigaStor	0.4%
Other	97.7%

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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Jeroen-Dubbelman

Director at Bitrate

Aids significantly in the threat-hunting process and provides a score-based evaluation of user experience

There are many valuable features, but understanding end-user response times stands out. It provides a score-based evaluation of user experience, helping customers quickly pinpoint whether issues originate from the network, server, client, or application. Additionally, it facilitates in-depth analysis of application dependencies. The retrospective network analysis capability of Observer GigaStor has been beneficial. It's a pivotal feature for network performance solutions. However, I prefer to consider the entire solution suite - GigaStor, along with GigaFlow and Apex - for comprehensive network visibility and monitoring. So, I prefer to integrate all three solutions to provide the best visibility. They complement each other well, with Apex aggregating and correlating data from both GigaStor and GigaFlow to enhance environmental understanding and troubleshooting efficiency.

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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

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

"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."

"We mostly use Nagios Core to integrate with Python and Bash Script."

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

"Nagios Core is very configurable. Whatever you want, you can do it."

"The solution's most valuable feature is that it offers proper alerting capabilities."

"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 solution is quite efficient."

More Nagios Core pros

"There are many valuable features, but understanding end-user response times stands out. It provides a score-based evaluation of user experience, helping customers quickly pinpoint whether issues originate from the network, server, client, or application. Additionally, it facilitates in-depth analysis of application dependencies."

"The ability to capture packets. It is not only for monitoring. That is very important for a company that wants to keep an eye on the packets, the transactions, the flows..."

"I also have the ability to see an application's performance, to see what's going on, why a network is slow, why this program for this user is experiencing a delay or some network issue"

"This solution allows us to see exactly what is going on in the network and we can very quickly solve issues with users."

"It can help to write your rules, organize firewalls, your block, and also your protocols and IP address to come in or out of your network."

"It's able to capture packets and, after a long time, you can come and use that information; to check, to analyze - everything you would want to do. So it's very good and helpful if you want to protect your data. It is stored in a certain place where you can access it every time you want to analyze it."

Cons

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

"The initial setup process could be easier."

"It is a bit slow due to latency."

"Nagios Core is limited in terms of distributed setups, and there is no central view for remote data centers."

"There is room for improvement in the graphics."

"The dashboard and monitoring features could be improved."

"The user interface could be more interactive because it is pretty basic."

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

More Nagios Core cons

"I would like to have more than 4TB of storage available in the portable version of this solution."

"Maybe the graphical user interface could be simplified to allow people to use it more easily. It's already good, but they can work more on it to make it even easier."

"Graphics need improvement. Because a lot of the information there you have to input first in some case to have full potential. It could be more automated."

"GigaStor feeds into Apex. So, the area where there could be improvement would be in artificial intelligence. For example, the incorporation of more advanced machine learning or AI capabilities could enhance its functionality."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We are using the free version of Nagios Core."

"Nagios Core is free to use."

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

"Lessening the price point would be an improvement."

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

"Most the plugin features are free."

"We are using the free version."

"The product is cheaply priced."

More Nagios Core pricing and cost advice

"It's quite expensive."

"It depends on the requirements you have. There are three types of license. There's the updates license, the work group license, and the workstation license."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Wholesaler/Distributor

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	5
Large Enterprise	3

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.

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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...

See all answers

What do you like most about Observer GigaStor?

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Observer GigaStor?

I would rate the pricing a ten out of ten. It's quite expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Observer GigaStor?

GigaStor feeds into Apex. So, the area where there could be improvement would be in artificial intelligence. For example, the incorporation of more advanced machine learning or AI capabilities coul...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 11% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

Nagios XI vs Nagios Core

Compared 7% of the time

LibreNMS vs Nagios Core

Compared 6% of the time

Centreon vs Nagios Core

Compared 5% of the time

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Wireshark vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 16% of the time

Gigamon Deep Observability Pipeline vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 14% of the time

Viavi Observer Platform vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 10% of the time

Fortinet FortiSIEM vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 8% of the time

AppNeta by Broadcom vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 8% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core

January 2026

Download Nagios Core product report

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor

January 2026

Download Observer GigaStor product report

Overview

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

Nagios

Observer GigaStor is a network analysis tool that comes in a variety of form factors, including rack mount, portable, and virtual. Capable of storing up to a petabyte of traffic for later analysis, GigaStor helps ensure optimal network and application performance.

Viavi Solutions

Sample Customers

Airbnb, Cisco, PayPal, FanDuel

Cisco Systems, Hawaiian Telecom, Renown Health, State of Nevada, U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Allstate Insurance, Jack Henry & Associates, United States Airforce, US Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Chicago Board Options Exchange

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core vs. Observer GigaStor

December 2025

Free Report: Nagios Core vs. Observer GigaStor

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