No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Nagios Core vs PRTG Network Monitor vs SolarWinds NPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
8.9
Nagios Core boosted operational efficiency, reduced costs, minimized downtime, and significantly improved productivity and disaster recovery times.
Sentiment score
6.5
PRTG Network Monitor boosts productivity, reduces costs through user-friendly proactive alerts, minimizing downtime and optimizing system performance.
Sentiment score
7.0
SolarWinds NPM enhances network management and cost efficiency, providing superior monitoring, fast issue resolution, and significant ROI.
It provides accurate data for utilization, allowing us to monitor and optimize our investments in WAN connection capacity.
Network Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
After introducing PRTG Network Monitor, we have saved time, and it's easy for everybody to monitor everything.
Architect at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
The implementation reduced our employee resources from 20-25 to 5-6 employees.
Senior consultant at Cambridge Institute of Technology
The return on investment is significant as the solution effectively reduces costs while being worth its expense.
Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.5
Nagios Core relies on community and documentation for support, offering valuable resources but facing scalability and consistency challenges.
Sentiment score
6.7
Technical support is generally responsive and effective, with a focus on email and extensive online resources, despite varying response times.
Sentiment score
6.9
SolarWinds NPM support is knowledgeable and helpful but faces criticism for slow responses and aggressive sales tactics.
They resolve our queries 24/7.
software engineer at Capgemini
The setup process is well-documented, making it easy to deploy.
Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited
Tutorials are available so I can manage any issue with PRTG Network Monitor easily.
IT Infrastructure Engineer at Atlas
If there is no timely response, getting a resolution is more difficult.
Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
We had contact with SolarWinds regarding the implementation, and they were helpful.
Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance
They have good technical support.
Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Nagios Core is highly scalable, supporting diverse infrastructures with open-source flexibility, despite some horizontal scaling concerns.
Sentiment score
7.4
PRTG Network Monitor is scalable and adaptable, though high sensor counts may challenge servers, yet effectively supports diverse organizations.
Sentiment score
6.9
SolarWinds NPM offers scalable solutions for various environments, with possible increased costs and challenges on virtual platforms.
The solution is scalable.
Senior System Administrator at Interactive Group
On a scale of one to ten, scalability is rated as 9.5.
Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited
PRTG Network Monitor has the ability to scale and add new devices.
IT Infrastructure Engineer at Atlas
You can install them in each network, even if they are not connected, and it works.
IT Consultant at M-COM s.r.o
SolarWinds NPM is scalable and effective in handling large network infrastructures.
Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.6
Nagios Core is highly stable and reliable, offering exceptional performance on Linux with minimal plugin-related issues.
Sentiment score
8.0
PRTG Network Monitor is highly stable and reliable, with minimal issues, high ratings, and continuous operation without outages.
Sentiment score
7.5
SolarWinds NPM is stable, with issues arising during upgrades; regular updates and support enhance its performance.
I tried many other solutions at work, however, in terms of Nagios, I haven't seen any disruption or downtime.
Senior System Administrator at Interactive Group
We haven't needed vendor support for the last three years, which demonstrates the product's stability.
Network Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
PRTG Network Monitor is stable in my experience, and I have not encountered issues with crashes or downtime.
Associates at Mphasis
PRTG Network Monitor is very stable and requires low maintenance.
Software Engineer at Asahi Beverages
The NPM product is stable, particularly when used for simple network monitoring.
Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Nagios Core needs a modernized interface, simplified configuration, scalability, and integration with tools like Grafana for improved usability.
PRTG Network Monitor needs improvements in customization, integration, support, monitoring features, and cost-effectiveness for enhanced user experience.
SolarWinds NPM users seek improvements in network discovery, interface, integration, resource usage, cloud support, security, and pricing adjustments.
The initial auto-discovery added too many unnecessary sensors, so auto-discovery should only take the necessary sensors into consideration.
Senior consultant at Cambridge Institute of Technology
They need to improve application performance monitoring, error tracing mechanisms, and log management.
Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited
PRTG Network Monitor should provide syslog monitoring since it is not available at this time.
IT Infrastructure Engineer at Atlas
SolarWinds needs to upscale on observability and add full-fledged observability features, including security features.
Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited
Customers have given feedback about the delayed response times from the technical team.
Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
I would need a feature in SolarWinds in the future for some kind of malfunctioning detection, such as malware attacks or that type of environment.
Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Nagios Core provides cost-effective, open-source monitoring with engineering setup and maintenance, requiring customization expertise for full benefits.
PRTG Network Monitor offers competitive pricing with flexible licensing; initial setup is costly but ongoing expenses are reasonable.
SolarWinds NPM pricing is competitive yet complex, appealing to some while being costly for smaller enterprises or multi-module needs.
The licensing part is a recurring license for every year, which is very affordable, making PRTG Network Monitor budget-friendly.
software engineer at Capgemini
Pricing is by the number of devices, not by sensor.
Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited
The prices are very high for PRTG Network Monitor.
IT Infrastructure Engineer at Atlas
The solution is considered expensive.
Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance
Pricing-wise, SolarWinds NPM is more expensive than PRTG.
Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited
It is not too pricey and is adequate.
Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Nagios Core offers extensible plugins, alerting, customizable dashboards, proactive monitoring, and integration, enhancing system reliability and minimizing downtime.
PRTG Network Monitor is user-friendly, offers real-time monitoring, scalability, and flexibility, making it ideal for diverse IT environments.
SolarWinds NPM offers easy deployment, strong monitoring, and seamless integration, enhancing network management with intuitive dashboards and real-time insights.
You can monitor anything.
Senior System Administrator at Interactive Group
PRTG Network Monitor already provided me with 100 free sensors, which is enough for my network monitoring.
IT Infrastructure Engineer at Atlas
PRTG Network Monitor has a good dashboard that shows each and every piece of information, so we can easily find out what is happening with the systems.
Architect at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
These reports help me in my day-to-day work, and I rely on them because they provide proof during escalation, with exact downtime logs and related information.
Software engineer at Bosch
Whenever any node is down in our network, whether it is a server or any network device, we receive information through email that the device is down.
Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The most valuable feature for us is the database performance analyzer, which we use a lot.
Network Administrator at PT Bni Life Insurance
SolarWinds NPM has specific modules for monitoring different network capabilities, which provides rich features for carrying out specific tasks.
Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 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 PRTG Network Monitor is 3.3%, down from 4.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 3.6%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SolarWinds NPM3.6%
PRTG Network Monitor3.3%
Nagios Core1.9%
Other91.2%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

HY
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.
madhan kumar hs - PeerSpot reviewer
software engineer at Capgemini
Alerting precision has reduced incident response times and improved department-level network visibility
The auto-pause sensor during the maintenance window is good without any false alerts, and it prevents me from getting flooded with alerts during planned maintenance, helping department heads understand their own network usage better. It has reduced incident response time by giving clearer ownership of each alert, ensuring alerts go to the proper recipient. SNMP testers and auto-pause are among the best features of PRTG Network Monitor, which is particularly useful for different departments such as HR and finance, where alerts can be filtered accordingly. The alerting features and dashboard of PRTG Network Monitor are very helpful, especially in our industry. However, the dashboard can look cluttered on smaller screens, which is one negative aspect. PRTG Network Monitor has impacted us positively; we have stopped getting flooded with alerts during planned maintenance or unplanned outages. Compared to others, this gives specific alerts very quickly and helps department heads understand their own network usage better, thus reducing incident response time so that each alert has clear ownership.
Vivek Jaiswal - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Central monitoring has improved outage alerts and now needs smarter detection and modern dashboards
Regarding the automated network topology and mapping feature in SolarWinds NPM, I am not satisfied with it. For static monitoring, it is acceptable. However, if it is possible, I would need a feature in SolarWinds in the future for some kind of malfunctioning detection, such as malware attacks or that type of environment. We did not have any facility to detect that in SolarWinds. I think it would be better to incorporate those types of features. Regarding customization options in SolarWinds, the ability to customize the dashboard has room for improvement. The dashboard is quite old, and we need some improvement in it. Nowadays, we have multiple tools with AI-based monitoring and web-based dashboards. SolarWinds also has a web-based dashboard, but I think there is scope for improvement in the UI. There may be other areas I would like to improve in SolarWinds NPM.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.
885,444 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise23
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise50
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise33
Large Enterprise85
 

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...
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 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 monit...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
PRTG network monitor is one of the best tool i have ever used for the monitoring. It have auto discovery option. it a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PRTG Network Monitor?
The pricing was higher at the beginning, but the recurring licensing cost is affordable and reasonable. Overall, the ...
What needs improvement with PRTG Network Monitor?
The reporting features look very technical and that can be improved. If they can change the report so everyone can un...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
It actually depends on the exact purpose or kind of devices (network devices, servers, something else). Some tools ar...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We are partners with SolarWinds and we sell a lot of Network management to large enterprises also because of scalabil...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
No data available
Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Airbnb, Cisco, PayPal, FanDuel
Jameson Bank, Sidnix, RungeICT, MedicalAnimal, Truck-lite, GamingGrids, The Covell Group, Forsythn County Schools, NetMass, Musgrove Park Hospital, Lanes Health, Columbia Southern University, Vodafone, Intrust Bank
Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard
Find out what your peers are saying about Zabbix, Auvik, Datadog and others in Network Monitoring Software. Updated: March 2026.
885,444 professionals have used our research since 2012.