Nagios Core vs Pulseway comparison

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Nagios Core

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Pulseway and Nagios Core are competing products in IT infrastructure monitoring. Pulseway holds an advantage in customer service due to its user-friendly setup, while Nagios Core is preferred for its comprehensive and advanced features.

Features: Pulseway emphasizes real-time monitoring, mobile access, and a user-friendly interface. It is ideal for on-the-go management tasks, allowing IT professionals to monitor systems conveniently. Nagios Core provides extensive customization options, a wide range of plugins, and scalability, catering to complex and tailored monitoring needs.

Room for Improvement: Pulseway could enhance its plugin variety, increase capabilities for more advanced users, and offer more in-depth customization options. Nagios Core may benefit from simplified user interfaces, better-guided setup processes, and improved out-of-the-box functionality for quicker deployment.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Pulseway is known for quick deployment and strong customer support throughout the process, making it accessible even for less tech-savvy users. Nagios Core requires more technical expertise for setup due to its open-source nature but offers extensive community support.

Pricing and ROI: Pulseway operates on a subscription-based pricing model, offering predictability in costs and value. Nagios Core, being open-source, comes with zero initial software cost but may incur higher indirect costs due to integration and maintenance needs. Pulseway's model provides straightforward ROI calculation, whereas Nagios Core's lower initial costs might appeal to those with the necessary resources to manage it efficiently.

To learn more, read our detailed Nagios Core vs. Pulseway Report (Updated: September 2025).

Nagios Core vs. Pulseway

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Helped 869,760 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

12th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (11th)

Pulseway

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

54th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (17th), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (12th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nagios Core is 2.5%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pulseway is 0.2%, down 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	2.5%
Pulseway	0.2%
Other	97.3%

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.

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Naman Bali

Cyber Security Analyst L2 at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Excellent monitoring features and great workflow

The solution has great workflow and server modules. From there, you can monitor your active directory, exchange server, Windows roles, and even Linux-based solutions. They provide a lot of features; it's good and easy software. I like the network feature which allows the addition of router switches and the ability to update variables. I'm able to build some SNMP OIDs to check on the monitoring status of network devices. At the time of patch management, you can also update your software for third-party softwares. You can select the application as well as customize your own application and install them on the PulseWay dashboard. Compared to other solutions, Pulseway is straightforward and easy to set up.

Read full review

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

"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."

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

"The notifications are definitely one of the most valuable features of Nagios Core. We know what to look for and what to expect when things are down."

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

"Dashboard provides monitor of total assets."

More Nagios Core pros

"It has been very helpful to get notifications about various issues with my servers and network to help me take action to resolve problems before they become major issues."

"The solution has great workflow and server modules."

"We like the patching of the window updates in the client's systems. You can automatically do updates with a single click."

"It gives you remote control and has a mobile app."

"The setup is simple."

Cons

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

"The core version is no match for the XI version."

"The mapping is a little hard."

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

"Cloud monitoring is an area for improvement because there aren't too many plugins available."

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

"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."

"The tool needs to improve the integrations."

More Nagios Core cons

"It would be nice if it also had a desktop application, similar to the phone app, which would allow me to monitor and control computers from my desktop."

"GUI needs to be improved and the solution lacks a process for monitoring VOIP calls."

"There are some bugs or glitches."

"They have good technical support but it's not excellent."

"The solution does not allow you to make a script for just one customer."

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."

"It's free."

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

"It's free."

"Most the plugin features are free."

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

"Lessening the price point would be an improvement."

"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."

More Nagios Core pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

12%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Real Estate/Law Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	22

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.

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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 21% of the time

Nagios XI vs Nagios Core

Compared 14% of the time

Zabbix vs Nagios Core

Compared 12% of the time

Centreon vs Nagios Core

Compared 7% of the time

Checkmk vs Nagios Core

Compared 6% of the time

More Nagios Core Competitors

Kaseya VSA vs Pulseway

Compared 39% of the time

Zabbix vs Pulseway

Compared 26% of the time

Datto Remote Monitoring and Management vs Pulseway

Compared 18% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs Pulseway

Compared 17% of the time

More Pulseway Competitors

Product Reports

Nagios Core

Download Nagios Core product report

Download Pulseway product report

Overview

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

Nagios

Pulseway is a remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform designed to help MSPs and IT teams manage modern IT networks, reduce downtime, and achieve efficiency through automation, while increasing end-user satisfaction.

Pulseway’s intuitive interface provides real-time actionable detailed information on servers, workstations, and network devices. Using Pulseway’s customizable alerts, you can quickly identify problems, communicate with users, and automatically resolve issues with built-in commands and scripts.

Some of Pulseway’s benefits and features include:

Comprehensive monitoring: Pulseway’s remote monitoring feature provides a complete view of your entire network. Gain visibility into operational data for workstations, servers, virtual machines, network devices, and more. If necessary, resolve issues directly from the same interface.

Remote access: Get a real-time view across your network, receive alerts, and remedy problems from anywhere with any mobile device using Pulseway’s full feature mobile app.

Automation: Automate repetitive tasks and design auto-remediation workflows, ensuring that critical patches are automatically applied.

Quick setup: Get your team up and running in minutes with Pulseway’s simplified deployment and auto-discovery engine. See all the IT endpoints and then rapidly mass deploy Pulseway with pre-configured built-in policies and out-of-the-box scripts.

Patch management: Pulseway automates the discovery and application of operating systems and third-party patches to ensure all your applications are kept up to date.

Reporting: Use custom or ready-made templates to create reports on system status and events. Reports can be sent manually or emailed automatically on schedule.

Backup and recovery: Protect your users’ data wherever it is stored and restore it to anywhere. Pulseway Cloud Backup’s intuitive interface enables you to easily schedule and deploy backups, recover data, and check up on backup status from both the Pulseway web application and the Pulseway mobile application. Quickly deploy backup agents.

Vulnerability scanning: Pulseway’s vulnerability scanner is easy to use and alerts for vulnerabilities in real time. With Pulseway’s vulnerability scanner, organizations can easily perform standard vulnerability scans that are regarded as international best practice.

Eliminate data loss: Prevent data loss and downtime from ransomware attacks with built-in detection and safeguards that allow for fast recovery after an attack.

Service ticket management: Pulseway’s complete help desk and ticketing solution allows you to respond quickly and professionally to user issues.

CRM: Get the information and resources you need to focus on your customers and increase opportunities.

Project management: Receive real-time project status with details on resource usage and tasks.

Finance and billing: Automatically create and post invoices imported from timesheets and expense reports.

Time tracking: Log precise information on time and expenses by company, project, tasks, and employees. Automatically record how much time is spent on a ticket for accurate billing.

Integrations: Integrate with leading solutions, including:

Pulseway PSA
ConnectWise Manage
Autotask
Zendesk
Slack
IT Glue
Kasepersky
Bitdefender
WarrantyMaster

Sample Customers

Airbnb, Cisco, PayPal, FanDuel

Dell, Canon, Siemens, Harvard University, Northwestern University

Nagios Core vs. Pulseway