Nagios Core vs SolarWinds AppOptics comparison

Nagios and SolarWinds are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Nagios is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.2, while SolarWinds is ranked #50 with an average rating of 8.0. Nagios holds a 3.7% mindshare in IM, compared to SolarWinds’s 0.3% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Nagios users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

Nagios Core

Read 51 Nagios Core reviews

4,209 Views
3,272 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

SolarWinds AppOptics

Read 9 SolarWinds AppOptics reviews

480 Views
340 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Nagios Core

SolarWinds AppOptics

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Nagios Core and SolarWinds AppOptics are two contrasting monitoring solutions in the IT monitoring and management category. Nagios Core holds the upper hand for users who value flexibility, customization options, and cost-effectiveness, especially within technical environments. SolarWinds AppOptics is favored by those who prioritize ease of use, integration capabilities, and extensive feature sets.

Features: Nagios Core provides flexibility with extensive customizability and a vast plugin ecosystem, as well as robust monitoring and alerting features. SolarWinds AppOptics offers application performance management, topology discovery, and real-time reporting on a more user-friendly platform.

Room for Improvement: Nagios Core faces challenges with complex setups, a steep learning curve, and limited reporting capabilities without customization. SolarWinds AppOptics could enhance cloud integration, consolidate its application stack, and better tailor its licensing model.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nagios Core, mainly used in on-premises deployments, relies on community guidance due to its open-source nature and lacks official support. SolarWinds AppOptics provides flexible deployment options with vendor support, suitable for users seeking direct assistance.

Pricing and ROI: Nagios Core's open-source model allows cost savings, with users investing mostly in setup and maintenance. SolarWinds AppOptics involves licensing fees based on elements, and many users find the investment justified by the comprehensive features and support for larger environments.

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

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core vs. SolarWinds AppOptics

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 IT Infrastructure Monitoring

13th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (11th)

SolarWinds AppOptics

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

50th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (47th), Cloud Monitoring Software (34th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Nagios Core is 3.7%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds AppOptics is 0.3%, down from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

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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John Yuko

Assistant Manager ICT - Projects at I&M Bank Ltd

Unique features allow consolidating and combing metrics into a single dashboard, but don't monitor mobile solutions

I would like to see more granular information provided on Unix applications. Also, the integration with Unix services should be a bit more straightforward in terms having an agent to retrieve your credentials rather than having to enter or save them for SSH on SolarWinds. From the outset, we had to set some commands to log into the search console, and they are saved on the solution, which presents a challenge in terms of exposure. The solution is unable to monitor APK solutions completely because we'd then be forced to break down the APK and provide the APIs or go through the source code. They don't have a module that can analyze an application that is maybe under-used.

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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

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

"I like that it's very simple to install, easy to manage and deploy, and easy to use for monitoring."

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

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

"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."

"Key features include the GUI interface, its notification capabilities, and the real-time reporting."

"The application performance monitoring feature is valuable."

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

More Nagios Core pros

"The reporting of the solution is very good."

"Some of the most valuable features of SolarWinds are the topology discovery and network performance analysis."

"The product has a great dashboard."

"I have found the most valuable feature is application performance management."

"Technical support is always live and they're supportive."

"The sum solution, NTA, and DPA."

Cons

"Nagios Core could improve by adding a user interface. If you want the user interface you have to use Nagios XI."

"The interface could be improved."

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

"There is room for improvement in the graphics."

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

"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 dashboard and monitoring features could be improved."

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

More Nagios Core cons

"AppOptics would benefit from having a much more centralized view."

"The solution should be more user-friendly."

"I would like to see more integration with other tools that are available on the market."

"The integration with Unix services should be a bit more straightforward."

"The implementation needs improvement. It needs to get modernized with the newer cloud scenario in both public and private deployment models."

"In terms of the technology, I think they need to put some more advanced troubleshooting into SolarWinds, in terms of AI capabilities. That's the next generation, especially in the cases of APIs which have already adopted AI capabilities into their products."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Lessening the price point would be an improvement."

"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."

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

"It's free."

"The solution is expensive."

"The product is cheaply priced."

More Nagios Core pricing and cost advice

"Since it's a negotiable rate, I would rate the pricing as a five out of five."

"Mostly, it's a perpetual license. We don't have any customers using the subscription right now—it's mostly a perpetual license that the customers purchase. The licensing is based on the number of elements, whereas other solutions are node-based."

"I believe the current licensing cost is reasonable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

51%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

What do you like most about SolarWinds AppOptics?

The product has a great dashboard.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds AppOptics?

The solution should be more user-friendly.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SolarWinds AppOptics?

I used the solution for monitoring servers and network equipment.

See all answers

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

Dynatrace vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 33% of the time

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 19% of the time

New Relic vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 16% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 13% of the time

Zenoss Cloud vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 11% of the time

More SolarWinds AppOptics Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core

April 2025

Download Nagios Core product report

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

April 2025

Download SolarWinds AppOptics product report

Also Known As

No data available

AppOptics, SolarWinds TraceView, Librato

Overview

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

Nagios

AppOptics is a SaaS-based simple, powerful and affordable Infrastructure & Application monitoring for custom on-premises, cloud, and hybrid systems.

Your business runs on applications, and when they go down or run slowly, it can impact the business in lost productivity, customers, or revenue. To add to the complexity, your IT environment is changing, and workloads can be spread across data centers, and cloud resources. You need to monitor the availability and performance of applications and infrastructure, regardless of where they are, so you can identify potential issues early and address them before they impact users

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Airbnb, Cisco, PayPal, FanDuel

TraxoCovea Insurance BTE TechnologyDatarista

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core vs. SolarWinds AppOptics

April 2025

Free Report: Nagios Core vs. SolarWinds AppOptics

Find out what your peers are saying about Nagios Core vs. SolarWinds AppOptics and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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