Nagios Core vs SolarWinds AppOptics vs Zabbix comparison

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Nagios Core

SolarWinds AppOptics

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Nagios Core, SolarWinds AppOptics, and Zabbix based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Zabbix, Datadog, Auvik and others in IT Infrastructure Monitoring.

To learn more, read our detailed IT Infrastructure Monitoring Report (Updated: September 2025).

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

September 2025

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Helped 867,341 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:

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Nagios Core is 3.2%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds AppOptics is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zabbix is 12.2%, up from 11.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Zabbix	12.2%
Nagios Core	3.2%
SolarWinds AppOptics	0.5%
Other	84.1%

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.

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

John Yuko

Assistant Manager ICT - Projects at I&M Bank Ltd

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.

Enables seamless global client monitoring with reliable remote connectivity

B Ahmed

Manager, Information Technology Zara & Inditex at Cenomi

I use the solution to provide a perfect environment for remote connectivity with my clients. Many tools that I require for system maintenance are included. I can easily monitor all of my clients throughout the world I did not give much thought to it, however, improvements could be made to Zabbix.…

More Nagios Core pricing and cost advice

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

"Provides timely notifications."

"I like the way the solution sends alerts and how it keeps on escalating them."

"The solution is quite efficient."

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

"Alert calls occur anytime a service goes down or a matrix is difficult and that helps us to quickly restore service and transfer work."

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

"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."

More Nagios Core pros

"The sum solution, NTA, and DPA."

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

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

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

"The reporting of the solution is very good."

"The product has a great dashboard."

"The flexibility of this solution is amazing."

"We detect problems before the customer does and before it actually happens using the predictive functions in Zabbix."

"Setup was straightforward. Initial deployment took two or three months."

"The level of discovery-based configuration that lets us auto-configure the monitoring for various systems is a valuable feature."

"I'm supervising all the IT departments, and Zabbix seems quite good for them. It provides graphics and information in real time. We get alerts about crashes on the system, enabling us to quickly repair issues. We can easily find devices with problems."

"The integration capabilities and APIs are the best part."

"The features I found most valuable are the user interface and a wide range of network devices that are easy to configure."

"The solution is quite mature and very stable."

More Zabbix pros

Cons

"The mapping is a little hard."

"The initial setup process could be easier."

"There is room for improvement in the graphics."

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

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

"The NetEase reporting structure needs improvement, especially the availability report, which is weak."

"Nagios Core can improve the graphical interface, it would make things a little easier."

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

More Nagios Core cons

"The solution should be more user-friendly."

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

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

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

"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."

"When using this solution in enterprise monitoring, you are able to see that there are some issues with equipment that could be causing a problem. Sometimes you want to make a root command that you do not want to be executed automatically. What we have tried to do is open an SSH session directly from the solution's interface but it is not possible."

"It should be easy to modify the front end."

"If you want to use all of the features then you have to pay a licensing fee."

"Implementation is always tailored to the customer and the kind of information we need from the client to carry it out can make them very uncomfortable. Sometimes the clients are not ready to share it."

"I'm using the free version of Zabbix, and I'd like to see more customization options, especially for setting trigger thresholds."

"The user interface could be a bit better. They could update it a bit."

"Zabbix technical support is sold separately."

"The product delivers false positives during reporting because of flapping. Other reasonably priced alternatives may have better performance."

More Zabbix cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's free."

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

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

"The solution is expensive."

"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."

"Lessening the price point would be an improvement."

"We are using the free version."

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

"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."

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

"The solution is free. However, many open-sourced tools start out free but eventually start charging."

"It is reasonable."

"Zabbix is open-source so if one wishes to implement it in-house, they must have qualified professionals to set up and optimize databases, Linux/Unix OS, PHP, Apache, and depending on what is monitored, a full-stack network and systems administrator may be needed."

"It's free software released under the GNU/GPL license."

"It’s free of cost."

"There is no license but we need to pay for support."

"I use the tool's free version."

"We purchased Zabbix for a good price, including support"

More Zabbix pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which IT Infrastructure Monitoring solutions are best for your needs.

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Comparison Review

it_user174738

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…

What do you like most about Nagios Core?

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Comms Service Provider

Government

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

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	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	53
Midsize Enterprise	23
Large Enterprise	34

Questions from the Community

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

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 do you like most about Zabbix?

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

The template system in Zabbix is very beneficial as it saves time in configuration.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zabbix?

If you want to save costs, you can use Zabbix.

What needs improvement with Zabbix?

The reporting is lacking because this is an open-source tool, and nowadays, management's expectation is that the repo...

OP5 Monitor vs Nagios Core

Comparisons

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Compared 7% of the time

Checkmk vs Nagios Core

Compared 6% of the time

Compared 4% of the time

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Dynatrace vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 25% of the time

New Relic vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 21% of the time

Zenoss Cloud vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 8% of the time

DX Performance Management vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 8% of the time

IBM Instana Observability vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 7% of the time

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Checkmk vs Zabbix

Compared 9% of the time

LibreNMS vs Zabbix

Compared 9% of the time

Icinga vs Zabbix

Compared 6% of the time

NetXMS vs Zabbix

Compared 4% of the time

Amazon CloudWatch vs Zabbix

Compared 2% of the time

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Product Reports

Download Nagios Core product report

Nagios Core

August 2025

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

August 2025

Download SolarWinds AppOptics product report

Download Zabbix product report

August 2025

Also Known As

No data available

AppOptics, SolarWinds TraceView, Librato

No data available

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

Zabbix is an open-source monitoring software that provides real-time monitoring and alerting for servers, networks, applications, and services.

It offers a wide range of features including data collection, visualization, and reporting.

With its user-friendly interface and customizable dashboards, Zabbix helps organizations ensure the availability and performance of their IT infrastructure.

Sample Customers

Airbnb, Cisco, PayPal, FanDuel

TraxoCovea Insurance BTE TechnologyDatarista

1. IBM 2. Dell 3. Cisco 4. HP 5. Oracle 6. Microsoft 7. Amazon 8. Google 9. Facebook 10. Twitter 11. LinkedIn 12. Netflix 13. Adobe 14. VMware 15. Salesforce 16. SAP 17. Intel 18. AT&T 19. Verizon 20. T-Mobile 21. Vodafone 22. Ericsson 23. Nokia 24. Siemens 25. General Electric 26. Honeywell 27. Philips 28. Sony 29. Samsung 30. LG 31. Panasonic 32. Toshiba