Nagios Core vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor comparison

Nagios Core vs. SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

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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 Network Monitoring Software

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (10th)

SolarWinds Network Device M...

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

27th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 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 SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is 1.0%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Nagios Core	1.9%
SolarWinds Network Device Monitor	1.0%
Other	97.1%

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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Sorin Gogean

IT Infrastructure Senior Network Technician at Autoliv

Offers some features but needs better customization and analysis tools

There are solutions that can perform better, but due to pricing for our corporate implementation, we had to stay with this solution. It accomplishes the necessary tasks, but there is room for improvement. The features are not as customizable as we would prefer, but they are workable. If configured properly, you can perform a drill-down analysis. However, I have not used this feature much for our infrastructure on the network side.

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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

"Nagios Core is stable."

"Nagios allows IT staff and end-users to see the status of critical services on the network and can alert and notify selected users if critical services fail, reducing the mean time to recover."

"Nagios doesn't get the respect it deserves; most likely due to the fact that it doesn't have a licensing cost."

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

"The most valuable feature of Nagios Core is it allows us to develop and add as many plugins as we want."

"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."

"Nagios Core integrates with tools like Splunk, Datadog, or Dynatrace. It is usually used as a feed to provide more technical information about devices or hosts to another system."

More Nagios Core pros

"The most valuable features of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor are the reports. We are configuring the reports, and the first reports are only about the devices. We are configuring the thresholds in order to monitor all the devices."

"Overall, it is a good user experience and the dashboards are very usable."

"There are vital features of auto-plugin core ports"

"This product proactively tells us about issues before the users notice."

"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is it can alert you when a device is not working."

"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is it shows you the utilization of devices to allow you to take proactive action before something goes down or reaches the saturation point."

"Link monitoring is the most valuable feature of this solution."

"The most valuable features of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor are the reports, as we are configuring the thresholds in order to monitor all the devices."

More SolarWinds Network Device Monitor pros

Cons

"Making it a little easier to configure and set up from the start would help. There are multiple layers that you have to wade through to be able to set it up, to do it the right way, and to get it to do what you want it to do."

"The interface could be improved."

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

"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."

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

"They should simplify the features so it becomes easier to setup out of the box."

"There is room for improvement in the graphics."

More Nagios Core cons

"The initial setup of the SolarWinds Network Device Monitor could be easier. It took us approximately one month to complete the implementation."

"There is no mobile version of this product, and our team should be able to access it using a mobile device."

"The initial setup is a bit complex. It's not for anyone who is a beginner to work in the products to do it."

"SolarWinds pricing is on the higher side, and in India, every customer is cautious about commercial aspects."

"Technical support needs to respond to its customers faster. We are not 100% satisfied with the level of support we get."

"In terms of price, it could be less expensive."

"The data is in the system but we are unable to pull it because reporting is not integrated and versatile."

More SolarWinds Network Device Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."

"Nagios Core is free to use."

"We are using the open-source, unpaid version."

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

"Most the plugin features are free."

"It's free."

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

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

More Nagios Core pricing and cost advice

"I find the cost of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor reasonable for our company. Though, I'm not aware of the exact licensing cost."

"Well, we had a perpetual license and the renewal was $20 to $25,000."

"The enterprise license is good for the SolarWinds Network Device Monitor. However, it is expensive, they should reduce their price."

"Thankfully, it doesn't take a lot of manpower to install and deploy."

"The price of the SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is good."

"When compared with other solutions SolarWinds is more expensive."

"The product is expensive."

"SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is not an expensive solution."

More SolarWinds Network Device Monitor pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Manufacturing Company

14%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	23

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	14

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.

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.

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...

What do you like most about SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?

I rate the product's initial setup process a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one means it is a difficult phase and ten is an easy process.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?

I am not a positive person regarding SolarWinds Network Device Monitor.

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?

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Comparisons

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Compared 7% of the time

Icinga vs Nagios Core

Compared 6% of the time

Zabbix vs Nagios Core

Compared 5% of the time

Centreon vs Nagios Core

Compared 5% of the time

Nagios XI vs Nagios Core

Compared 5% of the time

Domotz Pro vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

Compared 13% of the time

ScienceLogic vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

Compared 11% of the time

OpenNMS vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

Compared 8% of the time

FortiMonitor vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

Compared 7% of the time

Entuity vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Nagios Core

Download Nagios Core product report

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

Download SolarWinds Network Device Monitor product report

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor report

Also Known As

No data available

Network Device Monitor

Overview

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

Nagios

Network Device Monitor is a free tool that makes it easy to monitor the real-time performance and health of a single device on your network with a desktop dashboard that alerts you when your device is in trouble.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Airbnb, Cisco, PayPal, FanDuel

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Nagios Core vs. SolarWinds Network Device Monitor