Nagios Core vs WhatsUp Gold comparison

Nagios and Progress Software are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Nagios is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.5, while Progress Software is ranked #28 with an average rating of 9.5. Nagios holds a 2.7% mindshare in NMS, compared to Progress Software’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Nagios users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Progress Software users who would recommend it.

Nagios Core

Read 51 Nagios Core reviews

4,424 Views
3,893 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

WhatsUp Gold

Read 24 WhatsUp Gold reviews

2,642 Views
1,664 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Nagios Core

WhatsUp Gold

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

WhatsUp Gold and Nagios Core are competing network monitoring solutions. WhatsUp Gold has the upper hand in user-friendliness and customer support, whereas Nagios Core is preferred for its advanced feature set, appealing to users who seek complex customization.

Features: WhatsUp Gold offers intuitive network mapping, robust performance monitoring, and efficient alerting features. Nagios Core provides vast plugin architecture, comprehensive monitoring capabilities, and strong community support, allowing extensive customization options.

Room for Improvement: WhatsUp Gold could enhance its customization options, expand its plugin integrations, and offer more competitive pricing. Nagios Core might benefit from improving its user interface, simplifying configuration processes, and providing direct customer support options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: WhatsUp Gold is known for a straightforward installation process and proactive customer support, minimizing setup time. Nagios Core requires more technical expertise and primarily relies on community-based support, necessitating more time for deployment.

Pricing and ROI: WhatsUp Gold typically has a higher initial cost but promises a quicker ROI through ease of use and support efficiency. Nagios Core's open-source model allows low-cost setup, offering long-term flexibility but with slower ROI due to necessary technical investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Nagios Core vs. WhatsUp Gold Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core vs. WhatsUp Gold

August 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 Network Monitoring Software

11th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

WhatsUp Gold

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

28th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

29th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (28th), Server Monitoring (16th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nagios Core is 2.7%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhatsUp Gold is 1.2%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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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Tom Condo

Supervisor Information Services Operations at Seminole County Public Schools

If CPU, memory, or disk space is over-utilized, it alerts us immediately via text or email if there is an issue

When it comes to the intuitiveness of the topology mapping feature, our network architect created a vision diagram of our entire network and then created the links tied into the WhatsUp active monitoring to different spots on our topology map. It's one of the more critical functions we do here. We have the map displayed in different places in our room and help desk. We get alerted via emails but we can also see it visually. It does what it says it's going to do. We find this feature very helpful. The interactive mapping interface for scrolling, zooming, and drilling down on an element to learn about a network issue is good. When we see a network there will sometimes be a spot that has one link. You can go into a particular part of the topology map, scroll in, and see exactly which module it is. All the information is provided. This feature really helps. You can see the correlation between that link and what failed. This feature is very helpful. The interface is fairly intuitive. Some of our users used SolarWinds and Nagios, and WhatsUp is easy in comparison. Once you get set up, the look, feel, and configuration are good. Our network architect had never used it before but he was able to create the Visio and map. It was very simple. He has no problems with it.

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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

"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."

"Our customers like that Nagios Core is an open source solution. It can be customized to our customers' specific needs."

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

"Nagios Core is very configurable. Whatever you want, you can do it."

"Nagios Core is stable."

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

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

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

More Nagios Core pros

"The solution effectively monitors network devices and servers."

"The installation and configuration process are easy."

"The tool's most valuable feature is the visibility it offers of everything in the network and infrastructure."

"The threshold alerting is the most valuable feature."

"This is a good, stable network monitoring solution for devices."

"The most valuable feature is the auto-discovery function."

"The most valuable feature of WhatsUp Gold is NetFlow and the virtualized maps."

"The product is reasonably priced."

More WhatsUp Gold pros

Cons

"I would like to see a sensor that shows the traffic of a user and what they're doing on the network."

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

"The mapping is a little hard."

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

"Nagios Core does not have a graphic display."

"I would like to see more training videos."

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

"The tool needs to improve the integrations."

More Nagios Core cons

"You have to invest a few days to become an expert in this solution."

"The tool should focus on increasing its market share, as it is the only area of concern where improvements are needed."

"The pricing for this solution has gone up quite recently, which has led some of our customers to buy an alternative product."

"One of the biggest things that made us start to look at another product is we're not able to have an end to end monitoring from a user perspective throughout the system and back to the user. All the monitoring is from inside out, we need something that also can give us from outside in."

"Importing the maps and being able to customize them could be easier."

"The initial setup of WhatsUp Gold is a medium range of difficulty levels. However, if it is your first time it could be difficult."

"I think there are a few bugs now. Although they give some resolution for this, we cannot share the network remotely because of our company policy."

"Regional product team support is not very good."

More WhatsUp Gold cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"Most the plugin features are free."

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

"The solution is expensive."

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

"Nagios Core is free to use."

"Nagios Core is a cheap solution."

"It's free."

More Nagios Core pricing and cost advice

"There is a license needed to use WhatsUp Gold."

"It is per device, per year. The pricing is very clear. If you have a service agreement, you get all of your major upgrades and minor upgrades. It was under $10,000 to go all-in with all of the different add-ons for it."

"The tool's price is reasonable. WhatsUp Gold is cheaper than SolarWinds."

"The pricing can be on the expensive side when considering competing products."

"Pricing is reasonable compared to other products."

"I'm not sure, but it's expensive. We don't pay any additional fees."

"The choice of version depends on the number of points, or devices, that you want to monitor, and this makes the product expensive."

"This is a well priced solution."

More WhatsUp Gold pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

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 WhatsUp Gold?

The interactive mapping interface for scrolling, zooming, and drilling down on an element to learn about a network issue is good. When we see a network there will sometimes be a spot that has one l...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for WhatsUp Gold?

Clients find the licensing calculator confusing, but we simplify this for them by collecting relevant information first. The licensing is based on devices, providing better cost-effectiveness than ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with WhatsUp Gold?

Improvements are needed in integration, especially for WhatsApp call and messages. Our region heavily uses WhatsApp Messenger for communication, and integration with this platform would be benefici...

See all answers

Comparisons

Icinga vs Nagios Core

Compared 23% of the time

Nagios XI vs Nagios Core

Compared 15% 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 5% of the time

More Nagios Core Competitors

Grafana vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 11% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 10% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 8% of the time

Zabbix vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 7% of the time

ManageEngine OpManager vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 6% of the time

More WhatsUp Gold Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core

August 2025

Download Nagios Core product report

Buyer's Guide

WhatsUp Gold

July 2025

Download WhatsUp Gold product report

Overview

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

Nagios

Explore and manage your entire network infrastructure effortlessly with WhatsUp Gold's robust layer 2/3 discovery, creating a detailed interactive map from the edge to the cloud. Monitor devices, wireless controllers, servers, virtual machines, applications, and traffic flows across various environments. Real-time alerts ensure optimal performance, allowing you to meet or exceed SLAs. The platform offers customizable maps, dashboards, and alerts for easy network management. Quickly resolve issues with intuitive workflows, reducing Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR). WhatsUp Gold's integrated log management provides easy visibility and control of device log data, allowing monitoring, filtering, searching, and alerting on syslogs or Windows logs. Archive logs to comply with regulatory requirements and preserve historical data, all through a user-friendly interface. Streamline network monitoring and issue resolution with WhatsUp Gold, making network management efficient and hassle-free.

Progress Software

Sample Customers

Airbnb, Cisco, PayPal, FanDuel

Artoni Trasporti, Austin Independent School District, Banca Marche, Burke County North Carolina, Cambridge University School of Clinical Medicine, Clayco, Community Integrated Care, Desca, Deutsche Bergbau, Flexi-Van, Gropper, Hamleys, Hammonds Furniture, Knowledge IT, Idras S.P.A., Sibeg, Swann Engineering, Trivium Lindenhof

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core vs. WhatsUp Gold

August 2025

Free Report: Nagios Core vs. WhatsUp Gold

Find out what your peers are saying about Nagios Core vs. WhatsUp Gold and other solutions. Updated: August 2025.

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