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Nagios XI vs NetBrain vs PRTG Network Monitor comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

IT Infrastructure Monitoring Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Nagios XI3.5%
Zabbix12.0%
Datadog5.0%
Other79.5%
IT Infrastructure Monitoring
Network Troubleshooting Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
NetBrain2.8%
Wireshark13.0%
LinkRunner12.7%
Other71.5%
Network Troubleshooting
Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
PRTG Network Monitor4.1%
Zabbix11.4%
SolarWinds NPM4.4%
Other80.1%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

Amir  Said - PeerSpot reviewer
Effective alerting enhances network monitoring experience with an easy setup
We love Nagios XI due to the fact that JPS Web is very useful. JPS monitors the modem and performs switching, monitoring the computer, and performing switching. We implement some applications and traffic monitoring. The alerting system is very effective. For instance, if we have an alarm on some RAM storage if the traffic is cut or dropped.
Deborah Gamelin - PeerSpot reviewer
Good monitoring and troubleshoot capabilities, improves overall network traffic visibility
In my organization, we had 130,000 network devices that needed to be brought into the solution and mapped. NetBrain can handle the scale but the engineers that manage those devices have to go in and update all of them to allow NetBrain permission to poll them. It can get a little stressful for everybody when you're trying to roll out new stuff when you've got other issues that have to be addressed with other devices. In some cases, our devices had no automation at all. One example is the Cisco 3650. Right now, if you went through the inventory list, you see that we have different versions running. Some are on one version, whereas others are on another version. The problem with upgrading them is that they need to be done overnight because we don't want to disrupt any network traffic during business hours. Consequently, it could take us years to upgrade the versions before we can even get them onto these new tools. This may be an internal issue but it's a big one when you have a lot of devices. Even if you had 10,000 devices, it's still an issue. You have to consider the compatibility of the device against the tool, and being able to use certain commands to upgrade it.
Adinath Bhokare - PeerSpot reviewer
Has helped detect server failures in real time and improved incident response through clear dashboards
When I use PRTG Network Monitor, it shows which servers go down or crash, displaying real-time reports and related information. We have configured PRTG Network Monitor to trigger an alert if any sensor or server goes down for more than five minutes. PRTG Network Monitor shows cause and effect clearly. For example, when our internet link failed, it displayed which dependent services were impacted. The feature in PRTG Network Monitor improved communication within my team since everyone can see the same dashboard. It saves me from constant manual checks as everything I care about is automatically tracked. PRTG Network Monitor has positively impacted my organization because it shows cause and effect clearly. We can see the real-time dashboard and take immediate action based on that. PRTG Network Monitor helped us detect the failing RAID controller before it completely collapsed, allowing us to avoid potential data loss.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"An excellent solution that is easy and intuitive to implement."
"BPI: It allows defining peripherals to map business criticality for efficient monitoring, as required."
"The solution's most valuable feature is its simplicity."
"Nagios allows us to configure any device so that we can send pager alerts when people don't have access to emails. It also allows us to schedule downtime and maintenance."
"Nagios is a custom API manager, and we can expose custom APIs for our integration. This is a great feature."
"You want to monitor a specific metric that nobody else has? You can do it even with the most basic of scripting skills, and you can always share it with the vast community of Nagios Exchange."
"The alerting system is very effective."
"Nagios XI simplifies our setup and reduces the time spent configuring monitoring tools."
"NetBrain is a very simple tool."
"This product has good network monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities."
"Enables maps to be drawn out."
"A reliable, time-saving tool for providing accurate layer 2 and layer 3 network mappings."
"Chain management is a good feature. I don't get it on other solutions."
"The initial setup is pretty easy."
"PRTG Network Monitor is perhaps the most accurate tool we have used to monitor the capacity of the WAN connection."
"The sensors and remote probes are phenomenal. We use them for all of our global sites. The problem with our global sites are that they are all VPNs. If the link goes down, you can't monitor other solutions, as it just goes off the grid. Having remote probes allows them to still carry on and get the information that we need when it comes back up, sending the information to us."
"The solution is scalable."
"PRTG Network Monitor is easy to set up. Within a few minutes, it is operational."
"It is able to satisfy all our requirements in terms of email notifications and specific errors on the devices."
"Its initial setup process is fast and easy."
"PRTG Network Monitor helped us detect the failing RAID controller before it completely collapsed, allowing us to avoid potential data loss."
 

Cons

"I would like to be able to extend it to all of our data centers, whether they are in the cloud or not. It would be helpful if I could connect everywhere."
"The Configuration Wizard needs improvement, because not all vendors are present."
"The installation and monitoring need improvement."
"The PNP4Nagios plugin not working easily with XI is an issue for me, because some open source monitoring plugins do not work out of the box. But in the end, you learn to live with it."
"Nagios XI can improve network and hardware monitoring, these parameters should be simplified to allow usage for monitoring. Additionally, if there was automatic reporting it would be helpful."
"The scalability of Nagios XI is scalable. However, it is not easy to do."
"The GUI could be improved."
"Improve the documentation, examples, and best practices, therefore users can understand how to do things."
"It would be nice if the setup was a little simpler. Also, if the solution could provide more training materials for new people coming into our company so they can quickly learn how to use the functionalities."
"Each device needs to be configured to allow NetBrain to poll for the information it needs, which can be very time-consuming for a large network."
"Support needs to improve for the installed product and some of the reporting could be more flexible to provide more complete cataloging."
"The IP interface brief isn't consistent."
"The solution could integrate more automation."
"They could improve the process of updating the license."
"There is room for improvement in this solution for the performance and third-party monitoring protocols. They need to be updated to the latest ones."
"Along with more room for automation, more room for advanced configuration can be integrated into the solution."
"A room for improvement in PRTG Network Monitor is its sensors. Its application technology sensor, such as the IAS, .NET, etc., needs some improvement because it doesn't work as expected. For example, the IAS sensor doesn't give immediate information, and the information you get from it isn't of good value. The web GUI of PRTG Network Monitor also needs improvement because errors keep popping up if it's not been updated to the latest version. What I'd like to see in the next release of the tool is end-to-end topology mapping for the business model, and that should be required. There has to be a technical map. Technical mapping and topological creation are missing in PRTG Network Monitor, so I would like to see those in the future."
"The free version only gives us 100 free sensors to use. It would be nice if there was double that."
"When it comes to third-party integration, one of the things we were looking at was putting some sensors onto our firewall, for instance. If there were a little bit more documentation and some step-by-step guides around that, that would be useful for us."
"Needs ability to monitor standard notification time (notify after X time)."
"I would like to see them take their graphing tools and convert them into a collector so that we can point telemetry to them"
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing fees for this solution are approximately $3,000 USD per year."
"As it is not an agentless tool, I think it is expensive."
"It is good to contact experts for advice about what is the best solution for your specific infrastructure and enterprise."
"Nagios XI is an expensive solution."
"For the cost of the commercial product and support, and taking into account the open source characteristics of it, I believe it is difficult to a better value."
"The pricing is high with separate licensing for the product and support."
"Licensing costs are reasonable."
"Nagios XI is open source."
"The product is expensive, but less expensive than some of the competition and worth the price."
"Licensing is based on a per-device basis, which means that it can get very expensive if you have a large number of devices."
"On a yearly basis, I believe it's between £1,200 and £1,500."
"The price was pretty good, very competitive."
"While I am not the person who deals with pricing, I would say that we pay around 1000 pounds a year."
"PRTG Network Monitor is not that expensive, so I like it cost-wise. There's no additional cost apart from the standard licensing fees. On a scale of one to five, with one being the cheapest and five being the most expensive, I would rate the cost of PRTG Network Monitor a two."
"I rate the price of PRTG Network Monitor an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low price."
"The price of PRTG Network Monitor is more expensive than other solutions, such as OP Network Manager."
"We've got 1,000 nodes and I believe it's a few hundred quid a month."
"The pricing is okay and it is cheaper than some competing products."
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Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise21
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business56
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise41
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nagios XI?
The pricing for the Nagios XI product is good and better than other solutions. I would give it a four or five.
What needs improvement with Nagios XI?
The user interface needs improvement. Many tools have poor user interfaces, making them hard to manage and navigate.
What is your primary use case for Nagios XI?
I normally use Nagios XI for our servers. It's not particularly used for network equipment, however, I use it for mon...
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Earn 20 points
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
PRTG network monitor is one of the best tool i have ever used for the monitoring. It have auto discovery option. it a...
What do you like most about PRTG Network Monitor?
The tool is integrated with our email for the alerts.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Nagios has over one million users globally, including AOL, DHL, McAfee, MCI, MTV, Yahoo!, Universal, Toshiba, Sony, Siemens, and JPMorgan Chase.
CompuCon, TD Ameritrade, Move Inc.
Jameson Bank, Sidnix, RungeICT, MedicalAnimal, Truck-lite, GamingGrids, The Covell Group, Forsythn County Schools, NetMass, Musgrove Park Hospital, Lanes Health, Columbia Southern University, Vodafone, Intrust Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about Zabbix, Auvik, Datadog and others in IT Infrastructure Monitoring. Updated: September 2025.
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