No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Nagios XI vs ObserverLIVE 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Nagios XI
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
16th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
Server Monitoring (8th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (13th), Cloud Monitoring Software (23rd)
ObserverLIVE
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
105th
Average Rating
0.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.3
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nagios XI is 2.5%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ObserverLIVE is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Nagios XI2.5%
ObserverLIVE0.3%
Other97.2%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

Emmanuel Appiah Boateng - PeerSpot reviewer
Network and Security Engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Simplifies setup and requires user interface enhancement
Nagios XI is easy to install, which sets it apart from other open-source solutions I've tried. Typically, setting up a monitoring system on Linux involves cloning files from GitHub, building it, and installing many dependencies, but with Nagios XI, it wasn't like that. Nagios XI simplifies our setup and reduces the time spent configuring monitoring tools.
M
IT manager at Mannai
Seamless packet analysis, deep visibility, and end-to-end network monitoring
We have experience with the VIAVI solutions, specifically the ObserverLIVE platform, which we use for network performance monitoring VIAVI helps by providing deep visibility on packet analysis end-to-end, which assists in identifying issues quickly and efficiently. VIAVI is very strong when it…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product allows comprehensive monitoring of your environment, from basic monitoring of your servers health to more complex tasks like AD, database, and, to some extent, application-level monitoring."
"The dashboard allows you to see what's going on in the overall system."
"I can monitor a software made in-house to software of bigger companies."
"Since this is an open source technology, if we are capable of writing the plugins in any scripting language, this product allows us to monitor anything we want."
"Nagios XI is stable."
"In my view this product is very good value for money when compared with other commercially provided monitoring solutions."
"Nagios is the best software of its kind if you have time for configure any host and network, and you can do quite everything with a bit of scripting."
"I really found Nagios a perfect fit for us and a good product to work with."
"VIAVI is very strong when it comes to packet analysis, especially with SDN, ACI, and Cx."
 

Cons

"Nagios needs to improve their incident manager. Currently, it isn't good for ITIL in my opinion."
"From an alerting point of view, some graphics and metrics don't work properly with Nagios XI as they do with Checkmk."
"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 reporting part should be made simpler. While we can obtain all the reports we need, we always have to create work-arounds to get them."
"Technical support is an area that needs improvement. It is not available 24/7."
"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."
"Nagios XI doesn't provide scripting. For example, if we have built up multiple IPX tunnels from a base location to a data center location and want to monitor or trigger an alert if the tunnel goes down, Nagios XI does not automatically send alerts notifying us that the tunnel is down."
"The GUI could be improved. It's a bit too basic, and maybe having a GraphQL interface would resolve this."
"VIAVI needs to include a Simple Network Monitoring Protocol (SNMP) for end-to-end monitoring solutions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is really cost efficient. The licensing is perpetual and can be renewed very easily."
"It is good to contact experts for advice about what is the best solution for your specific infrastructure and enterprise."
"Nagios XI is open source."
"You can grow into the higher-priced scale as they learn how to utilize the features for Nagios XI."
"As it is not an agentless tool, I think it is expensive."
"The pricing is high with separate licensing for the product and support."
"We are using the free version of this solution."
"The licensing fees for this solution are approximately $3,000 USD per year."
Information not available
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.
905,526 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

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

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 monitoring our server performance, including CPU, memory, data, and services runnin...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ObserverLIVE?
The price is reasonable. I would rate it nine out of ten for cost-effectiveness.
What needs improvement with ObserverLIVE?
VIAVI needs to include a Simple Network Monitoring Protocol (SNMP) for end-to-end monitoring solutions. Currently, it lacks the ability to measure the health and status of devices such as switches ...
What is your primary use case for ObserverLIVE?
We have experience with the VIAVI solutions, specifically the ObserverLIVE platform, which we use for network performance monitoring.
 

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.
Exmark Manufacturing, Foskor, US Deptartment of Veteran Affairs
Find out what your peers are saying about Zabbix, SolarWinds, Datadog and others in Network Monitoring Software. Updated: June 2026.
905,526 professionals have used our research since 2012.