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Pandora FMS vs Tanium vs Zabbix 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

As of May 2025, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of Pandora FMS is 1.1%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tanium is 6.1%, down from 7.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zabbix is 28.4%, up from 23.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

Gabriel Glusgold - PeerSpot reviewer
Personalized metrics; simplicity of data
My primary use case for Pandora is monitoring This solution has helped us improve our organization by allowing us to create a lot of metrics on several platforms, including Windows, Linux, and Unix. We then use these Pandora metrics to create an interface. We then pass the interface off to the…
Ed Jarecki - PeerSpot reviewer
A scalable solution that helps to understand how infrastructure works
We use the tool as an infrastructure operational management solution.  The solution is scalable and helps to understand how infrastructure works. It helps to improve the health of the organization.  Any movement into a SaaS solution has challenges since the processes and data flows are not well…
ASM Naushad Alam - PeerSpot reviewer
Allows any number of customizations but lacks functionality for finding root causes
We have not yet purchased the commercial version so have a lack of technical ability. We do not yet fully know the key points or key features of the solution. We just use what we use along with WhatsUp Gold. Based on our use only, stability is rated a seven out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is easy to create your own custom modules if you just know a little bit of scripting. If you have unique requirements, you can just make your own modules. You can even grab checks from other vendors. There are open-source checks for various things such as SMTP, etc. There is a long list of different ones from Nagios. You can just use them, and within seconds, you get yourself a check that is monitoring whatever you need. It is really flexible. I guess that's why they call it Pandora Flexible Monitoring System (FMS). It is reliable. It does the job, and it alerts. It is also surprisingly feature-rich. Our network guy just recently asked about a particular protocol to monitor the bandwidth on the network, which is not a common protocol. When I looked it up, and I found that they cover it. It is very mature for a not-so-known product."
"Pandora's architecture is interesting. It's open so you can easily extend and enhance it. It's simpler to customize Pandora compared to other solutions. It's also scalable enough to support large environments."
"The most valuable features are auto-discovery and automatic detection of the network topology and network monitoring."
"It provides us with proactive monitoring and is very easy to configure and maintain."
"We are able to control our business with this all-in-one monitoring tool."
"Features I have found most valuable with Pandora are the personalized metrics and the simplicity of data."
"It allows me to quickly see the status of all of my printers, switches, computers, and virtual machines to determine if any system has fallen."
"Thanks to this software and to the work of the support team, we have everything under control."
"The security features are very valuable."
"The solution is scalable and helps to understand how infrastructure works. It helps to improve the health of the organization."
"When I push a quick update, it's done right away, and I can rescan immediately to confirm completion within minutes."
"I would say Tanium is the best tool for vulnerability management."
"Threat hunting is a very good feature on Tanium. We have just started using it and have not used it extensively."
"Tanium’s linear-chain architecture is valuable."
"I'm not so familiar with the tool but I like the interaction of the console to the picture. Patching is the primary model I have been focusing on for the last couple of weeks. So I have created a proof of concept environment and have been checking the available features."
"The interrogation piece was the most valuable feature because it was very detailed."
"The solution is stable."
"The basic setup is very easy."
"Zabbix is good for discovery."
"It has improved our server performance monitoring overall. We know right away when there are problems. It has built-in statistics, so we can go back and see if there's spiking. We can check what's happening every day around the same time and check the configuration to see if there's something that's running and needs to be fixed."
"The solution is open-source, easy to manage, and user-friendly making it easy for anyone to use."
"The initial setup was not complex."
"During my testing, the features that I like the most are that it can be integrated with my system, and it provides me with reports of all of my servers."
"The integration with third-party tools and the alerts are most valuable."
 

Cons

"I think some improvements to the Android app would be good."
"In the future, we may have double the number of devices, and we do not want to have any issues with performance in the data display."
"An update to the Android app would be appreciated."
"I sincerely believe that Pandora needs new ideas for functionality closer to advanced device security monitoring."
"When it comes to the definition of local Software Agents for the first time in the open-source version, it can become very tedious."
"It would be useful if Pandora FMS included an ISO image (or «software appliance») for each big company that leases virtual private machines (VPS), just like in AWS."
"We would like the real-time monitoring of an interface to be improved within this solution."
"This solution requires proper training to get 100% out of it."
"Tanium's limitations should be improved because although it is a great tool, it is limited to only a few classes during a session."
"It is not really additional functions, or the features that are needed, rather the complexity would be reduced based on the number of modules required to put together a comprehensive operational security and risk compliance model."
"The solution lacks mobility."
"Most of the time, agent-relative issues have to be more equipped with self-healing features. At times, the agent is there, but for some reason, it doesn't report a status. It gives certain problems that are obviously agent-based."
"The performance could improve in future releases. We have had performance issues in specialized web environments, but overall I think the problems are less than 2% of the computer systems being used."
"When working with Tanium, there are some older devices that haven't been patched for a long time, and certain patches are not included in Tanium. I have to search outside to download patches, create bundles, and then perform the task."
"The solution needs to improve the reporting and tracking capabilities."
"The reporting could be improved."
"Zabbix claims that there is an auto-discovery process but my team member was facing difficulty and was told that it's not really automatic, and there are some manual steps."
"The stability could be better."
"The user interface could be better."
"There is a bit of a learning curve during installation."
"If Zabbix had a better dashboard then it would be nice."
"The integration of the product is not so easy, especially when it comes to the application database."
"Zabbix can use better documentation and support for troubleshooting."
"The solution needs to add remote features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"They are very competitive on the pricing side. That's one reason why my manager keeps using it."
"The Open Source Community Edition is great to just explore the software, or use it on medium-sized infrastructures."
"You get the license and it includes updates, new versions, and access to the complete library of modules."
"My rule of thumb would be that if you need more than thirty agents, and you lack an automation tool such as Chef or Puppet, you will save a lot of time and money going to the Enterprise edition."
"You have to pay for the number of agents and models that you are monitoring. I would rate the cost at three with one being the most expensive and five being the cheapest."
"Only one payment and it includes support, updates, new versions, and access to the complete library of plugins except for SAP and z/OS."
"Pandora FMS is easy to implement and the pricing of licenses is competitive."
"Growing the solution or migrating to the Enterprise version is easy, and various plans are available."
"It is higher than some competitors in the market."
"The solution offers value for money."
"There is an annual license required to use this solution."
"Tanium is a more expensive solution in Latin America than some of the competitors, such as BigFix."
"The solution is expensive but it's a good investment."
"The product's pricing differs from region to region depending on negotiations and the number of endpoints."
"It's an expensive solution. It would be nice if the cost were lower."
"This is an open-source solution that can be used free of charge."
"It is open source. If you want to have a subscription or official support, you can pay for it. They have different plans, which are not that expensive. The plans are based on per monitoring server, not per monitored equipment. So, it is not at all expensive, and you can also live without the support if you want a cheaper option."
"If you have 20,000 hosts, the support costs around €95,000 for a year."
"The tool's licensing costs are yearly."
"We purchased Zabbix for a good price, including support"
"We use the open-source version of Zabbix."
"It's free software released under the GNU/GPL license."
"This solution is open-source and free to use."
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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
Media Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Government
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
30%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about Tanium?
Tanium’s linear-chain architecture is valuable.
What needs improvement with Tanium?
While there is always room for improvement, I am pleased with Tanium.
What is your primary use case for Tanium?
The primary use case for Tanium ( /products/tanium-reviews ) is compliance, patching, and inventory as part of the co...
What do you like most about Zabbix?
The template system in Zabbix is very beneficial as it saves time in configuration.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zabbix?
We didn't use the commercial version. We used the free version.
What needs improvement with Zabbix?
I think it's the best solution for monitoring. I don't know any better.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rakuten, Prosegur, Repsol, Teléfonica, Allianz, Ottawa Hospital, Hughes
JPMorgan Chase, eBay, Amazon, US Bank, MetLife, pwc, Cerner, Delphi, MGM Grand, New York Life
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
Find out what your peers are saying about Zabbix, ServiceNow, Oracle and others in Server Monitoring. Updated: May 2025.
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