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Pandora FMS vs VMware vCenter comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

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

Pandora FMS
Ranking in Server Monitoring
23rd
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (74th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (54th), Log Management (57th), Cloud Monitoring Software (40th)
VMware vCenter
Ranking in Server Monitoring
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of Pandora FMS is 1.2%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware vCenter is 1.0%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Monitoring Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
VMware vCenter1.0%
Pandora FMS1.2%
Other97.8%
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…
Hoang Long Nguyen - PeerSpot reviewer
Automation and technical support impress with seamless migration and high availability management
We are in the process of implementing Zerto, which is currently in the purchase order phase. While we haven't fully implemented it yet, we have completed the POC. We use VMware vCenter and ESXi. The solution manages high availability effectively, with excellent automation for migration and patch management. The support is good, though the recent license change after the Broadcom acquisition has significantly increased costs. Patch management is controllable and can be managed individually, with automatic downloads available. We use it primarily for managing hosts and updates, without any integration. The performance is excellent, running very smoothly. I rate VMware vCenter a 9 out of 10.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This solution has screens that are easy to understand and provide a wealth of information."
"It provides us with proactive monitoring and is very easy to configure and maintain."
"The official forum is active enough to answer most of the high-end technical questions that you may have."
"The monitoring system within this solution is very good. It is easy to use and navigate, and makes issue alarms easily viewable."
"I like this solution a lot because it has a very large Hispanic community and the platform looks very friendly."
"The solution has good dashboards and graphics."
"The most valuable features are auto-discovery and automatic detection of the network topology and network monitoring."
"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."
"We must create a VIN on each node. You want to make the VIN ten times if you have a thin host. We mostly create VMs, and the vCenter publishes the template on all hosts."
"We manage practically everything using the solution."
"The most valuable aspect for us is the ability to monitor all servers simultaneously and effortlessly move them between hosts."
"The product has improved our system's proactive support for in-built AI tools."
"It's a very good tool for centralized management."
"The most valuable features are DRS, cluster management, vCenter management, and logs management."
"We use VMware vCenter for centralization and to manage all the VMs."
"I am using vMotion for live migration and storage migrations. I can use vCenter for both now."
 

Cons

"Pandora could deliver better analytics out of the box. You can work around these limitations with the help of other tools like Grafana. The shortcomings are mostly on the graphical side. The built-in report generators are a bit limited in some areas."
"Third-party integration should be improved for some commonly used products."
"This solution requires proper training to get 100% out of it."
"We would like the real-time monitoring of an interface to be improved within this solution."
"I would like to have a dashboard with all assets displayed, with a quick hover-over status."
"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."
"Improvements are needed for server and network discovery, including service-based discovery."
"I think some improvements to the Android app would be good."
"We have to buy more VMware products to leverage the centralized management."
"It is not easy to upgrade VMware vCenter from an old version to a new version."
"One notable area for enhancement revolves around cost considerations, as introducing features such as DDoS protection or data compression could reduce expenses."
"The support for the Linux operating system wasn't great when we used it."
"The product should improve its storage. It's not necessarily about needing more storage but improving how it handles technology. We believe there could be more effective ways to manage it in our user environment. It should also look into network management."
"Consolidating these plugins into a unified environment with customizable options to enable or disable features would be highly beneficial."
"The product's technical support services need improvement."
"One area where VMware vCenter has room for improvement is its transition to Broadcom. The change in licensing structure and pricing, particularly the shift from perpetual licenses to subscription-only models, is a significant drawback."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You get the license and it includes updates, new versions, and access to the complete library of modules."
"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."
"The open-source version offers 100% functionality and the hardware requirements for a solution like this one are very modest."
"Pandora FMS is easy to implement and the pricing of licenses is competitive."
"In terms of money, the Enterprise version is the cheapest that I have found after a market study."
"Only one payment and it includes support, updates, new versions, and access to the complete library of plugins except for SAP and z/OS."
"They are very competitive on the pricing side. That's one reason why my manager keeps using it."
"Growing the solution or migrating to the Enterprise version is easy, and various plans are available."
"The licensing model was a bit complex, but thanks to the vCenter product usage program, which VMware introduced, it's kind of easy for us to use a pay-as-you-go model."
"The platform is expensive."
"The platform has reasonable pricing."
"For the healthcare industry, the price is considerably higher than the education industry."
"The tool used to be worth the money, but after Broadcom acquired it and changed the pricing structure to subscription-only, it became too expensive for us to continue using. Unfortunately, we haven't found any alternative solutions that meet our needs, so this is a significant drawback for us as we explore other options."
"The product's three-year license package is inexpensive."
"We have purchased monthly licenses for the platform. There are additional costs involved."
"The solution is pretty expensive for small businesses because there are few lower-scale VMware vCenter solutions."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
13%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise18
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about VMware vCenter?
The filtering capabilities also enhance scalability by optimizing resource allocation.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware vCenter?
The initial package for VMware vCenter is not less than $10,000, which can be prohibitive for smaller organizations. The licensing model now requires purchasing 96-core solutions, even if fewer cor...
What needs improvement with VMware vCenter?
The main concern is the license change following the sale to Broadcom. The license cost has increased significantly, which is the primary negative aspect of VMware vCenter. While technical support ...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rakuten, Prosegur, Repsol, Teléfonica, Allianz, Ottawa Hospital, Hughes
1. Amazon 2. Apple 3. ATT 4. Bank of America 5. Cisco Systems 6. CocaCola 7. Dell 8. ebay 9. Facebook 10. Google 11. HP 12. IBM 13. Intel 14. JPMorgan Chase 15. LinkedIn 16. Microsoft 17. Netflix 18. Oracle 19. PayPal 20. SAP 21. Siemens 22. Tesla 23. Toyota 24. Twitter 25. Visa 26. Walmart 27. WeWork 28. World Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about Pandora FMS vs. VMware vCenter and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
870,697 professionals have used our research since 2012.