The following tables compare general and technical information for several notable network monitoring systems. For more information, please refer to the individual product articles.
Features
Name IP SLA reports Logical grouping Trending Trend prediction Auto discovery Agentless SNMP Syslog Plugins Triggers / alerts MIB compiler Web app Distributed monitoring Inventory Platform Data storage method License Maps Access control IPv6 Latest release date Latest release version Cacti PHP RRDtool, MySQL, MariaDB 2025-03-23 1.2.30Checkmk C, Python RRDtool 2025-05-06 2.4 collectd C RRDtool 2020-09-03 5.12 Cruz Java, C++, .NET MySQL, Oracle 2019-02 8.0.0 FreeNATS PHP MySQL 2018-11-14 1.20.1b Ganglia Via gmond check in C, PHP RRDtool 2016-06-14 3.7.2 Icinga C MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL 2025-06-18 2.15.0 InterMapper Windows, Linux & Mac OS PostgreSQL 2017-07 6.1.5 isyVmon PHP RRDtool, MySQL Munin Perl RRDtool 2026-09-20 2.0.78 Nagios C Flat file, SQL (via ndoutils), MySql (Via Nconf) 2022-04-14 4.4.7 Netdisco Perl PostgreSQL 2024-09-13 2.079001 NetXMS C, Java PostgreSQL, PostgreSQL with TimescaleDB, MariaDB, MySQL, MS SQL, Oracle, SQLite 2024-04-15 4.5.6 NeuralStar MS SQL op5 Monitor C, PHP Flat file, SQL Monthly 7.3.0 OpenKBM OpenNMS Java JRobin / RRDTool / Apache Cassandra, PostgreSQL 2026-03-16 35.0.4 OPNET's AppResponse Xpert OSI NetExpert Java, C++ Oracle 2013-04 10.0 Pandora FMS Perl, PHP, C++, JavaScript MySQL, Percona Server for MySQL 2024-06-11 7.0 NG 777 PA Server Monitor Windows, C++, .NET SQLite, Microsoft SQL Server 2025-06 9.5 Performance Co-Pilot C Perl, Python, POSIX, MinGW Flat file 2025-03-27 6.3.7 PRTG Delphi_(software) Flat file 2025-03-18 25.1.104 ScienceLogic Python MySQL SevOne C, C++, PHP MySQL 2022-11 6.4 Shinken Python Flat file, MySQL, Oracle, Graphite, Sqlite, MongoDB 2016-03-10 2.4.3 SolarWinds .NET SQL Spiceworks PHP Sqlite 2018-03-21 7.5.00107 Xymon/Hobbit C, Shell Flat file, RRDTool, MySQL via plugin 2019-09-05 4.3.30 Zabbix C, PHP MariaDB, MySQL, Oracle, Percona Server, PostgreSQL, SQLite Zenoss Core Python, Java ZODB, MariaDB, Apache HBase 2018-01-09 6.1.0 ZIS-System Windows MariaDB 2020-02-01 5.8 Name IP SLA Reports Logical Grouping Trending Trend Prediction Auto Discovery Agentless SNMP Syslog Plugins Triggers / Alerts MIB Compiler WebApp Distributed Monitoring Inventory Platform Data Storage Method License Maps Access Control IPv6 Latest release date Latest release version
Legend
Product name The name of the software, linked to its Wikipedia article. IP SLAs reports Support of Cisco's IP Service Level Agreement mechanism. Logical grouping Supports arranging the hosts or devices it monitors into user-defined groups. Trending Provides trending of network data over time. Trend prediction The software features algorithms designed to predict future network statistics. Auto discovery The software automatically discovers hosts or network devices it is connected to. Agentless The product does not rely on a software agent that must run on hosts it is monitoring, so that data can be pushed back to a central server. "Supported" means that an agent may be used, but is not mandatory. An SNMP daemon does not count as an agent. SNMP Able to retrieve and report on SNMP statistics. Syslog Able to receive and report on Syslogs. Plugins Architecture of the software based on a number of 'plugins' that provide additional functionality. Triggers / alerts Capable of detecting threshold violations in network data, and alerting the administrator in some form. MIB compilter Able to read MIB data, to quickly understand what resources are being managed. Web app Runs as a web-based application. No: There is no web-based frontend for this software. Viewing: Network data can be viewed in a graphical web-based frontend. Acknowledging: Users can interact with the software through the web-based frontend to acknowledge alarms or manipulate other notifications. Reporting: Specific reports on network data can be configured by the user and executed through the web-based frontend. Full Control: ALL aspects of the product can be controlled through the web-based frontend, including low-level maintenance tasks such as software configuration and upgrades. Distributed monitoring Able to leverage more than one server to distribute the load of network monitoring. Inventory Keeps a record of hardware and/or software inventory for the hosts and devices it monitors. Platform The platform (Coding Language) on which the tool was developed/written. Data storage method Main method used to store the network data it monitors. License License released under (e.g. GPL, BSD license, etc.). Maps Features graphical network maps that represent the hosts and devices it monitors, and the links between them. Access control Features user-level security, allowing an administrator to prevent access to certain parts of the product on a per-user or per-role basis. IPv6 Supports monitoring IPv6 hosts and/or devices, receiving IPv6 data, and running on an IPv6-enabled server. Supports communication using IPv6 to the SNMP agent via an IPv6 address.
References