Azure Monitor vs Icinga comparison

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Azure Monitor

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

Icinga and Azure Monitor compete in the monitoring solutions category. Azure Monitor may have the upper hand due to its extensive features and cloud integration.

Features: Icinga offers customizable alerting, network services, and multiple automation features. Azure Monitor provides integrated analytics, real-time data surveillance, and application insights.

Room for Improvement: Icinga's complexity in setups can be enhanced, user interface could be more intuitive, and integration features can be broadened. Azure Monitor can improve its cost efficiency, enhance visual data representation, and expand non-Microsoft integrations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Icinga can be complex to set up but has community support. Azure Monitor benefits from seamless Azure integration and extensive documentation for smooth onboarding.

Pricing and ROI: Icinga is cost-effective with high ROI due to its open-source nature. Azure Monitor has higher usage-based costs, justifying its price for businesses focused on comprehensive cloud monitoring.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Monitor vs. Icinga Report (Updated: April 2025).

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Azure Monitor vs. Icinga

April 2025

Helped 851,604 peers since 2012

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

Azure Monitor

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

5th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (5th)

Icinga

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

15th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (15th), Server Monitoring (7th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (14th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Cloud Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Azure Monitor is 6.6%, down from 8.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Icinga is 4.5%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Syed Abid

Snr. Infrastructure Architect at LogicEra

Monthly and weekly resource monitoring has improved efficiency

Azure Monitor can improve by adding some kind of storage for logs. I can get the runtime logs alone, yet if Azure Monitor can independently add one gigabyte, two gigabytes, or five gigabytes at least to log storage, I can fix the logs without syncing with Log Analytics Workspace and Sentinel. If they do that, and if they can integrate a little pricing adjustment, it will be profitable for the Microsoft tool.

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Harrison Bulley

Senior Infrastructure Engineer at Net Consulting

A stable, scalable and cost-effective solution that helps with inbuilt scripts for easy modification

I think the software is quite good, but we have had problems with getting it to recognize certain areas and amend certain checks, where we needed so we would have to create backend scripts for those checks. Though, being open source, it has the support to create backend scripts, it would be better to have these scripts in-built.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is quite stable."

"Azure Monitor is really just a source for Dynatrace. It's just collecting data and monitoring the environment and the infrastructure. It is fairly good at that."

"The solution integrates well with the Microsoft platform."

"Log analytics and log queries are the most valuable features of Azure Monitor."

"The solution's most valuable features are its ease of use and support for multiple environments"

"I am impressed by the reporting on the average eight ports that we get from this solution."

"The overall product rating is nine out of ten."

"The solution has tons of valuable features."

More Azure Monitor pros

"The value of Icinga is that it has hundreds of plugins, so it's really easy to monitor pretty much anything."

"Macros and the ability to connect it to Google Maps are valuable features."

"This solution has a self-healing handler where if the service is down, it is automatically restarted."

"It is really easy in Icinga to create your own plugin and integrate it without any fuss. And it works just perfectly fine."

"We have found the solution to be stable."

"The apply rules feature saves a lot of time."

"Icinga does the job and is fairly stable."

"The ability to customize scripts and build your own queries to request information from the infrastructure elements you want to monitor. This level of personalization and customization is highly appreciated."

More Icinga pros

Cons

"The biggest one is probably just the user interface. There could be more advanced logging at the database level. They can also improve their query builder to allow you to search for things better, but I last used it about a year ago. They might have already changed a ton of things in the newer versions."

"This solution could be improved with more out-of-the-box functionalities and artificial intelligence to complete event correlation."

"Azure Monitor could improve the visualization aspect and integrate better with other third-party services."

"The default interface should be improved."

"I'd like the solution to do more around vulnerability assessment. It's lacking in the product right now."

"They should include advanced logging on the database level in the Azure pool."

"What I feel is when I open a screen of Azure, some places are very complex to navigate to. It is not very user-friendly when it comes to accessing certain sections."

"When something goes down, we want the option to have automation in place to get it back up again as quickly as possible."

More Azure Monitor cons

"Icinga is a complex solution that's hard to learn. It's a powerful product for monitoring, but new users will have a hard time figuring out what to do."

"At this time, the layout of the website is a bit difficult. It should be more user-friendly for changing the background and logos."

"Icinga’s automation could be improved."

"We have found some problems with Nagios, and support isn't very responsive."

"The solution lacks many features important to higher-level IT management and network support."

"It needs Trap SNMP. I saw the documentation for Zabbix, that it has its own built-in product which handles SNMP traps, and there's nothing similar in Icinga or Nagios. I think this feature is most important for me."

"I think the software is quite good, but we have had problems with getting it to recognize certain areas and amend certain checks, where we needed so we would have to create backend scripts for those checks. Though, being open source, it has the support to create backend scripts, it would be better to have these scripts in-built."

"One thing that Icinga lacks is the capability to create advanced and customized dashboards within the tool itself."

More Icinga cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's pricing is very good. I could say that Microsoft offers different cost models, which are listed on the product's website."

"Azure Monitor is a low-priced solution, which is why it would work best on small-scale projects."

"The solution is expensive, but it is worth the price."

"The cost of Azure Monitor application performance should be less expensive."

"The solution is a pay-as-you-go consumption service and is the least expensive in the market."

"The solution is very costly because you have to pay for various things such as adding to logs and internet alerts."

"Its cost depends on the ingestion of the logs. It could go anywhere. For an out-of-the-box platform such as FrameFlow, you pay pretty much a fixed price and you get what you get, whereas, with something like Azure Monitor, you pay by the ingestion charge, so you can have one client who pays hardly anything for the same alerts, and another client pays loads and loads."

"Azure Monitor is a competitively priced solution."

More Azure Monitor pricing and cost advice

"The product is inexpensive compared to other DBM products."

"Even though Icinga's financial cost is low, it is an expensive product regarding the resources required to maintain and operate it."

"The solution is cheap."

"This is an open-source solution with paid support."

"It is cost-effective, and the return on investment can be very interesting because the price is low."

"The solution is free to use."

"It's an open-source solution."

"We're using the free version of Icinga."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

How does Splunk compare with Azure Monitor?

Splunk handles a high amount of data very well. We use Splunk to capture information and as an aggregator for monitoring information from different sources. Splunk is very good at alerting us if we...

What do you like most about Azure Monitor?

Azure Monitor is a very easy-to-use product in the cloud environment.

What needs improvement with Azure Monitor?

What do you like most about Icinga?

The best thing about the solution is how it highlights errors, the issues, and what needs my attention. The solution directs me to areas that I should look for first.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Icinga?

It is cost-effective, and the return on investment can be very interesting because the price is low. If you want to include this product in the services you offer to your customers, the return on i...

What needs improvement with Icinga?

There is room for improvement in multi-tenancy. It's not perfect, not even really good. It's average, but it should be improved. For instance, multi-tenancy for monitoring the virtual infrastructur...

Dynatrace vs Azure Monitor

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New Relic vs Azure Monitor

Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 46% of the time

Nagios Core vs Icinga

Compared 21% of the time

Checkmk vs Icinga

Compared 10% of the time

Nagios XI vs Icinga

Compared 3% of the time

Centreon vs Icinga

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Download Azure Monitor product report

Azure Monitor

May 2025

Download Icinga product report

May 2025

Also Known As

No data available

Icinga Cloud Monitoring

Overview

Azure Monitor is a comprehensive monitoring solution offered by Microsoft Azure. It provides a centralized platform for monitoring the performance and health of various Azure resources, applications, and infrastructure.

With Azure Monitor, users can gain insights into the availability, performance, and usage of their applications and infrastructure. The key features of Azure Monitor include metrics, logs, alerts, and dashboards. Metrics allow users to collect and analyze performance data from various Azure resources, such as virtual machines, databases, and storage accounts.

Logs enable users to collect and analyze log data from different sources, including Azure resources, applications, and operating systems. Azure Monitor also provides a robust alerting mechanism that allows users to set up alerts based on specific conditions or thresholds. These alerts can be configured to notify users via email, SMS, or other notification channels. Additionally, Azure Monitor offers customizable dashboards that allow users to visualize and analyze their monitoring data in a personalized and intuitive manner.

Azure Monitor integrates seamlessly with other Azure services, such as Azure Automation and Azure Logic Apps, enabling users to automate actions based on monitoring data. It also supports integration with third-party monitoring tools and services, providing flexibility and extensibility.

Overall, Azure Monitor is a powerful and versatile monitoring solution that helps users gain deep insights into the performance and health of their Azure resources and applications. It offers a wide range of features and integrations, making it a comprehensive solution for monitoring and managing Azure environments.

Microsoft

Icinga monitors systems, network devices, infrastructure, and services, helping manage and analyze server resources. It automates ticket incidents and alerting, providing oversight of client Windows and Linux systems.

Icinga offers comprehensive monitoring of servers including CPU utilization and RAM space, facilitating automated incident management and alerting. Frequently deployed on-premises, this monitoring tool is key for managed services providers and organizations to oversee and ensure optimal performance of various environments, including applications like databases and web servers. It provides extensive features for creating custom plugins, stabilization, scalability, and high customization capabilities suitable for different infrastructure needs.

What are the key features of Icinga?

Event Handler: Facilitates automatic self-healing of systems.
Extensive Plugin Library: Offers a wide range of plugins for monitoring.
Ease of Use: Simplifies user experience with an intuitive interface and Icinga Director for easy configurations.
Open-Source Nature: Free to use, modify, and distribute.
Automation Capabilities: Integrates with APIs and Ansible Collections for automation.
Custom Plugins: Users can create and integrate their own plugins.
Stability and Scalability: Provides reliable performance across different scale infrastructures.

What are the benefits or ROI to look for when evaluating Icinga?

Critical Issue Highlighting: Effectively identifies and notifies about critical problems.
High Customization: Offers flexibility for diverse monitoring needs.
Automated Alerting: Reduces manual effort and improves response times.
Extensive Integration: Works seamlessly with other tools and platforms.

Icinga implementations span multiple industries, providing essential monitoring for IT infrastructure in healthcare, finance, and education. Managed services providers utilize Icinga to maintain and monitor client systems across various environments while ensuring optimal performance and compliance. It is highly valued in these sectors for its ability to customize monitoring, improving operational efficiency and reducing downtime.

Sample Customers

Rackspace, First Gas, Allscripts, ABB Group

Puppet Labs, Audi, Spacex, Debian, Snapdeal, McGill, RIPE Network Coordination Centre