Azure Network Watcher vs Nagios Core comparison

Microsoft and Nagios are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Microsoft is ranked #42 with an average rating of 8.5, while Nagios is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.7. Microsoft holds a 0.5% mindshare in NMS, compared to Nagios’s 1.9% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of Nagios users who would recommend it.

Azure Network Watcher

Read 13 Azure Network Watcher reviews

1,082 Views
1,039 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Nagios Core

Read 51 Nagios Core reviews

5,494 Views
4,505 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Azure Network Watcher

Nagios Core

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Nagios Core and Azure Network Watcher are competitors in the network monitoring category. Each product offers distinct advantages with Nagios Core valued for customization and variety, while Azure Network Watcher stands out in cloud integration and advanced diagnostics.

Features: Nagios Core offers flexibility with customizable monitoring, an extensive plugin ecosystem, and robust alerting systems. Azure Network Watcher provides network insights, packet tracing, and topology visualization.

Room for Improvement: Nagios Core has a complex command-line configuration, an outdated interface, and requires manual changes for dynamic configurations. Azure Network Watcher needs better third-party tool integration, enhanced visualization, and detailed logging improvements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nagios Core requires significant setup for on-premises and hybrid environments and relies on community support. Azure Network Watcher, with seamless Azure integration, is cloud-based and backed by Microsoft customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Nagios Core's open-source model is cost-effective with no licensing fees, offering a high ROI in operational efficiency. Azure Network Watcher, while potentially expensive for smaller businesses, aligns with enterprise budgets and justifies costs through robust features.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Network Watcher vs. Nagios Core Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher vs. Nagios Core

March 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 884,873 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 Network Watcher

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

42nd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Nagios Core

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Azure Network Watcher is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nagios Core is 1.9%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Nagios Core	1.9%
Azure Network Watcher	0.5%
Other	97.6%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Bijoyendra Roychowdhury

Program Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

Network monitoring provides comprehensive analytics while the interface requires further development

The quality of Azure Network Watcher is quite good in terms of the in-depth analysis you can create from these matrices. There are other monitoring tools such as New Relic, AppDynamics, and Dynatrace which provide very detailed network tracing. Cloud providers such as Azure or AWS do not have that kind of GUI-based capability at this point, but using PowerShell or Python, you can develop it yourself. From the GUI perspective, it still needs to evolve in terms of quality and standard, though overall, it is quite good for troubleshooting. Regarding areas for improvement, when comparing to other network tools beyond Azure Monitor or Azure Network Watcher, those tools can identify single failed packets. This level of granularity is not currently possible with cloud providers as they only go to a certain level rather than the granular level needed for deep troubleshooting, though they do provide hints with available matrices.

Read full review

Husham Yaqoob

Senior System Administrator at Interactive Group

Monitoring solution provides comprehensive visibility across IT infrastructure

The good thing about Nagios Core is it covers everything. Everything in the IT domain, you can monitor anything. You can even monitor printers, the ports of printers, Core workstations, and storage. You can monitor the workflow Core and the utilization of computes. If you want to grasp everything of your IT equipment on a single interface, you can use Nagios. It's the best one. It provides dashboards, and you can also configure your emails and alerts with it. If something is critical, you can configure it to notify via emails. It has a very handy dashboard, providing live alerts and visibility for everything.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We use the solution to monitor network services. It helps to capture any network issues."

"The most valuable feature of Azure Network Watcher is the cloud-native application firewall. It is helpful for securing databases."

"I like the visibility."

"Azure Network Watcher provides valuable features based on your specific requirements and use cases, helping you monitor network bandwidth, throughput, data flow consumption, and control costs by giving insight into egress and ingress traffic, total input and output operations, bandwidth, and threats through IP identification."

"The solution is stable."

"It provides good visibility."

"The stability is very good. I rate it a ten out of ten."

"What I like most about Azure Network Watcher is that it's focused more on the architecture. I also like that it has a packet capture feature that tells you how the packet travels and whether it's exiting Azure, etc."

More Azure Network Watcher pros

"We can get real time statistics of our servers which improves our monitoring."

"The solution's most valuable feature is that it offers proper alerting capabilities."

"Extensibility is good as this makes it easy to write checks on your own."

"The most valuable features are the reports and the way it generates the report in a graphical manner."

"It is fairly easy to set up, and we can monitor pretty much everything we want to."

"Nagios Core is stable."

"Our customers like that Nagios Core is an open source solution. It can be customized to our customers' specific needs."

"We've got a medium size distributed system with a lot of locally installed machines, and Nagios provides us with a solid and reliable monitoring solution for these machines."

More Nagios Core pros

Cons

"The solution could improve by limiting the need to clarify the logs. When the clarification is minimized, it is better for everyone involved."

"Azure is good, however, the Fortinet GUI is more intuitive and I like it more than anything else."

"I would like to see in the future if we can troubleshoot as a firewall because it is equipment as a network player and some diagnostics."

"The initial setup and initial learning curve could be improved to be easier."

"The initial setup and deployment could be improved to be simplified."

"User experience could be improved."

"Azure Network Watcher needs to have better documentation and it needs to capture information accurately."

"Technical support from Microsoft needs significant improvement compared to other product vendors."

More Azure Network Watcher cons

"The scalability needs improvement, it's not scalable at this time."

"It's not that easy to install the product itself. Also, the UI is a bit hard for regular users to navigate through."

"I like to have the option to configure Nagios using the web interface."

"They should simplify the features so it becomes easier to setup out of the box."

"I would like to see more training videos."

"It would be nice if the company offered a sales or contract manager that was dedicated to our company so that we would have some sort of link to Nagios, and if we had issues or questions, we'd be able to contact them directly."

"When compared to earlier versions, it looks like 4.x has lost the statusmap.cgi module."

"The dashboard and monitoring features could be improved."

More Nagios Core cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is good. It's not too expensive."

"Price-wise, I have no information on how much Azure Network Watcher costs."

"The price of the solution is reasonable."

"Azure Network Watcher is a little bit expensive."

"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."

"Lessening the price point would be an improvement."

"Nagios Core is an open source solution, and there are no licensing fees."

"We are using the free version of Nagios Core."

"We are using the open-source, unpaid version."

"The enterprise version has technical support. The version we are using is free."

"Nagios Core is free to use."

"We have saved a lot of time, money, and effort in reducing disaster times, which is owed to Nagios quick alerting."

More Nagios Core pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Government

University

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	23

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Network Watcher?

I do not have the exact setup cost information on hand, but it is available in the public Azure portal. You can access the calculator there to get detailed pricing information.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Azure Network Watcher?

The main area for improvement is AI-based features. Currently, many intelligent tools are coming from third parties, and Azure Network Watcher needs to improve in this area. The focus should be on ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Azure Network Watcher?

Azure Network Watcher is used for monitoring network traffic. It provides insight into egress and ingress traffic, which helps determine whether consumption can be controlled. Most Azure services c...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nagios Core?

Nagios Core is a free and open-source product. We don't charge for the product itself, but we charge for the man-hour costs related to installation, configuration, ongoing operation, and maintenance.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Nagios Core?

The dashboard should be improved. It's very simple. I don't have a very clear or specific suggestion. You can change the skin of the dashboard, however, it's good for me.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Nagios Core?

I was a senior system administrator. I've been using Nagios Core for more than ten years now. It can be used to monitor hosts, such as machines, and monitor services of any kind. I'm using it to mo...

See all answers

Comparisons

Kentik vs Azure Network Watcher

Compared 24% of the time

Nmap vs Azure Network Watcher

Compared 17% of the time

ExtraHop Reveal(x) for IT Operations vs Azure Network Watcher

Compared 7% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Azure Network Watcher

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco DNA Center vs Azure Network Watcher

Compared 3% of the time

More Azure Network Watcher Competitors

LibreNMS vs Nagios Core

Compared 7% of the time

Icinga vs Nagios Core

Compared 6% of the time

Zabbix vs Nagios Core

Compared 5% of the time

Nagios XI vs Nagios Core

Compared 5% of the time

Centreon vs Nagios Core

Compared 5% of the time

More Nagios Core Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher

March 2026

Download Azure Network Watcher product report

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core

March 2026

Download Nagios Core product report

Overview

Azure Network Watcher is a comprehensive network monitoring and diagnostic service offered by Microsoft Azure. It provides a range of tools and capabilities to help users monitor, diagnose, and gain insights into their Azure network infrastructure. With Network Watcher, users can capture and analyze network traffic, monitor network performance, troubleshoot connectivity issues, and gain visibility into network topology. It also offers features like packet capture, flow logs, connection monitoring, and VPN diagnostics to ensure the smooth operation of Azure networks. Network Watcher enables users to proactively identify and resolve network issues, optimize network performance, and enhance the overall reliability and security of their Azure network environment.

Microsoft

This is IT infrastructure monitoring's industry-standard, open-source core. Free without professional support services.

Nagios

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Airbnb, Cisco, PayPal, FanDuel

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher vs. Nagios Core

March 2026

Free Report: Azure Network Watcher vs. Nagios Core

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Network Watcher vs. Nagios Core and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Azure Network Watcher vs. Nagios Core report.

See our list of best Network Monitoring Software vendors.

We monitor all Network Monitoring Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.