Icinga vs ServiceNow IT Operations Management comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Icinga and ServiceNow are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Icinga is ranked #51, while ServiceNow is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.1. Icinga holds a 1.3% mindshare in IM, compared to ServiceNow’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Icinga users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of ServiceNow users who would recommend it.

Icinga

Read 17 Icinga reviews

8,249 Views
5,114 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

ServiceNow IT Operations Ma...

Read 46 ServiceNow IT Operations Management reviews

9,711 Views
4,467 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Icinga

ServiceNow IT Operations Ma...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Icinga and ServiceNow IT Operations Management compete in IT operations management. ServiceNow IT Operations Management is often considered superior for comprehensive enterprise solutions, offering more extensive IT service management capabilities.

Features: Icinga offers strong monitoring capabilities, a modular design, and integration with various systems, suitable for customizable monitoring solutions. ServiceNow IT Operations Management provides a holistic IT platform with robust incident management, predictive analytics, and automation tools, ideal for enterprises.

Room for Improvement: Icinga could benefit from easier setup for those with limited technical expertise, enhanced scalability, and more intuitive user interfaces. ServiceNow IT Operations Management may improve by offering more affordable pricing options, simpler customization processes, and faster implementation times.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Icinga's straightforward deployment process is appealing but may require technical expertise for optimal setup. ServiceNow IT Operations Management offers cloud-based deployment and comprehensive training and support, suitable for larger organizations seeking a seamless setup.

Pricing and ROI: Icinga's open-source model provides a low initial investment with significant ROI for monitoring solutions. ServiceNow IT Operations Management involves a higher setup cost but justifies it with enhanced capabilities and integration options, delivering greater long-term value for enterprises needing extensive IT management solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Icinga vs. ServiceNow IT Operations Management Report (Updated: November 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Icinga vs. ServiceNow IT Operations Management

November 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 920,929 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

Icinga

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

51st

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (49th), Server Monitoring (17th), Cloud Monitoring Software (35th)

ServiceNow IT Operations Ma...

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

16th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Event Monitoring (5th), Cloud Management (17th), AIOps (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Icinga is 1.3%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow IT Operations Management is 1.0%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
ServiceNow IT Operations Management	1.0%
Icinga	1.3%
Other	97.7%

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Featured Reviews

reviewer2292201

Innovation Service Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Easy to use, and it's possible to customize the product as per the needs we may have but average multi-tenancy aspect

It's supported by the community. We use Icinga, which is not part of the Open-Source platform but is wrapped into a commercial solution from another provider, a local provider in Italy. Icinga is an open-source platform, so it is supported by the community. It's quite easy to use, and it's possible to customize the product as per the needs we may have. So it's not expensive, and it's quite a general purpose. We can easily monitor any kind of infrastructure we encounter. 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. The alerting is the same as any other monitoring platform. It's not a "wow" feature that has changed our lives, but it's perfectly adequate.

Read full review

Abhay Bapnaa

Associate Vice President at AWL

Unified workflows have centralized ticketing and have provided real-time visibility across companies

ServiceNow IT Operations Management can be improved by focusing on adoption, as some companies still use other tools, and we had to onboard them initially, addressing challenges such as data migration and consistency, especially since we have 14,000 users in my group company utilizing this for multiple purposes, emphasizing workflows defined so that onboarding processes can be streamlined into a single tool. To improve ServiceNow IT Operations Management, I believe incorporating natural language processing is essential, allowing users to type queries such as 'I need this' and receive responses based on AI and data. Furthermore, enhancing analytics is crucial, as we have seven years of data providing a substantial history of past ITSM and non-ITSM business tickets that can help predict and reduce the volume of calls.

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

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

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

"I would recommend Icinga; it's an open-source solution, it's quite easy and simple to use, and checks can be run with Python code and Shell Script code."

"Icinga does the job and is fairly stable."

"We monitor all, starting from UPS to international mail chains."

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

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

"There's a module called Icinga Director, which helps us configure the product using an intuitive interface through clicks instead of creating a text configuration. It's very helpful for us."

More Icinga pros

"The Discovery feature is the most valuable. I only use the Discovery and Service Mapping features. I am using the minor subscription called ITOM Visibility, which includes the Discovery and Service Mapping features. It is easy to understand and easy to use. It has a lot of documentation. You can find a lot of help online, which helps me in finding what I need in a rapid way. You can find videos on YouTube channels and a lot of stuff and information in the online community."

"It is very stable and reliable; there aren't bugs or glitches, it doesn't crash or freeze, and it offers good performance."

"I am impressed with the tool's ability to track information in an easy way."

"I like the solution mostly for CMDB discovery."

"Has service mapping, impact management, metric intelligence and health of analytics."

"It includes a valuable feature called Discovery, that aids in application portfolio management, enabling visibility into IT infrastructure from top to bottom."

"It is a market leader and is very implementation-friendly. Developers have a clear understanding of how the solution works, and it is mature enough to handle different client needs."

"The most valuable features of ServiceNow IT Operations Management are ease of use, intuitive design, and ease of management, and it's based on IT practices which are good."

More ServiceNow IT Operations Management pros

Cons

"It is not really adequate for our current needs. It causes additional issues which we have to work around and takes us time that a better solution would not."

"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."

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

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

"The installation and configuration are very complex."

"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."

"Sometimes, it is very hard to keep an overview of what's happening."

"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."

More Icinga cons

"I would like more manual issues to have automated report-facing options."

"The pattern part can be improved. Patterns are used in the Discovery feature."

"It didn't provide as much value as we thought it would."

"I believe that technical support could improve a bit. I would rate it a six."

"ServiceNow IT Operations Management could do a little bit better with integrations. Integrating ServiceNow IT Operations Management with CMDB processes needs a little more work."

"Regarding ServiceNow, there is room for improvement in terms of customization, particularly in the area of self-customization."

"Even though they call it low code there are a lot of customizations needed, especially from an ITOM standpoint."

"The solution needs to add mobilization, where we can connect mobile devices or wireless devices to do wireless scanning and bring assets into the database."

More ServiceNow IT Operations Management cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is free to use."

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

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

"The solution is cheap."

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

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

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

"It's an open-source solution."

"It is expensive. It is around 10 Euros per server per month."

"We obtained discovery licenses at about seven dollars Australian per unit, which we found to be reasonable and competitive."

"The solution is costly compared to the products offered by its competitors."

"I would rate the product's pricing a five out of ten since there are vendors who are cheaper."

"The cost of ServiceNow is much higher."

"While not entirely sure, I believe the solution costs at least a million dollars annually."

"The pricing is high and may be excluding the small to medium-sized enterprise businesses."

"This solution offers good value but comes at a very high premium. Pricing could be reduced by 10 to 20%."

More ServiceNow IT Operations Management pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

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

See recommendations

920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

14%

University

13%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	12
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	29

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow IT Operations Management?

Regarding pricing, while I initially felt the prices were high when we moved, I now see that it is reasonable considering that we are not just using an ITSM tool; we are improving processes and com...

See all answers

What needs improvement with ServiceNow IT Operations Management?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for ServiceNow IT Operations Management?

As an implementation expert and former CIO, I handled implementation from an IT best practice perspective for different companies.

See all answers

Comparisons

Zabbix vs Icinga

Compared 8% of the time

Checkmk vs Icinga

Compared 5% of the time

Nagios XI vs Icinga

Compared 5% of the time

Nagios Core vs Icinga

Compared 3% of the time

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs Icinga

Compared 3% of the time

More Icinga Competitors

OpsRamp vs ServiceNow IT Operations Management

Compared 4% of the time

Moogsoft vs ServiceNow IT Operations Management

Compared 3% of the time

ignio AIOps Platform vs ServiceNow IT Operations Management

Compared 3% of the time

IBM Turbonomic vs ServiceNow IT Operations Management

Compared 3% of the time

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) vs ServiceNow IT Operations Management

Compared 3% of the time

More ServiceNow IT Operations Management Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Icinga

October 2026

Download Icinga product report

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow IT Operations Management

October 2026

ServiceNow IT Operations Management report

Download ServiceNow IT Operations Management product report

Also Known As

Icinga Cloud Monitoring

ServiceNow ITOM

Overview

Icinga is a robust tool for monitoring IT infrastructure, known for its distributed monitoring capabilities and seamless integration with multiple platforms. It efficiently observes servers, network devices, and environments like Linux and Windows, enabling proactive issue identification and resource management.

With a focus on task delegation and clustering, Icinga offers an intuitive interface through its GUI and Icinga Director, simplifying configuration. The extensive plugin library supports diverse technologies, while the API allows automation with tools like Terraform and Ansible. Despite its strengths, users report challenges with data display in the GUI, a need for improved dashboards, and complex configuration processes. Users benefit from its SNMP alerts, email notifications, and automated incident handling, making it essential for managed service environments and enterprises.

What are the key features of Icinga?

Task Delegation: Streamlines monitoring tasks across distributed systems.
Event Handler: Enables automatic service recovery with minimal intervention.
Plugin Library: Offers extensive support for integrating diverse technologies.
API Accessibility: Facilitates automation with popular tools like Terraform.
Custom Plugins: Allows easy creation and personalization for monitoring needs.

What benefits should you consider in Icinga reviews?

Flexibility: Tailors monitoring to specific requirements with community support.
Scalability: Successfully manages growing infrastructure demands.
Proactivity: Enhances issue identification and resource allocation.
Integration: Seamlessly works with existing IT operations platforms.

Icinga is widely adopted in IT environments for monitoring servers, networks, and applications across industries such as finance, healthcare, and technology. Its ability to integrate with various operating systems and automation platforms makes it a versatile choice for industries prioritizing comprehensive surveillance and proactive management of their infrastructure.

Icinga

ServiceNow IT Operations Management offers a scalable platform for managing IT infrastructure with features like discovery, dashboards, and service mapping. Ideal for incident, change, and problem management, it enhances operational efficiency and reduces IT service downtime.

ServiceNow IT Operations Management provides comprehensive solutions for consolidating events, automating workflows, and monitoring IT systems. Users utilize it for managing ticketing systems and conducting impact analysis through service mapping. The platform supports integrations with other modules, boosting efficiency with its intuitive interface. While highly functional, improvements in interface design and pricing are necessary, especially in integration with non-IP devices and cloud providers. Enhanced AI, machine learning, and discovery and monitoring functions are also needed.

What are the most important features?

Discovery: Automatically detects and maps IT infrastructure components.
Dashboard: Offers out-of-the-box reports through a user-friendly interface.
Service Mapping: Aids in assessing the impact of IT changes.
Event Management: Consolidates events for better management.
Orchestration: Streamlines automation processes to optimize workflows.

What benefits or ROI should be expected?

Scalability: Supports dynamic growth in IT operations.
Enhanced Efficiency: Improves workflow automation and event management.
Reduced Downtime: Minimizes service interruptions to maintain productivity.
Cost Reduction: Lowers operational costs by optimizing resources.

IT Operations Management by ServiceNow is widely implemented across industries like finance, healthcare, and manufacturing to optimize IT processes, enhance monitoring, and streamline infrastructure management. It is particularly effective in automating workflows and improving service reliability.

ServiceNow

Sample Customers

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

servicenow, TransAlta, NATS, Symantec

Buyer's Guide

Icinga vs. ServiceNow IT Operations Management

November 2026

Free Report: Icinga vs. ServiceNow IT Operations Management

Find out what your peers are saying about Icinga vs. ServiceNow IT Operations Management and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Icinga vs. ServiceNow IT Operations Management report.

See our list of best IT Infrastructure Monitoring vendors.

We monitor all IT Infrastructure Monitoring 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.