Icinga vs ServiceNow IT Operations Management comparison

Icinga and ServiceNow are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Icinga is ranked #14 with an average rating of 7.7, while ServiceNow is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.5. Icinga holds a 4.1% mindshare in IM, compared to ServiceNow’s 2.3% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Icinga users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of ServiceNow users who would recommend it.

Icinga

Read 17 Icinga reviews

3,321 Views
2,957 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

ServiceNow IT Operations Ma...

Read 42 ServiceNow IT Operations Management reviews

3,174 Views
2,468 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Icinga

ServiceNow IT Operations Ma...

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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: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Icinga vs. ServiceNow IT Operations Management

April 2025

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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

Icinga

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

14th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (15th), Server Monitoring (7th), Cloud Monitoring Software (15th)

ServiceNow IT Operations Ma...

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Event Monitoring (1st), Cloud Management (9th), AIOps (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Icinga is 4.1%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow IT Operations Management is 2.3%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Featured Reviews

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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ArbenKlaiqi

Business analyst at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Supports proactive IT issue resolution and enhances infrastructure visibility

ITOM Visibility assists in service mapping and determining the impact of different applications. ITOM Discovery scans the infrastructure and updates the CMDB ( /categories/configuration-management-databases ). ITOM Health is an event management tool that predicts outages. Certificate Inventory manages certificate expiration. ServiceNow IT Operations Management influences ITSM ( /categories/it-service-management-itsm ) processes by automating them and aiding in detecting and resolving IT issues to improve performance, reliability, and uptime.

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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 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."

"An affordable solution for small organizations to do basic network monitoring."

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

"Icinga has multiple automation and integration features. There is an API for everything and a web UI for configurations. The APIs enable you to automate tasks in Icinga. We can also use plugins to talk to the API. The Icinga Director talks to a database in the background, and you can import settings from the CMDB to all systems in 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."

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

"We have found the solution to be stable."

More Icinga pros

"Customer service is excellent."

"The most valuable feature of ServiceNow IT Operations Management is the user interface."

"The most important features of ServiceNow IT Operations Management are the discovery service mapping and orchestration."

"The asset management tools are very valuable."

"Provides everything in one solution."

"The solution is easy to use and has great orchestration and automation capabilities."

"It is flexible. You can tune it, more or less, as you want."

"ServiceNow IT Operations Management is a stable product."

More ServiceNow IT Operations Management pros

Cons

"In general, the product does not look good. However, it does what it is supposed to do. So, the improvements should focus on usability and UI."

"The user interface should be improved."

"The installation and configuration are very complex."

"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."

"The tool currently fails to provide notifications to users."

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

"One of the areas that are frustrating is remote monitoring for more than one machine."

More Icinga cons

"The security policies could be increased."

"Enhancing automation-related solutions, such as Wi-Fi, porting, machinery, and product automation would help to achieve better operational outcomes."

"An area for improvement for ServiceNow IT Operations Management is making service mapping and discovery easier for non-IP devices."

"Lacks the ability to do its own monitoring."

"I advise others not to customize a lot while using the solution."

"The time for deployment of ServiceNow IT Operations Management depends on many factors. It's a SaaS application, it should not take too long, but if you want to define the tool based on your processes, then it would take some time. It fully depends on the company's complexity. There are out-of-the-box product flows and if you want to use them, you can from day one. However, if you want to customize it and change it to your company's practices, then it will take more time. The setup could be faster."

"At times, it got cumbersome from the project management perspective. It could have been because of the way we were using it. I found Microsoft Project to be more extensive and robust than ITOM."

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

More ServiceNow IT Operations Management cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's an open-source solution."

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

"The solution is cheap."

"The solution is free to use."

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

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

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

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

"The solution offers yearly licenses and a subscription model for add-on features."

"ServiceNow IT Operations Management is a costly solution. I'd rate the price at ten, on a scale from one to ten with one being the lowest and ten being the highest price. Some clients do have a problem with the price, but most find that the solution is worth the cost."

"It has different subscription models."

"The cost of ServiceNow is much higher."

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

"The price of ServiceNow IT Operations Management is expensive."

More ServiceNow IT Operations Management pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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.

See all answers

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...

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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...

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What do you like most about ServiceNow IT Operations Management?

From my perspective as an asset manager, the most valuable feature of the solution is the configuration management portion, where I can actively add something to the database.

See all answers

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

ServiceNow's pricing is expensive. We consider it a Tier 1 product, but it requires significant investment.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ServiceNow IT Operations Management?

ServiceNow ( /products/servicenow-reviews )'s pricing is expensive. A more streamlined configuration process tailored to use cases and industry would be beneficial. We needed some external help to ...

See all answers

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Compared 10% of the time

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Compared 3% of the time

Centreon vs Icinga

Compared 3% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

Dynatrace vs ServiceNow IT Operations Management

Compared 10% of the time

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

Compared 9% of the time

IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus vs ServiceNow IT Operations Management

Compared 6% of the time

Datadog vs ServiceNow IT Operations Management

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Icinga

May 2025

Download Icinga product report

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow IT Operations Management

April 2025

ServiceNow IT Operations Management report

Download ServiceNow IT Operations Management product report

Also Known As

Icinga Cloud Monitoring

ServiceNow ITOM

Overview

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.

Icinga

ServiceNow IT Operations Management (ITOM) is a cloud management and infrastructure tool that facilitates the administrative and development process of creating, planning, and operating digital services, technology, application requirements, and components for organizations. Service Now ensures effectiveness, performance, and availability throughout an organization's processes and services.

ServiceNow ITOM will help organizations facilitate consistent policies with regard to deployment, support, and services to ensure trustworthiness and quality of service (QoS). ServiceNow ITOM will ensure that all applications, services, and infrastructure are consistently available and stable.

ServiceNow IT Operations Management Features

Help Desk: ServiceNow ITOM help desk enables IT and operations administrators to better communicate issues concerning managing data latencies, controlling the monitoring of user profiles, executing disaster recovery plans, and any other problematic incidents.
Device and server management: ServiceNow ITOM will ensure IT operations teams can better handle general maintenance, upgrading, and patching for server-related concerns. The solution will also help to maintain the health of organization devices such as laptops, phones, tablets, mobile devices, and desktops.
Infrastructure maintenance: ServiceNow ITOM helps organizations set up remote access networks, maintain network security, regulate communication with external servers and firewalls, and also monitor and manage internal telephone systems.

ServiceNow IT Operations Management Benefits

Improve DevOps: ServiceNow ITOM improves the ability to inspect microservices, which enables DevOps and SRE teams to improve incident response.
Improve data control: The solution will help to manage the entire digital lifecycle, and will also enhance the organization's configuration management database (CMDB) to enable a more robust data foundation.
Problem-solve: ITOM is able to proactively identify anomalies before they become issues/problems with tremendous accuracy. ITOM helps organizations minimize outages and reduce the negative impact to end users so that they do not experience any downtime or service degradations. ITOM will also use artificial intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps) along with machine learning (ML) to reduce the possibility of false positives, saving time and increasing productivity.
Automate workflows: ITOM offers a pre-designed workbook and no-code/low-code workflows to reduce redundant tasks and improve recovery times. ITOM provides intuitive workable processes to be shared easily with all teams throughout the organization.

ServiceNow ITOM enables organizations to become robust, strategic operations able to successfully anticipate issues before they have an impact on the organization. Organizations that use ServiceNOw ITOM will be able to easily automate workflows and improve how their IT teams communicate and work together to deliver successful outcomes and maintain productivity and profitability 24/7.

Reviews from Real Users

“With this solution, operational costs will be reduced. Your maintenance cost will be reduced when you use the item model. You will deliver a fast solution to the customers. If something happens on the server-side or router-side, it will be immediately caught. Efficiencies are improved. “ - Rupesh J., Solutions Architect at Globant

“It has been very useful for tracking. It has evolved a lot over time, and there is a single pane of glass where you can track and see everything.” - Uday T., Project Manager at MindTree

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

April 2025

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