NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs Nagios Core comparison

Nagios and NETSCOUT are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Nagios is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.7, while NETSCOUT is ranked #85. Nagios holds a 1.9% mindshare in NMS, compared to NETSCOUT’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Nagios users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of NETSCOUT users who would recommend it.

Nagios Core

Read 51 Nagios Core reviews

4,463 Views
3,749 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

NETSCOUT vSTREAM

Read 3 NETSCOUT vSTREAM reviews

677 Views
643 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Nagios Core

NETSCOUT vSTREAM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Nagios Core and NETSCOUT vSTREAM compete in the network monitoring and management category. NETSCOUT vSTREAM appears to have an advantage due to its advanced features that may justify its higher cost.

Features: Nagios Core offers customizable plugin options, extensive alerting capabilities, and an open-source platform for community-driven development. NETSCOUT vSTREAM provides sophisticated data analytics, deep packet inspection, and detailed traffic visibility.

Room for Improvement: Nagios Core could improve by offering professional support, simplifying setup, and enhancing its graphical user interface. NETSCOUT vSTREAM may benefit from more cost-effective solutions, increased flexibility in plugin integrations, and better community engagement.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nagios Core's deployment benefits from extensive community resources, suitable for those familiar with open-source environments, with community-based support. NETSCOUT vSTREAM provides professional assistance and a structured deployment model, supported by expert customer service catering to enterprise environments.

Pricing and ROI: Nagios Core is cost-effective due to its open-source nature, ensuring a faster ROI for those willing to manage configurations and rely on community support. NETSCOUT vSTREAM, requiring a higher initial investment, offers strong ROI through thorough analytics and network performance insights, ideal for enterprises needing robust solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. Nagios Core Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. Nagios Core

December 2025

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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

Nagios Core

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (11th)

NETSCOUT vSTREAM

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

85th

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nagios Core is 1.9%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NETSCOUT vSTREAM is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Nagios Core	1.9%
NETSCOUT vSTREAM	0.4%
Other	97.7%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

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.

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Keval Lodaya

Network Engineer at Inniti Network Solution

A user-friendly solution that is easy to install and improves visibility

I would like to see improvements made to the user guide. From my personal experience, it is helpful to see a list of steps describing what to do next in different situations. An example is what to do and what to back up in the case of certain types of failure. There are also cases where a customer can't understand specific features. Enhancements to the user guide would be helpful for this. More features for network fragmentation would be helpful.

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

"The most valuable feature of Nagios Core is it allows us to develop and add as many plugins as we want."

"It has made the life of the network operations staff more proactive in managing the resources of the infrastructure. It prevents disasters long before they can take place."

"Dashboard provides monitor of total assets."

"The good thing about Nagios Core is it covers everything."

"The notifications are definitely one of the most valuable features of Nagios Core. We know what to look for and what to expect when things are down."

"Nagios Core is very configurable. Whatever you want, you can do it."

"Monitoring with Nagios Core is helpful because it provides immediate alerts if something goes down, such as a server, or wireless router, or if there's a cable break. This allows us to respond promptly to any issues."

"We mostly use Nagios Core to integrate with Python and Bash Script."

More Nagios Core pros

"One of the valuable features is the packet decoding."

"vSTREAM gives us better visibility and reporting about our network infrastructure, allowing for cost-optimization."

Cons

"The UI is a little outdated and graphics could be displayed in a better way."

"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."

"The alerting mechanism in Nagios Core could be improved."

"It is a bit slow due to latency."

"Nagios Core can improve the graphical interface, it would make things a little easier."

"There is room for improvement in the graphics."

"t was a little hard to get our setup represented in the configuration."

"Nagios Core could improve by adding a user interface. If you want the user interface you have to use Nagios XI."

More Nagios Core cons

"I would like for it to have a smaller footprint of the virtual appliance and better performance."

"Room for improvement exists in filtering in the packet decode."

"I would like to see improvements made to the user guide."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

"It's free."

"Nagios Core is a cheap solution."

"The solution is expensive."

"It's free."

"We are using the free version."

More Nagios Core pricing and cost advice

"Licensing is quite expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Financial Services Firm

14%

Energy/Utilities Company

14%

Government

11%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	22

No data available

Questions from the Community

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.

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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...

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Comparisons

Icinga vs Nagios Core

Compared 11% of the time

Zabbix vs Nagios Core

Compared 7% of the time

Nagios XI vs Nagios Core

Compared 7% of the time

LibreNMS vs Nagios Core

Compared 6% of the time

Centreon vs Nagios Core

Compared 5% of the time

More Nagios Core Competitors

vRealize Network Insight vs NETSCOUT vSTREAM

Compared 30% of the time

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG vs NETSCOUT vSTREAM

Compared 27% of the time

NetMon vs NETSCOUT vSTREAM

Compared 22% of the time

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs NETSCOUT vSTREAM

Compared 21% of the time

More NETSCOUT vSTREAM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core

January 2026

Download Nagios Core product report

Buyer's Guide

Network Monitoring Software

January 2026

Download NETSCOUT vSTREAM product report

Also Known As

No data available

vSTREAM

Overview

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

Nagios

The vSTREAM virtual appliance complements existing Adaptive Session Intelligence (ASI)-based instrumentation to provide the same level of visibility within virtualized and cloud infrastructures that is already possible in physical environments. The vSTREAM virtual appliance is ideal for monitoring service-critical traffic running within virtualized or cloud infrastructures, either locally on a host or as an aggregation point for multiple hosts. With complete visibility across physical, virtual and cloud networks, the vSTREAM virtual appliance presents real-time views of end-to-end call trace data and network-wide KPIs, to protect the reliability and availability of networks and application services.

NETSCOUT

Sample Customers

Airbnb, Cisco, PayPal, FanDuel

Metropolitan Police Agency, Banpara, PropertyRoom.com

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. Nagios Core

December 2025

Free Report: NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. Nagios Core

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