Nagios Core vs Zenoss Cloud comparison

Nagios and Zenoss are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Nagios is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.5, while Zenoss is ranked #77. Nagios holds a 2.7% mindshare in NMS, compared to Zenoss’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Nagios users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Zenoss users who would recommend it.

Nagios Core

Read 51 Nagios Core reviews

4,424 Views
3,893 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Zenoss Cloud

Read 8 Zenoss Cloud reviews

1,336 Views
721 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Nagios Core

Zenoss Cloud

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Zenoss Cloud and Nagios Core are competitors in the IT infrastructure monitoring market, each catering to different needs. Zenoss Cloud has the upper hand with its advanced features, making it more appealing for businesses looking for a comprehensive, cloud-based solution.

Features: Zenoss Cloud offers advanced real-time analytics, dynamic network visualization, and predictive insights. Nagios Core is valued for its extensive plugin ecosystem, customizable alerting capabilities, and open-source adaptability.

Room for Improvement: Zenoss Cloud could improve by offering more flexible pricing options, enhancing integration with third-party tools, and simplifying its feature set to reduce complexity. Nagios Core could benefit from improving its user interface, offering dedicated customer support, and streamlining its installation process.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zenoss Cloud provides a streamlined cloud-based deployment model, reducing setup time and includes dedicated customer support. Nagios Core requires manual installation and configuration but benefits from strong community support for customization.

Pricing and ROI: Zenoss Cloud's initial setup cost may be higher due to its comprehensive features but can offer better ROI through predictive analytics and reduced downtime. Nagios Core's open-source nature ensures minimal setup costs, with increased ROI as organizations leverage community resources and custom plugins.

To learn more, read our detailed Nagios Core vs. Zenoss Cloud Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core vs. Zenoss Cloud

August 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

11th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zenoss Cloud

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

77th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

53rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Infrastructure (31st), Event Monitoring (14th), Server Monitoring (26th), Container Monitoring (10th), Cloud Monitoring Software (39th), AIOps (25th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nagios Core is 2.7%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zenoss Cloud is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Nishith-Vyas

Tech Lead at STL Digital Limited

Valuable reporting and alert system with room for PDF export improvements

The NetEase reporting structure needs improvement, especially the availability report, which is weak. It should be generated automatically with minimal human intervention and should be exportable as a PDF. Besides that, an integrated PDF export feature for reports is necessary. Also, the alert mechanism and graphing mechanism need to be integrated properly into Nagios Core. Currently, integrating these requires advanced Linux knowledge. Integration of more visualization tools like Grafana and Prometheus for better graphing and visualization is also recommended.

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ClaudiaChen

Cloud Architect - Senior Technology Architect at Telstra

Generates close to real-time alerts so users can resolve issues, but needs more integration and public cloud monitoring features

As Zenoss Service Dynamics is more for network-centric devices and you want to monitor, for example, a server, its services, IP addresses, and interfaces, if it's a network and you're going to monitor multiple items, you'll be charged multiple times. This is what Zenoss Service Dynamics needs to improve to make sure that customers pay just one fee to monitor the entire server. What I'd like to see in Zenoss Service Dynamics in the future is a public cloud monitoring feature, particularly for the Azure public cloud. Another additional feature I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is integration with the Azure public cloud because I know that there are some services from Azure that Zenoss Service Dynamics is currently unable to monitor.

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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

"Dashboard provides monitor of total assets."

"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."

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

"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."

"The most valuable feature of Nagios Core is the ability to check the availability of the server for network connectivity. Additionally, the interface is good."

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

"Provides timely notifications."

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

More Nagios Core pros

"The custom built integration is one of the most valuable features because you can see all the especially critical items."

"What I like most about Zenoss Service Dynamics is that it monitors the devices and gives close to real-time alerts. For example, in case the device is not available, Zenoss Service Dynamics generates an alert so my team can resolve the issue."

"It's easy to use."

"The product offers good documentation that helps with initial training."

"Its Docker Container concept is mind blowing. It is the first monitoring tool which comes with Docker features."

"The most valuable feature is the flexible discovery mechanism."

"They have also accommodated many state-of-the-art technologies like Docker and ZooKeeper."

Cons

"Nagios Core does not have a graphic display."

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

"The tool needs to improve the integrations."

"Making it a little easier to configure and set up from the start would help. There are multiple layers that you have to wade through to be able to set it up, to do it the right way, and to get it to do what you want it to do."

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

"I would like to see more training videos."

"Bandwidth monitoring is the pain point for me because Nagios Core does not monitor bandwidth effectively like Cacti does."

"The NetEase reporting structure needs improvement, especially the availability report, which is weak."

More Nagios Core cons

"There was a problem with Zenoss and storage monitoring."

"There is room for improvement with the administrative part. They introduced Control Center to manage things in Zenoss 5. The services that Zenoss provides remained the same, but the administrative part, since they introduced Docker, etc., has become a little complex"

"As Zenoss Service Dynamics is more for network-centric devices and you want to monitor, for example, a server, its services, IP addresses, and interfaces, if it's a network and you're going to monitor multiple items, you'll be charged multiple times. This is what Zenoss Service Dynamics needs to improve to make sure that customers pay just one fee to monitor the entire server. What I'd like to see in Zenoss Service Dynamics in the future is a public cloud monitoring feature, particularly for the Azure public cloud. Another additional feature I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is integration with the Azure public cloud because I know that there are some services from Azure that Zenoss Service Dynamics is currently unable to monitor."

"The AI aspect needs to improve."

"The inclusion of a feature to show a graphical view of the network would be a helpful improvement."

"Now it is stable, but they should design threshold parameters in percentage instead of raw values."

"It would be ideal if the product offered sound alerts."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's free."

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

"Most the plugin features are free."

"The solution is expensive."

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

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

"The product is cheaply priced."

"We are using the free version."

More Nagios Core pricing and cost advice

"There are additional costs you'll have to pay apart from the license fee for Zenoss Service Dynamics. I can't remember exactly how much my company is paying because I don't handle the finance part, but the cost is paid annually. On a scale of one to five, with one being the cheapest and five being the most expensive, I'm rating the solution three out of five."

"It is very cost-effective compared to the tools I worked with in the past. The company is gaining a lot with respect to the cost factor. It provides agentless monitoring and in a very cheap way."

"The pricing depends on the environment, the number of services, and the size of the data center. It can go from $100,000 to a million dollars."

"It depends on the customer, what he wants."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

16%

Performing Arts

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Nagios Core?

What I like about Nagios Core is that it helps me ensure everything is running smoothly by checking the status of hosts and services.

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 the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

In my experience, I worked with many monitoring software, but the one that gave me the most functionalities of a large-scale company is Zenoss, due to its ability to monitor completely hybrid and a...

See all answers

Comparisons

Icinga vs Nagios Core

Compared 23% of the time

Nagios XI vs Nagios Core

Compared 15% of the time

Zabbix vs Nagios Core

Compared 12% of the time

Centreon vs Nagios Core

Compared 7% of the time

More Nagios Core Competitors

Zabbix vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 26% of the time

Nagios XI vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 24% of the time

SolarWinds AppOptics vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 9% of the time

Centreon vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 7% of the time

Elastic Observability vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 6% of the time

More Zenoss Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core

August 2025

Download Nagios Core product report

Buyer's Guide

Zenoss Cloud

July 2025

Download Zenoss Cloud product report

Also Known As

No data available

Cloud Monitoring, Zenoss Service Dynamics

Overview

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

Nagios

Zenoss Cloud revolutionizes IT infrastructure monitoring with a service-centric approach, prioritizing the overall health of services and applications. Harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AIOps), Zenoss Cloud offers end-to-end visibility across servers, networks, storage, and applications. Real-time monitoring, event correlation, and automated remediation ensure immediate insights and efficient issue resolution. The customizable dashboards empower users to tailor visualizations to their needs, while scalability accommodates diverse infrastructures. Zenoss Cloud guarantees improved application performance, reduced downtime, and enhanced IT efficiency, making it an ideal choice for businesses of all sizes, from small enterprises seeking simplicity to large corporations requiring advanced scalability. Experience unified monitoring and proactive management with Zenoss Cloud, a comprehensive solution that transforms IT infrastructure optimization in today's complex environments.

Zenoss

Sample Customers

Airbnb, Cisco, PayPal, FanDuel

2degrees, Rackspace, State of North Dakota, El Paso Independent School District, NWN Corporation

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core vs. Zenoss Cloud

August 2025

Free Report: Nagios Core vs. Zenoss Cloud

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