Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Nagios XI vs Wireshark comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 XI
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (23rd), Server Monitoring (12th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (20th), Cloud Monitoring Software (23rd)
Wireshark
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Network Troubleshooting (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Management solutions, they serve different purposes. Nagios XI is designed for IT Infrastructure Monitoring and holds a mindshare of 3.3%, down 3.6% compared to last year.
Wireshark, on the other hand, focuses on Network Troubleshooting, holds 14.3% mindshare, up 12.9% since last year.
IT Infrastructure Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Nagios XI3.3%
Zabbix6.1%
Datadog4.1%
Other86.5%
IT Infrastructure Monitoring
Network Troubleshooting Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Wireshark14.3%
AirMagnet Survey PRO10.3%
LinkRunner8.1%
Other67.3%
Network Troubleshooting
 

Featured Reviews

Emmanuel Appiah Boateng - PeerSpot reviewer
Network and Security Engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Simplifies setup and requires user interface enhancement
Nagios XI is easy to install, which sets it apart from other open-source solutions I've tried. Typically, setting up a monitoring system on Linux involves cloning files from GitHub, building it, and installing many dependencies, but with Nagios XI, it wasn't like that. Nagios XI simplifies our setup and reduces the time spent configuring monitoring tools.
Vijay Duggal - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Specialist at Squarepoint Capital
Provides detailed traffic analysis and helps troubleshoot issues
There is a disadvantage when it comes to sampling intervals. While the solution supports sampling as fine as one millisecond, it requires a copy at that interval. My Python script allows me to achieve a granularity of up to ten microseconds, but I can't go beyond that. When dealing with provisioning on both issues, it would be beneficial if I could go down to the microsecond level, if not the nanosecond. Additionally, I've heard from a colleague that Wireshark might be less effective in the voice domain.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has a lot of flexibility for customization and a wide range of metrics."
"The technical support is good."
"You want to monitor a specific metric that nobody else has? You can do it even with the most basic of scripting skills, and you can always share it with the vast community of Nagios Exchange."
"It's a monitoring agent. It's designed to do one thing. Its most valuable feature is its monitoring."
"The most valuable feature of Nagios XI is customization. We can customize based on our requirements. We can do modifications and implement a lot of scripts. Additionally, it is easy to use."
"BPI: It allows defining peripherals to map business criticality for efficient monitoring, as required."
"Since the cost is zero and it can use a fairly cheap server to run on the ROI is nearly immediate."
"BPI: It allows defining peripherals to map business criticality for efficient monitoring, as required."
"Wireshark has a tool called tshark that can parse the files without opening them so that you can take large captures, say 2-10GB, and return only relevant information."
"The GUI is easy to use."
"I believe everyone should use this tool if they need to analyze packets."
"Wireshark does exactly what I want and leaves me with no need to look elsewhere."
"It gives us the ability to pinpoint problems and to communicate network problems with software and hardware vendors."
"I like the filtering feature as we can filter data easily. This feature is also available in tcpdump, but it's a simple piece of software. Wireshark is more advanced and has many features. It allows you to filter a lot of things. The output can be filtered easily. The most important feature is colorization. If I say, "Okay, this particular SMB protocol in red, it will show me red." It's easy to identify that protocol or capture data."
"The best network analyzer tool out there in the market."
"Wireshark is a network analytic tool which provides such intelligent information in a network."
 

Cons

"If you are monitoring network devices, often it's not scaled for large corporations. Definitely, a minus in that area."
"It can be quite difficult to know which drivers and agents to use when setting up."
"While this solution works, I think that it can be improved in terms of maintenance, support, and price."
"Technical support is an area that needs improvement. It is not available 24/7."
"The product does not have SAP monitoring."
"I would like to see support for notification via SMS."
"There are stability issues if you have a large number of hosts and services."
"I would like a much easier GUI so that I can delete events and logs, which will free up a lot of space."
"In the future, it would be nice to see color coding. It is just black and white."
"The speed of the Internet could be improved, especially its performance."
"It needs the ability to follow multiple interfaces for specific traffic from different network zones/virtual networks. It would help to understand how any packet is going through the network."
"The product is great but I wish there were more of an emphasis on the command line tools."
"I wish the filters were a little bit more prepopulated."
"It’s helpful only if you have the basic knowledge of networking."
"With Wireshark, you cannot download and utilize the packet in automation."
"Wireshark could be improved by adding more monitoring features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is really cost efficient. The licensing is perpetual and can be renewed very easily."
"You can grow into the higher-priced scale as they learn how to utilize the features for Nagios XI."
"Licensing costs are reasonable."
"This solution is very expensive, at approximately $5,000 USD when I purchased it, which is why I haven't upgraded my version in several years."
"For the cost of the commercial product and support, and taking into account the open source characteristics of it, I believe it is difficult to a better value."
"The licensing fees for this solution are approximately $3,000 USD per year."
"Nagios Core does not have any payment, but Nagios XI requires payment for the license."
"The pricing is high with separate licensing for the product and support."
"It's a stand-alone tool. If there is a commercial license for it I am unaware of it."
"The solution is open source so is free."
"Wireshark is free software, so you can download it and use it for free with no licensing fees."
"The tool is free."
"Wireshark is open source and gives great value and functionality to the network investigation."
"We're using the free version of Wireshark."
"I am using the free version of this solution."
"Wireshark is an open-source product, so it's free to use."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which IT Infrastructure Monitoring solutions are best for your needs.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
May 31, 2015
Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor
I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
University
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise27
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nagios XI?
The pricing for the Nagios XI product is good and better than other solutions. I would give it a four or five.
What needs improvement with Nagios XI?
The user interface needs improvement. Many tools have poor user interfaces, making them hard to manage and navigate.
What is your primary use case for Nagios XI?
I normally use Nagios XI for our servers. It's not particularly used for network equipment, however, I use it for monitoring our server performance, including CPU, memory, data, and services runnin...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Wireshark?
Wireshark is priced at a medium range, not too high, not too low. The pricing could be more flexible, and they might make it more expensive. That said, compared to other products, it is competitive.
What needs improvement with Wireshark?
The speed of the Internet could be improved, especially its performance. Performance can sometimes be a challenge due to numerous factors.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Nagios has over one million users globally, including AOL, DHL, McAfee, MCI, MTV, Yahoo!, Universal, Toshiba, Sony, Siemens, and JPMorgan Chase.
Comversion, ADP, Talbots
Find out what your peers are saying about Zabbix, Datadog, Auvik and others in IT Infrastructure Monitoring. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.