In total, our company has 900 employees and I work on a four-member administrative security team. All of our company's infrastructure is covered by Nagios XI, including our server, databases, switches, router, and data center. We use a hybrid setup that combines a virtual and physical local server with a cloud server. We implemented Nagios XI in our data center because it's installed in a VM, or virtual machine, and works easily with this data server.
Assistant Director at unpa
The database is stable and I don't have any problems with the solution
Pros and Cons
- "Nagios XI helps us monitor the bandwidth of the internet connection, HTTP, DNS, active directory services, and exchange data availability. We have multiple servers to monitor databases, availability of servers, and ping."
- "It is really difficult to integrate Nagios XI with another system to generate logs and alert our management of failures in security infrastructure."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
Nagios XI helps us monitor the bandwidth of the internet connection, HTTP, DNS, active directory services, and exchange data availability. We have multiple servers to monitor databases, availability of servers, and ping. SMTP services can be monitored with Nagios XI. We use Nagios' mail features to send email alerts to the IT team to let them know we have an issue on our server, a problem with the databases, or updates about the availability of a server.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see Nagios integrate the team mail with the SMS gateway so we can send text alerts. It's difficult to use. To activate this option, you have to activate something from another script then use a shell script to integrate via another gateway SMS. Also, it would be great if it were integrated with another solution to generate logs, like PCM, AlienVault, or Splunk. We want alerts integrated with a system to generate logs. AlienVault and Splunk could enable this option. It is really difficult to integrate Nagios XI with another system to generate logs and alert our management of failures in security infrastructure.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have 10 years of experience with Nagios.
Buyer's Guide
Nagios XI
June 2026
Learn what your peers think about Nagios XI. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2026.
902,270 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The database is stable and I don't have any problems with the solution.
How are customer service and support?
I think it's average. It's not fast, but I think it's okay. For the price, I think the quality of support is normal.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
For our country in North Africa, it's expensive and we could purchase another solution for that price. But it's a reasonable price if we're speaking in international terms. If we compare it with another solution in the global IT world, then I think it's a reasonable price.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Nagios XI eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
NMS Team Leader at KORE Telematics Inc.
Easy to use and deploy with helpful technical support
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is pretty stable."
- "If you are a mid-sied company with an eye on expansion, this solution is very good."
- "The pricing has recently risen. I know they've changed what is covered under the license, however, it doesn't change the way we use it and adds nothing to our experience, and yet we now have to pay more."
What is our primary use case?
The company used to use ManageEngine, however, it was not delivering what we were really trying to produce. The benefit of Nagios is, as we are an MVNO company, an MVME company actually, we actually had to deliver monitoring based on in-house solutions. We needed to write code over our own monitoring solution. Nagios has provided us a little bit of that help as, in our proof of concept, it proved to be useful due to the fact that it's easier also for the network operations center to understand the type of monitors that are being raised. I recall we had a number of POCs at the time, and Nagios seemed to be the perfect candidate and therefore we kept using it.
What is most valuable?
It's easy to use. You provide what you want and you can monitor what you really want.
As long as you develop your own codes, it is fine.
The initial setup is straightforward.
The solution is pretty stable.
Technical support is helpful.
What needs improvement?
The pricing has recently risen. I know they've changed what is covered under the license, however, it doesn't change the way we use it and adds nothing to our experience, and yet we now have to pay more.
An optional delivery from their end in order to greatly produce some sort of a HA, high availability solution, would be ideal. At present, if I have a solution and Nagios is instanced in a particular data center and another Nagios solution in another data center, when you buy the license, you can eventually have different types of licenses. One will be a stand-by and the other will be a disaster recovery solution. What's missing from the Nagios side is the idea of having some sort of synchronization between the two instances.
If I have a stand-by solution and I need ticketing as an active solution, I need to do many things manually. For example, I need to manually do ticketing on the backup and restore it on the other. It would be a good idea for some sort of mechanism, like a sort of clustering, which can help a lot for people out there who need something in an active-standby solution. I'm not sure this will be available out there even on other solutions, like Zabbix, for example, That said, I don't think they're really digging into this kind of scenario.
When you start deploying thousands of monitors, especially in a big company, for example, you have to take care, as that you cannot keep on pushing into one solution. It can become inefficient. They say it's specifically that when you skip an X amount of monitors, Nagios starts behaving differently.
I really don't like the idea of the certification provided by them. As a company and as a team lead, I have other people who were interested in doing some certifications, coming from the management. However, they did not provide any sort of training, which gives you the independence to do an exam. It's like they just provide a simple document for you to read and then just to apply in the exam, just to be Nagios certified. On top of that, that kind of document is very old. I asked them if they had anything up-to-date. They told me that's what they have even though it's clear it's very old quality for the current engine that Nagios is currently built on. There were quite a number of upgrades - at least five. At the same time, Zabbix certification offers you training beforehand and then you can opt for either a certification or an exam.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution since about 2018. It's been about three or four years at this point.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
For the most part, the solution is stable. There were some cases with stability, especially, for example, unexpected issues that you are not aware of at first. All of a sudden you notice that just as an example, the graphs are not actually graphing, all of a sudden. That said, it's very, very, very minimal. We don't experience big issues with Nagios. And yet, it is why we introduced the idea of having a geo-redundancy solution, so that we can also, if something happens, immediately switch and then concentrate to work efficiently on the one having issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
We use the support forum. In fact, it's part of the license. Even if you're just a member of the forum, you can still receive quick responses. We use it a lot and we ask questions. I can say that I'm happy with the way they eventually reply to you as they at least help, in any case. We had situations where we used support while we debugged everything ourselves. Through the years, and in 2008, we started merging all of our stuff onto the Nagios platform. Truthfully, in the last three to four years, I haven't seen that many massive issues. The platform is quite stable. Therefore, we don't use support too much.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used ManageEngine.
I'm also familiar with Zabbix, for example, as it's quite the same concept. The difference is that maybe Nagios was a little bit easier for deployments.
We did a POC with DataDog as well and have begun to work with BigPanda.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not overly complex. It's pretty straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is the Nagios Core, which is free. Then, of course, you have the Nagios XI, which is paid.
I found that lately when we went to renew the license, the difference was a little bit higher. It was around a higher percentage different than last year. That made us a little bit concerned. For a point in time, I was just checking to see if there is something that might go head to head with Nagios and maybe be a little bit cheaper. While browsing and checking out a few, I met also with the Pandora MS and looked at it as a less expensive option.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I've been looking at this solution in comparison to Pandora.
What other advice do I have?
We are a customer of Nagios, actually. We provide the monitoring solution within the company.
It's a virtualized solution, however, it's not really on a cloud as we typically have our own data centers. We applied it on a Hypervisor platform. It's a virtualized solution. Then, of course, we opt for the redundancy part by having different data centers.
It's the same setup as Zabbix as well. Typically, you have a number of data centers globally, and then you concentrate it, for example, in our case, to various data centers and we usually do redundancy for. Therefore, we have the active solution and the standby solution, just in case there is a disaster.
If you are a mid-sied company with an eye on expansion, this solution is very good. I'd recommend it to others. it's easy to use and to deploy.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Nagios XI
June 2026
Learn what your peers think about Nagios XI. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2026.
902,270 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Unix Administrator at emaratech
Installation is simple and quick, and technical support is helpful
Pros and Cons
- "The most useful aspect of this solution is the ability to customize it for the client agent."
- "Technical support is an area that needs improvement. It is not available 24/7."
What is our primary use case?
Nagios XI is used to monitor servers, services, and applications, as well as the network.
Nagios may be used to monitor anything having an IP address. Also, we can customize it to the requirements of the customer.
What is most valuable?
The most useful aspect of this solution is the ability to customize it for the client agent.
What needs improvement?
Technical support is an area that needs improvement. It is not available 24/7.
Having some additional features added would be beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Nagios XI for five years.
I am working with the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Nagios XI is a stable solution.
How are customer service and support?
The support is good. I would rate them a seven out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The deployment is determined by the customer. We have a large number of clients. Some clients host it in the cloud, while others host it on-premise.
Some clients have Amazon, and some clients have Linux.
The initial setup is easy.
The software installation does not take much time, half an hour. The onboarding of it will depend upon the environment.
What other advice do I have?
We are partners with Nagios XI.
I would rate Nagios XI an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
CEO - CIO - CTO - Senior Consultant Unix/Linux at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The product allows me to monitor a phone with address IP on a desk to very big servers of any company
Pros and Cons
- "I can monitor a phone on a desk to very big servers of any company."
- "I can monitor a software made in-house to software of bigger companies."
- "Nagios is great for verify quality and quantity in a datacenter."
What is our primary use case?
We have installed Nagios Core and Nagios XI on many customers in Latam successfully. A good use case was one customer with many servers (upper 1000) and many routers and switches (upper 2000), they wanted to monitoring operating systems and switches ports, Nagios worked like to swiss watch.
How has it helped my organization?
With Nagios, I can monitor since a phone on a desk to very big servers of any company. Also, I can monitor a software made in-house to software of bigger companies. Nagios is great for verify quality and quantity in a datacenter. Nagios can show if there are problems showed behavior in datacenters.
What is most valuable?
The community, Nagios XI is made on Nagios Core base, and the community makes plugins on almost any language of programming. Nagios is not owned by any brand.
The second feature is Nagios is very friendly, if you can customize the tool to the specific environment.
What needs improvement?
If you want the best security: Log Server is better. If you need in-depth networking, I recommend Network Analyzer. If you want any other implementation of Nagios, the best is Nagios Fusion.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Nagios is very stable, We haven't reports on problems with the Nagios servers in never opportunities.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
You should be careful when you monitor many hardwares with many softwares, the performance of one license could be compromised. You need to manage more than one license if you have an infrastructure which is very large.
How are customer service and support?
10 out of 10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Yes, I have used other solutions. I switched to Nagios, because Nagios is not linked with any brand that's independent. This is good because you can monitor any brand of switches, routers, servers, central phones, etc.
How was the initial setup?
The initial configuration is very easy. The complex is customizing the solution.
What about the implementation team?
We are an expert consultant, who implements for customers.
What was our ROI?
It's complicated answer this question, but the ROI depends on Datacenter.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is good to contact experts for advice about what is the best solution for your specific infrastructure and enterprise.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I evaluated Zenoss, Zabbix, SolarWinds, and other solutions.
What other advice do I have?
You will need an expert consultant for the best implementation.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. We have a partnership with Nagios.
Business Development Specialist at Popular Holdings Limited
Stable but complex to set up
Pros and Cons
- "Nagios XI is stable."
- "It can be quite difficult to know which drivers and agents to use when setting up."
- "Nagios XI isn't really good for scaling, in my experience."
What is our primary use case?
I mainly use Nagios XI for critical UN, for example, if the CPU usage is very high.
What needs improvement?
It can be quite difficult to know which drivers and agents to use when setting up.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Nagios XI for around five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Nagios XI is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Nagios XI isn't really good for scaling, in my experience.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very complex, as there's no helpful manual and there are a lot of custom settings you have to learn.
What other advice do I have?
Learning to use Nagios XI is quite time-consuming, so you need patience to get the best out of it. I would rate Nagios XI six out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IP/MPLS Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
It's helpful for seeing where we're having problems with the network, but the display could be more intuitive
Pros and Cons
- "The installation is no problem. I've installed Nagios several times."
- "Nagios has good scalability."
- "The way Nagios displays information isn't easy for a new user to understand. It's not intuitive enough. You need to read some tutorials or be trained to understand what it's displaying. Also, I think it needs more features to improve network visibility because there are some things you can't detect."
What is our primary use case?
We use Nagios XI for monitoring and seeing where we're having problems with the network.
What needs improvement?
The way Nagios displays information isn't easy for a new user to understand. It's not intuitive enough. You need to read some tutorials or be trained to understand what it's displaying. Also, I think it needs more features to improve network visibility because there are some things you can't detect.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Nagios for more than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Nagios is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Nagios has good scalability.
How was the initial setup?
The installation is no problem. I've installed Nagios several times.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Nagios XI six out of 10. It's one of several network monitoring systems we have, and it has some features we can't get from other platforms.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Account Manager, Cybersecurity at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Open-source, with good monitoring and visibility
Pros and Cons
- "The dashboard allows you to see what's going on in the overall system."
- "As it is open-source, it is not user-friendly. Open-source software is usually not user-friendly."
What is our primary use case?
Nagios XI is used for monitoring the resources in the infrastructure.
What is most valuable?
The dashboard allows you to see what's going on in the overall system.
What needs improvement?
As it is open-source, it is not user-friendly. Open-source software is usually not user-friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been selling Nagios XI for more than five years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Nagios XI is a scalable product.
We have six customers who are using this solution.
How are customer service and support?
Support, we have a time zone issue, but we are providing our own support.
I don't believe we require anything, because we have our own technical expertise.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are resellers of Forcepoint and Symantec DLP.
How was the initial setup?
Because my company is experienced, installation is not a problem for us, but I'm not sure about new users.
We have a team of two or three people to deploy and maintain this solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Nagios XI is open source.
It requires a yearly license.
What other advice do I have?
It is an alternative to more expensive solutions. That is why they use Nagios.
I would rate Nagios XI an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT-OSS Manager at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
Powerful monitoring that is easy to use and install
Pros and Cons
- "Nagios is stable and it's easy to use the monitoring software, which is why we chose this product."
- "For anyone who is interested in using this solution, I would recommend it."
- "The installation and monitoring need improvement."
- "Reporting items needs more improvement and need to be more flexible based on customer needs."
What is our primary use case?
I use Nagios to monitor LTE modems. We have more than 24,000 modems on a single instance of Nagios.
We also use this software to monitor several KPIs regarding to CPE devices, and items in our IT department infrastructure when we started eight years ago.
How has it helped my organization?
We use plugins provided by Nagios XI to monitor our infrastructure equipment, OS, Databases and Services from easy to use wizards in monitoring panel. Also, we add some additional features to this monitoring system based on our organization needs.
What is most valuable?
Nagios is stable and it's easy to use the monitoring software, which is why we chose this product. There is no limitation exist to monitor every measurable parameters and KPIs. Every known devices and services parameters has own plugins in this monitoring system and for special cases, it`s possible to write script and monitor results.
What needs improvement?
1. Reporting items needs more improvement and need to be more flexible based on customer needs
2. Clustering feature need to be implemented for large environment. Some solutions introduced in official website such as Mod-Gearman and Nagios Fusion but the first one implemented by third party and second one is not include management control and just a central view from several instances. I think Nagios should implement an official solution for clustering for enterprise and large scales that should be included database solution as well.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have eight years of experience working with Nagios XI. I have a lot of experience using this monitoring software.
We are using the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable solution. We have not had any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have more than 100 users and plan to continue to use this solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
We don't have technical support for Nagios because we are living in Iran and we have embargoes, so we cannot use the technical support from Nagios. We use local support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I use Solarwinds and CACTI before using Nagios but both of them has some concerns.
We cannot add any feature to Solarwinds because it is none open source
CACTI is graphing tool and it cannot help us to alerting issues. Some plugins are implemented for this purpose for CACTI such as Thold plugin but it has not complete feature such as Nagios.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. It's easy to install, but you need some information about the Linux operating system.
It took less than one hour to deploy.
What about the implementation team?
I completed the implementation myself.
We have a team of three engineers to maintain this solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Nagios Core does not have any payment, but Nagios XI requires payment for the license and support.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
What other advice do I have?
For anyone who is interested in using this solution, I would recommend it. This monitoring software is easy to use and is very powerful.
This monitoring system has a powerful engine. I have many devices being monitored by a single instance, and it can show that this software works well.
I would rate Nagios XI an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT-OSS Manager at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
We can use it to expose custom APIs for our integration, which is a great feature.
Pros and Cons
- "Nagios is a custom API manager, and we can expose custom APIs for our integration. This is a great feature."
- "I would recommend this solution because it's so powerful with no limitation, especially when using the XI version."
- "We often need to develop custom plugins to get Nagios to work the way we want it to work because the features we need are not always available in Nagios."
What is our primary use case?
Nagios is our cloud-based monitoring system. We need to deploy it and integrate with our CRM, customer portal and the ticketing system as an end to end customer support platform. We use it for monitoring and gathering data from our customer service equipment.
How has it helped my organization?
We have more than 100 people using the solution and 3 people to do the maintenance.
What is most valuable?
Nagios XI has a custom API feature, and we can expose custom APIs for our integration. This is a great feature.
In fact, Nagios XI grant access to administrator to use official common backend commands and callback functions developed by Nagios in custom APIs, so custom APIs could be created as an standard web services without degradation in performance and access to needed data easily. This APIs will be registered and listed in Component Management and administrator could be able to manage them as well. Also, Authentication will be done by creating unique Token for each user created in Nagios XI User Management automatically and it could be used in calling each APIs to manage access level of caller user.
All documentation and examples about creating custom APIs are available in "Help" tab in monitoring GUI and each person with moderate level of knowledge about development in PHP language (Needless to say it required admin privilege), can create this kind of web services.
What needs improvement?
We often need to develop custom plugins to get Nagios to work the way we want it to work because the features we need are not always available in Nagios. Some products such as Zabbix have a software monitoring system built-in, such as the Prometheus monitoring system. It can use the features to monitor cloud systems. This would be a useful feature to include in Nagios XI. Nagios has some plugins to monitor clouding systems, but this feature on Zabbix is so handy and so user-friendly. I think it can be added to the Nagios monitoring system.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Nagios is stable, but we are using mod-Gearman for distributing the solution. There is network limitation on this, such that if the network is not stable, the whole solution is also, not stable.
How are customer service and technical support?
Because we are working in Iran, we have embargoes, and this means we don't have any support from Nagios support. As a result, we have to use self-study. We research using Google and nagios forum this has helped us to resolve our issues.
How was the initial setup?
Set up in Nagios is complex. However, it's okay once you have done this task a few times, so you understand the logic. Once you have done that, it is easy to use.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We also compared the product to Zabbix.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution because it's so powerful with no limitation, especially when using the XI version. I would rate Nagios 8 out of 10. Overall, I find it to be a very good solution.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
R&D Support & Monitoring, IT Production at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Enables us to monitor servers but the visibility needs improvement
Pros and Cons
- "The features I've found the most useful are the plug-ins, the fact that you can connect almost everything to it. That's very useful."
- "There's room for improvement in the visibility, and in the ability to extract information. Stuff like this should be more simple."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use this solution to monitor servers and services.
What is most valuable?
The features I've found the most useful are the plug-ins, the fact that you can connect almost everything to it. That's very useful.
What needs improvement?
There's room for improvement in the visibility, and in the ability to extract information. Stuff like this should be more simple. Going over the data and the information is complicated at the moment. The management of the commands is also a little complicated.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for about half a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's stable.
How are customer service and technical support?
I haven't had any experience with technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward.
What other advice do I have?
In regards to the interface, obviously it can always get even better but at the moment it's functional. It's a good tool. It's very easy to use, very straightforward, and I would recommend it. I would rate this solution a seven out of 10. I like it but of course, it could be better. The product detail should look better, and again, being able to find information on the search is not good enough. I think to change that would improve it very much.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Updated: June 2026
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