Nagios vs Cacti

Struggling to choose between Nagios and Cacti? Both products offer unique advantages, making it a tough decision.

Nagios is a Network & Admin solution with tags like monitoring, alerting, uptime, server.

It boasts features such as Monitoring of network services (HTTP, SMTP, POP3, ICMP, etc), Monitoring of host resources (processor load, disk usage, etc), Simple plugin design for easy extensibility, Alerting and notification when problems arise, Web interface for viewing current network status, alerts and reports, Support for SNMP polling for switch/router monitoring, Remote monitoring capabilities with secure tunneling and pros including Open source and free, Highly customizable and extensible, Wide range of plugins available, Alerting helps identify issues quickly, Good community support.

On the other hand, Cacti is a Network & Admin product tagged with network, monitoring, graphing, statistics.

Its standout features include Graphing and monitoring tool for network devices, Supports SNMP polling for data collection, Customizable graphs and dashboards, Threshold-based alerting, Supports RRDTool for data storage, Web-based interface, Plugin architecture for extendibility, and it shines with pros like Free and open source, Easy to install and configure, Wide range of supported devices, Flexible and customizable, Active community support.

Feature	Nagios	Cacti
Overall Score	N/A	N/A
Primary Category	Network & Admin	Network & Admin

Product Overview

Nagios

Description: Nagios is an open-source monitoring system that allows administrators to monitor network infrastructure like servers, switches, applications, and services. It can notify users when issues arise and help identify problems in a timely manner.

Cacti

Description: Cacti is an open-source network monitoring and graphing tool that provides easy monitoring of network devices and servers. It polls devices for utilization data, stores the data, and generates graphs and statistics to help analyze network traffic and utilization.

Key Features Comparison

Nagios Features

• Monitoring of network services (HTTP, SMTP, POP3, ICMP, etc)
• Monitoring of host resources (processor load, disk usage, etc)
• Simple plugin design for easy extensibility
• Alerting and notification when problems arise
• Web interface for viewing current network status, alerts and reports
• Support for SNMP polling for switch/router monitoring
• Remote monitoring capabilities with secure tunneling

Cacti Features

• Graphing and monitoring tool for network devices
• Supports SNMP polling for data collection
• Customizable graphs and dashboards
• Threshold-based alerting
• Supports RRDTool for data storage
• Web-based interface
• Plugin architecture for extendibility

Pros & Cons Analysis

Nagios

Pros

• Open source and free
• Highly customizable and extensible
• Wide range of plugins available
• Alerting helps identify issues quickly
• Good community support

Cons

• Steep learning curve
• Complex configuration
• No native support for monitoring Windows systems
• Difficult to scale to large environments

Cacti

Pros

• Free and open source
• Easy to install and configure
• Wide range of supported devices
• Flexible and customizable
• Active community support

Cons

• Steep learning curve
• Complex interface
• Manual configuration required
• Limited scalability
• No official support

Pricing Comparison

Nagios

• Open Source

Cacti

• Open Source