SHSelfHostIndex

Cacti vs Nagios Core

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
CA Cacti RRDtool-based network graphing and monitoring solution VS NA Nagios Core Industry classic host and service monitoring engine
FeatureCactiNagios Core
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score85 · Excellent84 · Excellent
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseGPL-2.0GPL-2.0
LanguagePHPC
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, docker, sourcebare-metal, docker, source
GitHub stars★ 1,871★ 2,045
First released20011999
ReplacesPRTG, SolarWindsSolarWinds, PRTG

What are Cacti and Nagios Core?

Cacti

Cacti is a complete network graphing solution that harnesses RRDtool for data storage and graphing. It polls devices over SNMP and scripts, presenting historical performance data through a web interface.

  • RRDtool-based graphing
  • SNMP and script polling
  • Plugin architecture
  • Templating for devices

Read the full Cacti guide →

Nagios Core

Nagios Core is the open-source monitoring engine that watches hosts, services, and network devices, alerting when problems occur. It is highly extensible through plugins and remains a long-standing standard in IT monitoring.

  • Host and service checks
  • Massive plugin ecosystem
  • Flexible notification rules
  • Proven at scale

Read the full Nagios Core guide →

Cacti vs Nagios Core: key differences

Cacti is written in PHP, while Nagios Core is built with C. Nagios Core is the more established project (first released 1999), while Cacti arrived in 2001.

Why pick each one

Choose Cacti if…

  • Mature and reliable
  • Detailed graph templates

Watch out for

  • Dated interface
  • Configuration can be tedious
Cacti details

Choose Nagios Core if…

  • Battle-tested and stable
  • Enormous plugin library

Watch out for

  • Configuration is text-file heavy
  • Dated web interface
Nagios Core details

Frequently asked questions

Is Cacti or Nagios Core better?

Neither is universally better. Nagios Core has the larger community, while Cacti is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Cacti and Nagios Core free and open-source?

Yes. Cacti is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Nagios Core under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Cacti and Nagios Core with Docker?

Cacti: yes. Nagios Core: yes.

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