Cacti vs NetXMS
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Cacti | NetXMS |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 85 · Excellent | 78 · Good |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | PHP | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, docker, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,871 | ★ 403 |
| First released | 2001 | 2004 |
| Replaces | PRTG, SolarWinds | SolarWinds, PRTG |
What are Cacti and NetXMS?
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
NetXMS
NetXMS is an open-source network and infrastructure monitoring system with auto-discovery, event correlation, and a flexible alerting engine. It scales from small networks to large distributed environments.
- Network auto-discovery
- Event correlation
- Distributed monitoring
- SNMP and agent support
Cacti vs NetXMS: key differences
Cacti is written in PHP, while NetXMS is built with C++. Cacti is the more established project (first released 2001), while NetXMS arrived in 2004. Cacti has the considerably larger community, at 1,871 GitHub stars versus 403.
Why pick each one
Choose Cacti if…
- Mature and reliable
- Detailed graph templates
Watch out for
- Dated interface
- Configuration can be tedious
Choose NetXMS if…
- Powerful event processing
- Scales to large networks
Watch out for
- Steep learning curve
- Desktop console for full features
Frequently asked questions
Is Cacti or NetXMS better?
Cacti is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider NetXMS if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Cacti and NetXMS free and open-source?
Yes. Cacti is licensed under GPL-2.0 and NetXMS under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cacti and NetXMS with Docker?
Cacti: yes. NetXMS: yes.