Cacti vs Observium
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?
Cacti
RRDtool-based network graphing and monitoring solution
VS
Observium
Auto-discovering network monitoring platform
| Feature | Cacti | Observium |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | Shell |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, docker, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,852 | ★ 1 |
| First released | 2001 | 2010 |
| Replaces | PRTG, SolarWinds | SolarWinds, PRTG |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Cacti or Observium better?
Neither is universally better. Cacti has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Cacti and Observium free and open-source?
Yes. Cacti is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Observium under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cacti and Observium with Docker?
Cacti: yes. Observium: check the project docs for container support.