Glances 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?
FeatureGlancesNagios Core
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseLGPL-3.0GPL-2.0
LanguagePythonC
Setup difficultyEasyHard
Min. RAM128 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, binarybare-metal, docker, source
GitHub stars★ 33,269★ 2,037
First released20121999
ReplacesDatadogSolarWinds, PRTG

Why pick each one

Choose Glances if…

  • Very easy to run
  • Lightweight
  • Good single-host overview
Glances details

Choose Nagios Core if…

  • Battle-tested and stable
  • Enormous plugin library
Nagios Core details

Frequently asked questions

Is Glances or Nagios Core better?

Glances is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Nagios Core if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Glances and Nagios Core free and open-source?

Yes. Glances is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and Nagios Core under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Glances and Nagios Core with Docker?

Glances: yes. Nagios Core: yes.

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