Icinga 2 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 | Icinga 2 | NetXMS |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 86 · Excellent | 78 · Good |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | C++ | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,239 | ★ 403 |
| First released | 2014 | 2004 |
| Replaces | SolarWinds, PRTG | SolarWinds, PRTG |
What are Icinga 2 and NetXMS?
Icinga 2
Icinga 2 is a modern monitoring system that checks the availability of network resources and notifies users of outages. It is Nagios-compatible, scales across clusters, and pairs with Icinga Web for a polished interface.
- Distributed cluster monitoring
- REST API for automation
- Nagios plugin compatibility
- Modern Icinga Web UI
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
Icinga 2 vs NetXMS: key differences
Both projects are written in C++. NetXMS is the more established project (first released 2004), while Icinga 2 arrived in 2014. Icinga 2 has the considerably larger community, at 2,239 GitHub stars versus 403.
Why pick each one
Choose Icinga 2 if…
- Scales to large environments
- Active development and community
Watch out for
- Steep initial setup
- Multiple components to manage
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 Icinga 2 or NetXMS better?
Neither is universally better. Icinga 2 has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Icinga 2 and NetXMS free and open-source?
Yes. Icinga 2 is licensed under GPL-2.0 and NetXMS under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Icinga 2 and NetXMS with Docker?
Icinga 2: yes. NetXMS: yes.