Kibana vs Zabbix
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?
Kibana
Visualization and exploration for Elasticsearch data
VS
Zabbix
Enterprise-grade open-source monitoring solution
| Feature | Kibana | Zabbix |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Go Template |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 21,230 | ★ 6,228 |
| First released | 2013 | 2001 |
| Replaces | Splunk, Datadog | Datadog, Nagios |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Kibana or Zabbix better?
Kibana is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Zabbix if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Kibana and Zabbix free and open-source?
Yes. Kibana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Zabbix under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kibana and Zabbix with Docker?
Kibana: yes. Zabbix: yes.