Naemon 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 | Naemon | NetXMS |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 73 · Good | 78 · Good |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | C | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 173 | ★ 403 |
| First released | 2014 | 2004 |
| Replaces | SolarWinds, PRTG | SolarWinds, PRTG |
What are Naemon and NetXMS?
Naemon
Naemon is a host and service monitoring tool based on the Nagios core, designed for improved performance and modern features. It checks the availability of resources and alerts on outages.
- Nagios-compatible checks
- Improved performance
- Livestatus query interface
- Large plugin compatibility
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
Naemon vs NetXMS: key differences
Naemon is written in C, while NetXMS is built with C++. Naemon is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for NetXMS. NetXMS is the more established project (first released 2004), while Naemon arrived in 2014. NetXMS has the considerably larger community, at 403 GitHub stars versus 173. NetXMS lists first-class Docker deployment; Naemon does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Naemon if…
- Faster than classic Nagios
- Reuses Nagios plugins
Watch out for
- Text-file configuration
- Needs add-ons for a modern UI
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 Naemon or NetXMS better?
Neither is universally better. NetXMS has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Naemon and NetXMS free and open-source?
Yes. Naemon is licensed under GPL-2.0 and NetXMS under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Naemon and NetXMS with Docker?
Naemon: check the project docs for container support. NetXMS: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Naemon or NetXMS?
Naemon has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for NetXMS. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.