Naemon vs Shinken
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Naemon | Shinken |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 73 · Good | 17 · At risk |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | GPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | C | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 173 | ★ 1,135 |
| First released | 2014 | 2009 |
| Replaces | SolarWinds, PRTG | SolarWinds |
What are Naemon and Shinken?
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
Shinken
Shinken is a monitoring framework written in Python and compatible with Nagios configurations and plugins. Its distributed architecture splits monitoring into specialized, scalable daemons.
- Nagios configuration compatibility
- Distributed daemon architecture
- Scales across many pollers
- Plugin support
Naemon vs Shinken: key differences
Naemon is written in C, while Shinken is built with Python. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Naemon versus AGPL-3.0 for Shinken. Naemon is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Shinken. Shinken is the more established project (first released 2009), while Naemon arrived in 2014. Shinken has the considerably larger community, at 1,135 GitHub stars versus 173.
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 Shinken if…
- Scales horizontally
- Reuses Nagios ecosystem
Watch out for
- Development has slowed
- Complex setup
Frequently asked questions
Is Naemon or Shinken better?
Neither is universally better. Shinken has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Naemon and Shinken free and open-source?
Yes. Naemon is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Shinken under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Naemon and Shinken with Docker?
Naemon: check the project docs for container support. Shinken: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Naemon or Shinken?
Naemon has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Shinken. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.