Nagios Core vs SNMP Exporter
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Nagios Core | SNMP Exporter |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 84 · Excellent | 81 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | GPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, docker, source | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,045 | ★ 2,176 |
| First released | 1999 | 2016 |
| Replaces | SolarWinds, PRTG | SolarWinds |
What are Nagios Core and SNMP Exporter?
Nagios Core
Nagios Core is the open-source monitoring engine that watches hosts, services, and network devices, alerting when problems occur. It is highly extensible through plugins and remains a long-standing standard in IT monitoring.
- Host and service checks
- Massive plugin ecosystem
- Flexible notification rules
- Proven at scale
SNMP Exporter
The SNMP Exporter scrapes SNMP-enabled devices such as switches, routers, and printers and exposes their metrics for Prometheus. A generator builds configurations from MIBs for specific devices.
- Scrapes SNMP devices
- MIB-driven config generator
- Network hardware monitoring
- Prometheus integration
Nagios Core vs SNMP Exporter: key differences
Nagios Core is written in C, while SNMP Exporter is built with Go. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Nagios Core versus Apache-2.0 for SNMP Exporter. SNMP Exporter is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Nagios Core. Nagios Core is the more established project (first released 1999), while SNMP Exporter arrived in 2016.
Why pick each one
Choose Nagios Core if…
- Battle-tested and stable
- Enormous plugin library
Watch out for
- Configuration is text-file heavy
- Dated web interface
Choose SNMP Exporter if…
- Brings network gear into Prometheus
- Flexible config
Watch out for
- MIB configuration is fiddly
- Needs Prometheus and Grafana
Frequently asked questions
Is Nagios Core or SNMP Exporter better?
SNMP Exporter is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Nagios Core if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Nagios Core and SNMP Exporter free and open-source?
Yes. Nagios Core is licensed under GPL-2.0 and SNMP Exporter under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Nagios Core and SNMP Exporter with Docker?
Nagios Core: yes. SNMP Exporter: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Nagios Core or SNMP Exporter?
SNMP Exporter has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Nagios Core. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.