Nagios Core vs Apache SkyWalking

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?
FeatureNagios CoreApache SkyWalking
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseGPL-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageCJava
Setup difficultyHardHard
Min. RAM512 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, docker, sourcedocker, kubernetes, helm
GitHub stars★ 2,037★ 24,915
First released19992015
ReplacesSolarWinds, PRTGNew Relic, Datadog

Why pick each one

Choose Nagios Core if…

  • Battle-tested and stable
  • Enormous plugin library
Nagios Core details

Choose Apache SkyWalking if…

  • Full observability suite
  • Strong Apache governance
Apache SkyWalking details

Frequently asked questions

Is Nagios Core or Apache SkyWalking better?

Neither is universally better. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Nagios Core and Apache SkyWalking free and open-source?

Yes. Nagios Core is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Apache SkyWalking under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Nagios Core and Apache SkyWalking with Docker?

Nagios Core: yes. Apache SkyWalking: yes.

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