OpenNMS Horizon 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 | OpenNMS Horizon | SNMP Exporter |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 83 · Excellent | 81 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Java | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,173 | ★ 2,176 |
| First released | 2000 | 2016 |
| Replaces | SolarWinds, PRTG | SolarWinds |
What are OpenNMS Horizon and SNMP Exporter?
OpenNMS Horizon
OpenNMS Horizon is an enterprise-grade network monitoring and management platform that handles fault, performance, and traffic monitoring at scale. It supports SNMP, flow analysis, and event correlation.
- Fault and performance monitoring
- Flow analysis
- Event correlation
- Scales to large networks
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
OpenNMS Horizon vs SNMP Exporter: key differences
OpenNMS Horizon is written in Java, while SNMP Exporter is built with Go. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for OpenNMS Horizon versus Apache-2.0 for SNMP Exporter. SNMP Exporter is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for OpenNMS Horizon. OpenNMS Horizon is the more established project (first released 2000), while SNMP Exporter arrived in 2016.
Why pick each one
Choose OpenNMS Horizon if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Java
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 OpenNMS Horizon or SNMP Exporter better?
SNMP Exporter is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider OpenNMS Horizon if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are OpenNMS Horizon and SNMP Exporter free and open-source?
Yes. OpenNMS Horizon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and SNMP Exporter under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run OpenNMS Horizon and SNMP Exporter with Docker?
OpenNMS Horizon: yes. SNMP Exporter: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, OpenNMS Horizon or SNMP Exporter?
SNMP Exporter has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for OpenNMS Horizon. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.