OpenNMS Horizon 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 | OpenNMS Horizon | Shinken |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 83 · Excellent | 17 · At risk |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Java | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,173 | ★ 1,135 |
| First released | 2000 | 2009 |
| Replaces | SolarWinds, PRTG | SolarWinds |
What are OpenNMS Horizon and Shinken?
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
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
OpenNMS Horizon vs Shinken: key differences
OpenNMS Horizon is written in Java, while Shinken is built with Python. Shinken is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for OpenNMS Horizon. OpenNMS Horizon is the more established project (first released 2000), while Shinken arrived in 2009. OpenNMS Horizon lists first-class Docker deployment; Shinken does not.
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 Shinken if…
- Scales horizontally
- Reuses Nagios ecosystem
Watch out for
- Development has slowed
- Complex setup
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenNMS Horizon or Shinken better?
Neither is universally better. OpenNMS Horizon has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are OpenNMS Horizon and Shinken free and open-source?
Yes. OpenNMS Horizon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Shinken under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run OpenNMS Horizon and Shinken with Docker?
OpenNMS Horizon: yes. Shinken: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, OpenNMS Horizon or Shinken?
Shinken has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for OpenNMS Horizon. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.