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Indie alternatives to Nagios

4 products made by independent developers and small teams that do what Nagios does, 4 of them with a free plan. Free and open-source options come first.

At a glance

Product	Price	Open source	Self-host	Platforms
Prometheus	Free	Yes	Yes	Self-hosted, Linux, Mac, Windows
Checkmk	Free plan	–	Yes	Self-hosted, Linux
Netdata	Free plan	Yes	Yes	Linux, Self-hosted, Web
Zabbix	Free plan	Yes	Yes	Self-hosted, Linux

The alternatives

1. Prometheus

Open-source metrics collection and alerting

Prometheus is a CNCF monitoring system that scrapes time-series metrics, stores them locally and evaluates alerting rules.

Free · Self-hosted, Linux, Mac, Windows · Website ↗

2. Checkmk

IT infrastructure monitoring for servers, networks and cloud

Checkmk monitors servers, networks, containers and cloud services with auto-discovery and thousands of check plugins.

Free plan · Self-hosted, Linux · Website ↗

3. Netdata

Real-time infrastructure monitoring with per-second metrics

Netdata is a monitoring agent that auto-detects services and shows per-second metrics, anomalies and alerts for servers and containers.

Free plan · Linux, Self-hosted, Web · Website ↗

4. Zabbix

Open-source monitoring for networks, servers and apps

Zabbix monitors servers, network devices, cloud services and applications with templates, alerting and dashboards.

Free plan · Self-hosted, Linux · Website ↗

Questions

Is there a free alternative to Nagios?

Yes. 4 of the 4 indie alternatives listed here have a free plan or are free: Prometheus, Checkmk, Netdata and Zabbix.

Is there an open-source alternative to Nagios?

Prometheus, Netdata and Zabbix are open source.

Can I self-host an alternative to Nagios?

Yes: Prometheus, Checkmk, Netdata and Zabbix can run on your own server.

Which Nagios alternatives work on Mac, Windows, iPhone or Android?

On Mac: Prometheus. On Windows: Prometheus. On the web: Netdata.

What makes these alternatives to Nagios “indie”?

They are built by independent developers or small teams rather than large companies. Each one is listed because it does the same core job as Nagios.

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Browse: Monitoring · Self-Hosted · Home Lab

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