Networks are becoming more and more complex every day. In order to meet the rising need and demand for digital business solutions, businesses need to ensure that their networks are performing at the required speed and efficiency. That's where a solid network monitoring solution can help.
There are several network monitoring tools on the market, and it's important to choose one that best meets your organization's needs. When choosing a network monitoring tool, consider how it will integrate with the existing system and if it offers the features, scalability, deployment options, and maintenance needed at a price you can afford.
ManageEngine OpManager is a comprehensive, easy-to-use, and affordable network monitoring solution that can monitor network devices such as routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers, wireless LAN controllers, servers, VMs, printers, storage devices, and everything that has an IP and is connected to the network.
Nagios XI is the paid version of Nagios Core (an open-source infrastructure monitoring tool). Nagios XI offers monitoring and alerting services for servers, switches, applications, and services.
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is a tool built for IT administrators to monitor the network. It is generally used to analyze your network's performance by checking the status of all devices and notifying system engineers about faults.
Discovery Rule Engine: The Discovery Rule Engine speeds up device configuration, letting you automate actions such as associating monitors to devices, adding devices to a business view, and more during the initial discovery.
Storage monitoring: OpManager provides real-time monitoring and management of network storage devices such as RAIDs and TapeLibraries. It also provides capabilities to manage Fiber Channel (FC) switches that are used in storage networks.
Workflow support: First-level troubleshooting steps and repetitive maintenance tasks can be orchestrated and automated using the powerful IT workflow automation engine.
OpManager offers workflow support, which can be used to:
Intuitive navigation: Designed with network, operations, and IT managers in mind, OpManager does not require any elaborate training and has a low learning curve for managers and technicians alike.
No resource tie-up: OpManager is easy to use and offers powerful management capabilities that allow IT staff to reap the benefits of using a tool to monitor their network without having to dedicate a full-time resource for software management.
Lowest total cost of ownership: When compared to similar products on the market, OpManager offers the lowest price for the benefits it delivers. On top of this, upgrading to new versions of OpManager when they're released is not only extremely easy, it's completely free!
OpManager's licensing is device-based, which means it depends on the number of devices to be monitored. In device-based licensing, pricing depends on the device as a whole; all its components, like interfaces, ports, disks, and performance metrics, will be included by default. This is way you don't have to purchase separate licenses to monitor interfaces, disk volumes, and other components of a device. Pricing for OpManager starts at $245 and comes with a free, 30-day trial.
Nagios XI: Nagios XI uses a node-based licensing model where a node can be anything with an IP address that you would like to monitor (switches, routers, firewalls, workstations, and other network devices).
Although this is similar to OpManager's device-based licensing model, Nagios XI charges extra for support (with a max of 10 calls) and this charge is added to the license. Nagios XI comes in standard and enterprise versions, both of which are one-time purchases. The standard edition starts at $1,995 whereas the enterprise version starts at $3,495.
SolarWinds NPM: SolarWinds NPM is licensed based on elements. An element could be a node, interface, or volume. For example if you manage 10 switches, each with 48 ports, the total port count is 480. So you would need 480 element licenses, while with OpManager, you'd only need 10 device licenses for the same number of switches and ports.
If you only want to monitor 100 of these 480 interfaces, it's not possible to get only 100 interface NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA) licenses. You need to buy all 480 licenses (equivalent to the base NPM license) for NTA. Pricing for SolarWinds NPM starts at $2,995 and comes with a free, 30-day trial.
The following table shows pricing comparison of OpManager against Nagios XI and SolarWinds NPM
| OpManager | Nagios XI | SolarWinds NPM | |
| License model | Device-based | Node-based | Element-based |
| Number of devices to be monitored | - 50 network devices with four interfaces each - 50 servers with two volumes each Total devices: 100 Total interfaces: 200 Volumes: 100 | - 50 network devices with four interfaces each - 50 servers with two volumes each Total devices: 100 Total interfaces: 200 Volumes: 100 | - 50 network devices with four interfaces each - 50 servers with two volumes each Total devices: 100 Total interfaces: 200 Volumes: 100 |
| License purchased for | 100 devices | 100 devices | 200 elements |
| Package | 100 device pack | 100 device pack | NPM SL250 |
| Extra charge for support | $0 | $2,995 | $0 |
| Total cost | $ 2,845 | $4,990 | $ 6,999 |
Installation and configuration of OpManger is easy. Its takes less than five minutes to install OpManager. OpManager doesn't require any other installation for its add-ons.
Nagios XI: Installing Nagios XI is not too difficult. It involves downloading and deploying a virtual machine (VM) in either a VMware ESXi or Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor environment. After launching the VM, you can point your browser to the IP address listed on the console and log in using the default credentials.
SolarWinds NPM: The installation of SolarWinds NPM isn't a difficult process. Make sure that your server has IIS installed before you kick off NPM setup. If IIS isn’t installed, you’ll be prompted to exit the NPM setup and install IIS before proceeding. The installation time of SolarWinds NPM depends upon the complexity of the configured data such as locations or tickets.
Info-Tech’s Category Reports provide a comprehensive evaluation of popular products in the network monitoring market. The data in Info-Tech's report is collected from real end users.
See how OpManager stacks up against Nagios XI and SolarWinds in the eyes of our users:
| Info-Tech report rating | OpManager | Nagios XI | SolarWinds NPM |
| Vendor capabilities | 8.4/10 | 7.4/10 | 8.1/10 |
| Net emotional footprint | 90/100 | 75/100 | 78/100 |
| Likeliness to recommend | 84 percent | 78 percent | 83 percent |
| Overall capability satisfaction | 79 | 72 | 77 |
| Breadth of features | 77 | 76 | 76 |
| Usability and intuitiveness | 81 | 70 | 78 |
| Vendor support | 81 | 73 | 74 |
| Ease of data integration | 79 | 72 | 76 |
| Ease of customization | 76 | 75 | 71 |
| Availability and quality of training | 81 | 68 | 70 |
| Ease of implementation | 81 | 73 | 74 |
Check out the full Info-Tech report.