We compared Nagios XI and Pandora FMS across several parameters based on our users' reviews. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:
Features: Nagios XI received positive feedback for its versatility and adaptability. It offers a diverse selection of plugins and scripts for monitoring needs. Pandora FMS is highly regarded for its straightforward management process, effective dashboards, and efficient network monitoring capabilities.
Room for Improvement: Users have suggested Nagios XI could improve integration, simplify configuration, and make the platform more user-friendly. Nagios XI users also suggest improvements to network visibility and cloud discovery. Users say Pandora FMS could make its dashboards more customizable and improve its integration with other systems. Many also said they would like Pandora to add APIs for integration and offer better out-of-the-box analytics.
Service and Support: Some Nagios XI customers complained about the lack of chat or phone support options. Pandora FMS support received high praise for their expertise, kindness, and fast response time.
Ease of Deployment: Some Nagios XI users found the setup to be relatively simple, while others considered it challenging. Deployment can take a few months to complete, and there’s a steep learning curve. Most users found Pandora FMS’s initial setup to be relatively easy.
Pricing: Nagios XI’s pricing is considered reasonable and transparent, with no extra charges. Pandora FMS is considered reasonably priced, and the total cost depends on the environment.
ROI: Nagios XI users reported positive outcomes overall, but some said visibility limitations lower the solution’s ROI. Pandora FMS has also demonstrated advantages in terms of return on investment.
Comparison Results: Nagios XI is an affordable, flexible solution with a broad feature set and a selection of helpful plugins. At the same time, users say the setup can be complex, and some expressed a desire for more convenient ways to contact support. Users like Pandora FMS’s management and monitoring capabilities as well as its dashboards, but the solution has been criticized for its compatibility issues, limited customization options, and slower performance.
"The single dashboard is a valuable feature."
"We can manage the entire system across the network and troubleshoot the pain points."
"Nagios allows us to configure any device so that we can send pager alerts when people don't have access to emails. It also allows us to schedule downtime and maintenance."
"Since this is an open source technology, if we are capable of writing the plugins in any scripting language, this product allows us to monitor anything we want."
"I can monitor a software made in-house to software of bigger companies."
"The installation is no problem. I've installed Nagios several times."
"The solution has a lot of plugins and scripts integrated with it."
"BPI: It allows defining peripherals to map business criticality for efficient monitoring, as required."
"The Script Module in Nagios is really easy to use and is really cost efficient."
"The solution is pretty stable."
"The administration of the console is very easy. I like that Pandora FMS is interactive and easy to manage."
"I like this solution a lot because it has a very large Hispanic community and the platform looks very friendly."
"It is easy to create your own custom modules if you just know a little bit of scripting. If you have unique requirements, you can just make your own modules. You can even grab checks from other vendors. There are open-source checks for various things such as SMTP, etc. There is a long list of different ones from Nagios. You can just use them, and within seconds, you get yourself a check that is monitoring whatever you need. It is really flexible. I guess that's why they call it Pandora Flexible Monitoring System (FMS). It is reliable. It does the job, and it alerts. It is also surprisingly feature-rich. Our network guy just recently asked about a particular protocol to monitor the bandwidth on the network, which is not a common protocol. When I looked it up, and I found that they cover it. It is very mature for a not-so-known product."
"We are able to control our business with this all-in-one monitoring tool."
"The most valuable features are auto-discovery and automatic detection of the network topology and network monitoring."
"Pandora FMS provides us with a general report (graphical) about all of the connected devices, which helps with planning new stations and tracking them."
"The official forum is active enough to answer most of the high-end technical questions that you may have."
"The most valuable feature is that it is an all-in-one monitoring system."
"The Wi-Fi side needs improvement."
"The technical support needs improvement."
"The reporting structure could be more streamlined."
"The product's stability could be even better."
"The PNP4Nagios plugin not working easily with XI is an issue for me, because some open source monitoring plugins do not work out of the box. But in the end, you learn to live with it."
"Open-source software is usually not user-friendly."
"We often need to develop custom plugins to get Nagios to work the way we want it to work because the features we need are not always available in Nagios."
"The technical support is variable - sometimes I get answers, but most of my tickets go unanswered."
"The product could be optimized to improve the administrative user experience via the Nagios Core Configuration (NCC) GUI module."
"It can be quite difficult to know which drivers and agents to use when setting up."
"Pandora could deliver better analytics out of the box. You can work around these limitations with the help of other tools like Grafana. The shortcomings are mostly on the graphical side. The built-in report generators are a bit limited in some areas."
"I sincerely believe that Pandora needs new ideas for functionality closer to advanced device security monitoring."
"Their support is good, but it is just online communication. It would be great to be able to just call someone and talk to them instead of always writing. It works well for me because I am a decent communicator in email, but some people might find it difficult to describe in a written fashion and communicate with them that way. There is a learning curve to the interface, but once you get used to it, it is actually very powerful. They have a lot of options, but people struggle with the interface. They've improved it though, and it is getting better. They need to keep improving the learning curve to help buy-in. I'm the guy that manages it, so I'm comfortable with it. They can refine the upgrade agents to be easier. They can also do more refinement in end-user usability because not everyone is strong technically, and people who aren't strong technically might be averse to the product, even though it has come a long way. It has a complete GUI and everything."
"We would like to see improvement in the mainframe integration that this solution is capable of."
"We would like the real-time monitoring of an interface to be improved within this solution."
"I would like to have a dashboard with all assets displayed, with a quick hover-over status."
"An update to the Android app would be appreciated."
"I find that this software is resource heavy, and demands a lot of processing capacity."
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Nagios XI is ranked 8th in Network Monitoring Software with 54 reviews while Pandora FMS is ranked 28th in Network Monitoring Software with 22 reviews. Nagios XI is rated 8.2, while Pandora FMS is rated 9.2. The top reviewer of Nagios XI writes "Great for monitoring IT services infrastructure with nice tools and helpful notifications". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Pandora FMS writes "The open architecture is easy to extend and enhance". Nagios XI is most compared with Nagios Core, Zabbix, PRTG Network Monitor, Wireshark and Icinga, whereas Pandora FMS is most compared with Zabbix, Wazuh, PRTG Network Monitor, Centreon and SolarWinds NPM. See our Nagios XI vs. Pandora FMS report.
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