Nagios XI vs Prometheus Node Exporter
Nagios XI
nagios.comPrometheus Node Exporter
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Nagios XI | Prometheus Node Exporter |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 9 | 1 |
| Spec score · Hardware Monitoring Software | 9.0 (#4) | 7.6 (#45) |
| Spec score · Hardware monitoring tools | 8.8 (#7) | 7.5 (#50) |
| Configuration | Configuration Wizards, Auto-Discovery, Core Config Manager, snapshots and rollback simplify host and service administration. | Collectors can be enabled or disabled with command-line flags, and some support include or exclude filters. |
| Integrations | Nagios XI supports authentication with Active Directory or LDAP over SSL, Single Sign-On with Microsoft Entra ID, and two-factor authentication through Duo. | The Prometheus documentation lists Node Exporter as a guide for monitoring Linux host metrics. |
| License | Nagios commercial software is proprietary; the terms grant a perpetual, non-exclusive, non-transferable license for permitted internal use, while third-party components have separate licenses. | Prometheus components are available under the Apache 2 License. |
Plans
Nagios XI
- Standard — 100 Nodes$2,595, paid once
- Enterprise — 100 Nodes$4,690, paid once
- FreeFree
- FreeFree
- Standard$2,595, paid once
- Standard (100-Node)$2,595, paid once
- Enterprise$4,690, paid once
- Enterprise (100-Node)$4,690, paid once
- SitewidePriced on request
In their own words
Nagios XI
Nagios XI monitors servers, network devices, applications and services from a Linux server you manage. It checks configured thresholds, records results and sends notifications. Standard includes more than 90 configuration wizards, auto-discovery, dashboards, performance graphs, an open REST API, automation, configuration rollback and snapshots. Enterprise adds SLA and capacity-planning reports, scheduled reports and pages, business process intelligence, bulk changes and an audit log. Users can be restricted to assigned host and service groups, with authentication options including Active Directory or LDAP over SSL, Microsoft Entra ID single sign-on and Duo two-factor authentication. It is self-hosted on Linux, with virtual machine images for several hypervisors and offline installation on Red Hat and CentOS Stream. A 30-day trial provides unlimited monitoring, Enterprise features and direct support without a credit card. The free plan is limited to 7 nodes or 100 services, whichever comes first. Paid perpetual licenses are priced by monitored nodes: Standard is $2,595.00 once and Enterprise is $4,690.00 once, each shown for 100 nodes.
Prometheus Node Exporter
Prometheus Node Exporter exposes hardware and operating-system metrics from *NIX kernels for Prometheus. Written in Go, it uses pluggable collectors, with default coverage for CPU, disk I/O, filesystem, memory, and network metrics where the operating system supports them. Command-line flags enable or disable collectors, and some collectors accept include or exclude filters. The exporter listens on HTTP port 9100 by default. Documentation covers Linux distribution packages, an Ansible community role, and container deployment. Containerized monitoring requires host namespace access and suitable mounts; some systems also need an extra capability for the timex collector. Certain collectors are off by default because they can have high cardinality, take longer, or consume host resources. The project is Apache 2 licensed and free, with no paid plans listed. Windows users are directed to Windows Exporter.