Suggestions appear as you type. Use the up and down arrows to choose one and Enter to open it.

This page's audience our own tag's counts — open to see them
–Visits
–Page views
–Clicks to vendors
–Time on page
–Reading now
Clicks to vendors, by tool
  • –
Top countries
  • –
Devices
  • –

– · visits, page views and clicks counted by our own tag, which counts more than our checked analytics; every figure rounded down · how we count

Head-to-head · Network Monitoring

Zabbix vs OpenNMS

  • Updated Oct 2026
  • Both researched from official sources
  • 4 checks side by side
Higher score Zabbix #1 in Network Monitoring 9.4/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 0 of 3 features Visit Zabbix
OpenNMS #16 in Network Monitoring 7.7/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 3 of 3 features Visit OpenNMS

Zabbix leads on 0 checks, OpenNMS on 0, and 4 are even. Who comes out ahead on the 4 yes/no, price and count checks where we have data for both products. The editor score weighs everything else too.

Our verdict

  • Highest scoreZabbix · 9.4/10
  • Free planboth
  • Most featuresOpenNMS · 3 of 3

Zabbix scores higher on our rubric for network monitoring: 9.4 against 7.7 out of 10; our editors rank them #1 and #16.

Zabbix is the better fit for broad, extensible infrastructure monitoring. OpenNMS is the better fit for open-source distributed network monitoring.

  • Zabbix fits best

    Broad, extensible infrastructure monitoring

  • OpenNMS fits best

    Open-source distributed network monitoring

Advertiser disclosure: iTechGuides is reader-supported. Vendors can pay for top positions in our rankings and for a place on other products' pages, and we may earn a commission when you click some links. Bought places stand at the number bought; this page and our disclosure say so. Paying vendors may get a fuller, more detailed review from our editors, and that review can change their score. How we rank.

Side by side

Feature Zabbix 9.4/10 Visit ↗ OpenNMS 7.7/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score 9.4 7.7
Ranking #1 in Network Monitoring #16 in Network Monitoring
Best for Broad, extensible infrastructure monitoring Open-source distributed network monitoring
Pricing model Free plan + paid Free plan + paid
Starting price €245/mo —
Free plan ✓ ✓
Free trial — —
Deployment Cloud, Self-hosted Self-hosted
Platforms Web, Linux, Windows, macOS Web, Linux
Support Email, Phone, Tickets, Community, Docs · 24/7 Community, Docs · 24/7
Built for Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Zabbix 0/3 · OpenNMS 3/3
Synthetic checks Not checked yet ✓ (best)
Traffic monitoring Not checked yet ✓ (best)
Topology maps Not checked yet ✓ (best)
Specs
Device limit Not checked yet Not checked yet
Alert channels Not checked yet Not checked yet
Deployment Not checked yet Self_hosted
Our review
Pros
  • Free open-source self-hosted edition with no license fee
  • Monitors infrastructure, networks, services, VMs, logs, and cloud platforms
  • Supports discovery, automation, root-cause analysis, and distributed monitoring
  • Free Horizon distribution with broad monitoring coverage
  • Distributed monitoring through Minion
  • Strong flow, topology, API, and notification integrations
Cons
  • Self-hosted deployment requires infrastructure managed by your team
  • Zabbix Cloud Nano is limited to 50 new values per second
  • Silver support is billed annually at €245 per month
  • Self-hosted deployment requires infrastructure management
  • The wide feature set may exceed small-team needs
  • Paid Meridian tiers add planning around cores, devices, and Minions
Our verdict

Zabbix is an open-source monitoring and observability platform for IT teams, enterprises, and service providers. It covers servers, networks, applications, databases, virtual machines, containers, cloud services, and system services. Teams…

Read the review →

OpenNMS is an open-source network monitoring platform for telecom operators and enterprise IT teams. It covers faults, performance, traffic flows, applications, services, and topology across local and distributed environments. The platform…

Read the review →
  1. ZabbixNetwork Monitoring 9.4Free plan
  2. OpenNMSNetwork Monitoring 7.7Free plan

Strengths and trade-offs

  • Zabbix — where it wins

    • Free open-source self-hosted edition with no license fee
    • Monitors infrastructure, networks, services, VMs, logs, and cloud platforms
    • Supports discovery, automation, root-cause analysis, and distributed monitoring

    Where it doesn't

    • Self-hosted deployment requires infrastructure managed by your team
    • Zabbix Cloud Nano is limited to 50 new values per second
    • Silver support is billed annually at €245 per month

  • OpenNMS — where it wins

    • Free Horizon distribution with broad monitoring coverage
    • Distributed monitoring through Minion
    • Strong flow, topology, API, and notification integrations

    Where it doesn't

    • Self-hosted deployment requires infrastructure management
    • The wide feature set may exceed small-team needs
    • Paid Meridian tiers add planning around cores, devices, and Minions

More comparisons

All network monitoring comparisons → · Full ranking →

Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026

Last updated · How we research and update