Cacti vs Nagios XI
A side-by-side comparison on deployment model, data residency, licensing basis and security coverage. Structural facts are verifiable against vendor documentation; the scored dimensions are our assessment.
Cacti
The Cacti Group
6.7
Average across eight dimensions
- Deployment
- Self-hosted
- Licensing
- Free
- Time to value
- Medium
- Segment
- SMB / education
- G2
- —
Nagios XI
Nagios Enterprises
6.9
Average across eight dimensions
- Deployment
- Self-hosted
- Licensing
- Per node (XI); Core is free
- Time to value
- Complex
- Segment
- Mid-market / enterprise
- G2
- —
Score by dimension
| Dimension | CA | NG |
|---|---|---|
| Data residency control | 10 | 9.5 |
| Pricing value | 9.8 | 6.5 |
| Detection accuracy | 6 | 7 |
| Response speed | 5.5 | 7 |
| Ease of setup | 6 | 5 |
| Management UX | 5.5 | 6 |
| Integration depth | 6 | 8.5 |
| Security coverage | 4.5 | 5.5 |
Cacti
- +Free, stable and extremely light on resources
- +Long-established SNMP graphing with a large body of community templates
- +Runs happily on modest hardware in small or isolated environments
- −Graphing-first: alerting requires plugins and is not a core strength
- −Interface and workflow are dated, and development pace is slow
Best for Small or isolated networks needing long-term interface graphing at no cost
Watch out Treat this as a graphing tool rather than a monitoring and alerting platform
Nagios XI
- +Enormous plugin ecosystem built up over two decades
- +Self-hosted with a long track record in conservative environments
- +Very widely understood — skills are easy to hire for
- −Configuration and interface feel dated next to anything else in this table
- −Node-based licensing on XI, and the free Core edition requires substantial assembly
Best for Existing Nagios estates and teams that value ecosystem breadth over modern UX
Watch out Evaluate the interface directly with the people who will use it daily
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Other comparisons
Data last verified 2026-09-16. nPro publishes this comparison. Where nPro appears as one of the platforms listed, its card is marked and its scores are our own assessment. Third-party review scores are sourced from public vendor profiles. Structural facts — deployment model, licensing basis, residency — are verifiable against each vendor's documentation.