Cacti vs SolarWinds NPM
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
- —
SolarWinds NPM
SolarWinds
7.5
Average across eight dimensions
- Deployment
- Self-hosted
- Licensing
- Per element
- Time to value
- Medium
- Segment
- Mid-market / enterprise
- G2
- —
Score by dimension
| Dimension | CA | SW |
|---|---|---|
| Data residency control | 10 | 8.5 |
| Pricing value | 9.8 | 4.5 |
| Detection accuracy | 6 | 8 |
| Response speed | 5.5 | 8 |
| Ease of setup | 6 | 7 |
| Management UX | 5.5 | 8.5 |
| Integration depth | 6 | 9 |
| Security coverage | 4.5 | 6.5 |
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
SolarWinds NPM
- +Polished interface and mature topology mapping
- +Deep device support and a large module ecosystem across the Orion platform
- +Self-hosted, with strong enterprise reporting
- −Element-based licensing makes this among the most expensive options at scale
- −Reputational overhang from the 2020 supply chain compromise still features in security reviews
Best for Enterprises wanting a polished commercial platform with broad device coverage
Watch out Model element counts carefully, and expect security review questions about the vendor
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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.