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 |
What the comparison says
Both platforms are self-hosted, so deployment model is not what separates them here. Cacti is described as medium to reach value, against medium for SolarWinds NPM.
Cacti licenses on free, SolarWinds NPM on per element. Neither bills on data volume, so the comparison is about what each licence includes rather than how much you send it.
Cacti leads on residency and pricing value. SolarWinds NPM leads on fault detection, alerting speed, ease of setup, management UX, integrations and device coverage.
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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Data last verified 2026-10-06. 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 are verifiable against each vendor's documentation: deployment model, licensing basis and residency.