Monitoring is necessary for businesses to make sure that the required system is up and working. Monitoring various aspects of the IT infrastructure can be quite pesky and cause many difficulties if not done properly.
Regardless of the company’s size, one cannot ignore the need for Server, network, and infrastructure monitoring using the best monitoring tool. All modern cloud and on-premise infrastructure come with the best monitoring solutions.
Also, when it comes to DevOps, monitoring, and observability plays a key role in the team’s performance.
The following are the key areas when it comes to monitoring.
- Real-time Server Monitoring
- Network Performance Monitoring
- Container Monitoring (Docker/Kubernetes/Mesos etc.)
- Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring (Public & Private)
- Application monitoring.
- Cloud-native monitoring.
What are the Best Opensource Monitoring Tools?
Professional or Business-grade tech solutions are generally regarded as costly, but that’s not necessarily always the case.
Following is the key list of key indicators for the best monitoring software.
- Provide indicators on outages and service degradation
- Detect service outages and unauthorized activities
- Scalable
- Able to handle and process huge amounts of monitoring data
- Collect predefined system/application metrics in real-time
- Able to provide long-term insights for better capacity planning.
- Highly available
- Support all modern cloud, containerized applications, and cloud-native applications.
- Support metric visualization tools
- Good traceability
- Have a good user-friendly interface.
Numerous absolutely free and open-source network monitoring tools can be considered while looking for monitoring solutions. Let’s take a look at the top-rated open-source monitoring tools and see what works for you!
1. Prometheus
Prometheus is an open-source cloud-native monitoring solution primarily fixated on data gathering and analysis based on time-series data. It enables users to set up monitoring capabilities by utilizing the in-built toolset.
It is an ideal monitoring setup for containerized environments like kubernetes and the best open-source server monitoring tool.
It is able to assemble several metrics on servers, kubernetes, and various devices using SNMP pings and inspect network bandwidth usage from the device point of view, along with the other functions. The PromQL system analyzes data and permits the program to produce plots, tables, and other graphics on the systems it monitors.
The alert manager is another component of Prometheus. It handles alerting for all alerting rules configured in Prometheus.
Prometheus can collect system metrics, application metrics, and metrics from modern containerized applications. Also, it has very good integration with tools like Grafana for visualizing metrics. Grafana is one of the best open-source monitoring dashboards.
2. Zabbix
Zabbix is open-source monitoring software with an easy-to-use interface for users with a low learning curve that provides enterprise-class solutions to large organizations. It is a centralized system that stores the data in a relational DB for efficient processing.
Here is what Zabbix can do.
- Network Monitoring
- Server Monitoring
- Cloud Monitoring
- Application Monitoring
- Service Monitoring
3. Nagios
Nagios is an open-source monitoring tool that has been in the market since 1999. It provides numerous facilities like integration with third-party apps using an additional plugin. Considering the length of time that Nagios has been in the industry, there are plenty of plugins written for it. It can monitor a variety of components including Oss, applications, websites, middleware, web servers, etc.
4. Riemann
Riemann is an ideal open-source monitoring tool for distributed systems. It’s a low-latency even processing system capable of collecting metrics from a variety of distributed systems. It is designed to handle millions of even per second with low latency. It is an apt monitoring tool for highly distributed scalable systems.
5. Sensu
Sensu is endorsed as a full-stack monitoring tool. By means of a single platform, you can monitor services, applications, servers, and reports on business KPIs. Its monitoring does not require a separate workflow. It supports all the popular Operating Systems like Windows, Linux, etc.
6. Icinga
Icinga is an open-source network monitoring tool that calculates the availability and performance of the network. Through a web interface, your business can observe applications and hosts around your complete network infrastructure. The tool is scalable and easily configurable to function with each type of device. There exist a few Icinga modules for very specific monitoring capabilities, like monitoring for VMWare’s vSphere cloud environment and business process modeling.
7. Cacti
Cacti is an open-source network monitoring tool built on RRD Tool’s data classification and plotting system. The tool utilizes data-gathering functionality and network polling to collect information on various devices on networks of any scope. This comprises the capability to create custom scripts for data gathering along with the facility for SNMP polling. It then showcases this information in easy-to-comprehend plots which can be organized in whichever hierarchy as per your business’s convenience.
8. LibreNMS
LibreNMS is an open-source network monitoring system that utilizes multiple network protocols to observe every device on your network. The LibreNMS API can recover, manage, and plot the data it collects and facilitates horizontal scaling to grow its monitoring abilities along with your network. The tool presents a flexible alerting system that is custom-made to communicate to you by the method that suits best your company. They offer their iOS and Android
9. Observium Community
Observium Community is the free counterpart of Observium’s network monitoring tool. In the free version of the Observium Community, you can monitor a limitless amount of devices along with taking complete advantage of Obersvium’s network mapping attributes. The Observium network monitoring tool features the programmed discovery of connected devices. It also comes well-appointed with discovery protocols to make sure that the map of your network is the latest. In this manner, you can keep track of new devices as they connect with the network.
10. Pandora FMS
Pandora FMS is an open-source monitoring tool that aids businesses to observe their whole IT substructure. It not just features network monitoring capabilities but also Unix and Windows servers and virtual interfaces. For networks, Pandora FMS comprises top-notch features like SNMP support, ICMP polling, network latency monitoring, as well as system overload. Agents can also be installed on devices to observe aspects like device temperature and overheating, as well as for logfile happenings.
11. LogRhythm NetMon Freemium
LogRhythm NetMon Freemium is a free version of LogRhythm NetMon that offers similar business-grade module capturing and analysis abilities as the full version. Though there are restrictions or limits on data processing and module storage, the freemium version still permits the users to perform network risk detection and response functions built on data packet analysis. It also offers a similar network threat alerting system as the full version, letting you stay updated on your network’s performance and security.
12. Famatech Advanced IP Scanner
Famatech’s Advanced IP Scanner is free of cost network monitoring as well as a scanning tool that offers analysis on Local Area Networks and LAN devices. The advanced IP Scanner allows the scanning of devices on the network and remotely regulates the connected computers and other resources. It provides the ability to switch computers off from the tool if the device is not in use and is using resources. The tool connects with Famatech’s Radmin solution for distant IT management, so you can manage the IPs wherever you are.
13. AppNeta PathTest
AppNeta PathTest is a free network volume testing tool intended to aid businesses to comprehend the true ability of their network. PathTest seeks to advance layer three and layer four performance by exhibiting a precise depiction of your network’s maximum capabilities. It deliberately floods your network with data packets to fill the network to its full capacity. Users can set the duration of this test up to a maximum of 10 seconds and run the tests at any time.
Conclusion
Monitoring provides supervisors with a crisp view of the services, applications, and devices running on their network and the ability to track the performance of these resources. This facilitates active management rather than responding to issues as and when they happen.
Open-source monitoring tools are utilized to monitor the status of the framework being used, so as to have warnings of defects, failures, or issues and to improve them. There are monitoring tools for servers, networks, cloud infrastructure, containers, databases, security, execution, site and web use, and applications.
Sometimes, it is wise to use default monitoring systems that come with the infrastructure providers. One example is the AWS cloudwatch. However, open-source monitoring tools provide a lot of functionality to monitor your infrastructure components with a lot of customization.
Opting for an appropriate open-source monitoring solution for your business is not as easy as it seems.
IT professionals like Network and DevOps Engineers need to consider multiple factors while searching for an open-source monitoring solution for their enterprises, such as compatibility, facility, effortlessness, and budget.
As a DevOps engineer myself, I can’t think of a project where we never used monitoring tools. So if you want to become a devops engineer, I would highly suggest you look at open-source monitoring tools.
Also, if you’re looking for the best service discovery tools, read my reviews on the best open-source service discovery tools.
FAQs
What is the best free PC monitoring software? ›
- Connecteam. Connecteam is an all-in-one, user-friendly, and highly scalable employee management solution with extensive time tracking and job scheduling features. ...
- Pivotal Tracker. ...
- RescueTime. ...
- Hubstaff. ...
- TheWiSpy. ...
- Workstatus. ...
- ScreenshotMonitor. ...
- Desklog.
Nagios is one of the DevOps tools for continuous monitoring. It is a widely-used open-source tool. In a DevOps culture, Nagios can assist to monitor systems, applications, services, and business processes.
What is the best website monitoring service or tool? ›- Checkly [paid]
- Calibreapp [freemium: free trial available]
- Site24x7 [paid]
- Uptime [paid]
- Uptrends [paid]
- Host-tracker [paid]
- Smartbear [paid]
- SolarWinds Web Performance Monitor [paid]
We have compiled a list of solutions that reviewers voted as the best overall alternatives and competitors to Zabbix, including Datadog, checkmk, PRTG Network Monitor, and Dynatrace.
Which programs secretly monitor users computing? ›Spyware, also known as "adware," is software that sends information from your computer to a third party without your consent. Besides secretly monitoring a user's behavior, spyware collects personal information, which could lead to identity theft.
Is there a free monitoring app? ›CellTracker Monitor App for Android. It is one of the best free phone monitoring apps. It will record browsing history and call history.
Which of the following is the popular monitoring tool? ›Zabbix is one of the most popular open-source infrastructure monitoring tools on the market. It's a versatile solution that offers multiple monitoring options: network, server, cloud, application, and databases, to name a few.
Is Zabbix free to use? ›Absolutely Free
Zabbix is released under the GPL license, thus is free for commercial and non-commercial use. There are no limitations on the number of monitored devices, you can use Zabbix to monitor many thousands of devices absolutely free.
SNMP: The Simple Network Management Protocol, a.k.a. SNMP, is one of the most common network monitoring protocols. SNMP can be used for polling (a monitoring station queries a network device) and notifications (a device sends an SNMP TRAP or INFORM to a monitoring station).
What is the best monitoring app? ›Google Family Link is our pick for a budget-friendly parental control app because there is no limit on the number of users and devices it can monitor, and it's free to use. Google Family Link is an excellent option for families looking for an cost-effective and simple app.
What's a good system monitoring tool? ›
Our top recommendations include SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor, eG Innovations, Datadog, NinjaRMM, Site24x7, Sematext, Atera, and PRTG. If you have a sophisticated infrastructure with loads of devices connected, then you must opt for tools like SolarWinds, PRTG, OpenNMS, Nagios, and Icinga.
How can I monitor a website for free? ›- Dynatrace.
- LogicMonitor.
- Uptime.com.
- Datadog.
- Better Uptime.
- Site24x7.
- Checkmk.
- Elasticsearch.
Details. ZABBIX SIA is based in Riga, Latvia. Its CEO is Alexei Vladishev, the owner and ZABBIX product manager.
What are the disadvantages of Zabbix? ›| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| The entire configuration is stored in a database and is managed through a web interface. | No resilience |
| A single access point for users | |
| Differentiation of access to data and configuration | |
| A minimal interval between measurements is one second. |
In terms of protocol support, Zabbix and Nagios Core match each other evenly. Both monitoring tools support a wide range of protocols, including FTP, HTTP, SNMP, SNTP, SSH, POP3, and MySQL. When it comes to plugins, Nagios is a clear winner as it has hundreds of plugins that can be integrated with Nagios Core.
What are common spyware apps? ›| Tool Name | Best For |
|---|---|
| ClevGuard | Tracking children and employees' activities. |
| SpyBubble | Real-time complete phone tracking |
| Cocospy | Parental Control and Remote Surveillance |
| uMobix | Remote streaming of audio and video to monitor your child's activities away from home. |
Spyware is designed to remain hidden, so that it can monitor your phone without you knowing. However, a lot of spyware is detectable if you know what you're looking for.
Which of the following is most like spyware? ›- FinSpy (aka FinFisher) ...
- Gator (GAIN) ...
- GO Keyboard. ...
- HawkEye. ...
- HuntBar. ...
- Look2Me. ...
- Pegasus. ...
- PhoneSpy. PhoneSpy is an example of a spyware virus that pretends to be a mobile application to gain access to and infect Android mobile devices.
- Certo Mobile Security. Play Store Rating: 4.5. ...
- Protectstar Anti Spy & Spyware Scanner. Play Store Rating: 4.0. ...
- Incognito Spyware Detector. Play Store Rating: 4.3. ...
- Cyber Tor. Play Store Rating: 3.9. ...
- Anti Spy Mobile Basic. Play Store Rating: 4.2. ...
- Anti Spy (SpyWare Removal)
Yes, it really is! Clockify is the only time tracker that's free for teams of all sizes. You and your team can use Clockify without ever paying a cent, even if you have hundreds of users! Use it as much as you want, for as long as you want, and we won't charge a cent.
Is there an app that tracks everything? ›
TALLY is a simple tool to help you track absolutely anything. Whether you're trying to track how many times you ate vegetables this week, how many cups of coffee you drank, or whether or not you took your vitamins today, TALLY can help you get where you want to go.
What is the seven monitoring tools? ›The basic 7 QC tools (scatter diagram, check sheet, flow chart, histogram, cause and effect diagram, Pareto chart, and control chart) are used for data collection and quantitative analysis. In contrast, the 7M tools are used for qualitative data analysis, which helps in planning and identifying problem solutions.
What are the three monitoring methods? ›In the world of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) three approaches can be identified: result-oriented, constructivist and reflexive (see table p.
Why is Prometheus better than Zabbix? ›Zabbix and Prometheus are both excellent platforms but have different strengths. Prometheus is easier to set up, and it is better at data collection due to its powerful query language (PromQL). It also has a significantly larger community where you'll be able to get support while configuring it to meet your needs.
What is the price of Zabbix? ›Absolutely Free. Zabbix offers the freedom of using an open-source solution with no vendor lock-in and freely accessible source code.
Is Zabbix better than cacti? ›Zabbix has a broader approval, being mentioned in 46 company stacks & 24 developers stacks; compared to Cacti, which is listed in 5 company stacks and 5 developer stacks.
What are two monitoring tools that capture network? ›- SolarWinds® NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (Free Trial)
- SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (Free Trial)
- SolarWinds Bandwidth Analyzer Pack (Free Trial)
- Paessler PRTG Network Monitor.
- ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer.
Windows network monitoring tools allow you to manage faults remotely and take the action appropriate to you at the earliest thereby preventing network issues.
Is bark or circle better? ›Which is better? Circle or Bark Home? Both have similar features (filtering, screen time controls, app usage, etc.). Circle is slightly stronger on screen time controls, but Bark Home is much stronger on blocking the bad stuff (explicit content).
Is bark worth the money? ›Bark is ideal for monitoring tweens and teens online because it doesn't infringe too much on their privacy. Easy installation, good customer service ratings, and unlimited access for your entire family and all their devices make Bark's slightly higher price tag well worth it.
Is canopy better than bark? ›
Bark vs Canopy: Which offers better website blocking? Bark offers more comprehensive website blocking. Canopy lets you block some sites on Android devices, but Bark lets you block any app or website on iPhones, Androids, and more!
Is splunk a good monitoring tool? ›What do you like best about Splunk APM? It is one of the best tool to track performance and logs for an application. It gives feasibility to end user to create different queries to get their required statistics for the application.
What are smart monitoring tools? ›S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a monitoring system for computer hard disk drives that provides for the detection and reporting of various indicators of reliability. It is often used for early detection of potential future failures.
What is continuous monitoring tools? ›Continuous monitoring, sometimes referred to as ConMon or Continuous Control Monitoring (CCM) provides security and operations analysts with real-time feedback on the overall health of IT infrastructure, including networks and applications deployed in the cloud.
Is website tracking illegal? ›There is no specific consumer tracking law in the U.S. at the federal level; however, Federal Trade Commission Behavioral Advertising Principles recommend that websites disclose data collection policies that are used to create targeted marketing.
Can you be tracked from a website? ›In addition to cookies, many websites can use your user accounts to track browsing activity. While this type of browser tracking doesn't pose a serious risk to your online security, it's important to understand how your online data is tracked and used.
Can you get tracked by a website? ›When you accept cookies on a website, your computer stores the cookie in a file located in your web browser. This allows websites to track your data for the duration of your visit. Data tracked here includes the time you spend on a page, other pages you click to, and whether you make a purchase.
Who is Zabbix owned by? ›The Zabbix company was established in 2005 when its CEO and owner, Alexei Vladishev, made a game-changing decision to develop further the monitoring solution he worked on.
Is Zabbix safe? ›Not a Recommended Network Monitoring Tool
The platform is not at all reliable for data or network monitoring.
Project description
Zabbix 1.8, 2.0, 2.2, 2.4, 3.0 and 3.2 are supported. Python 2 and 3 are supported.
What can be monitored by Zabbix? ›
Zabbix provides monitoring metrics, such as network utilization, CPU load and disk space consumption. The software monitors operations on Linux, Hewlett Packard Unix (HP-UX), Mac OS X, Solaris and other operating systems (OSes); however, Windows monitoring is only possible through agents.
Which companies use Zabbix? ›- Alibaba Travels.
- Yousign.
- logistics.
- Labs.
- Shimo Website.
- Haptik.
- Naukri.com.
- domclick.
Grafana can integrate with a huge range of collectors, agents and storage engines. Grafana is open source and free. Zabbix is open source and free. Zabbix is meant for monitoring, and not for visualization.
Is Nagios no longer free? ›...
Nagios.
| Original author(s) | Ethan Galstad and others |
|---|---|
| License | GPLv2 |
| Website | www.nagios.org |
These days, most software vendors focus on reducing IT complexity and minimizing the workload for users. IT monitoring should not be an exception. By now, the code base and the architecture of Nagios are outdated and no longer state-of-the-art.
Is there a free version of Nagios? ›Download Nagios - Nagios Core is free.
How can I monitor all activity on my computer? ›You can also see these accounts in Windows 10 under Settings > Privacy > Activity history and in Windows 11 under Settings > Privacy & security > Activity history, where you can filter out activities from specific accounts from showing in your timeline.
How can I monitor my employees computer activity for free? ›- Hubstaff.
- Time Doctor.
- ActivTrak.
- Insightful.
- DeskTime.
- We360.ai.
- Teramind.
- Traqq.
Total PC Cleaner is a free tool designed to increase productivity by removing cache and junk files from your computer. It scans your entire computer for unwanted files, speeds up your computer, and improves its performance.
How can I control another computer from my computer for free? ›On your local Windows PC: In the search box on the taskbar, type Remote Desktop Connection, and then select Remote Desktop Connection. In Remote Desktop Connection, type the name of the PC you want to connect to (from Step 1), and then select Connect.
Can someone see what I am doing on my computer? ›
With the help of employee monitoring software, employers can view every file you access, every website you browse and even every email you've sent. Deleting a few files and clearing your browser history does not keep your work computer from revealing your internet activity.
Can someone see my browsing history from another computer? ›Yes, they can.
It is best to use security tools: VPNs, HTTPS proxies, and the Tor browser to keep your searches private from them.
Unfortunately, spyware apps aren't the only way that someone can spy on your phone activity, though. ISPs, governments, WiFi administrators, search engines, website owners, and hackers all have the capacity to spy on certain aspects of what you do on your phone – without having to install any spyware software.
Can my employer monitor my work computer at home? ›As a general rule, if you're using your employer's equipment while on your employer's network, your employer has the right to monitor everything you do, whether you're working remotely or in the workplace. Because your employer is providing the communications technology, they have the right to track your activities.
Is it legal for work to monitor employees computers? ›For example, in accordance with the Workplace Surveillance Act 2005 (NSW) s10, s12, an employer can monitor an employee's computer usage only if there is a workplace policy providing for the surveillance, and the employees are notified that their computer activity is being monitored.
Is ActivTrak free? ›ActivTrak provides a free employee monitoring tool which includes many of the features found in our award-winning ActivTrak Essentials and ActivTrak Professional Plans.
What is the most trusted PC Cleaner? ›- Cleaner One Pro Windows. Cleaner One Pro Windows is an all-in-one disk cleaning and optimization software that frees up disk space by removing invalid and unnecessary files. ...
- CCleaner. ...
- BleachBit. ...
- Glary Utilities. ...
- Clean Master. ...
- Advanced System Care. ...
- Wise Disk Cleaner. ...
- CleanMyPC.
- 1) Restoro PC Repair Tool.
- 2) Outbyte PC Repair.
- 3) System Mechanic.
- 4) Advanced SystemCare.
- 5) Advanced PC Cleanup.
- 6) Ashampoo® WinOptimizer.
- 7) CCleaner.
- 8) Easy pc optimizer.
...
Features:
- Disk defrag.
- Automatic updates of important apps.
- Disk checkup.
- Remove bloatware.
- Registry cleanup.
Yes, you can easily control your Android phone from PC on the same Lan with AirDroid Personal. Download AirDroid Personal on your computer and click on the Telescope icon in the left bar. Then, choose the Android device from the available options. Finally, hit on “Remote Control” to establish the connection.
Can TeamViewer wake a sleeping computer? ›
With the Wake-on-LAN feature from TeamViewer, you can remotely access and control devices no matter whether they're switched on or off. This not only provides great flexibility in terms of 24/7 access to devices and resources, it can also improve energy efficiency since devices can be turned off when not in use.
Is AnyDesk free for personal use? ›AnyDesk offers an easy-to-use Remote Desktop Software that includes all basic features that are free for personal use. This way, you can help friends and family with technical issues, or you can collaborate together on projects – no matter where both sites are!