In this article, we’ll review the Best Network Monitoring & Management Software & tools of 2025 to help you Avoid and Minimize Downtime of Mission Critical Systems!

Here is our list of the top network monitoring tools:

1. Auvik – EDITOR’S CHOICE This network monitoring and management package is delivered from the cloud and can support networks anywhere in the world through a single console. Available in versions for IT departments and managed service providers. Access a 14-day free trial.
2. Paessler PRTG Network Monitor – FREE TRIAL A collection of infrastructure monitors that are called “sensors.” You tailor the package by deciding on which sensors to turn on. Runs on Windows Server. Download a 30-day free trial.
3. ManageEngine OpManager – FREE TRIAL Excels in comprehensive Wi-Fi monitoring and adaptive alerts for seamless network management. Start a 30-day free trial.
4. Site24x7 All-in-one Network Monitoring – FREE TRIAL A complete system monitoring platform that includes both network device monitoring and traffic analysis features. This is a cloud-based service. Access a 30-day free trial.
5. ManageEngine Applications Manager – FREE TRIAL A performance monitor that tests website availability and response times plus other connection issues such as virtualizations and containers. Installs on Windows Server and Linux. Download a 30-day free trial.
6. Progress WhatsUp Gold – FREE TRIAL This on-premises package centers on a network device monitoring service and includes traffic analysis in higher plans. Runs on Windows Server. Get a 14-day free trial.
7. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor An SNMP-based network monitor that processes alerts raised by network devices when problems arise and includes an automatic network inventory and mapping function. Installs on Windows Server.
8. Nagios XI Apaid infrastructure monitoring system that is based on the free Nagios Core; extend it with free plugins. Installs on Linux.
9. Zabbix An impressive, free infrastructure monitoring tool that includes alerts for device problems. Installs on Linux, macOS, and Unix.
10. NetCrunch A network device and traffic monitoring system with alerts for status issues. Installs on Windows and Windows Server.
11. LogicMonitor A cloud-based infrastructure monitoring service with traffic analysis systems and alerts for device problems.
12. Icinga 2 A free system monitoring tool that was developed from a fork of Nagios Core. Runs on Linux.

These products range from Free (open-source NMS) to Paid Commercial solutions that are On-Premise or Cloud-based.

Network Monitoring Software in a Nutshell

According to The Telegraph, on May 27th, 2018, British Airways, one of the largest airlines in the UK, experienced a network outage that caused their entire fleet to remain on the ground.

It was estimated that the outage left more than 75,000 passengers stranded and a cost €100 million due to compensation payments.

The failure that created such a significant loss was due to a human error at a power surge of the data center that left all IT infrastructure out.

Such is the impact of a mismanaged and unsupervised network. Although no Infrastructure or Network Monitoring software can prevent human error, it can at least provide quick alerting and proactive solutions, to avoid downtime.

Why its so Important for your Business

The network monitoring software is designed to keep the network under a systematic review by collecting metrics, logs, and other data from different elements.

It takes this data and compares it with an expected baseline (or threshold). If certain network metrics are below the baseline, the software can react with an alert, notification, or pre-defined action.

Some solutions might even provide self-healing and self-driving mechanisms using data analysis and responding proactively to the problem.

Using this approach, network monitoring tools can measure response time, reliability, availability, traffic, and even security.

They will let you know when there is a decrease in performance, an immediate fault that needs to be attended, or even when there has been a breach in the network security.

Basic Functionalities of a Network Monitoring tools should be to:

• Scan and detect networked devices with or without agents.
• Create a performance metrics baseline or threshold.
• Continuously monitor the performance of the entire network.
• Send alerts in case the network goes down or if a metric drops below.
• Recommend proactive solutions for known issues.
• Create visualizations and reports of the performance data.

Other advanced functionalities might include, infrastructure management, Application Performance Monitoring (APM), automation, visualizations, unified dashboards, and more.

Key Features to Look For

• Look for Monitoring and Management Since networks connect systems together, monitoring a network deals with much more than routers and switches. For example, the full stack of an application involves hardware, network, systems, services, storage, databases, and even real-user experience. Most of the time, the software that does Network Monitoring also provides some kind of Infrastructure Management and sometimes even Application Performance Monitoring (APM).
• Look for On-Premises Deployment Applications like network monitoring need to stay local. Yes, there are tons of benefits when it comes to the SaaS-based model, whether its low initial investments, no-hardware deployments, and even the access to robust analytics services on the cloud. But let’s not forget that SaaS or cloud-based systems are deployed far away from your on-premises and thus require you to have a 100% reliable and available Internet connection. A brief moment without Internet or limited connectivity will prevent all collected data from being uploaded to the server, and worst, it leaves the network admin without a management and monitoring interface. Other concerns of full SaaS-based solutions are big data transfers and data security.
• Look for Robust Dashboards that provide full visibility Network monitoring solutions with robust and unified dashboards will show you the network performance and its systems in real-time, through graphs, visualizations, inventories, maps, reports, and more. Some of these tools can even automatically discover all network elements, including its detailed information, and add it to the inventory.
• Look for Alerting and Reporting Capabilities What’s a monitoring solution for, if you are not getting the news? A simple Uptime/Downtime indicator with instant alerts/notifications can work wonders. But you can also look for advanced alerting systems that send instant messages via email, SMS, mobile apps notifications, or even sounds that keep you aware. Reporting is also a key functionality in monitoring solutions. A report would include all historical events, health, metrics, and in some cases, compliance-tailored information.
• Look for high-grade Compatibility Avoiding data silos and product lock-ins are the keys to flexibility. A product is valuable when it can work together with other systems. Look for flexible network monitoring tools that are compatible with third-party tools, that support multiple OS platforms, and that can monitor different vendors. In some cases, these tools come with monitoring templates crafted to specific vendors that can save you time in the configuration.

The Best Network Monitoring Software:

Below is a list of the top 20 network monitoring tools where you’ll find a Quick description of each tool along with some screenshots, where to download and some pricing!

These tools range from commercial, free, and open source. Some are appropriate for small-to-medium-businesses SMBs, while others can scale to enterprise networks.

1. Auvik – FREE TRIAL

Auvik is a network monitoring and management package that provides network discovery, device status tracking, traffic analysis, and network configuration management. These four stands of the Auvik platform provide a high degree of automation, which increases the efficiency of technicians working for IT departments or managed service providers.

Key Features:

• Network discovery, inventory creation, and topology mapping
• Device status monitoring with the Simple Network Management Protocol
• Network traffic analysis with the NetFlow, IPFIX, J-Flow, and sFlow protocols
• Network configuration management that archives device settings
• Traffic generators analysis
• Support for network capacity planning
• Alerts for traffic anomalies or device failure
• Versions for managed service providers and IT departments

The Auvik cloud platform installs an agent on the network that is to be managed. This scans the network and uploads all of its discoveries. The Auvik server assembles an inventory and a network topology map in the account console. The discovery service repeats and keeps the inventory and map up to date.

The device status monitoring service is based on the Simple Network Management Protocol. This broadcasts a request for reports. All network devices are shipped with SNMP agents installed on them and they listen for a request. The Auvik unit periodically repeats its request and uploads responses to provide live monitoring feedback in the Auvik dashboard. Device agents are allowed to send out a warning if a fault develops on its device. This is interpreted into an alert in the Auvik dashboard.

Network traffic analysis is implemented with four flow protocols: NetFlow, IPFIX, J-Flow, and sFlow. Each device producer selects a specific protocol to track traffic statistics and these four are implemented on the vast majority of network devices in the world. The Auvik system can communicate with devices through all of these protocols simultaneously, enabling it to monitor multi-vendor networks. This unit of the package identifies traffic bottlenecks and device overloading, which can cause packet loss, jitter, and out-of-sequence packets.

The final unit in the package is its network configuration manager. This takes an image of the settings of each network device and stores it in a library. The tool then periodically compares current settings with the stored image for that device. If a change is detected, the tool reapplies the image to wipe out the unauthorized changes. This process will also automatically resolve damage or loss to network settings.

Auvik doesn’t publish a price, so you have to contact the business to request a quote. This is a cloud-based service so you sign up online and use the package through a Web browser. Get access to a 14-day free trial.

2. Paessler PRTG Network Monitor – FREE TRIAL

PRTG Network Monitor by Paessler is a robust network monitoring and infrastructure management tool. Its flexible license and monitoring sensors make it an excellent choice for all types of network sizes. With PRTG, you can monitor any component within a network, from systems, hardware, apps, traffic, databases, wireless, storage, virtual, hardware, cloud services, security, IoT, and more.

Features:

• Distributed monitoring.
• Web interfaces for desktop, and mobile iOS and Android.
• Flexible alerting with email, pushes, and audio files.
• Cluster failover monitoring solution.
• In-depth scheduled or on-demand reporting.
• QR codes for quick monitoring from a mobile app.

PRTG is well-known for its hierarchical device views that outline performance data and alerts details at every level of the network. With this software, you can also create customized network maps along with its components and integrate them into your central dashboard.

The PRTG software runs on an x64 PC/server hardware, and it is supported by Windows Server 2019, Windows 10, or Windows Server 2012 R2.

The PRTG license depends on the number of monitoring sensors. It is 100% free for up to 100 sensors. For the commercial licenses PRTG500 ($1600), PRTG1000 ($2850), PRTG2500 ($5950), PRTG5000 ($10500), PRTGXL1 ($14500), and PRTG XL5 ($60000). Access a 30-day free trial download.

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor Start a 30-day FREE Trial

3. ManageEngine OpManager – FREE TRIAL

ManageEngine OpManager is a comprehensive network monitoring tool that provides in-depth visibility into the health, availability, and performance of any IP-based device in real-time. It enables IT administrators to monitor network services and visualize system performance, offering detailed insights into various network components. With capabilities to monitor both physical and virtual servers, including Hyper-V, VMware, Citrix, Xen, and Nutanix HCI servers, OpManager ensures optimal server performance around the clock.

Key Features:

• Wi-Fi Signal Monitoring: Provides consistent Wi-Fi performance by tracking signal-to-noise ratio and signal strength.
• Network Utilization Tracking: Monitors the load on Wi-Fi components, including the number of connected clients and usage patterns.
• Traffic Analysis: Analyzes Wi-Fi network traffic metrics such as bytes transmitted and received, and transmission rates.
• Resource Utilization Monitoring: Assesses CPU and memory usage to ensure optimal network resource management.
• Adaptive Threshold Alerts: Offers threshold-based alerts for emerging network issues, enabling prompt troubleshooting.

Additionally, it offers extensive monitoring of wireless networks, WAN links, and Cisco ACI infrastructures, providing a complete view of network health. The tool’s advanced network visualization features, such as Layer2 Maps and 3D floor views, enhance network management and troubleshooting. By integrating multiple network management functions into a single interface, OpManager simplifies the process of diagnosing and resolving network issues efficiently.

Start by downloading a 30-day free trial.

ManageEngine OpManager Start a 30-day FREE Trial

4. Site24x7 All-in-one Network Monitoring – FREE TRIAL

The Site24x7 All-in-one plan includes network server, and application monitors. The network monitoring part of this package starts its service by discovering all of the devices connected to a network. This compiles a network inventory, which is derived from SNMP device status requests. As the SNMP status poll is a repetitive process, the network inventory gets updated automatically whenever there are changes in the infrastructure of the network. The service also draws up a network topology map from the inventory data.

Key Features:

• No set up costs or maintenance tasks
• Automatic network device discovery
• Automatically updated network topology map
• Constant monitoring with SNMP
• Alerts for performance problems
• Traffic volume monitoring
• Capacity planning support
• Log file management

The SNMP device monitoring service also processes Trap messages from device agents into system alerts. These can be forwarded as notifications to technicians by SMS, email, voice call, or instant messaging post. The network monitor also raises alerts if any of the system resources get overstretched or if performance drops below an acceptable level.

The All-in-one plan’s network monitor is also able to perform bandwidth analysis. It shows live traffic volumes on each link on the network and alerts when they approach full capacity.

This is a cloud-based service and the console for it is accessed through any standard Web browser. The service will install an agent on one of your servers to collect data from your network.

The All-in-one plan is available in four editions:

• Pro $35 per month
• Classic $89 per month
• Elite $225 per month
• Enterprise $449 per month

Download a 30-day free trial of the Pro edition.

Site24x7 All-in-one Network Monitoring Start a 30-day FREE Trial

5. ManageEngine Applications Manager – FREE TRIAL

ManageEngine Applications Manager is primarily concerned with applications but many of its functions also focus on network and internet connection performance. Services covered by the Applications Manager include virtualization performance created by VMWare, Hyper-V, Citrix, Oracle VM, Red Hat virtualizations, and Dynamic Provisioning. The system also monitors containers developed through Docker, Kubernetes, and Openshift.

Key Features:

• Connection performance tests
• Virtualization monitoring
• Container activity tracking
• Virtual and physical server monitoring
• Website availability and response time monitoring

The Applications Manager is particularly string sat monitoring website performance, including tests on the response times and availability of websites. These are network-linked issues that can be explained by poor internet service. The dashboard of the Applications Manager includes root cause analysis That can trace performance problems right down to the connections.

The Applications Manager software is available for Windows Server and Linux. There are two paid editions of Applications Manager. The Professional edition will track up to 500 Applications for a price of $945 per year. The Enterprise edition will monitor up to 10,000 application statuses at a price of $9,595.

There is a 30-day free trial available and also a Free edition that allows five applications to be monitored.

ManageEngine Applications Manager Start a 30-day FREE Trial

6. Progress WhatsUp Gold – FREE TRIAL

Progress WhatsUp Gold is a large package of system monitoring tools. The base unit of the package is its network device monitoring unit. This will set itself up through a discovery routine that documents all devices and maps the network. The discovery process repeats constantly and automatically updates all the data in the console when necessary.

Key Features:

• Autodiscovery
• Creates a hardware inventory
• Base package with larger higher plans available
• Option for network traffic analysis
• Continuous monitoring
• Uses the Simple Network Management Protocol

Buyers who upgrade to higher plans get the Network Traffic Analysis unit with its data collector, called Flowmon. This unit is able to operate in a multi-vendor environment because it is loaded with all of the different flow protocols that are installed on the products of different network device vendors. This list includes NetFlow, IPFIX, J-Flow, sFlow, and NetStream.

The full package offered by Progress includes monitors for servers, storage devices, databases, virtual systems, internet connections, and cloud platforms. However, if you just want network monitoring, stick to the base package, which is called the Business edition. The software for WhatsUp Gold runs on Windows Server. You can examine the system by accessing the 30-day free trial.

Progress WhatsUp Gold Start a 14-day FREE Trial

7. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor

SolarWinds is one of the leading IT management and monitoring software developers in the market, and SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is one of their signature products. NPM is one of the most robust and scalable network monitoring tools. Although it works for small networks, its functionality is suited for medium-to-large networks.

Key Features:

• Compatible with multiple network vendors.
• Create advanced customized alerts and reports.
• Generate network path visualizations with NetPath.
• Analyze performance with the PerfStack dashboard.
• Create intelligent maps, graphs, and charts.
• Monitor interfaces, wireless, hardware, etc.

This product aims at checking the health and performance of all the devices in the network, including routers, switches, workstations, mobiles, servers, storage, etc. This product is best known for is highly flexibly alerting system that allows you to combine network data sources. NPM is also known for its easy troubleshooting with the NetPath and PerfStack modules.

The on-premises solution can only be installed in Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019. You can also deploy it on AWS or Azure public cloud.  Access a fully functional 30-day free trial of NPM.

8. Nagios XI

Nagios is originally an open-source network monitoring software that has supported thousands of other projects within the community. The software helps SMBs and Enterprise-size businesses find and solve IT infrastructure issues.

Key Features:

• Powered by the powerful Nagios Core 4 monitoring engine.
• Customizable web interface.
• Visibility Of Network Components And Monitoring Data.
• Automatic capacity planning graphs.
• Auto-discovery, auto-decommissioning, and mass acknowledgments.
• Configuration snapshots.

The Nagios XI extends on this popular open-source Nagios Core project to provide one of the best mission-critical IT infrastructure monitoring solutions. Nagios XI can virtually monitor any application or system with the help of third-party add-ons, provided by the open-source community. The NagiosXI can keep track of the network, servers, applications, databases, operation systems, system metrics, protocols, etc., all from a central server.

Nagios XI is supported by the following Linux distributions; RHEL, CentOS, Oracle Linux, Debian, and Ubuntu.

The standard paid edition for Core XI starts at $1,995 for 100 monitoring nodes, and the Enterprise Edition starts from $3,495. Download the full 60-days-trial version of Nagios XI.

9. Zabbix

Zabbix is an open-source network monitoring and management solution. It lets you keep track of your entire IT infrastructure, including network, servers, hardware, apps, VMs, databases, and more. Zabbix is well known for its scalability. It is powerful enough to monitor SMB networks or small enterprises well below 10,000 nodes.

Features:

• Customizable Web-GUI.
• Out-of-the-box templates.
• Agent and agentless monitoring.
• Anomaly detection and trend prediction.
• Single-pane-of-glass with graphs, visualizations, and dashboard.
• Advanced notification and remediation system.

One of the features that draw a lot of attention is its powerful trending mechanisms. Zabbix can predict trends based on network traffic. It takes historical data and real-time analytics and forecasts future traffic behavior. Another advantage of Zabbix is that it has a worldwide active user community with a fantastic forum and documentation.

For consistency and reliability, Zabbix is only recommended for UNIX-based OS. But it has also been tested in Linux, FreeBSD, macOS, Solaris, and Windows.

Zabbix is free and open-source. If you are using Zabbix in a commercial context, you can purchase a level of support. Download it free Zabbix.

10. NetCrunch

NetCrunch by AdRem Software is an advanced monitoring platform. It delivers robust monitoring through its agentless capabilities, its customizable dashboard, and its alerting system. NetCrunch can monitor every single component within the network, from routers, switches, servers, firewalls, printers, and even IoT devices.

Key Features:

• Track bandwidth and traffic flows.
• Get automatic L3 and L2 maps with VLANs and port mapping.
• Policy-based configuration. Define metrics, triggers, and events.
• Advanced alerting system.
• Hardware and software inventory.

NetCrunch can perform periodic checks with more than 70 different network services like Ping, WMI, HTTP, LDAP, and more. It can monitor SNMP-enabled devices, such as firewalls, routers, etc. The software comes with over 8700 pre-compiled SNMP MIB modules for easy monitoring in networks with different vendors.

NetCrunch runs on Windows 7 64bit or newer or Windows Server 2008R2 or newer 2 Cores. NetCrunch comes in two base modules, the NetCrunch Platform, and the SNMP & Core Monitoring. For more information on pricing and additional options, request a quote. Free trial of the NetCrunch Platform Server for 30-days. You can also download the 100% free tools Admin Toolset, WMI tester, and Syslog tester.

11. LogicMonitor

LogicMonitor is a SaaS-based network monitoring and APM software. It comes with over 1000 pre-built mechanisms that automate monitoring and alerting for the IT infrastructure and applications. With LogicMonitor, you can keep track of cloud services, such as AWS and Azure, on-premises IT infrastructure (networks, containers, apps, databases, servers), and even hybrid environments.

Key Features:

• Automatic device discovery.
• Collect Netflow, J-Flow, sFlow, and IPFIX data.
• Measure and visualize website performance.
• Flexible alerting and real-time dashboards.
• Collect and manage network device configuration.

This solution does not use any agents; instead, it uses the LogicMonitor Collector, which is an application running on-premises. The Collector uses common monitoring protocols to retrieve performance metrics from the devices; it then encrypts the data and sends it to the LogicMonitor servers over an SSL connection.

LogicMonitor works great with locations that have multiple and reliable access to the Internet. Loss in Internet connectivity will prevent uploading of collected data to the LogicMonitor server.

LogicMonitor comes through three different editions, the Starter, Pro, and Enterprise. For more information on pricing, request a quote. Sign up to LogicMonitor to get a 14-days free trial.

12. Icinga

Icinga is another open-source IT infrastructure monitoring software. It was created by a group of developers from the Nagios open-source community. Icinga extends many of Nagios features, adds a web-interface, and pushes more regular updates.

Features:

• Custom views over a web user interface.
• Integrates with vSphere.
• Certificate monitoring.
• Threshold analysis.
• Advanced reporting and alerting capabilities.

Icinga’s monitoring engine can keep track of the entire on-premises data center and the infrastructure deployed on the cloud. It integrates all monitored data and sends it to the cloud over a secure SSL connection.

Icinga is well known for its advanced host and application monitoring capabilities and basic metrics alerting.

Icinga is free and open source. You can get all support for free, through its strong community forum. Download Icinga from its official repositories.

13. Spiceworks Network Monitor.

Spiceworks Network Monitor is one of the only Network Monitoring and Infrastructure Management solutions that is 100% free and not open-source. Spiceworks is fully supported by ads and through extensible third-party products. Although the software is free, it still provides solid network monitoring capabilities.

Features:

• Configure access controls and permissions.
• Manage capacity, compliance, and inventories.
• Audit network issues.
• Schedule maintenance and patches.

It is an all-in-one monitoring solution that is often the one-stop for many SMBs that are looking to keep an eye on their infrastructure. The monitoring engine provides real-time monitoring for servers and SNMP-enabled devices such as routers, firewalls, and switches.

Spiceworks Network Monitor is supported by Ubuntu, Debian, Windows, and macOS.

Spiceworks products are 100% free, including support. Download the free Spiceworks Network Monitor tool.

14. ConnectWise Automate.

ConnectWise Automate, formerly known as LabTech, is a remote network monitoring and infrastructure management software (RMM) with strong automation capabilities. It can automatically discover assets, schedule automatic patch deployment, and automatically find and fix specific issues with pre-defined actions.

Key Features:

• Automatic patch management.
• Asset automatic discovery.
• Endpoint management.
• More than 500 out-of-the-box monitors.
• Over 400 scripts for self-healing.
• Proactive maintenance.

The software can also detect all devices within the network, including their status, and quickly create access to all managed devices. ConnectWise Automate also comes with endpoint management. You can access all devices from a single place and resolve issues faster.

The software uses lightweight agents installed on each client that monitor specific metrics on the device and other metrics specific to the subnet.

The price of ConnectWise Automate is based on quotes. To get pricing information, request a quote. Get a free 7-days trial of ConnectWise Automate.

15. OP5 Monitor

OP5 Monitor is a network monitoring and management solution based on the Nagios open-source project. With it, you can keep track of the entire IT infrastructure, from networks, servers, applications, storage, regardless they are located on-premise, on private/public cloud, or in hybrid environments.

Features:

• Smart monitoring and self-healing.
• Distributed IT environments monitoring.
• Advanced reporting: Custom, SLA, and availability reports.
• Read and generate alerts from SNMP Traps.
• REST API.

The OP5 Monitor tool was initially designed for flexibility and scalability. It can be deployed in SMBs or Enterprise networks. It can keep track of hundreds of monitoring devices while checking at the same time without compromising its performance.

The solution comes with an interactive and fully customizable dashboard that shows you instant insights through graphs and maps. The software can be deployed on RedHat 6.x or CentOS 7.x.

For more information based on your requirements, request a quote. Download a 30-day free trial of OP5 Monitor with full support and unlimited devices. When the trial expires, the number of devices will be limited to 20 for an unlimited time.

16. Pandora FMS

Pandora FMS is an open-source network monitoring and management solution. It can help network admins keep track of the performance of servers, applications, network devices, hardware, virtual machines, and more.

Key Features:

• Display performance through dashboard, reports, SLAs or graphs.
• Remote network monitoring.
• Discover networks and create maps.
• Agent and agentless monitoring for Linux, Windows, and Unix servers.
• Monitor applications such as Oracle, Exchange, Hyper-V, and more.

All network resources can be monitored remotely without agents through SNMP and other protocols like TCP, UDP, WMI, ICMP, etc. The software can also use agents on each client to gather data and send it to the server.

There are two versions of Pandora FMS, the open-source and the Enterprise. The Enterprise Pandora FMS is built for high scalability and comes with a full list of features for monitoring and management. It can monitor applications like Oracle, Microsoft Exchange, IIS, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Active Directory, Apache Web Server, and more.

Pandora FMS Community is free and open-source. The Pandora FMS Enterprise comes at three different versions NMS ($2,930), Enterprise ($4190), and Corporate (request a quote). Download the free and community Pandora FMS edition or get a free 30-day trial of Pandora FMS Enterprise.

17. Monitis

Monitis is a website, network, server, and application performance monitoring tool. This solution does not need an agent to be installed on the monitored client. As long as the network endpoints are enabled with SNMP, they can be monitored through a single dashboard.

Key Features:

• Unified dashboard.
• Instant alerts.
• Open API.
• Thirty monitoring testing distributed locations.
• Real-time views, interactive charts, and reports.

With Monitis, you can keep track of availability, uptime, response time, server health (CPU, memory, etc), network performance, and more. If there is an abnormal status, Monitis can immediately send an alarm through its dashboard, via email, SMS, Phone Call, Twitter, and Pager Duty.

Monitis is well known for HTTP monitoring. This feature helps you keep track of many websites at the same time. You can check their traffic, availability, status, etc. The software can run in the cloud (SaaS-based) or can also be deployed on-premises.

Monitis uses the pay-as-you-go model. The minimum billable rate must be a minimum of $12.00/month. For more information, build your own plan. Register for a fully-featured Monitis15-days free trial.

18. Idera Uptime Infrastructure Monitor

Idera Uptime Infrastructure Monitor is an all-in-one IT management solution. It provides network monitoring, infrastructure management, and APM capabilities. With Idera, you can manage your hybrid environments, including on-premises, virtual, and cloud-based infrastructure simultaneously.

Features:

• Capacity planning. It can predict trends by correlating historical and real-time data.
• Keep track of your service and fulfill SLA compliance and reporting.
• A unified dashboard to monitor everything, networks, servers, VMs, cloud, etc.
• Auto-discovery mechanism.
• Integration to ServiceNow, to create incident tickets.

The software is well known for its wide support for third-party plugins. With over 89 plugins, you can improve the functionality of the software and virtuality monitor anything. Some of its pre-built plugins are NetApp monitor, log file monitoring, and SAN health monitoring.

The Idera Uptime Infrastructure Monitor server application deals with all the management information. The server processes and presents all the data via a dashboard. The software is supported by Windows and Linux operating systems.

For information on Idera’s prices, request a quote. Download a fully functional free trial of Idera Uptime Infrastructure Monitor for 30 days.

19. Dynatrace

Dynatrace is an all-in-one intelligent monitoring platform that aims to simplify the complexity of the enterprise cloud. The Dynatrace monitoring platform provides cloud infrastructure monitoring, APM, and Artificial Intelligence for Operations “AIOps.”

Key Features?

• APM empowered by Artificial Intelligence.
• Monitoring containers, VMs, servers, network, and logs.
• Anomaly detection and event analytics.
• Auto-discovery for cloud infrastructure.

This solution is empowered by AI and is completely automated, so it is one of the few monitoring tools that provide valuable insights and follow up actions. It also supports more than 129 monitoring services for resources such as Docker, AWS EC2, Hyper-V, and more.

Dynatrace is SaaS-based, you just need to install the OneAgent on any on-prem, virtual, or cloud resource. But if you must fulfill compliance, you can also deploy and manage Dynatrace fully on-premises.

For more information on pricing, get a quote. Register for a 15-days free trial of Dynatrace.

20. Thousand Eyes

ThousandEyes is another SaaS-based network performance monitor and analyzer. The software gives you full visibility of the cloud, on-prem resources, Software-Defined WANs (SD-WANs), and even of other SaaS.

Key Features:

• Show a visual representation of the Path Trace data with Path Visualizations.
• Smart network analysis and insights.
• Monitor BGP, DNS, VoIP, and HTTP/HTTPS.
• Highly customizable reporting and alerting system.
• Fast problem diagnosis.

ThousandEyes is well known for its capability to measure performance and detect service disruption using synthetic monitoring probes that inject traffic. It uses three types of agents, Endpoint, Enterprise, and Cloud Agents. These two agents are excellent methods for collecting real-user traffic data and measuring network performance.

The software can monitor characteristics of the network such as packet loss and latency, analyze routes to visualize BGP, monitor DNS, VoIP, HTTP/HTTPS, and poll any device enabled with SNMP.

For information on pricing, get a quote. Register to get a 15-days ThousandEyes free trial.

21. Zenoss

Zenoss is a SaaS-based intelligent application and service monitoring (APM) and AIOps software. It was recognized by the 2019 Gartner Market Guide for AIOps Platforms. It provides a unified monitoring platform to gain full visibility of the entire IT infrastructure, from cloud environments, VMs, containers, SDNs, apps, databases, logs, servers, storage, networks, and more.

Features:

• Full-stack monitoring.
• Root-cause analysis via Machine Learning.
• Analyze data from Netflow, logs, and UC and get insights.
• Immediate alerts and proactive solutions.
• Monitor multi-vendor solutions from a single-pane-of-glass.

The type of network monitoring and analytics that Zenoss provides is centered around applications. The software lets you monitor physical and virtual networks in real-time. It collects data such as metrics, events, and logs from on-premises or cloud-based networks and reports back to the server, to get actionable intelligence.

Zenoss comes in four categories, the Zenoss Cloud (which is the commercial), the Open-source, Community, and the subscription-based. All of these products provide unified monitoring for SNMP, WnRM, or SSH-enabled devices. Zenoss is mainly cloud-based but also offers a managed on-premises solution.

Zenoss Community Edition is a free and open-source application, and the Zenoss Cloud (Professional and Enterprise) are the commercial editions. For more information request a quote. To start with Zenoss, you can request a demo.

22. Obkio

Obkio Network Performance Monitoring is the most simple network monitoring software that helps users identify and troubleshoot network and application performance issues in seconds – way before your users even experience them.

Features:

• Measures network performance using Synthetic Traffic – no packet capture required.
• Monitor performance by simulating the End-User perspective.
• Decentralized monitoring between pairs of Agents in remote locations.
• Real-time updates of network metrics every 500ms.
• Collect historical data to create a baseline and troubleshoot past issues.

Deploy Obkio in minutes and leverage synthetic traffic to continuously monitor network and core business applications to identify the cause network problems affecting VoIP, video, application, Internet, firewall, and router performance.

Obkio monitors network performance from the end-user perspective, by collecting data on network metrics such as latency, throughput, jitter, packet loss, QoS (Quality of Service) and more. To simplify the process, quickly view all data right from Obkio’s simple dashboard and set up automatic alerts if any network problems are detected.

Users can choose from a variety of plans on the Pricing Page, such as a Free Plan, Paid Plans starting at $29/ month, or create their own Custom Plan. Register to try Obkio for Free and sign up for a Free 14-Day Trial, with access to all of Obkio’s premium features.

Our Top Choice

In the years 2018 and 2019, there was hype on cloud and SaaS-based models. But unfortunately, not all applications can fully benefit from these models. And network monitoring is one of them; it needs to stay local.

Although you could benefit from cloud-based analysis and AI solutions, avoid full SaaS network monitoring software. Having network monitoring software deployed, on-premises guarantees reliability, availability, security, and fast data transfers. Therefore, it is recommended to look for a solution that can be deployed on-premises, but also has the benefits of cloud services.

Also, look for network monitoring solutions that…

• allow you to manage and monitor the full stack.
• give you full visibility through a unified dashboard.
• keep you alerted and show you results.
• are flexible and compatible with other tools.

If your budget is limited, but you have the time for implementation and learning, then we recommend the free and open-source products, such as Nagios Core or Icinga.

But if you are looking to invest in robust network monitoring systems, some software solutions are generous with free trials and freebies. Tools such as Auvik and ManageEngine Applications Manager are fantastic tools to start your journey, especially that they offer a 30 Day Free Networking Monitoring Software starter trial!