Is Nagios XI or PagerDuty better?

Neither clearly leads. Nagios XI starts at Free and PagerDuty at $21/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Nagios XI or PagerDuty?

Nagios XI has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Nagios XI and $21/month for PagerDuty.

Does Nagios XI or PagerDuty run on more platforms?

Nagios XI runs on Web. PagerDuty runs on Web, Ios, Android, Api.

Can I use Nagios XI for free?

Yes. Nagios XI has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. PagerDuty starts at $21/month.

What is Nagios XI best used for?

Nagios XI is most often used for monitoring servers, networks, and iot devices for status changes, detecting infrastructure problems before they cause outages, creating customizable dashboards for real-time it visibility, tracking sla compliance and generating capacity planning reports. Of those, monitoring servers, networks, and iot devices for status changes and detecting infrastructure problems before they cause outages are not what PagerDuty is typically brought in for.

What can Nagios XI do that PagerDuty cannot?

PagerDuty covers Incident response, On-call management, Alert grouping, Escalation policies.

Technology · head to head

Nagios XI vs PagerDuty

Nagios XI

Technology

Enterprise-grade monitoring solution with advanced visualization and reporting

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

PagerDuty

Technology

Real-time operations for real-time business

From: $21/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Nagios XI has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: Nagios XI free Edition caps at 7 nodes or 100 services, whichever limit is hit first; PagerDuty aIOps, status pages, and live call routing are expensive add-ons not included in base plans, significantly increasing total cost
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Nagios XI and PagerDuty actually diverge.

Attributes where Nagios XI and PagerDuty differ
Attribute	Nagios XI	PagerDuty
Starting price	Free	$21/month
Pricing model	one-time	Unknown
Free tier	Yes	No
Platforms	Web	Web, Ios, Android, Api
Founded	Unknown	2009

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Technology).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Nagios XI

Nothing recorded that PagerDuty does not also cover.

Only in PagerDuty

Incident response
On-call management
Alert grouping
Escalation policies
Mobile incident management
Postmortems
Status pages
Event intelligence

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Nagios XI

Monitoring servers, networks, and IoT devices for status changesnot PagerDuty
Detecting infrastructure problems before they cause outagesnot PagerDuty
Creating customizable dashboards for real-time IT visibilitynot PagerDuty
Tracking SLA compliance and generating capacity planning reportsnot PagerDuty

PagerDuty

Incident managementnot Nagios XI
On-call schedulingnot Nagios XI
Real-time alertingnot Nagios XI
Service reliabilitynot Nagios XI
Digital operationsnot Nagios XI

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Nagios XI

Free Edition caps at 7 nodes or 100 services, whichever limit is hit first
Standard Edition is licensed per node count, starting at $2,595 for 100 nodes and rising to $14,995 for 1,000 nodes
Enterprise Edition, which adds capacity planning and SLA reporting, is sold as an add-on starting at $4,690 for 100 nodes on top of the base license
Sitewide Edition for large distributed environments has no published price and requires contacting sales

PagerDuty

AIOps, status pages, and live call routing are expensive add-ons not included in base plans, significantly increasing total cost
Complex escalation policies require workarounds for scheduling patterns beyond basic weekly rotations
5-user minimum requirement forces costs even for small teams, with forced Business tier upgrades adding $12,000+ annually for larger teams

Pricing, plan by plan

Nagios XI

Free

Free EditionFree
- 7 nodes OR 100 services limit
- Self-supported only
Standard 100-Node$2595/perpetual
- 100 nodes
- First year includes support and upgrades
Standard 500-Node$8295/perpetual
- 500 nodes
- First year includes support and upgrades
Standard 1000-Node$14995/perpetual
- 1,000 nodes
- First year includes support and upgrades

PagerDuty

$21/month

No published plan breakdown. See the PagerDuty review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Nagios XI if

You want to start without paying.

Nagios XI review

Choose PagerDuty if

You need incident response.
You work on Web, Ios, Android, Api.
You also want on-call management.

PagerDuty review

Questions people ask

Is Nagios XI or PagerDuty better?: Neither clearly leads. Nagios XI starts at Free and PagerDuty at $21/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Nagios XI or PagerDuty?: Nagios XI has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Nagios XI and $21/month for PagerDuty.
Does Nagios XI or PagerDuty run on more platforms?: Nagios XI runs on Web. PagerDuty runs on Web, Ios, Android, Api.
Can I use Nagios XI for free?: Yes. Nagios XI has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. PagerDuty starts at $21/month.
What is Nagios XI best used for?: Nagios XI is most often used for monitoring servers, networks, and iot devices for status changes, detecting infrastructure problems before they cause outages, creating customizable dashboards for real-time it visibility, tracking sla compliance and generating capacity planning reports. Of those, monitoring servers, networks, and iot devices for status changes and detecting infrastructure problems before they cause outages are not what PagerDuty is typically brought in for.
What can Nagios XI do that PagerDuty cannot?: PagerDuty covers Incident response, On-call management, Alert grouping, Escalation policies.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Nagios XI: What is Nagios XI's pricing model?

Nagios XI uses perpetual licensing with one-time purchase costs based on node count, ranging from $2,595 for 100 nodes to $14,995 for 1,000 nodes.

Source

PagerDuty: What is the minimum cost to use PagerDuty?

PagerDuty requires a minimum of 5 users per account. The Professional plan starts at $21 per user per month ($105/month minimum), with annual billing providing 16% discount.

Source

Nagios XI: Is there a free version of Nagios XI?

Yes, Nagios XI Free Edition is available at no cost with a limit of 7 nodes or 100 services, whichever is reached first.

Source

PagerDuty: What integrations does PagerDuty support?

PagerDuty integrates with 750+ monitoring, ticketing, and collaboration tools including Datadog, Slack, Jira, ServiceNow, New Relic, and Nagios.

Source

Nagios XI: What is included with Nagios XI licensing?

Initial licenses include one year of free version upgrades, up to 10 support cases, and support portal access. Each license permits three installations: production, backup/failover, and testing/development.

Source

PagerDuty: How much does AIOps cost in PagerDuty?

AIOps Intelligence is sold separately as an add-on starting at $699 per month, and is not included in any of the base plans.

Source

Nagios XI vs PagerDuty

Nagios XI

PagerDuty

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Nagios XI

Only in PagerDuty

What people use each for

Nagios XI

PagerDuty

Where each one falls short

Nagios XI

PagerDuty

Pricing, plan by plan

Nagios XI

PagerDuty

Which should you pick?

Choose Nagios XI if

Choose PagerDuty if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Nagios XI

More on PagerDuty

Keep looking

Other head to heads