Icingavs
LibreNMS
LibreNMS: For open source monitoring focused specifically on network devices with a different commercial support partner
Icinga
Open source infrastructure monitoring, free at its core, with paid support and modules sold separately by Icinga GmbH
As of 1 September 2026, Icinga is free to use. A fork of Nagios turned independent monitoring platform for hosts, services and infrastructure, free to run with no host or service limits. Softwr lists it under Networking. Icinga is made by Icinga GmbH, available on Linux, Web.
Overview
What Icinga does
Icinga monitors hosts, services and infrastructure with clustering, role-based access, an API, and integrations with tools like Grafana, Prometheus and InfluxDB for visualisation and time-series storage. Its architecture descends from Nagios but has diverged into an independently developed platform with its own configuration language and web interface (Icinga Web). The commercial structure worth being precise about is that the core Icinga platform, described by the project as the Forever Free Edition, has no licence fee and no limits on hosts or services monitored. Icinga GmbH, the company behind the project, separately sells three things: a repository subscription (around 5,000 euro/year) needed only if you want packages for certain enterprise Linux distributions such as RHEL or SLES, a module subscription (around 2,000 euro/year) for enterprise-only add-on modules, and a support subscription (starting around 15,000 euro/year) bundling both plus professional support. None of these are required to run Icinga in production on standard Linux distributions. Buyers who need the free core are IT teams comfortable operating open source monitoring themselves; buyers who need the paid subscriptions are organisations on RHEL or SLES wanting official packages, or ones wanting an SLA-backed support relationship rather than community forums. The trade-off against a fully commercial tool like PRTG is lower baseline cost in exchange for self-supported operation unless a support subscription is purchased.
What people use it for
- An IT team wanting unlimited-scale open source monitoring with no per-host licence fee, running standard Linux distributions
- An organisation on RHEL or SLES that wants officially packaged Icinga builds via the repository subscription rather than building from source
- A team wanting an SLA-backed vendor support relationship rather than relying on community forums for a production monitoring system
- A company already invested in Prometheus and Grafana wanting to add host and service-level alerting from a compatible open source tool
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Icinga.
- The free core has no vendor SLA, so production incidents are supported through community channels unless a paid support subscription is purchased
- Repository access for enterprise Linux distributions like RHEL and SLES is not free, so organisations standardised on those distributions face a real recurring cost most open source monitoring buyers do not expect
- Enterprise modules are gated behind a separate module subscription, so some functionality demonstrated in marketing material is not part of the free core
- Self-hosting and operating Icinga requires real Linux and monitoring expertise that a commercial SaaS tool would otherwise absorb, so total cost of ownership includes staff time not captured in the licence price
- Pricing for the paid subscriptions varies by geographic region and is not published as a single global rate card, complicating budgeting for multinational organisations
- The web interface and configuration language, while capable, are less immediately polished than a fully commercial tool like PRTG, and initial setup takes longer to reach a usable state
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Icinga
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- IcingavsPRTG Network Monitor
PRTG Network Monitor: For a fully commercial, sensor-licensed alternative with vendor support included in the price
Pricing
What Icinga costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Icinga
Free
- Unlimited hosts and services
- Clustering and API
- Community support
Support Subscription
On request
- Professional support (8x5 or 24/7)
- Includes module and repository subscriptions
Capabilities
Features
Forever Free core
Unlimited hosts and services with no licence fee for the core monitoring platform
Clustering and HA
Multi-node clustering for distributed and highly available monitoring setups
Icinga Web and API
Web interface and REST API for configuration, querying and automation
Enterprise modules (paid)
Add-on modules such as Dependency Views available under a separate module subscription
Integration ecosystem
Works with Grafana, Prometheus and InfluxDB for dashboards and time-series storage
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is Icinga free to run in production?
Yes, the core platform has no licence fee and no limit on hosts or services monitored.
What do the paid subscriptions actually add?
A repository subscription provides packages for certain enterprise Linux distributions, a module subscription unlocks enterprise-only add-on modules, and a support subscription bundles both with professional support.
Is Icinga related to Nagios?
Yes, it originated as a fork of Nagios but has since diverged into an independently developed platform.
Keep looking
Where to go from Icinga
- Icinga alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Icinga pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Icinga badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Networking softwareThe full category
- Best Networking softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Networking software for
Compare Icinga with
- LibreNMS
- PRTG Network Monitor
- Zabbix
- pfSense
- OpenVPN
- Traefik
- Eclipse Mosquitto
- Nebula
- Consul
- Auvik
- Domotz
- ThousandEyes
- Headscale
- HiveMQ
- Netdata
- OPNsense
- Domotz
- ThousandEyes
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Pricing on request11 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Icinga, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Icinga
Icinga alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Icinga pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Icinga
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