Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Cacti VS Zabbix

Compare Cacti VS Zabbix and see what are their differences

Cacti logo Cacti

Cacti is a complete network graphing solution. It provides a fast poller, advanced graph templating, multiple data acquisition methods, and user management features.

Zabbix logo Zabbix

Track, record, alert and visualize performance and availability of IT resources
  • Cacti Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-04-12
  • Zabbix Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-10-02

Cacti features and specs

  • Open Source
    Cacti is free to use and its source code is open for modification, providing flexibility and cost savings for users.
  • Scalability
    Cacti can handle large amounts of data and scale to monitor numerous devices, making it suitable for both small and large networks.
  • Customization
    Users can create custom reports and graphs to suit specific needs, allowing a tailored monitoring experience.
  • SNMP Support
    Cacti supports the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), enabling it to collect data from a wide range of network devices.
  • Community and Plug-ins
    Cacti has an active community that contributes plugins and extensions, enhancing its functionality and providing support.

Possible disadvantages of Cacti

  • Complex Setup
    Initial setup and configuration can be complex, requiring a steep learning curve for new users.
  • Outdated Interface
    The user interface may appear outdated and less intuitive compared to other modern monitoring tools.
  • Performance
    As the amount of monitored data increases, the performance of Cacti can degrade, necessitating optimization or more robust hardware.
  • Limited Real-Time Monitoring
    Cacti primarily focuses on historical data and may not be as effective for real-time monitoring needs.
  • Dependence on Third-Party Tools
    Some features and functionalities may rely on third-party plugins, which can affect stability and introduce compatibility issues.

Zabbix features and specs

  • Open-source
    Zabbix is free and open-source, allowing for extensive customization and modification to meet specific needs without licensing costs.
  • Scalability
    Zabbix can handle a large number of devices and data points, making it suitable for both small businesses and large enterprises.
  • Comprehensive Monitoring
    Zabbix offers a wide range of monitoring capabilities including servers, networks, cloud services, and applications.
  • Alerting and Notification
    It provides robust alerting mechanisms, allowing notifications via email, SMS, and other methods.
  • Flexible Configuration
    The system allows for detailed and flexible configuration, accommodating various specific monitoring requirements.
  • Extensive API
    Zabbix comes with a comprehensive API that allows for integration with third-party tools and custom automation scripts.
  • Strong Community Support
    As an open-source project, Zabbix has a strong community that can provide support and share best practices.

Possible disadvantages of Zabbix

  • Complex Setup and Configuration
    Initial setup and configuration can be complicated and time-consuming, often requiring a steep learning curve.
  • Resource Intensive
    Zabbix can be resource-intensive, particularly on the database side, which might require substantial hardware resources for large deployments.
  • User Interface
    The user interface is considered less modern and user-friendly compared to some commercial alternatives.
  • Documentation
    While comprehensive, the documentation can sometimes be difficult to navigate for new users.
  • Maintenance Effort
    Ongoing maintenance, such as updates and troubleshooting, can be labor-intensive.
  • Dependency on MySQL
    The heavy reliance on MySQL databases can be a disadvantage for users preferring other database technologies.
  • Initial Costs for Large Scale Deployments
    Although the software is free, the costs associated with setting up and maintaining the necessary infrastructure and hardware can be significant, especially for larger deployments.

Cacti videos

CALINE Crazy Cacti Overdrive CP-20 Pedal Review - Syuwari Ritchie

More videos:

  • Review - Caline Crazy Cacti Overdrive Pedal
  • Review - DONT HUG CACTI Fursuit Review!
  • Demo - Introduction to Cacti | The primary features of Cacti

Zabbix videos

An overview of Zabbix 4.0 and how we are using it.

More videos:

  • Review - Zabbix Monitoring Solution - Overview
  • Review - ZABBIX Network Discovery For Dynamic Deployments

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Cacti and Zabbix)
Monitoring Tools
7 7%
93% 93
Log Management
10 10%
90% 90
Performance Monitoring
12 12%
88% 88
Network Monitoring
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Cacti and Zabbix

Cacti Reviews

The Best Cacti Monitoring Alternatives
Cacti is one of the most popular open-source network monitoring tools. Cacti allows you to monitor various metrics and look at them from its user-friendly, modern dashboard. Although it has a relatively steep learning curve, many businesses have chosen to make Cacti their network monitoring solution of choice.
The Best Open Source Network Monitoring Tools in 2023
Description: Cacti is an open source network monitoring tool based on RRDTool’s data logging and graphing system. The tool uses network polling and data collection functionality to gather information on devices on networks of any size. This includes the ability to design custom scripts for data collection alongside support for SNMP polling. It then displays this information...
10 Best Open Source Monitoring Software for IT Infrastructure
Cacti is another open-source network monitoring tool that can be installed on Linux or Windows OS. It is connected to RRDTool, which allows us to generate graphs related to relevant network data.
Source: geekflare.com
Best Open Source Network Monitoring Tools and Software (Linux/Windows)
For example, there are many other open source monitoring tools that exist such as OpenNMS, Cacti, and Zennos and you have to consider the benefits of each one from the perspective of your requirement.
Best Linux Network Monitoring Tools for 2020
Cacti has been around for nearly 20 years, and it’s one of the most prominent names in open-source network monitoring software. Cacti allows multiple users to monitor network devices and log network data, and it offers privacy settings to determine which users have access to what items. It also visualizes data by using RRDTool, a data logging and graphing software. Cacti’s...

Zabbix Reviews

  1. Stan
    · Founder at SaaSHub ·
    Indispensable

    Zabbix has been part of my toolbox for quite some time. I can easily say it's an indispensable tool for me now.

    Managing a dozen servers without Zabbix would be unimaginable. I'm monitoring all of this: CPU, Memory, Hard-drives, website response times, downtime. The UI might be a bit "old school", but everything works flawlessly.

    With regards to hard-drive monitoring, I love the machine learning option that allows you to "predict" the number of days before running out of space. That's quite helpful, as I've got some of my servers down due to running out of space multiple times in the past (before I was using Zabbix).

    👍 Pros:    Open-source|It can monitor everything
    👎 Cons:    The ui is a bit unintuitive in some cases

Self Hosting Like Its 2025
If you’re looking for straightforward monitoring and the thought of setting up a full Zabbix or Grafana stack seems daunting, this software is a real lifesaver. With just one deployment, you can monitor your services and receive notifications through a wide variety of channels including…
Source: kiranet.org
11 Best Nagios Alternatives (Free & Open Source) in 2024
Unlimited scaling: Zabbix is a flexible software that lets you monitor anything you want. It is highly scalable as it helps you manage both multi-tenant enterprise environments and your home.
Source: www.guru99.com
The Best Nagios Alternatives for Server, Application and Network Monitoring
Zabbix is a very strong competitor to Nagios and its development is very encouraging. Zabbix is completely free to use, which makes it a competitor to Nagios Core. Zabbix beats Nagios in the free monitoring market because it has a good frontend, which Nagios Core lacks and it also provides NetFlow monitoring, which isn’t present in Nagios Core – that is a separate paid...
The 10 Best Nagios Alternatives in 2024 (Paid and Open-source)
Zabbix, a widely adopted open-source monitoring tool, offers a range of practical features. It allows you to monitor various aspects of your system, including transactions, application performance, and real browser monitoring. With ready-to-use templates for different servers and operating systems, Zabbix simplifies the monitoring process.
Source: betterstack.com
Top 11 Grafana Alternatives & Competitors [2024]
Zabbix offers a unified view of the entire IT infrastructure through its user-friendly web-based interface. It delivers potent visualization capabilities through customizable dashboards, complemented by robust alerting mechanisms and comprehensive support for alert escalations.
Source: signoz.io

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Zabbix seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 5 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Cacti mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Cacti yet. Tracking of Cacti recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Zabbix mentions (5)

  • Learning Resources
    Official Zabbix trainings, documentation on zabbix.com ? Source: over 2 years ago
  • zabbix installation
    Hallo, do you know a howto to install zabbix on an ubuntu 20.04 ? I tried the manuals from zabbix.com for MySQL Apache but it didn't work. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • How I am getting experience as a linux admistrator (Follow Up)
    He suggested that I indeed should set up a home-lab. To be specific he said that I should create a minimal install of Centos 8 and install zabbix server on it (https://zabbix.com) and monitor a whole bunch of other VMs, services and stuff.. He said that I should set up a variety of VMs and also maybe host a website on one of them. And then if I was able to do that, I could help to share a load of zabbix related... Source: about 3 years ago
  • Ubuntu Impish 21.10 / Zabbix 6.0 LTS
    This is a fresh 21.10 install, using the install repo as detailed on the zabbix.com download page. Source: about 3 years ago
  • One dev conference speaker's family member died, need your help to fill the speaking slot on Nov 27/28
    Well, if you can't find anyone, I am more than happy to fill the slot with something regarding Zabbix - just let me know ;). Source: over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Cacti and Zabbix, you can also consider the following products

Datadog - See metrics from all of your apps, tools & services in one place with Datadog's cloud monitoring as a service solution. Try it for free.

Paessler PRTG - An advanced network monitoring solution to monitor network up/downtime, traffic and usage.

Nagios - Complete monitoring and alerting for servers, switches, applications, and services

Wireshark - Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer for Unix and Windows. It lets you capture and interactively browse the traffic running on a computer network.

Dynatrace - Cloud-based quality testing, performance monitoring and analytics for mobile apps and websites. Get started with Keynote today!

NewRelic - New Relic is a Software Analytics company that makes sense of billions of metrics across millions of apps. We help the people who build modern software understand the stories their data is trying to tell them.