Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

SCOM VS Zabbix

Compare SCOM VS Zabbix and see what are their differences

SCOM logo SCOM

Application Performance Management

Zabbix logo Zabbix

Track, record, alert and visualize performance and availability of IT resources
  • SCOM Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-23
  • Zabbix Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-10-02

SCOM features and specs

  • Comprehensive Monitoring
    SCOM offers extensive monitoring capabilities for a wide range of Microsoft and non-Microsoft environments, ensuring robust visibility into system performance, health, and availability.
  • Integration with Microsoft Ecosystem
    Seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft products like Windows Server, Azure, and Active Directory, providing a unified management experience and leveraging existing investments in Microsoft technology.
  • Customizable Management Packs
    Allows users to create and deploy custom management packs for specialized monitoring scenarios, enabling flexibility in how systems and applications are monitored based on specific business needs.
  • Scalability
    SCOM is designed to scale to meet the needs of large organizations by supporting thousands of agents in distributed environments, making it suitable for monitoring extensive IT infrastructures.
  • Alerting and Notification
    Provides robust alerting and notification features that allow IT teams to respond quickly to issues, minimizing downtime and supporting proactive management practices.

Possible disadvantages of SCOM

  • Complex Setup and Configuration
    The installation and configuration process for SCOM can be quite complex, requiring significant time and resources to set up correctly, especially in large environments.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    Due to its comprehensive feature set and complexity, SCOM can have a steep learning curve, demanding ongoing training and expertise for effective management and utilization.
  • Resource Intensive
    SCOM can be resource-heavy, necessitating substantial investment in hardware and possibly impacting performance, particularly in smaller or resource-constrained environments.
  • High Cost
    The licensing and operational costs associated with SCOM can be high, potentially making it less cost-effective for smaller organizations or those with limited IT budgets.
  • Complex Customization
    While customization is a powerful feature, it can also introduce complexity and require specialized knowledge, potentially complicating maintenance and upgrades.

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.

SCOM videos

Webinar: What's new in SCOM 2019

More videos:

  • Review - 🎓⭐️ Learning Path: Managing Infrastructures with Microsoft SCOM Review
  • Review - REVIEW HT SCOM UV-7R Daya Pancar Jauh dengan Antena Telex V2R

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 SCOM and Zabbix)
Monitoring Tools
2 2%
98% 98
Log Management
3 3%
97% 97
Performance Monitoring
Testing
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using SCOM and Zabbix. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

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

SCOM Reviews

We have no reviews of SCOM yet.
Be the first one to post

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.

SCOM mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of SCOM yet. Tracking of SCOM 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 SCOM 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.

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

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

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.

LogicMonitor - LogicMonitor is the SaaS performance monitoring platform for the world's best IT teams. Deploy Fast, Monitor More, Improve Ops.

Paessler - PRTG Network Monitor is a network monitoring and infrastructure management tool. It lets network administrators monitor devices such as access points, routers and switches. Read more about PRTG.