There are dozens of open source server monitoring software out there but many server administrators are sometimes faced with the challenge of which one to go for. Granted, these software do what they are advertised to do but the big question is this: would you choose an open source software over a paid software?
When you consider the cost, you might decide to go for an open source solution instead of a paid software or cloud monitoring. However, there are times when server administrators end up getting frustrated with open source software and you can’t really complain anyway… because its open source and totally free.
As you might have known already, there are several advantages paid server monitoring software has over open source solutions and some of them are highlighted below.
1. You get adequate support & proper documentation
Unfortunately, you hear quite a lot of Nagios (and other free server monitoring software users) complaining of not getting enough support. One of the problem with these programs is that they’re mostly written by volunteers and there may not be enough people on ground dedicated to helping server administrators with issues they’re facing. It sometimes leads to frustration.
2. Easier to set up & manage
Most paid server monitoring software companies always try as much as possible to make setup and management extremely easy. The main reason they do is is to keep customers and ensure competitors don’t have that edge over them. For instance, Power Admin monitoring software can be set up within a few minutes. As a matter of fact, it is advertised on their website that the time taken to download the software, configure and start monitoring is just around 8 minutes.
3. Saves time & effort leading to better productivity
With all things in place, you get to save a lot of time and effort. From a pretty easy setup to clearly detailed management console, you would realize you spend less time trying to figure out problems you shouldn’t even worry about in the first place.
4. More OS Support
Paid server monitoring tools often offer more OS support compared to open source solutions. In most cases, you can monitor Linux or Windows server as well as devices using the same software.
5. Scalability
If your enterprise is bound to get bigger, you might have issues when your IT department has to go to the next level. Imagine when you have to monitor just 10 websites only to realize it becomes a matter of hundreds of websites in a matter of months. You monitoring solution should be able to accommodate these changes.
This article does not in anyway try to ridicule all the effort those wonderful volunteers put into creating open source software monitoring tools that are readily available to use for everyone at no cost at all, but the fact remains that sometimes, it’s better to rely on paid solutions if the options are properly weighed.
