FortiMonitor vs Zabbix comparison

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FortiMonitor

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Zabbix and FortiMonitor compete in network monitoring solutions. Zabbix has favorable pricing and support, while FortiMonitor is advantageous with advanced features and scalability.

Features: Zabbix offers comprehensive monitoring for servers, applications, and networks. It features a customizable dashboard and strong reporting capabilities. FortiMonitor integrates seamlessly with the cloud and provides advanced automation, ideal for dynamic IT environments.

Room for Improvement: Zabbix could enhance its cloud integration and streamline its user interface. FortiMonitor might improve in terms of cost-effectiveness for smaller businesses and expand its support for additional non-cloud infrastructures.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zabbix provides a detailed installation process with community support, requiring more initial technical expertise. FortiMonitor offers easy cloud deployment with professional customer service, making it accessible for businesses of various sizes.

Pricing and ROI: Zabbix is open-source, offering minimal initial investment but potential additional costs for professional support. FortiMonitor has a higher upfront cost but provides solid ROI with its enhanced features and scalable architecture. Zabbix suits budget-conscious buyers, while FortiMonitor justifies its expense through comprehensive solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed FortiMonitor vs. Zabbix Report (Updated: September 2026).

FortiMonitor vs. Zabbix

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Helped 917,433 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

FortiMonitor

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

32nd

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

41st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Alerting and Incident Management (18th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (10th)

Zabbix

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

1st

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

110

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (10th), Server Monitoring (1st), Cloud Monitoring Software (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of FortiMonitor is 0.7%, down from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zabbix is 3.7%, down from 11.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Zabbix	3.7%
FortiMonitor	0.7%
Other	95.6%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

reviewer2677554

Network Engineer III at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Managing diverse networks with detailed alerts enhances device oversight

FortiManager is very helpful in managing our networks. We use it to manage 20 farms and various networks with hundreds of devices. The version we are using provides more detail than the older dashboard. We appreciate the alerting capabilities, which are integrated with SolarWinds to notify our team via SMS.

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Priya Jaiswar

Developer at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Unified monitoring has reduced outages and enables proactive fixes with automated remediation

My favorite best feature is the ability to manage complex hybrid environments from a single dashboard. Zabbix natively supports monitoring everything from Linux servers and Windows servers to network devices and cloud infrastructure. The view I rely on the most on a day-to-day basis is a custom dashboard combining the problem widget and graph widget. The problem widget gives me an immediate filtered snapshot of the active alerts across all our servers. I pair that with the graph widget, which allows me to track performance metrics and compare values over time, such as monitoring storage and capacity trends on our Synology appliance. Having all of this in a single pane of glass saves me from constantly digging through logs. I also rely heavily on custom dashboards that combine the problem widget and the top host widget. The problem widget gives me an immediate filtered list of any active alerts across the entire environment. I pair that with the top host widget, which instantly shows me which servers are consuming the highest resources. Having all of these related metrics side-by-side in a single view allows me to spot the issue and identify the exact server causing it without having to dig through separate tools. Zabbix has built-in machine learning for continuous anomaly detection and proactive trend prediction. It establishes a baseline by analyzing historical data, allowing it to forecast impending issues, such as predicting exactly when a system will run out of resources before critical thresholds are breached. From a governance and security perspective, it delivers enterprise-grade security by supporting full data encryption and integration with external secret vaults to protect sensitive credentials. From a governance perspective, it features detailed configuration change tracking and role-based user permissions, which allows administrators to secure different teams or tenants within a single environment. Regarding accuracy, Zabbix's proactive alerts are highly accurate and trustworthy, provided they are fed enough historical data to establish a solid baseline. Regarding reliability and output, the prediction outputs are extremely reliable because Zabbix relies on transparent statistical mathematics, such as standard deviation and weighted moving averages, rather than a closed black box AI model. The straightforward statistical approach allows administrators to forecast value reliability and predict exactly how much time they have before a system reaches a critical problem threshold.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The most valuable feature of FortiMonitor is the overall ability to monitor the health of the environment."

"FortiMonitor has a very intuitive dashboard, which makes it particularly helpful for analyzing traffic, alerts, and other information."

"Overall, I would recommend FortiMonitor to others."

"The tool continuously improves, adapting to support new vendors and technologies. Importantly, it automates the process, triggering alerts when devices require attention, and eliminating the need for manual intervention."

"The most valuable feature of FortiMonitor is user monitoring, as we are able to see if the user is following the policy or not from their system, and additionally the solution integrates well with Fortinet FortiGate and has centralized management."

"FortiMonitor is 100% stable."

"FortiMonitor's dashboard is very informative and user-friendly."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is what the devices are used for. We have big backups for our Cradlepoint solutions, but FortiMonitor is a great routing device and we love working with them."

More FortiMonitor pros

"It has improved our server performance monitoring overall. We know right away when there are problems. It has built-in statistics, so we can go back and see if there's spiking. We can check what's happening every day around the same time and check the configuration to see if there's something that's running and needs to be fixed."

"Zabbix is an excellent performance monitoring tool."

"It meets my organizational needs. It's pretty easy to use."

"We like the user-interface for this solution, which makes it an easy to use tool."

"Zabbix is scalable."

"I like being able to use proxy servers for different locations. The agents are pretty cool. They're easy to roll out. The standard out-of-the-box templates are also pretty easy to use. The integration with other learning products is also good. I have, in the past, used Slack, but we've integrated it with Microsoft Teams. We also use it for SMS with a service called Redcoat. It is very flexible. It does what I need it to do, and my manager is very happy because it doesn't cost anything. We are nearing 4,000 hosts inside Zabbix, and we've got another 6,000 access points to add to it. We've thrown everything at it, and it has managed to keep going. I am very impressed with the tool, and I'd shake their hand very hard if I got to say the compliments to the Zabbix team. They keep improving it and doing refreshes, which is one good thing about it. There is also online information as well as books that you can purchase if you're willing to read enough. There is a lot to pick up, but it is a pretty complete solution."

"This is a stable product."

"Implementing Zabbix is very easy; the implementation is easy, and I'm monitoring all devices while creating new templates and changing thresholds, and I think Zabbix is the best."

More Zabbix pros

Cons

"There are areas for improvement that FortiManager is addressing."

"FortiMonitor needs to improve its alert system."

"The solution's initial setup process is time-consuming."

"FortiMonitor's monitoring could be much better. It should be like, in Palo Alto."

"FortiMonitor could improve by having compatibility with other operating systems, such as Linux."

". Enhancements in the dashboard, such as clearer alerting, maintenance window management, software version tracking, and better visualization, would be beneficial."

"Sometimes, during high CPU usage, we cannot access FortiMonitor and must refresh it."

"For our type of country, it is always expensive, but it has competitive pricing."

More FortiMonitor cons

"I want Zabbix to improve the UX/UI. Zabbix doesn't use a JavaScript chart for images, and I want them to improve this."

"Zabbix is not suitable for large networks with 1,000+ nodes, due to PHP performance and Web GUI limitations"

"Documentation terminology could be improved."

"When using this solution in enterprise monitoring, you are able to see that there are some issues with equipment that could be causing a problem. Sometimes you want to make a root command that you do not want to be executed automatically. What we have tried to do is open an SSH session directly from the solution's interface but it is not possible."

"I am not giving them a higher rating because they don't have analytics."

"When it comes to troubleshooting or technical support, there is usually some time lag."

"I think the reporting part of Zabbix can be improved in terms of more user-friendly graphics to display the collected data. Many simple users who don't know how to use Zabbix properly might get confused by the reporting, although at the same time it is very versatile for my company."

"The solution needs to add features for finding loopholes or problems and their root causes."

More Zabbix cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a large customer base for Fortinet, and the additional buying power got us really great discounts."

"In terms of licensing, while it may not be the most expensive option on the market, it's relatively cost-effective. You can obtain licenses at a lower cost, with the calculation being straightforward. For example, if you onboard around 5,000 devices, you'll need approximately 5,000 licenses, as each device typically counts as one license."

"Compared to other solutions, FortiMonitor is a very expensive solution."

"There are additional costs needed for certain functionality, such as scalability."

"On a scale from one to ten, I rate the pricing a nine since it is a good solution that is available at a cheap price."

"The price of FortiMonitor is approximately $200 annually for 225 users. The price is competitive."

"The tool's pricing model in Vietnam is a bit high. I rate the product price as an eight out of ten."

"FortiMonitor's price is very high."

"The tool's licensing is good."

"I use the tool's free version."

"There is a license required for this solution and we pay annually for our license."

"This is an open-source solution that can be used free of charge."

"It’s free of cost."

"We are using the free, open-source version."

"I was using the free, Community Edition."

"We purchased Zabbix for a good price, including support"

More Zabbix pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.

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917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Comparison Review

it_user174738

IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

May 31, 2015

Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor

I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

Healthcare Company

Construction Company

Comms Service Provider

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	56
Midsize Enterprise	24
Large Enterprise	35

Questions from the Community

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

I have a clear bias because I work for Panopta. We aren't a fit for everyone, but I can confirm that Panopta is a lot less work to stand up and maintain. It's also a lot easier to use and onboard n...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FortiMonitor?

FortiMonitor does save time but not significantly on costs, as there are still expenses related to procurement, installation, and licensing.

What needs improvement with FortiMonitor?

There are areas for improvement that FortiManager is addressing. We have not yet upgraded to the latest software versions, being a full revision behind, but we plan to update soon since the current...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zabbix?

I think Zabbix is economical, whereas SolarWinds is expensive. SolarWinds has a lot of secure features, but Zabbix is providing everything free of cost. Zabbix is economical, and you can install it...

What needs improvement with Zabbix?

I am using only Area Operations, but I don't prefer it. I installed Zabbix for the 3000 devices. Area Operations is not good.

What is your primary use case for Zabbix?

I am still working with VMware and Area Operations, but I installed Zabbix now. I think Zabbix is better than VMware Area Operations. It's really good. I'm working with both Zabbix and VMware now.

PRTG Network Monitor vs FortiMonitor

Comparisons

Compared 5% of the time

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor vs FortiMonitor

Compared 5% of the time

ThousandEyes vs FortiMonitor

Compared 5% of the time

PagerDuty Operations Cloud vs FortiMonitor

Compared 4% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs FortiMonitor

Compared 4% of the time

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Nagios XI vs Zabbix

Compared 2% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Zabbix

Compared 2% of the time

Checkmk vs Zabbix

Compared 2% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Zabbix

Compared 2% of the time

BMC TrueSight vs Zabbix

Compared 2% of the time

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Product Reports

Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)

Download FortiMonitor product report

Download Zabbix product report

Also Known As

Panopta

No data available

Overview

FortiMonitor excels in user monitoring and network operations, with its central management and intuitive dashboard. Known for reducing administrative costs and enhancing security awareness, it also provides seamless integration with other devices.

FortiMonitor supports dual-factor authentication, alert systems, and system health monitoring, proving essential for technical teams managing infrastructures and FortiGate activities. Despite its benefits, there are areas like compatibility and pricing where improvements are sought. It offers high-level monitoring, customizable dashboards, and alert capabilities which are critical in busy environments, especially for detecting harmful activities and ensuring efficient CPU utilization.

What features enhance FortiMonitor's efficiency?

User Monitoring: Monitors end users and logs effectively.
Traffic Analysis: Offers comprehensive insights into network traffic.
Dual-factor Authentication: Enhances security with two-step verification.
Centralized Management: Streamlines operations with an intuitive dashboard.
Proactive Alerts: Provides redundancy and instant notifications for potential issues.
Seamless Integration: Easily integrates with other devices for continuity.

What benefits and ROI should be evaluated?

Cost Reduction: Lowers administrative costs significantly.
Security Awareness: Improves security management efficiency.
Data Continuity: Ensures continuous operations with automated vendor configuration.
Efficiency Gains: Adapts to new vendors and enhances CPU utilization.

FortiMonitor is widely implemented in industries for end-user monitoring, security tracking, and infrastructure management. It's crucial for environments needing high-level monitoring and identifying hardware problems, where proactive management and customizable dashboards are key to maintaining operations.

Fortinet

Zabbix is an open-source monitoring software that provides real-time monitoring and alerting for servers, networks, applications, and services.

It offers a wide range of features including data collection, visualization, and reporting.

With its user-friendly interface and customizable dashboards, Zabbix helps organizations ensure the availability and performance of their IT infrastructure.

Sample Customers

SONY, GoDaddy, HCL, ING, ARMOR, billboard

1. IBM 2. Dell 3. Cisco 4. HP 5. Oracle 6. Microsoft 7. Amazon 8. Google 9. Facebook 10. Twitter 11. LinkedIn 12. Netflix 13. Adobe 14. VMware 15. Salesforce 16. SAP 17. Intel 18. AT&T 19. Verizon 20. T-Mobile 21. Vodafone 22. Ericsson 23. Nokia 24. Siemens 25. General Electric 26. Honeywell 27. Philips 28. Sony 29. Samsung 30. LG 31. Panasonic 32. Toshiba

FortiMonitor vs. Zabbix