MRTG Alternatives – Which one would you choose?

Multi Router Traffic Grapher, abbreviated as MRTG is a reliable service for network monitoring that can poll and keep tabs on a network or a server through SNMP. Its core functionality servers on monitoring the bulk network traffic but as far as the extensive bells that many IT experts are in search for, it may quite lack that part. Hence to cater these drawbacks we are bringing some of the MRTG Alternatives that can be used as an open source service for extended functionality on network monitoring.

Now you must be wondering if MRTG is a reliable service for network monitoring why would network experts look for MRTG Alternatives? To answer this here are some of the MRTG drawbacks:

Graphical Interface is not updated and lacks intuitiveness
Multiple System Types are prone to Expandability and Scaling
Alerts and Notifications that cannot be customized
Software Updates every now and then

These are some of the feature based drawbacks as to why people are searching for MRTG Alternatives, for which we are now bringing you a list of suitable replacements below.

The Best of the Best MRTG Alternatives

1. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor

Solarwinds NPM consistently has managed to stay at the top of every list for a network monitor and same will be applied in the case of MRTG Alternatives. Solarwinds NPM have an extensive share in the network market and is regularly updated; it is no surprise that NPM stays at the top of the race of Network Monitoring and Management. Solarwinds has acclaimed proprietary technologies in their Network Performance monitoring system which will provide the users with an in depth analysis in the network and the bandwidth usage and then presents you this data in a way that can easily be comprehended.

It also has a tool for NetPath which will enable you to monitor and identify problems on each node of your network. Without this, hues work is what helped people identify the exact node hogging your bandwidth and assisting you in narrowing down the crucial path on your network traffic. From there on the problem solving is easy and you can instantly optimize your network in terms of its performance and speed.

NetPath hence is best visual source to identify the bandwidth bottleneck on a specific network – including data for the utility rates, lapses as tiny as milliseconds, loss in packet and hop count cab help you narrow down the issue instantly.

Download link:

[easy_media_download url=”https://www.solarwinds.com/network-performance-monitor?CMP=BIZ-TAD-PCWDLD-NPM_PP-NPM-PP-Q116″ target=”blank” text=”Download”]

The top features of Solarwinds NPM to be considered as an MRTG Alternative are:

Node by Node Network Analysis and Graphical representation of network traffic
Dynamic Mapping of the Network for both through Wi-Fi and Wired Networks
Ability to Monitor Wireless Networks
Ability to forecast networks and Set up for Crucial alerts
Availability Monitoring for detection of issues
Automatic Network Discovery and Instant Installation
User friendly interface that can be personalized
Capture and Sniff Network Packets
Ability to monitor hardware and set crucial alerts
Lowest system requirements to operate the NPM

Official Website: http://www.solarwinds.com/

Download Link:

[easy_media_download url=”https://www.solarwinds.com/network-performance-monitor?CMP=BIZ-TAD-PCWDLD-NPM_PP-NPM-PP-Q116″ target=”blank” text=”Download”]

2. ManageEngine OpManager

ManageEngine OpManager has definitely emerged as a top contender for network monitoring in the past years and has definitely made its mark as one of the efficient most MRTG Alternatives to monitor and graph out network traffic. OpManager has an extensive feature set which will be highly beneficial to any network infrastructure and would include all that MRTG lacks in general. Some of these features are listed below:

Ability to analyze Network Bandwidth
Can monitor both Server and Network
Manage logs for all the Perimeter devices such as Firewalls
Managing IP Addresses for their switches and configured network management
ManageEngine OpManager is giving a free version which can monitor almost 10 devices

Official Website: https://www.manageengine.com/

Download Link:

[easy_media_download url=”https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/?utm_source=N9518.2779005PCWDLD&utm_medium=website-cpm&utm_campaign=152275168&utm_content=322540666&utm_term=0″ target=”blank” text=”Download”]

3. Nagios Core

Nagios is a renowned network monitoring software among the IT community which is open source but also as a commercially available version known by the name of Core. It has made quite its position in the market and some of its top features are listed below:

Monitoring of Network Devices through SNMP, POP3, HTTP, PING, NNTP etc
Ability to monitor Hardware i.e. Hard Disk Usage, Loads on processor etc
Capability for Plug-ins with customizable add-ons and other plug-ins for extended checks
Defined Notifications set up according to your needs and likes
Auto Rotation of the Log Files
Graphical User Interface

Download Link:

[easy_media_download url=”https://www.nagios.org/projects/nagios-core/” target=”blank” text=”Download”]

4. Cacti

Cacti is an easy to get acquainted with kind of a network monitoring tool that is built on the Tools of RRD for mapping out the bandwidth usage graphically and other crucial components of network monitoring inside a basic GUI. Cacti is essentially constructed on PHP and has a supported SNMP built in as well for generating polls devices for SNMP data and for the updates of these RRD files.

To access complete information and fill features of Cacti, access their Official Site: http://www.cacti.net/features.php

5. Zabbix

Zabbix Network Monitor lets you keep tabs on a number of operating systems such as Linux, IBM AIX and Power8, FreeBSD, Net BSD, Open BSD, HP-UX, Max OSX, Solaris and Windows devices. It can also be used on old operating systems that aren’t Microsoft. For many experts this may not be a problem considering the capabilities and skills of a system based on Linux/Unix. The list of Zabbix Features includes the following:

Ability to monitor network devices agent-lessly!
Monitor VMware i.e. vSphere and vCenter
Capability to monitor database tools
Can monitor Java Applications such as jBoss, Tomcat and Oracle App Servers
Monitoring of Hardware components
Crucial Web Service monitoring
The Enterprise Systems can be scaled
It is open source and can be accessed for free whether for Commercial or Non-Commercial Use

Official Website: http://www.zabbix.com/

Downlaod Link:

[easy_media_download url=”http://www.zabbix.com/download” target=”blank” text=”Download”]

6. Munin

Munin just as MRTG is transcribed in PERL and makes use of the RRD Tool to graph out and keep tabs on network’s functionality. It can be installed on devices supporting Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Mandriva, Gentoo and for some of the versions of FreeBSD. Munin can keep tabs on any device you install it on even the Sans, Servers, and many Network devices.