Cacti vs Observium: What are the differences?

Introduction

Cacti and Observium are both network monitoring tools that provide valuable insights into network performance and help in managing network devices. Although they serve a similar purpose, there are some key differences between the two.

1. User interface: Cacti has a simple and straightforward user interface that is easy to navigate. It provides basic monitoring capabilities and focuses more on graphing and generating reports. On the other hand, Observium offers a more advanced and intuitive user interface with a modern design. It provides more comprehensive monitoring features and real-time data visualization.

2. Device support: Cacti is more focused on SNMP devices and provides extensive support for monitoring network devices that use SNMP protocols. It offers a wide range of templates to monitor various types of devices. In contrast, Observium supports a broader array of protocols, including SNMP, WMI, and more. This allows it to monitor not only network devices but also servers, operating systems, applications, and other infrastructure components.

3. Alerting features: Cacti has limited alerting capabilities and lacks advanced features for setting up customized alert rules. It provides basic threshold-based alerts but lacks monitoring based on complex conditions. In contrast, Observium offers more robust and flexible alerting features. It allows users to define complex alert rules based on multiple conditions, event correlation, and notification methods.

4. Scalability: Cacti is known for its scalability and can handle a large number of devices and data sources efficiently. It can be scaled horizontally by distributing the load across multiple pollers and web servers. Observium, while scalable to a certain extent, may face performance issues when dealing with a vast number of devices and high-frequency polling. It is better suited for smaller to medium-sized networks.

5. Community support: Cacti has been around for a longer time and has a larger user community. This means there is more extensive documentation and community support available. It also means there are more plugins and templates developed by the community that can enhance the functionality of Cacti. Observium, while still popular, has a smaller user community and fewer external resources.

6. Pricing: Cacti is an open-source tool and is available for free. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License. Observium, on the other hand, offers both open-source and commercial versions. The commercial version provides additional features, support, and updates, but it comes at a cost. The pricing of Observium depends on the number of devices being monitored.

In summary, Cacti and Observium differ in terms of user interface, device support, alerting features, scalability, community support, and pricing. Cacti focuses more on basic monitoring and graphing, while Observium offers advanced features, broader protocol support, and more modern user interface.