Pandora FMS vs. Zabbix
Saturated with maintaining proxies, dashboards and scripts in Zabbix?
Pandora FMS is not just another piece of the puzzle: it is the complete solution that unifies everything that Zabbix leaves half-finished.
Companies around the world have already simplified their monitoring with Pandora FMS. Are you going to continue to be trapped in a system that is never complete?
Price comparison
How much can you save?
Save more with Pandora FMS: no hidden costs or sensor restrictions.
Pay only for what you need, with no limitations on the scalability of your monitoring.
version
PANDORA FMS
Up to 50 nodes
año
no limit of agents
without support
devices
PANDORA FMS
2.352€
year
6.490 €
support per server per year
devices
PANDORA FMS
9.144€
year
6.490 €
support per server per year
devices
PANDORA FMS
16.033€
year
6.490 €
support per server per year
*Zabbix as a software is free, the price shown here is for a Gold support (8×5) which only covers a server that can support between 500 and 2000 agents. Therefore the price is the same for all levels. For deployments with more agents, you would have to add the cost of support for each server. The price shown corresponds to figures published by one of Zabbix’s partners (OpenSource ICT Solutions). Pandora FMS license price includes online training, Zabbix does not.
Advantages and limitations of each solution
Pandora FMS
- Full-stack monitoring with a single tool.
- Includes advanced features such as RMM, log collectionremote control, asset management. All in one.
- Customizable dashboards without relying on Grafana or other tools.
- Business-oriented reporting, service mapping (BPM) and views by SLA SLA.
- Allows non-technical teams to have visibility without scripting.
- It scales naturally thanks to its native distributed model and a centralized console (command central) designed to unify the management of multiple nodes.
- Centralized management from the console without the need for scripts, external files or “custom-made” integrations. It is 100% no-code.
- Direct commercial support in Spanish from the manufacturer.
- Unified and transparent licensingYou pay for actual usage, not for the number of servers or proxies.
- Focused on securityPerfect for regulatory compliance, and with many security features (2FA, Internal Audit, Encrypted DB, password policy).
- New monitoring can be created using existing scripts. They allow total freedom to integrate almost anything, not just “pure” IT environments.
Zabbix
- Visually powerful dashboards.
- Low sampling frequency in network check.
- Large community of users worldwide.
- Access to and modification of the source code (it is Opensource).
- It has a powerful API for automations.
- It is highly scalable and does not require additional products.
- It has a very active and global community.
- There are thousands of publicly shared templates, scripts and solutions.
- There is a wealth of unofficial documentation, forums and tutorials available in multiple languages.
- It is completely free of charge in all its main functionalities.
- There is no closed Enterprise version: all code is accessible.
- Ideal for organizations with DevOps teams that prefer to customize everything.
- It supports thousands of distributed nodes, although its configuration is completely manual, it allows complex architectures segmented by client, region or segment.
Pandora FMS
- Although it has an OpenSource and free version, it is more oriented to the commercial environment, which limits its visibility in user forums.
- Higher licensing costs than Zabbix (but not total costs).
- It offers a lot of built-in functionality, but that means a steeper curve for new users.
- There are fewer professionals in the market who know Pandora FMS, especially outside Europe.
Zabbix
- Open source system for basic monitoring, it does not include network monitoringIt does not have network monitoring, automatic network mapping, service trees, event console or log collection, to name a few.
- Theoretical scalability, but dependent on manual tuning and complex architectures to maintain over time.
- Lack of integration of advanced functions (requires plugins, scripts or external tools).
- Support in Spanish is through third party partners.
Why Pandora FMS?
Pandora FMS is a modern, all-in-one solution that eliminates fragmentation and reduces technical effort.
Clear and predictable licensing. More transparent than the fragmented Zabbix ecosystem + support + additional tools.
Simpler distributed architecture with less maintenance.
In medium environments (500-1000 nodes), Pandora is usually ~25% cheaper in the long term compared to support + technical effort.
Ideal for companies that can’t afford to “script everything” or spend hours on tuning.
Comparative ratings
(G2 – March 2025)
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Typical use cases
Pandora FMS
- Real-time Business Process Monitoring (BPM)
– It allows modeling and monitoring of complex services such as order flows, web portals, ERPs or CRMs. CRMs.
– Clear visibility for business and IT teams at the same time. - Regulatory compliance and auditing in public agencies
– Integration with ENS, ISO 27001, NIS2 and other regulations.
– Automatic audits, change management, activity logs and document control from the same platform.
– Ideal for public administrations, banking or regulated sectors. - MSPs (Managed Service Providers)
– Native multi-tenant architecture, with separate consoles per client, granular roles and permissions.
– Automatic SLA reporting and dozens of integrated customer reports.
– It allows you to offer managed monitoring services without having to build your own solution from scratch. - Large-scale mixed and heterogeneous environments
– Unified monitoring of Windows, Linux, Mac, cloud, mainframes, IoT, virtualization, etc.
– Supports hybrid and multi-tenant architectures without loss of performance or visibility.
– Scalable to over 25,000 real nodes without extreme tuning.
– Support for hybrid cloud, transactional monitoring (UX), availability
– Recommended for enterprises with multiple sites and technologies. - Remote control, IT asset management and ITSM
– Integrated RMM (Remote Monitoring and Management) functionality: remote control, patch management, inventory, etc.
– Eliminates the need to use additional tools such as AnyDesk, Lansweeper, TeamViewer or JIRA.
– Very useful for internal technical support and corporate IT departments.
Zabbix
- DevOps environments with infrastructure as code
– Use of Zabbix in CI/CD pipelines with tools such as Ansible, Terraform or Jenkins.
– Dynamic configuration via Zabbix API and auto-provisioning.
– Ideal for companies with a GitOps approach that need to integrate monitoring as part of the infrastructure lifecycle. - Integration with external visualization solutions
– Use in conjunction with Grafana for advanced dashboards and with Prometheus as an additional data source.
– It allows you to create customized solutions for internal customers or specific projects, with rich visualizations in technical environments. - Advanced laboratories and test environments
– In universities, research centers or R&D departments that require high control and customization.
– It allows you to experiment without license cost and to modify any aspect of the system. - Technical platforms with a focus on custom scripting
– Ideal for sysadmins and technical teams who prefer to create their own checks with UserParameters, External scripts and complex triggers.
– Used in sectors where very specialized monitoring is required (e.g. HPC, telecommunications, customized industrial automation). - Integration with Linux/Open Source ecosystems
– Installed alongside typical open source stacks (PostgreSQL, Nginx, HAProxy, Docker, etc.).
– Easy to include in environments with a 100% free and self-managed philosophy, without depending on commercial solutions or external support.
Real cases
User feedback
Hundreds of companies have already migrated from Zabbix to Pandora FMS to simplify their monitoring and gain real visibility. Single license, expert support and a centralized console for your entire environment.
“Pandora FMS offers multiple tools that allow us to effectively monitor and manage our technological structure. Its platform is easy to use and adapts to our needs. In addition, the software works with a wide variety of devices and services (including servers, networks, applications and web services), making it perfect for us as internet providers, thus ensuring the availability and performance of our servers.”
Christian N. – Occupational Safety Supervisor
“I can say that with Zabbix we can monitor practically everything on the computer network, such as UPS, servers, temperature control, ports, applications, services, data centers, web sites, etc. In other words, it monitors/manages everything with Ethernet – its flexibility to adapt to your business is incredible! With a little experience, another application called Grafana can be configured to further enhance Zabbix, bringing innovative and customized dashboards.”
Tiago C. – Support Analyst
“Although it is relatively easy to use, it requires a certain level of knowledge to be able to take full advantage of it.”
Christian N. – Occupational Safety Supervisor
“Depending on the size of the company and the assets being monitored, considerable resources will be required to manage them.”
Tiago C. – Support Analyst
You can read all the reviews that G2 users post about Pandora FMS right here. here →
Do you still rely on solutions that depend on multiple tools and scripts to cover functions that Pandora FMS includes natively?
Choose visualization, event correlation, remote control, inventory… And don’t settle for complexity, dependence on experts and hidden costs.
Try Pandora FMS for free today and forget about putting pieces together that never quite fit.
