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Best IT Monitoring Solutions: Top 5 for 2025

by Raine Grey, Technical Writer
reviewed by Ian Crego, Technical Marketing Engineer
Best IT Monitoring Software featured image

Key Points:

  • IT monitoring solutions are used to monitor the performance, health, and availability of an organization’s IT infrastructure
  • Key features of the best IT monitoring software: Meets your organization’s specific requirements, scalable, easy to use, supports common monitoring protocols, has extensive reporting capabilities, not resource-heavy, supports major operating systems, is better if it offers other essential IT tools
  • The top IT monitoring tools for 2025: 1. NinjaOne, 2. Datadog, 3. Checkmk, 4. Splunk, 5. Zabbix
  • When choosing an IT monitoring system, consider options based on functionality, compatibility, and total cost of ownership, ensuring the tool aligns with your organization’s specific needs and goals

IT monitoring software tracks the operations and activities of your end users and any software in your IT environment. IT experts use this specific type of software to determine the health and performance of your IT infrastructure and its components so that you can make well-informed and real-time decisions for resource provisioning and IT security.

You may be researching the best IT monitoring software on the market today but don’t know where to start. That’s where we come in. We’ve searched leading review sites, looked at genuine user reviews from each, evaluated the top alternatives, and compiled them in this comprehensive guide.

Software

Free trialBest suited for

Main features

NinjaOneYes, for 14 daysMSPs and IT teams needing all-in-one monitoring & managementAutomated patching, centralized dashboard, remote endpoint management, customizable reporting, integrations
DatadogYes, for 14 daysEnterprises and cloud-focused organizationsCloud & on-prem monitoring, automation, customizable metrics, multi-channel alerts
CheckmkYes, for 30 days (Enterprise), Free forever (Limited features)SMBs and IT admins seeking open-source flexibilityServer, app, and network monitoring, SNMP support, automation, granular access control
Splunk Infrastructure MonitoringYes, for 14 daysEnterprises with complex infrastructures & analytics needsReal-time monitoring, advanced visualization, security notifications, graphical reporting
ZabbixFree forever (Open-source)Large enterprises needing customizable open-source monitoringNetwork, server, VM & app monitoring, custom alerts, scheduled PDF reporting

Watch a demo or start a free trial of NinjaOne’s IT monitoring software.

The 5 best IT monitoring software

All G2 & Capterra data as of November 2025.

1. NinjaOne

NinjaOne’s IT monitoring software empowers your IT team to detect and address potential issues before they affect operations. This proactive IT management approach increases your confidence in minimizing downtime and maximizing overall productivity from day one. Additionally, NinjaOne consolidates all your IT monitoring tools into a single pane of glass, offering 360-degree visibility into your IT network.

Healthily obsessed with its customers’ success, NinjaOne is the go-to software of choice for 30,000+ customers worldwide.

Main features of NinjaOne

  • Automated patch management for Windows, macOS, and Linux OS.
  • Centralized dashboard for real-time monitoring of IT assets and performance metrics.
  • Endpoint management that allows you to remotely control all your devices from anywhere with an internet connection.
  • Customizable reporting to give you valuable insight into your IT network
  • Powerful integrations with multiple business applications to enhance your capabilities.

The numbers speak for themselves:

  • 98.4 customer satisfaction score (CSAT)
  • 95% improved patch compliance
  • 95% increased IT efficiency with automation
  • 93% saved time on patching
  • 70% reduced vulnerabilities in their environment by up to 75%

What users say

“NinjaOne provides 100% reporting on all patches and updates, giving us real-time visibility into our network. With our old tool, we received notifications when patches failed, but it took hours to find those out-of-date devices and software. NinjaOne gives us a detailed report with every endpoint and patch update – it makes my job so much easier.”

From Ashley Watson, IT Manager at NWF Agriculture.

Read more Ninja customer stories or check out NinjaOne reviews.

Leverage real-time, actionable insights to take a proactive approach to your IT operations with  NinjaOne’s IT monitoring software.

Learn more.

NinjaOne reviews on G2

Category

NinjaOne Rating

Overall4.7 out of 5 (3,112)
Has the product been a good partner in doing business?9.5
Quality of support9.2
Ease of Admin9.2
Ease of Use9.1

NinjaOne reviews on Capterra

Category

NinjaOne Rating
Overall4.7 out of 5 (275)
Ease of Use4.7
Customer Support4.7
Functionality4.5
Value for Money4.6

 

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2. Datadog

Datadog is a SaaS provider that offers IT monitoring products to give you visibility and insight into any stack, app, or environment. Its network monitoring tool offers end-to-end visibility in a single platform so that you can monitor, detect, and alert users in various locations about any performance issues.

We’ve included Datadog in this list of the best IT monitoring software thanks to its comprehensive, real-time view across infrastructure, applications, and microservices.

Features:

  • Remote monitoring: Users can get real-time data into their cloud and on-prem servers and endpoint devices. Recorded metrics can be customized to suit users’ needs.
  • Automation: Datadog offers a variety of automation tools that reduce manual workload. Users can automate remediation of common issues.
  • Alerting: The platform can send out notifications whenever it identifies problems or specific thresholds with hardware and software.

Shortcomings:

  • Learning curve:  According to users, Datadog demands time and resources to get users familiar with the platform. While expansive, its documentation can be difficult to understand, and it can take time for users to find the information they need.
  • Complex setup: Deploying Datadog across hybrid or large-scale environments can be challenging. Users note that setting up agents, fine-tuning dashboards, and creating custom metrics often takes longer than expected.
  • Reporting: Reviewers find that the reporting feature can be lacking and that generating graphical reports can be challenging.

Datadog reviews on G2

CategoryDatadog Rating
Overall4.4 out of 5 (671)
Has the product been a good partner in doing business?8.5
Quality of support8.3
Ease of Admin8.4
Ease of Use8.2

Datadog reviews on Capterra

Category

Datadog Rating
Overall4.6 out of 5 (330)
Ease of Use4.3
Customer Support4.3
Functionality4.5
Value for Money4.1

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3. Checkmk

Checkmk is an open-source IT infrastructure monitoring used to monitor servers, applications, networks, databases, and cloud infrastructures, among others, in a single platform. Its solution helps you optimize your processes and secure your IT network with various features like granular access control, encryption, and 2FA.

Users also note its modular architecture supports customization, from defining custom checks and thresholds to integrating with modern toolchains, enabling it to serve effectively as a powerful, flexible software monitoring tool for SMBs and larger operations alike.

Features:

  • Remote monitoring: Users get real-time data and metrics of their on-prem or cloud-based IT assets.
  • Networking monitoring: Checkmk allows users to keep track of network performance, bandwidth usage, and SNMP devices.
  • IT automation: Automation tools allow IT administrators to reduce manual workloads by automating tasks such as auto-registration of hosts.

Shortcomings:

  • User interface: Checkmk’s interface is complex and users find it hard to locate some functionalities. Its design is not very user-friendly, according to reviewers.
  • Documentation: Users have reported that it is challenging to locate certain documentation that can help answer their questions.
  • Better suited for experienced IT professionals: Reviewers have said Checkmk’s steep learning curve requires users to spend a lot of time and resources to understand the platform.

Checkmk reviews on G2

CategoryCheckmk Rating
Overall4.7 out of 5 (291)
Has the product been a good partner in doing business?9.0
Quality of support8.8
Ease of Admin8.2
Ease of Use8.1

Checkmk reviews on Capterra

Category

Checkmk Rating
Overall4.7 out of 5 (35)
Ease of Use4.2
Customer Support4.4
Functionality4.7
Value for Money4.9

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4. Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring

Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring delivers real-time monitoring and troubleshooting to help you visualize and analyze the performance of your IT infrastructure, microservices, and applications. Its platform instantly visualizes your entire IT environment so you can accurately detect and resolve issues in real time.

As part of the Splunk Observability Cloud suite, this offering extends beyond infrastructure monitoring with advanced streaming analytics and real-time alerting. It integrates deeply with Splunk’s broader observability and security tools, offering unified visibility across logs, metrics, traces, and events.

Features:

  • Real-time monitoring: Users gain comprehensive visibility over an organization’s hardware, software, and networks.
  • IT security:  Technicians can secure their IT environment with full visibility over systems and notifications of any security threats.
  • Reporting: Splunk allows users to create graphical reports on the performance and health of their IT infrastructure.

Shortcomings:

  • Difficult to learn: Users say that knowledge of SPL (search processing language) is necessary to fully utilize Splunk.
  • Complex interface: Splunk’s design and overwhelming number of features can make the platform difficult to use and navigate.
  • Integrations: According to reviews, Splunk can be difficult to integrate with third-party applications.

Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring reviews on G2

CategorySplunk Infrastructure Monitoring Rating
Overall4.3 out of 5 (48)
Has the product been a good partner in doing business?9.2
Quality of support8.7
Ease of Admin7.8
Ease of Use7.7

Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring reviews on Capterra

Category

Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring Rating
Overall4.6 out of 5 (251)
Ease of Use4.1
Customer Support4.3
Functionality4.5
Value for Money4.3

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5. Zabbix

Zabbix is an open-sourced monitoring solution that monitors various network parameters and the health and integrity of servers, virtual machines, databases, and applications. Its solution supports both polling and trapping to provide valuable insights into your network so that you can make more informed decisions.

Zabbix remains a go-to, enterprise-grade monitoring tool thanks to its scalability and nearly limitless customization. Its open-source nature ensures extensibility and community-driven improvements, securing its place among top IT infrastructure monitoring options in 2025.

Use cases:

  • Remote monitoring: Zabbix allows users to keep track of hardware, software, virtual machines, and network equipment.
  • Reporting: Users can visualize data via the platform’s dashboards and then create PDF reports that can be scheduled at regular intervals.
  • Alerts and notifications:  Zabbix allows users to configure alerts and receive notifications whenever these thresholds are met or if there are any possible threats.

Shortcomings:

  • Complex set up: Zabbix requires complicated configuration which means it can take time to get started.
  • Interface design: According to reviews, Zabbix’s dashboard may be initially complex to understand, especially for beginners.
  • Learning curve: New users can get overwhelmed by Zabbix’s features and it can be challenging and time-consuming to learn. Documentation is also lacking.

Zabbix reviews on G2

Category

Zabbix Rating
Overall4.4 out of 5 (200)
Has the product been a good partner in doing business?8.2
Quality of support7.9
Ease of Admin8.0
Ease of Use7.3

Zabbix reviews on Capterra

Category

Zabbix Rating
Overall4.7 out of 5 (109)
Ease of Use4.0
Customer Support4.2
Functionality4.6
Value for Money4.8

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Comparison of best IT monitoring software (G2)

Category

NinjaOneDatadogCheckmkSplunk Infrastructure MonitoringZabbix
Overall 4.7 out of 5 (3,112)4.4 out of 5 (671)4.7 out of 5 (291)4.3 out of 5 (48)4.4 out of 5 (200)
Has the product been a good partner in doing business?9.58.59.09.28.2
Quality of support9.28.38.88.77.9
Ease of Admin9.28.48.27.88.0
Ease of Use 9.18.28.17.77.3

Comparison of best IT monitoring software (Capterra)

Category

NinjaOneDatadogCheckmkSplunk Infrastructure MonitoringZabbix
Overall4.7 out of 5 (275)4.6 out of 5 (330)4.7 out of 5 (35)4.6 out of 5 (251)4.7 out of 5 (109)
Ease of Use4.74.34.24.14.0
Customer Support4.74.34.44.34.2
Functionality4.54.54.74.54.6
Value for Money4.64.14.94.34.8

Final scores and summaries of best IT monitoring software

Vendor

Final Score

Summary

NinjaOne 3.9609NinjaOne is a trusted IT monitoring software that is used by thousands of customers all over the world. One of its major value propositions is its platform’s multiple out-of-the-box features.
Datadog1.5356Datadog is a reliable IT monitoring software that monitors all kinds of application metrics, such as errors, network states, and response times, among others.
Checkmk0.8793Checkmk is a flexible solution suitable for SMBs with no extensive monitoring requirements.
Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring0.8381Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring offers real-time streaming analytics in a centralized management tool.
Zabbix0.8309Zabbix is used by larger enterprises that must monitor their entire IT infrastructure.

Our rankings formula

To derive the final score for each vendor, we employed a weighted formula that considers various metrics. Here’s how it breaks down:

Final Score = w1 * G2 Overall Star Rating + w2 * Capterra Overall Star Rating + w3 * G2 Good Partner in Doing Business + w4 * Capterra Customer Service + w5 * G2 Total Number of Reviews (Scaled) + w6 * Capterra Total Number of Reviews (Scaled) + Other Factors

Where:

w1 = 0.15 (Weight for G2 Overall Star Rating)

w2 = 0.15 (Weight for Capterra Overall Star Rating)

w3 = 0.2 (Weight for G2 Good Partner in Doing Business)

w4 = 0.2 (Weight for Capterra Customer Support)

w5 = 0.1 (Weight for G2 Total Number of Reviews, Scaled)

w6 = 0.1 (Weight for Capterra Total Number of Reviews, Scaled)

Other Factors include additional metrics like ease of use, each multiplied by their corresponding weights:

w7 = 0.05 (Weight for G2 Ease of Use)

w8 = 0.05 (Weight for Capterra Ease of Use)

Simplify your IT monitoring workflows with NinjaOne’s highly intuitive and user-friendly IT monitoring software. 

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What is the best software for IT monitoring?

This is a complex question, as there is no “one” best software for IT monitoring; rather, it is the most appropriate one for your business and specific needs. When writing this guide, we accounted for the robustness of each solution and how comprehensive its platform is.

Some questions to help you determine what the best IT monitoring software solution is for you:

  • What are my specific requirements? Consider factors such as infrastructure complexity and the types and number of devices you want to monitor.
  • Is it scalable? Even if you’re a startup, you must consider software that can handle your current network size and future growth.
  • Is it straightforward? Look for a software vendor that is known for its easy deployment and simple operation.
  • What monitoring protocols does it support? Consider a solution that supports common monitoring protocols such as SNMP and NetFlow.
  • How does the vendor send their alerts? Email, SMS, Slack, or other channels? You should take note of how customizable these alerts are.
  • How extensive are its reporting capabilities? Consider vendors that can generate customized reports.
  • How lightweight is it? Does your IT monitoring software consume a lot of resources? If it does, will it impact network latency?
  • What operating system (OS) does it support? Make sure your IT monitoring software is compatible with the OSes your devices run on. For IT teams managing diverse IT environments, look for vendors with cross-platform monitoring for Windows, macOS, and Linux systems.
  • Does it offer other IT tools? You can streamline your IT workflows and reduce costs by opting for IT monitoring software that offers a comprehensive suite of IT management tools. Automation tools can significantly speed up the processes of your IT system monitoring tool. Some vendors even offer troubleshooting tools, such as remote desktop, remote registry, and remote reboot. These allow technicians to quickly troubleshoot and remediate any issues that arise.

Refer to these guide questions and the IT monitoring tools comparison as you evaluate each software vendor, and include other questions specific to your organization. This will improve your chances of working with a tool that is best suited for you.

Selecting the best IT monitoring software

When evaluating IT monitoring solutions, consider the previously mentioned guide questions and evaluate a software tool based on its functionality, compatibility, and total cost of ownership. Investing in IT monitoring software allows your business to maximize performance and minimize downtime caused by issues or security threats. This is why it is advisable to thoroughly analyze the best IT monitoring software on the market. Start by considering what your organization’s specific requirements and needs might be.

Once you know what to look for in IT infrastructure monitoring software, you can select an IT monitoring tool that matches your needs and goals. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is assuming that what works for your competitor would also work for you. So, work with a vendor that can offer tailored packages to your specific context.

FAQs

IT monitoring is a comprehensive practice that tracks the performance and health of an organization’s entire IT infrastructure, encompassing servers, endpoints, applications, and networks. Network monitoring, on the other hand, specifically focuses on network devices, bandwidth usage, and connectivity issues. Most IT monitoring software includes network monitoring as one of its core capabilities.

IT monitoring tools improve cybersecurity by providing real-time visibility into devices and systems. They can detect unusual network traffic, failed login attempts, and unauthorized software installations, helping IT teams respond faster to potential security threats. Many modern platforms integrate directly with endpoint detection or patch management tools for a more proactive defense.

Yes. Even small businesses gain significant value from IT monitoring solutions because they reduce downtime, prevent costly outages, and automate maintenance tasks. Some vendors, like NinjaOne and Checkmk, offer scalable pricing models and simplified interfaces designed specifically for small to mid-sized IT teams.

Key metrics to monitor include CPU usage, memory utilization, disk health, network latency, application response time, and uptime. Tracking these metrics helps identify bottlenecks early and ensures consistent system performance. Advanced tools also monitor software updates, security patches, and service-level agreement (SLA) compliance.

You may need an upgrade if your current solution lacks real-time alerts, can’t monitor hybrid or cloud environments, or struggles with scalability as your organization grows. Other signs include slow report generation, poor integration with other IT tools, or limited support for modern operating systems and protocols.

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