Establishing and administering huge numbers of servers for enterprise and application needs has become easier thanks to the development of cloud technology. Organizations choose large numbers of servers to meet load balancing requirements as well as disaster recovery scenarios. Server monitoring tools have grown highly crucial as a result of these changes.

In this article, we'll look at the top tools that help in server monitoring, available right now. We'll also go over how to pick the best monitoring tool for your needs.

1. Sematext Monitoring

Sematext offers an integrated monitoring tool for your servers, apps, and networks in multi-cloud deployments. It provides comprehensive and easy-to-understand dashboards for statistics, activities, and logs, enabling you to obtain valuable insight into your server's operations. With anomaly detection, reporting, and synchronization across all elements, clusters, and containers, this monitoring tool provides you everything you need in one location for faster and more efficient troubleshooting.

Key Features:

• Sematext is a comprehensive observability platform that has the ability to send alerts to a variety of platforms, ranging from PagerDuty to Slack.

• Correlation of metrics between performance metrics and database records and log analytics

• Integrations with all major cloud providers, Kubernetes, containers, and other technologies are supported.

• Setup of metric and log aggregation using a GUI is really straightforward.

• Anomaly detection and alarms are supported.

Cost:

Starts at $50 per month

2. Ninja One

NinjaOne's robust and easy server administration software is widely used by managed service providers and IT professionals to their benefit. Ninja provides a comprehensive suite of tools for monitoring, managing, securing, and improving all of your network devices, and also Windows servers, desktops, laptops, and macOS devices.

Key Features:

• All of your Windows servers and macOS devices may be monitored for performance and health.

• Using a comprehensive set of remote tools, you can manage all of your devices without disrupting end users.

• All of your networks, switches, gateways and other SNMP devices may be monitored by the platform.

• With IT automation, you can standardize device setup, installation, and management.

• With granular control over functionality, devices, and security updates, the platform automates OS and third-party program patching for Windows and macOS devices.

Cost:

Pay for what you use

3. Prometheus

Prometheus is one of the most popular open-source monitoring tools available today, and it's particularly well-known for server monitoring. To submit metrics to Prometheus, you'll need to deploy a plethora of data-gathering agents known as exporters. Because this is a DIY approach, starting a full-fledged server monitoring solution with Prometheus involves a significant amount of configuration and complexity. It can still be a cakewalk if you have the correct abilities.

Key Features:

• It's free and open-source, with a sizable open-source community to back it up.

• Compatibility with both push and pull metric scraping systems, as well as automatic service finding

• Custom metrics are supported, and there are a plethora of exporters available to send measurements to Prometheus from various sources.

• One of the major advantages is that Prometheus will run on your own infrastructure, eliminating the need to send your data to a third-party provider

Cost:

Open-source

4. Atera

Atera is a cloud-based server management platform that offers IT consultants, and IT teams a comprehensive and integrated service. For a single modest charge, Atera allows you to track and administer all servers throughout your managed networks using the Atera agent. Additionally, Atera's Network Discovery add-on detects unattended devices and possibilities in real-time.

Key Features:

• Atera offers all you need in one integrated solution, making it the ideal IT management tool suite.

• Remote management features including remote access, application deployment, patch management, and script execution make it simple to keep track of server uptime and performance.

• For continuing maintenance and updates, it runs automation profiles.

• Real-time alerts with the option to include self-healing scripts.

• Does not include any hidden fees and the subscription can be canceled any time

Cost:

Starts at $75 per month

5. SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is a dependable virtual server monitoring tool that works in the cloud, on-premise, and hybrid settings. It provides an insight into your server consumption metrics as well as application performance metrics, based on your situation. The solution is an excellent choice for monitoring not only your servers but your complete infrastructure as well.

Key Features:

• Automatic server services tracking, remote data tracking, server health management, server application tracking are just a few of the capabilities.

• With notifications and 1,200+ dashboards, you get monitoring for containers, databases, and apps.

• Automatic discovery of services and mapping of app dependencies

• Support and suggestions for determining server capacity

Cost:

Contact Sales

6. eG Innovations

Server monitoring services from eG Innovations provide consolidated operational visibility for physical, remote, and cloud servers. It works with more than ten operating systems, including Windows, Linux, AIX, and others. You'll be able to track, diagnose, and report on all of your servers in one place. MSPs will like its extensive capabilities for various server platforms as well as its flexibility to handle other monitoring needs.

Key Features:

• eG Innovations can auto-baseline the data so you'll know when the server's functionality is not normal.

• It offers a simple and uniform layer paradigm for describing the behavior of various server hardware and operating systems.

• It offers in-depth analytics to assist server architects in optimizing their server infrastructure.

• You'll have a single console to manage all of your server's hardware and software.

Cost:

Starts at $125

7. Dynatrace

Dynatrace is a full-featured server performance monitoring solution that is offered in both SaaS and on-premises versions. Dynatrace should be able to handle most of your monitoring needs, as it can monitor both server metrics and server logs. Dynatrace is simple to set up, since it only takes a few minutes to feed your metrics into stunning dashboards and obtain insights into the CPU.

Key Features:

• There is an on-premises version available.

• AI-powered anomaly detection and alerting on an all-in-one platform

• Supports infrastructure, application efficiency, data analytics, and cloud automation.

Cost:

Starts at $69 per month

8. Site24x7

Site24x7 is a cloud-based monitoring system that comes in a variety of packages for server, connectivity, application monitoring, multi-cloud, and website end-user tracking. You don't need to install Site24x7 on your location, and you shouldn't have to raise your existing server storage capacity because it's a cloud-based monitoring solution.

Key Features:

• Site24x7 can monitor cloud servers hosted by Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform.

• You can monitor from remote locations and cloud servers with this tool

• With clear dashboards on device health and connectivity in your network, you can also monitor the performance of the network of your endpoints.

• Aside from monitoring, the application offers AI-powered insight into key performance measures.

Cost:

$550 per month

9. Datadog

Datadog is a server monitoring system that keeps track of your infrastructure, applications, network, and data. Datadog delivers a single picture of monitoring with connected metrics linked with server log detection and traces, which is one of its notable characteristics. When debugging performance problems on your servers, this is a useful function.

Key Features:

• You can detect hidden sources of latency, such as overcrowded hosts or contested databases, by tracking server metrics with application data.

• Datadog is easy to set up; all you need to do is install the metric collecting agent.

• Log aggregating and analytics are supported.

• Alerts are quite common, and you can simply establish conditional alerts using a blend of statistics, events, and other data sources to reduce alert fatigue.

Cost:

Free

10. Icinga

Icinga is a well-known server monitoring system that maintains track of server performance and notifies network administrators of any changes. Because Icinga is a Nagios derivative, it offers common capabilities that will aid in server monitoring.

Key Features:

• Icinga is a server monitoring programme that is free and open source.

• The installation is simple, and the server monitoring begins instantly.

• Icinga monitors the availability of servers and network services like HTTP and SMTP.

• It offers an easy-to-use user interface.

• Icinga allows you to monitor server components like switches and routers.

• It includes features such as a network map, reporting, and a performance graph.

Cost:

Free

11. New Relic

New Relic provides you with a comprehensive view of your entire infrastructure in one place. New Relic is one of the newest monitoring solutions that focuses more on container and server monitoring. It aggregates all of your linked metrics into one data plane, allowing you to follow a line of inquiry with some clicks and see exactly how everything relates.

Key Features:

• It uses a flexible and open integrated design to connect and support a variety of systems

• Support for measures that are linked

• Anomaly detection and notifications that are proactive

• Integrations with leading cloud providers are available, as well as support for open standards.

Cost:

Free

12. Monitis

Monitis is a server monitoring software that keeps a watch on system performance and, when compared to other solutions, detects any issues sooner. Because it is a cloud-based tool, all operations can be monitored remotely, saving time and money. You do not need to download or install anything; simply log in to your account and begin tracking the server's performance.

Key Features:

• It keeps track of server health, availability, CUP load, disc, and memory space, among other things.

• It's a free and open-source programme.

• It keeps track of CPU utilization, memory consumption, and disc usage.

• The Monitis server monitoring software keeps track of the machine's performance in terms of local network, network UI, and disc operations.

• It monitors services, networks, sites, and apps in addition to the server.

Cost:

Free

13. ManageEngine OpManager

ManageEngine OpManager is a simple and cost-effective server performance monitoring tool that places a greater emphasis on the network. It has advanced server and remote monitoring features like network traffic flow visualization and end-to-end server monitoring. If your company employs VoIP, ManageEngine OpManager can easily track and update on VoIP efficiency on your servers, giving you recommendations on how to improve it.

Key Features:

• Servers, routers, networks, load balancers, gateways, printers, and disk drives are among the physical devices that can be monitored if they have a network connection.

• Monitors your network in real time and provides you complete visibility and control over it.

• Physical devices, such as routers and switches, are monitored.

• The performance of VoIP is monitored and troubleshooted.

Cost:

Contact Sales

14. Anturis

Anturis offers server monitoring for both on-premises and cloud-based servers. It is a server, database, and web service software-as-a-service. In terms of value for money, it is simple and reasonable, and it reduces the complexity of maintenance.

Key Features:

• Server performance monitoring is simple to set up.

• It keeps track of CPU utilization, RAM usage, and disc usage, among other things.

• In the event of an incident, it supports change notification.

• Capable of performing historical data analysis.

• Anturis' server monitoring solution offers configurable email, audio, and SMS notifications.

• It not only aids in the tracking of server performance, but it also assists in tasks such as connectivity, port checking, and so on.

Cost:

Contact Sales

15. AppDynamics

AppDynamics is a business-first server monitoring tool that helps you accelerate your digitalization by providing the server health and application monitoring data you need. It allows you to get the whole picture of how your cloud investments are enabling business by identifying application server performance problems that may have an effect on the business

Key Features:

• AppDynamics enables fine-grained alerts with a broad set of dashboards and analytics that can be linked with third-party platforms

• With associated application and server performance data, AppDynamics' business-first philosophy enables stakeholders to see how their cloud infrastructure expenditures impact business KPIs.

• Application performance measures are correlated with server and network performance statistics.

• Detection of anomalies and alarms

• Platform for business-to-business observability with capacity-planning suggestions

Cost:

Starts at $6 per month

16. Ganglia

Ganglia is a shared monitoring system for Grids and Clusters with a distributed system. It is represented using XML, while data is transported via XDR. By considering multiple hosts, Ganglia can see if any of them behave differently than the rest. It can support graphs, and many charts can be combined.

Key Features:

• Ganglia is a monitoring system that is free and open source.

• It offers a unique function that allows you to compare hosts across all networks.

• It checks the health on a regular basis, by default every 20 seconds.

• It allows you to monitor a single statistic (such as disc space or CPU utilization) across numerous hosts.

• It distinguishes each graph from the overall graph.

Cost:

Free

17. Sensu Go

Sensu Go is an observability processing technology that enables server performance measurements and helps you to close gaps in monitoring transparency of metrics, recording, and tracing correlations. Common monitoring systems like Nagios, StatsD, Prometheus, and others may be smoothly linked with Sensu.

Key Features:

• Sensu Go's ability to provide monitoring as code is one of its most important advantages.

• It allows you to design monitoring processes using descriptive configuration files distributed with team members.

• It lets users write tests, version control, update, and review in a GitOps-compliant manner.

• Sensu is among the best server monitoring tools if your company follows GitOps principles and views everything as code.

• It supports many clouds and all of their accompanying infrastructure.

Cost:

Free

18. CollectD

CollectD gathers data on the performance of the server and applications and saves it as RRD files. It gathers statistics about the currently running system and analyses its performance. It keeps track of the performance bottleneck, detects server overload, and warns the administrator via a separate alarm system.

Key Features:

• CollectD is a free and open source application.

• It's written in C++ and works on a variety of platforms.

• It also has the ability to send out alerts.

• It gathers information on the system's memory, CPU use, and capacity.

• CollectD can be used in conjunction with other software such as Graphite and Grafana.

Cost:

Free

19. Nagios XI

Nagios XI is a robust monitoring software for business servers and networks. The commercial version of Nagio, was built on top of the open-source edition and has more features and takes less administrative time. Server statistics, application monitoring, and network traffic are the main areas of attention for Nagios.

Key Features:

• It gathers information by placing agents on both network nodes and the components it examines.

• It uses the Windows Management Instrumentation standard to interface with and gather data from Windows-based applications.

• Nagios is offered as a downloadable package with unique packages for each Windows or Linux product.

• Support for network-related gear such as routers, switches, as well as other physical devices

• Custom metrics are supported, and the system is highly flexible.

Cost:

Starts at $1995

20. IRTS Op5

Op5 Monitor is a server monitoring software application. Op5 Monitor collects data from tens of thousands of machines and offers real-time updates on what is occurring and how it is occurring.

Key Features:

• It's the most expandable and adaptable monitoring system on the market.

• This utility is capable of managing a huge number of devices, servers, and services.

• Op5 Monitor's REST API may safely connect to any third-party integration.

• Op5 Monitor generates a variety of reports that are simple to comprehend.

• The single dashboard view monitors network health and enables quick access to network data.

• It also indicates whether any further intervention is required.

Cost:

Contact Sales

21. Paessler PRTG

Paessler PRTG is a server monitoring tool that may be used in both small and large organizations. PRTG can track any IT-related resource that links to your network, making it more than a server monitoring tool. The arrangement is flexible; monitoring capabilities can expand or contract in response to your company's business needs.

Key Features:

• PRTG can send email and SMS notifications based on your defined threshold levels, allowing you to fine-tune the sensitivity of certain servers.

• It can monitor all of the important aspects of your server, including CPU load, hard drive capacity and performance

• Administrators can see the complete server environment at a glimpse, and configure dashboards and reports to quickly generate graphs.

• The installation and configuration procedure can be sped up by using prepared templates.

• Flexible alarm mechanisms and numerous user interfaces to pick from

Cost:

Starts at $1799

22. Observium

Observium is a program for monitoring server equipment and computers that support a large number of SNMP-enabled devices. Observium is relatively simple to set up and configure. It's set up as a separate server with its own URL. You can add additional hosts and systems to the graphical interface, as well as set boundaries for automatic detection and SNMP data

Key Features:

• Extensive capabilities for statistical data presentation, and also diagrams and graphs, are provided by the user-friendly user interface.

• For services like Apache, MySQL, and Postfix, you may also include data gathering and graphical performance counters.

• The event log can be used by Observium to display information on the state of the CPU

• Observium performs admirably, and it can soon become the primary tool for acquiring information about the state of servers and networks.

Cost:

Free

Things To Consider While Choosing Server Monitoring Tools

There are a plethora of server monitoring tools, both open-source and SaaS, available today. Selecting the proper one is a function of your organization's needs as well as the resources available. When selecting a server monitoring solution, keep the following points in mind.

Detecting Anomalies

It is not always possible to set a fixed threshold for a certain measure to trigger an alert. You may not realize you need an alert till something bad happens. Most alerts will be automated and configured for you using tools that have anomaly detection capabilities and are connected with machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Coverage in Metrics

All of the metrics that are essential to you should be collected and analyzed by your monitoring tool. Some solutions support a small number of measures, while others provide a big number of metrics that you don't require. You must also be able to set and customize the metrics you do need to meet your needs.

Metrics Correlation

Even if a tool provides all of the metrics you require, it is inconvenient if there is no correlation among them, which is especially true when troubleshooting an issue. Effective metric correlation can save you loads of effort and allow you to dig down to the main source of your problem in moments.

Total Ownership Costs

Because operating and maintaining enterprise-level monitoring systems on-premises can be quite costly and time-consuming, not to mention the intricacies of DIY monitoring to ensure your platform is running as expected—SaaS monitoring solutions have grown increasingly popular. Offloading your monitoring to a SaaS will reduce the problem and operational cost.

Minimum Overhead Coverage

While DIY tools may appear to be thrilling and entertaining, they can be irritating when things don't go as planned. You should search for an enterprise monitoring tool that is simple to set up, takes little maintenance, and takes care of most of your needs by default settings for notifications and dashboards.

Conclusion

We hope this list of the best server monitoring tools helps you select the ideal one as per your requirements. Keep in mind the things to consider as discussed above, and never go wrong with the tools selection!

FAQs

What is server monitoring?

The procedure of gaining insight into the activities on your servers, whether physical or digital, is known as server monitoring. Servers are equipment that store and process data that is made available on demand to other devices, programs, or users. A single server may handle hundreds, if not thousands, of requests at the same time. As a result, verifying that all of an organization's servers are performing as expected is an important aspect of IT infrastructure management.

Because of the huge variety of servers available, the term "server monitoring" is a bit of a misnomer. A web server can be an actual device, although it's more commonly used to refer to a virtualized server running on a real machine shared by several other customers, each with their own web server system.

What are server monitoring tools?

Server monitoring is the method of collecting and analyzing metrics to measure the functionality of how your server resources are being used. That's where monitoring software kicks in: it ensures that your apps operate properly and that your computers have the resources to do their tasks. This implies it keeps an eye on the following critical server components - CPU, Storage, Used Memory, and Network.

What are the things to consider while using server monitoring tools?

Some of the things to consider while using server monitoring tools include:

• Create a concise and visually appealing representation of your data and metrics for your servers.

• When sending alerts, don't rely just on emails, as they are frequently disregarded.

• Set up notifications that are well-structured, informative, and actionable for the individual who receives them.

• Using a performance monitoring application to provide alerts enhances the likelihood of them being read.

• To prevent false positives, check your server from multiple sources at the same time.

• Combine your server monitoring efforts with professional resources who are familiar with the technologies.

• Instead of attempting to create your own program, use a robust monitoring tool.

How can you control the risk of server failure?

Small server faults may not appear to be a concern at first, but they accumulate over time. Shortfalls such as coding flaws, software problems, and ineffective heat management can be caused by these issues and software defects. These issues may put the server at danger of failure. The significance of server monitoring cannot be overstated.

The ultimate goal is to avoid costly server failures. It is critical to employ the appropriate technologies that provide all of these advantages, as well as others, to aid in the process.

What is the importance of server monitoring?

We all know that the majority of firms are only able to operate with the assistance of their IT system. To run their services and everything else, every business has servers at the base. All of the company's data, such as client information, account information, inventory information, and so on, is saved on computers that require strong servers.

However, servers are essentially machines, but anything can occur at any moment owing to human error or for any other reason. And, because their entire operations rely on their servers, downtime is becoming a worry for large corporations. The answer to all these problems is server monitoring.