Observium
Ramsey, Isle of Man
What it is
Observium is a self-hosted network monitoring and management platform that discovers devices and services, gathers performance metrics, and raises alerts. Its web interface presents network status, live performance information, and historical data. Automatic discovery identifies supported devices and metrics, while discovery protocols help create network maps. The supported-device catalog lists 825 platform definitions, 367 named vendors, 21 device classes, and 916 associated MIBs. Community Edition is free under the QPL Open Source license and covers unlimited monitored devices, ports, and sensors. Professional adds threshold alerts and traffic accounting by total transferred data or 95th percentile. Enterprise includes 10 hours of support. A RESTful API supports integrations and automation, alongside collectd, munin, smokeping, and RANCID integrations. Community releases arrive every six months; Professional and Enterprise receive SVN-based daily fixes and features.
For and against
For
- Free Community plan
- Unlimited devices, ports, and sensors
- Automatic discovery and topology mapping
- RESTful API for automation
- Broad listed device coverage
Against
- Community releases arrive every six months
- Professional costs £250/yr
- Self-hosted deployment required
The verdict
Observium offers a free entry edition and progressively broader alerting, accounting, release, and support options. Choose by deployment scale and whether daily updates or included support justify the paid editions.
Who it suits
Community fits home labs, evaluation, and small non-critical deployments. Professional targets SMEs and ISPs, while Enterprise is intended for large organizations needing included support.
Plans and prices
Community
Unlimited monitored devices, ports and sensors · intended for home labs and small non-critical deployments
Read 8 Oct 2026 · observium.org
Enterprise
Unlimited monitored devices, ports and sensors · includes 10 hours of support · ideal for large enterprises
Read 8 Oct 2026 · observium.org
Professional
Unlimited monitored devices, ports and sensors · ideal for SME and ISPs
Read 8 Oct 2026 · observium.org
On the record
- Alerting
- Professional Edition provides threshold alerting for different entity types, and creates alert entries during discovery.observium.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- API
- The feature comparison lists a RESTful API, and the documentation describes it as available for custom integrations and automation.observium.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Community release cadence
- Community Edition is distributed as six-monthly tar.gz releases under the QPL Open Source license, with updates and new features on a 6-to-12-month cycle.observium.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Company
- The site identifies Observium Limited as registered in the Isle of Man and gives its address as Viking House, Ramsey, IM8 1GB.observium.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Device coverage
- The supported-device page lists 825 platform definitions, 367 named vendors, 21 device classes, and 916 associated MIBs.observium.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Discovery
- Observium supports automatic discovery of supported devices and metrics, plus network mapping through discovery protocols.observium.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- The site lists integrations with collectd, munin, smokeping, and RANCID, with supplied collectors including Apache, BIND, DRBD, Memcached, MySQL, and NFS.observium.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Intended users
- The maker describes Community as suited to home use, evaluation, labs, and small non-critical deployments, Professional for SMEs and ISPs, and Enterprise for large enterprises.observium.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- License and eligibility
- Professional subscriptions are available free of charge to registered charities and open-source projects.observium.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- Observium is a network monitoring and management platform that discovers devices and services, collects performance metrics, and generates alerts.observium.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Subscription updates
- Professional and Enterprise editions use an SVN-based release mechanism that provides daily security and bug fixes and new features.observium.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Support
- Enterprise includes 10 hours of support time; the Community documentation points users to informal support through Discord, IRC, and a mailing list.observium.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Traffic accounting
- Professional Edition traffic accounting supports billing measurements by total transferred data and 95th percentile.observium.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Web interface
- Its web interface displays network status, real-time performance metrics, and historical data.observium.org · read 8 Oct 2026
