Centreon

Overview

Centreon is an infrastructure and application monitoring platform for IT operations teams responsible for varied or distributed environments. Its open-source core, broad connector range and choice of SaaS or self-hosted deployment make it adaptable, but the per-host pricing means costs matter as an estate grows.

For teams that need to bring servers, networks, cloud environments and applications into one monitoring platform, Centreon is a strong candidate. It is less suited to a small, narrowly defined monitoring job that does not need that breadth.

Key features

More than 700 connectors cover cloud and legacy systems, infrastructure, security, databases, middleware and OT. That breadth can help an operations team consolidate monitoring across a mixed estate; the trade-off is that a small deployment may pay for capacity and flexibility it does not need.

Centreon connects with ServiceNow, JIRA, GLPi, EasyVista, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Telegram, PagerDuty and OpsGenie. Stream connectors send metrics and events to Elastic, Kafka and Splunk, while integrations support Grafana, Kibana and Power BI. This makes Centreon a better fit for teams that want monitoring tied into existing alerting and analytics workflows than for those seeking an isolated dashboard.

The Centreon Monitoring Agent monitors Linux and Windows hosts, sending metrics over encrypted gRPC without requiring a plugin on the host. TLS-encrypted communications and SNMP v3 add security controls, while fine-grained permissions, access control groups, SAMLv2, Active Directory synchronization and LDAP synchronization address access management in larger organizations. Centreon also runs static analysis and quality checks in continuous integration, conducts yearly manual penetration tests, and publishes vulnerability fixes through security bulletins as a CVE Numbering Authority.

Topology maps and synthetic checks are supported, and email is an alert channel. The core platform is distributed under the Apache license, with GPLv2 applying to some files; Centreon says its open-source community includes more than 250,000 IT professionals.

Pricing

The IT 100 Freemium plan costs €0.00 per free and allows up to 100 hosts for as long as the customer wants. That is a useful starting point for a smaller environment, but the cap makes it unsuitable as a permanent fit once monitoring needs exceed 100 hosts.

The paid IT Edition starts at €2.27 per host per month, billed annually, with a 125-host example totaling €283/month. It includes more than 700 connectors, alerting and event management, flexible dashboarding and IT operations integration. Self-hosted and SaaS IT Edition options are also listed at €2.27 and €3.40 per host per month respectively, billed annually.

Business Edition costs €4.53 per host per month, billed annually; its 250-host example is €1,133/month. It adds SLA and business-impact monitoring, graphical and geographical views, and tailored IT Ops reporting over IT Edition. The SaaS Pro Edition is €4.50 per host per month, billed annually, and adds SLA and business-impact monitoring plus graphical and geographical views. MSP Edition starts at €4.53 per host per month, billed annually, with a 250-host example of €1,133/month; its listed additions include distributed and remote monitoring, pay-as-you-grow billing and a preferred Centreon partnership. The MSP option is aimed at managed service providers, while Business and Pro suit teams that need business-level views beyond core operations monitoring.

Experience Monitoring is separately priced: Pro Edition costs €490.00 per year and includes synthetic transaction monitoring, web-performance drill-down, collaborative dashboards and digital sobriety insights. Business Edition costs €790.00 per year and adds real-user monitoring, web infrastructure monitoring, business insights and analytics. The Centreon Cloud trial lasts 7 days for up to 125 hosts; Centreon Experience Monitoring offers a 30-day trial. Paid editions are billed annually.

Platforms

Centreon supports API, Linux, self-hosted, web and Windows environments. SaaS delivery suits teams that prefer a hosted deployment; self-hosting gives teams another way to run the platform. Its native monitoring agent is for Linux and Windows hosts.

Who it's for

Centreon is best for IT operations teams monitoring a complex estate across infrastructure types, especially those that need integrations, access controls and a choice of deployment model. The 100-host free plan provides a no-cost entry point, while paid editions offer paths for broader monitoring and for MSPs. A smaller team with only a handful of devices may find the platform's breadth and paid tiers unnecessary.

Pros and cons

• Pros: More than 700 connectors and coverage spanning servers, networks, cloud and applications suit mixed estates.
• Pros: SaaS and self-hosted deployment options, plus an open-source core, provide flexibility in how teams adopt it.
• Pros: Integrations and telemetry exports connect monitoring to common operations, alerting and analytics tools.
• Cons: The free plan is capped at 100 hosts, so growing environments must move to paid pricing.
• Cons: Paid plans are billed annually and priced per host, making the total commitment grow with monitored scale.

Alternatives

Netdata is worth considering for teams that prefer a free Community plan, though it is capped at 5 active connected nodes and one active custom dashboard per room.

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor offers a free edition for up to 100 sensors, about 10 devices, making it an option when that sensor-based allowance fits better than Centreon's 100-host cap.

Checkmk offers a free Community plan with 2,000+ pre-built integrations and support for up to about 100 hosts, making it a close alternative for teams focused on a free host-based option.

Glances is a free, open-source system monitoring tool for readers seeking a free tool rather than Centreon's broader platform.

ManageEngine OpManager has a perpetual free edition for 3 devices, which may suit an especially small device count.

NetXMS offers a free open-source monitoring solution; consider it if a free open-source alternative is the priority.

GKrellM is free software under the GNU General Public License.

Icinga offers a forever-free edition with unlimited hosts and services, making it a fit for readers prioritizing those limits.

For category browsing, see Hardware Monitoring Software, Network Monitoring and Log Management Software.

Verdict

Choose Centreon if you need broad monitoring across a varied IT estate and want SaaS or self-hosted deployment, extensive connectors and links to an existing operations stack. Its main drawback is the combination of a 100-host free cap and annual per-host pricing, so teams with small or simple needs should look for a narrower free option instead.