LibreNMS is an open-source network monitoring platform using SNMP for automatic device discovery, alerting and bandwidth billing, freely available under GPL v3 with community-driven support and no per-device licensing.
There is a free version. Listing updated . Checked by MSP Software .
LibreNMS is a network monitoring system distributed as free, open-source software under the GPL v3 licence by a community of contributors worldwide. The project began in 2006 as a monitoring tool and has grown to support hundreds of device vendors through SNMP protocols including CDP, FDP, LLDP, OSPF, BGP, and ARP-based automatic discovery. It suits MSPs who want to deploy network monitoring without per-device licensing costs and who need a platform they can self-host on-premises or run in their own cloud infrastructure, including Docker containerized deployments. Small to mid-sized IT teams often choose LibreNMS when they lack budget for commercial monitoring tools like PRTG or SolarWinds NPM.
LibreNMS covers the core network monitoring workflow: automatic device discovery and topology mapping, uptime and outage alerting via email, IRC, Slack and other channels, bandwidth monitoring and billing with 95th percentile reporting, device configuration backup and change detection, multi-site dashboards for distributed networks, and full API access for custom integration. It integrates with Oxidized and RANCID for device configuration management, NetFlow and sFlow via NfSen for traffic analysis, Nagios plugins for service monitoring, Graylog for centralised syslog ingestion, and collectd for system metrics. Authentication methods include LDAP, Active Directory, Radius, MySQL and HTTP-based systems.
Because LibreNMS is free open-source software, there is no recurring cost per network device or site, but it requires technical staff to install on CentOS or Ubuntu servers, maintain the underlying database and operating system, and manage updates. Community support is available through documentation, a forum at community.librenms.org, Discord chat, and GitHub issue tracking. MSPs should verify that their network device types are on the supported list before planning a migration, and should confirm their team has Linux system administration skills or has budget for managed hosting through a third-party partner.
LibreNMS is the open-source alternative to commercial network monitors like PRTG or SolarWinds NPM. There is no licensing cost per device, but you manage your own infrastructure and uptime yourself. Good fit for MSPs with Linux expertise or those wanting to minimise software licensing costs for network monitoring. Before choosing LibreNMS, verify that your specific device types (switches, firewalls, routers, access points) are on the supported list, and confirm your team can handle database and Linux OS maintenance, or budget for a managed hosting partner.
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|---|---|---|
| Automatic network discovery | yes | CDP, FDP, LLDP, OSPF, BGP, SNMP and ARP protocols |
| Topology mapping | yes | Network topology mapping and visualization |
| Device configuration backup | yes | Integration with Oxidized and RANCID for device configuration backup |
| Uptime and outage alerting | yes | Comprehensive alerting via email, IRC, Slack and other channels |
| Bandwidth monitoring | yes | Bandwidth monitoring with 95th percentile billing reports |
| SNMP support | yes | Full SNMP support with device collection via SNMP protocols |
| Wireless and access point monitoring | unknown | Not explicitly documented |
| Configuration change detection | yes | Configuration change detection via device backup integrations |
| Multi-site dashboard | yes | Multi-site dashboards for distributed networks |
| Documentation integration | unknown | No integration with documentation tools mentioned |
| Remote access to devices | unknown | Not explicitly documented in core features |
| Hardware probe option | no | No hardware probe option; software-only deployment |
Yes, LibreNMS is free open-source software distributed under the GNU General Public Licence v3. There are no per-device, per-site or per-user licensing costs. However, you are responsible for hosting the application on your own infrastructure (Linux server or Docker container), maintaining the operating system and database, and managing software updates. If you prefer not to manage infrastructure yourself, you can use a partner offering managed LibreNMS hosting.
LibreNMS monitors network devices via SNMP, supporting hundreds of vendors including Cisco, Juniper, Arista, Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, Dell, HP, F5, Ubiquiti, MikroTik and many others. Before deploying LibreNMS, verify that your specific devices (switches, routers, firewalls, access points) are on the supported device list in the documentation, as vendor and model support are community-maintained.
LibreNMS offers community-driven support through extensive online documentation, a forum at community.librenms.org, real-time chat on Discord, and a GitHub issue tracker for bug reports. There is no commercial support team or phone support. If you need managed hosting or professional consulting, third-party companies offer LibreNMS hosting and support services.
LibreNMS has a full REST API for custom integrations and integrates with configuration management tools like Oxidized and RANCID, flow analysis via NfSen, syslog centralisation via Graylog, system metrics via collectd, and service monitoring via Nagios plugins. It also supports multiple authentication methods including LDAP and Active Directory for SSO integration.
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