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SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor vs Cacti: catalog facts
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor	Cacti
Paid Commercial license sold directly by the vendor rather than offered as a free product.	Free Free and open source under the GPL.
Self-hosted	Linux, Web, Self-hosted
NetPath and intelligent maps give deep visibility into network paths Long-established, widely deployed product in enterprise IT	RRDtool storage keeps years of graphs in a fixed amount of disk Mature template and plugin ecosystem for network devices
Commercial licensing makes it a significant cost for smaller organizations Self-hosted deployment requires dedicated infrastructure to run	Interface and workflow feel dated next to newer monitoring stacks Alerting requires plugins rather than being built in
Self-hosted, Downloadable app	Self-hosted
Closed source	Open source
License not stated	License: GPL-2.0
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.