Top 10 Nginx Monitoring Tools 2025

Nginx is a widely used open-source web server and reverse proxy that powers countless high-traffic websites around the globe. Even with its reliability, the demands of fluctuating traffic and unforeseen spikes can present challenges.

Nginx monitoring tools are your most helpful in these moments—providing the insights needed to detect potential issues quickly and keep your site running smoothly.

In this article, we’ll explore top 10 Nginx monitoring tools.

What makes Nginx monitoring so important?

At first glance, you might think that Nginx monitoring is a luxury—something to consider only when things go wrong. However, consistent monitoring offers invaluable benefits:

• Early bottleneck detection: Keep an eye on key metrics like request rates, response times, and error counts. This allows you to spot performance hiccups before your users even notice them
• Smarter capacity planning: By tracking trends in resource usage, you can make informed decisions on when to scale up or down
• Cost savings: Monitoring CPU, memory, and network usage helps you identify inefficiencies and optimize your configuration
• Proactive problem-solving: Automated alerts notify you of unusual patterns or anomalies, empowering you to resolve issues swiftly and reduce downtime

Nginx monitoring isn’t just about reacting to problems but anticipating them. With the right tools, you can continuously gauge the health of your Nginx servers, understand traffic patterns, and ensure smooth operation even when the unexpected happens.

Top 10 Nginx monitoring tools for 2025

Here's a quick overview of the features and pricing of Nginx monitoring tools to help you find the perfect fit for your setup:

1. Better Stack

Better Stack offers a ready-to-use telemetry dashboard to monitor your Nginx servers effortlessly. By connecting your Nginx logs and metrics, you instantly visualize key performance indicators like uptime, requests per second, and active connections.

Better Stack also automatically parses raw Nginx logs into structured JSON, enabling fast SQL-based searches through ClickHouse and unifying logs, metrics, and incidents in one collaborative space.

🌟 Key features

• Log management
  
• Real-time metrics
  
• Uptime monitoring
  
• Incident management
  
• Integrated anomaly detection and alerting
  

➕ Pros

• Start monitoring Nginx instantly with a pre-built dashboard
• Easily create custom charts using SQL and adjust dashboards with intuitive time frames and source options
• Combines performance metrics with log data for complete visibility
• Set up threshold, relative, or anomaly alerts to catch issues early
• Use shared dashboards and integrated incident management to streamline teamwork and speed up resolution
  

➖ Cons

• If you’re new to SQL, there may be a slight learning curve for creating custom visualizations.

💲 Pricing

You can start with a free tier that includes 10 monitors, basic email alerts, 3 GB of logs, and Slack integration. The pay-as-you-go plan begins at $29/month for more advanced needs, offering robust incident management, unlimited alerts, extended log retention, customizable status pages, and more enterprise-grade features.

Want more details? Check out the pricing page.

2. New Relic

New Relic is an observability platform supporting comprehensive Nginx monitoring. The platform intelligently collects and visualizes Nginx logs, metrics, and inventory data, unifying them into dynamic dashboards.

It allows you to perform detailed troubleshooting, set up proactive alerts, and gain contextual insights, all within a single intuitive interface.

🌟 Key features

• Log management
  
• Network monitoring
  
• Real-time alerting and anomaly detection
  
• Application performance monitoring
  
• Infrastructure monitoring
  

➕ Pros

• Deploy out-of-the-box dashboards to start monitoring Nginx performance without lengthy configuration
  
• Supports both Nginx open Source and Nginx plus
• Combines infrastructure, application, and security telemetry for holistic visibility across the stack
  
• Configure threshold-based or relative alerts to detect issues before they impact users
  
• Dive deep into error reports and detailed metrics for faster root-cause analysis and performance tuning
  

➖ Cons

• The breadth of features may introduce a learning curve if you're new

💲 Pricing

New Relic offers flexible, usage-based pricing starting with a free tier that includes 100 GB/month of data ingest, unlimited basic users, one full platform user, and 30+ observability features.

Beyond the free tier, data costs $0.35/GB (standard) or $0.55/GB. User pricing includes free basic users, $49/core user, and $10–$418.80/full platform user, depending on the plan.

3. Datadog

Datadog offers a powerful platform for monitoring Nginx servers, covering everything from web server metrics to reverse proxy and load balancer performance.

With advanced analytics and machine learning, Datadog automatically structures Nginx logs into actionable insights. It unifies logs, metrics, and incidents, creating a collaborative environment for fast troubleshooting, proactive alerts, and full-stack visibility.

🌟 Key features

• Security management
  
• Log management and analysis
  
• Infrastructure monitoring
  
• Advanced alerting and anomaly detection
  

➕ Pros

• Captures an extensive range of Nginx metrics
• Includes over 800 integrations, ensuring compatibility with most tech stacks
  
• Supports both open-source Nginx and Nginx Plus, making it versatile for various environments
  
• Detects anomalies and allows for intelligent alert setups to prevent user impact
  
• Intuitive dashboards and visualization tools provide quick access to essential data
  

➖ Cons

• Costs can rise quickly with high data ingestion and large-scale deployments
  

💲 Pricing

Datadog offers a free tier with basic Nginx monitoring features for up to 5 hosts, standard dashboards, and limited log retention. For advanced capabilities, the pro plan starts at $15 per host per month, adding enhanced alerting, extended log retention, and deeper integrations.

4. IBM Instana Observability

IBM Instana Observability provides an automated observability platform that offers deep insights into your Nginx servers. With Instana agents and the Nginx sensor, you can instantly access real-time metrics, distributed traces, and performance data for web servers, reverse proxies, and load balancers.

🌟 Key features

• Automatic discovery and instrumentation
  
• Real-time metrics
  
• Distributed tracing
  
• Log management
  

➕ Pros

• Automatically installs the Nginx sensor with agent deployment
  
• Intelligent health signatures and alerts detect and resolve issues early
  
• Distributed tracing provides end-to-end visibility for better root-cause analysis
  
• Supports various environments, including self-hosted, cloud, hybrid, and containerized setups
  

➖ Cons

• Advanced setup for distributed tracing and metrics may require technical expertise
  

💲 Pricing

IBM Instana uses a managed virtual server (MVS) model starting at $18/month per MVS for the essentials plan, covering core observability features. The standard plan adds advanced capabilities like service discovery, tracing, and AI-driven incident management.

5. AppSignal

AppSignal makes Nginx monitoring effortless by pulling metrics directly from your server's access logs. Once set up, it automatically creates a detailed dashboard showing request times, throughput, connection status, and upstream performance in real time.

🌟 Key features

• Log management
  
• Performance monitoring
  
• Anomaly detection
  
• Uptime monitoring
  
• Host monitoring
  

➕ Pros

• Simple configuration to start gathering metrics without heavy coding
  
• Pre-built dashboard provides instant visibility into request times, throughput, and status codes
  
• Segments data by request groups for targeted analysis
  
• Combines host and Nginx metrics into a single platform
  
• Supports multiple programming languages and integrates with stand-alone agents for flexibility
  

➖ Cons

• Metrics rely on access log configuration, which may need adjustments to capture all necessary data and could affect existing setups
  

💲 Pricing

AppSignal offers a transparent pricing model with a 30-day free trial. Core APM features start at $18/month per host, with optional add-ons like long-term log storage, SAML SSO, and HIPAA compliance available for an additional cost.

6. SigNoz

SigNoz is an open-source, OpenTelemetry-native APM platform that simplifies monitoring and visualizing your Nginx servers. With its vendor-agnostic approach, SigNoz ensures flexibility and eliminates lock-in while providing a unified observability solution for modern distributed systems.

Using SigNoz, you can set up an OpenTelemetry pipeline to collect Nginx metrics and logs, view them on customizable dashboards, and configure alerts to address performance issues proactively.

🌟 Key features

• OpenTelemetry-native APM
  
• Real-time metrics
  
• Log management
  
• Automated dashboards
  
• Alerting and anomaly detection
  

➕ Pros

• Avoids vendor lock-in and integrates well with various observability tools
  
• Combines metrics, logs, and traces into a single, clear dashboard for better insights
  
• Open-source nature offers full transparency, customization, and community-driven improvements
  
• Can be self-hosted for control, or you can use SigNoz Cloud for a managed experience
  
• Easily scalable to multiple Nginx instances with configurable OpenTelemetry Collector setups
  

➖ Cons

• Initial setup may require familiarity with YAML and OpenTelemetry concepts
  

💲 Pricing

SigNoz is free and open-source, delivering nice features without licensing fees. For managed cloud deployments, SigNoz cloud offers scalable usage-based pricing. The team's plan starts at $199/month and includes unlimited dashboards, alerts, team collaboration, and enterprise security while billing for logs, traces, and metrics based on usage.

7. Splunk

Splunk allows you to collect and analyze web server activity, performance metrics, and error logs from your Nginx servers with its data indexing and search tools.

It supports ingestion of default and custom-formatted Nginx logs and metrics from Nginx Plus live activity monitoring.

🌟 Key features

• Infrastructure monitoring
  
• Log management
  
• Uptime monitoring
  
• Real user monitoring
  
• Synthetic monitoring
  

➕ Pros

• Ingests Nginx logs in default and custom key-value formats for detailed request insights
  
• Collects real-time metrics via Nginx Plus live activity monitoring and status APIs
  
• Monitors security events using Nginx App Protect logs in Splunk-friendly formats
  
• Supports flexible log formats, capturing detailed context with both raw and structured data
  

➖ Cons

• Lacks pre-built dashboards for Nginx monitoring, requiring manual setup or additional Splunk apps
  

💲 Pricing

Splunk Observability Cloud offers scalable pricing based on host count or per session/request. Pricing tiers include infrastructure monitoring at $15/host/month, app & infra monitoring at $60/host/month, and end-to-end observability at $75/host/month (all billed annually).

8. Sumo Logic

Sumo Logic delivers insights for monitoring Nginx environments. With prebuilt dashboards, alerts, and analytics tools, Sumo Logic helps you track server performance, analyze traffic patterns, troubleshoot errors, and enhance the user experience across your web infrastructure.

🌟 Key features

• Transaction analytics
  
• Real-time alerts
  
• Log management
  
• Infrastructure monitoring
  

➕ Pros

• Intuitive dashboards and alerts provide instant insights into Nginx health and performance
  
• Flexible log parsing and dashboard configurations adapt to your specific Nginx setup and goals
  
• Correlates metrics and logs to identify trends, troubleshoot issues, and optimize infrastructure
  
• Offers insights into client geographic distribution to improve resource allocation and user experience
  

➖ Cons

• Initial setup may require configuring Nginx log formats and integrating Sumo Logic collectors, which can be complex
  

💲 Pricing

Sumo Logic uses scalable, usage-based pricing. The flex plan, for example, costs around $3.14 per TB scanned, offering unlimited users, unthrottled performance, and $0 ingest with no tiering.

Plans include free, essentials, enterprise suite, and flex options, with pricing based on log capacity, metrics, tracing, and retention requirements.

9. Honeycomb

Honeycomb turns your Nginx logs into actionable insights, helping you achieve real-time observability. Using the Honeytail agent, you can structure and enrich Nginx logs, making them easy to query and visualize. Honeycomb also offers analytics to track traffic patterns, monitor response times, and identify errors.

🌟 Key features

• Log analytics
  
• Distributed tracing
  
• Service map
  
• BubbleUp anomaly detection
  

➕ Pros

• Provides detailed insights into traffic patterns, response times, and error rates from enriched logs
  
• Customizes Honeytail to support unique Nginx log formats and add application-specific context
  
• Open-source Honeytail ensures transparency, community support, and flexibility for customization
  
• Includes built-in options to scrub or omit sensitive data during ingestion, ensuring security
  

➖ Cons

• Running Honeytail alongside Nginx may increase resource usage
  

💲 Pricing

Honeycomb offers flexible pricing tailored to log analytics and telemetry needs. The free plan supports up to 20M events/month at no cost. The pro plan starts at $130/month for 100M events, scaling to $585/month for 450M events and $1,950/month for 1.5B events, with discounts for annual billing.

10. SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) simplifies Nginx performance monitoring with its out-of-the-box capabilities and intuitive dashboards.

Designed for quick setup, SAM automatically discovers Nginx environments and starts tracking essential performance metrics within minutes.

🌟 Key features

• Automatic discovery
  
• Dependency mapping
  
• Custom alerts and reports
  

➕ Pros

• Fast, template-based setup minimizes deployment time
  
• Combines Nginx metrics with infrastructure performance for a holistic view
  
• Visualizes complex environments with dependency mapping and real-time troubleshooting
  
• Intelligent alerts and customizable reports keep your team proactive
  

➖ Cons

• Full functionality is available only during the trial unless a subscription is purchased
  
• Extensive monitoring may increase overhead, requiring careful resource management
  

💲 Pricing

SolarWinds SAM starts at $15 per host per month (billed annually) for infrastructure monitoring. Additional modules are known for application, network, and digital experience observability, allowing for customizable solutions based on your needs.

Final thoughts

Monitoring your Nginx servers is not just about solving problems but preventing them. The top 10 tools this article explored can ensure your web infrastructure stays resilient even during unexpected traffic spikes.

If you are still undecided, don't hesitate to explore free trials to find the best fit for your unique needs.

Thanks for reading, and happy monitoring!

Article by

Stanley Ulili

Stanley Ulili is a technical educator at Better Stack based in Malawi. He specializes in backend development and has freelanced for platforms like DigitalOcean, LogRocket, and AppSignal. Stanley is passionate about making complex topics accessible to developers.

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