LibreNMS: Monitoring Ledger 2026

Part of the Infrastructure Monitoring Ledger (edition 2026-10-04). How the scores work: methodology.

Snapshot

Tier: Community project
Owner: No company; volunteer community funded through Open Collective (forked from Observium in 2013)
Licence model: GPLv3, free; no paid edition and no official commercial support
Products scored: LibreNMS core (pollers, web UI, alerting, REST API) and the project's librenms-agent scripts; Oxidized, Grafana and community scripts counted at half, community MCP server not counted
Latest release: 26.9.0, 2026-09-21
Next signal: gNMI streaming telemetry, asyncio poller rework and the MCP bridge, all in progress with no dates
Archetype: Community SNMP network monitor
Evidence grade: B. Release tags and docs are primary, but the files conflict on the MCP server's status and some release dates, and funding figures come from one Open Collective snapshot.

Scorecard

Dimension	Score	Direction
Capability today	67.6 / 100	higher is better
Momentum since end of 2022	+1.2 points	higher is better
Credibility	19.5 / 25	higher is better
Sustainability risk	11.0 / 25	lower is better
Technical lock-in	4.5 / 25	lower is better
Integrator fit	6.0 / 20	higher is better
AI leverage	5.5 / 20	higher is better
Ledger Index	59.1 / 100	balanced weights

Capability by domain

Scores 0 to 5 against fixed anchors; total is weighted to 100.

Domain (weight)	2016	2019	2022	Today
Server, virtualization and storage (12)	2.5	3	3	3.5
Network monitoring (12)	3.5	4	4	4
Application and service monitoring (10)	2.5	3	3	3
Data collection and scale (12)	3	3.5	3.5	3.5
Alerting and event management (12)	3	3.5	3.5	3.5
Visualisation and reporting (8)	3	3.5	3.5	3.5
Logs and traces (8)	3	3	3	3
Automation and remediation (8)	2.5	2.5	3	3
Security and compliance (8)	2.5	3	3.5	3.5
New-platform support (VMware exit) (10)	1	2.5	3	3
Total / 100	53.4	63.8	66.4	67.6

Year by year: 2016: 53.4 · 2017: 54.6 · 2018: 55.4 · 2019: 63.8 · 2020: 63.8 · 2021: 64.6 · 2022: 66.4 · 2023: 66.4 · 2024: 67.6 · 2025: 67.6 · 2026: 67.6

What moved the score

Year	Domain	Change	Points	Trigger
2017	Network monitoring	3.5 → 4	+1.2	1.33 (2017): Oxidized config backup integration, half credit as external tool; no native flow or IPAM
2018	Security and compliance	2.5 → 3	+0.8	1.47 (2018): TOTP two-factor login, device-scoped permissions, login and change audit log
2019	Alerting and event management	3 → 3.5	+1.2	1.58 (2019): 30+ transports, scheduled maintenance windows, macro rule builder
2019	Application and service monitoring	2.5 → 3	+1.0	1.58 (2019): agent application scripts for MySQL, PostgreSQL, Nginx, Redis, BIND; certificate expiry checks
2019	Data collection and scale	3 → 3.5	+1.2	1.58 (2019): Redis queues and poller groups pinned to sites, 10,000+ devices; RRD disk limits remain
2019	New-platform support (VMware exit)	1 → 2.5	+3.0	1.58 (2019): Proxmox VE and KVM via librenms-agent extend scripts; AHV via generic SNMP
2019	Server, virtualization and storage	2.5 → 3	+1.2	1.58 (2019): librenms-agent extend scripts for services, SMART and Docker; IPMI sensors; NetApp and Synology MIBs
2019	Visualisation and reporting	3 → 3.5	+0.8	1.58 (2019): automatic L2 topology maps from LLDP/CDP, shared dashboards, billing graphs
2021	Security and compliance	3 → 3.5	+0.8	21.10 (2021): OpenID Connect and SAML SSO, API token scoping; no multi-tenancy or FIPS
2022	Automation and remediation	2.5 → 3	+0.8	22.10 (2022): webhook transports trigger AWX and Rundeck; OpenAPI-documented REST API
2022	New-platform support (VMware exit)	2.5 → 3	+1.0	22.10 (2022): Nutanix AHV auto-discovery via Prism MIBs; Proxmox host metrics; 24.4 adds Proxmox discovery
2024	Server, virtualization and storage	3 → 3.5	+1.2	24.4 (2024): Proxmox VE discovery and GPU graphs; no hypervisor API poller; Redfish only via community scripts

Direction, 2023 to 2026

Each item carries one theme and one driver (V vision, C customer need, M market window, U upstream, P portfolio).

Date	Item	Theme	Driver
2023-04	23.4: Python distributed poller v2	D4 Collection and scale	C
2023-10	23.10: Fortinet and Palo Alto firewall telemetry	D2 Network	C
2023-10	23.10: dynamic alert rule templates	D5 Alerting and events	C
2024-04	24.4: OpenTelemetry metrics exporter preview	D8 Logs and traces	U
2024-04	24.4: Proxmox VE auto-discovery via SNMP	D1 Server and virtualization	M
2024-04	24.4: native GPU metrics graphs	D1 Server and virtualization	M
2024-11	24.10: SNMP trap correlation overhaul	D5 Alerting and events	C
2025-04	25.4: vector network topology maps	D6 Visualisation and reporting	C
2026-04	26.4: sub-minute interface polling	D4 Collection and scale	C
2026-09	26.9: MCP bridge preview	D7 AI-assisted operations	U

Centre of gravity: Collection and scale (2), Alerting and events (2), Server and virtualization (2)
Driver mix: Vision 0%, Customer need 60%, Market window 20%, Upstream 20%, Portfolio 0%

Credibility: 19.5 / 25

Criterion	Score	Basis
Cadence	4.5	Monthly calendar-versioned releases since 21.1 (2021), latest 26.9.0 in September 2026
Roadmap transparency	4	Public GitHub issues, changelog and Discourse feature threads; no written roadmap document
Say-do	4.5	5 of 5 tracked items shipped on time 2023-2025; small sample from community threads
Velocity	3.5	Steady device-support growth plus one or two features per quarter, e.g. poller v2, trap correlation, vector maps
Lifecycle stability	3	Rolling releases with no LTS; PHP baseline bumps (8.1 to 8.4) force OS upgrades

Say-do record, 2023 to 2026: 5 commitments since 2023 (poller v2, alert templates, Proxmox discovery, trap correlation, vector maps), all delivered in the stated quarter. AI evidence adds GPU graphs (1 month) and a community MCP server (preview, 2 months).

Sustainability risk: 11.0 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Maintainer concentration	3.5	About five active volunteer maintainers carry core work; key-person risk
Backer health	4	No company; Open Collective brings about $2,000 a year, no paid maintainers
Licence-change risk	1	GPLv3 since the 2013 fork, created to stay open; no relicensing
Abandonment signs	0.5	Active: monthly releases, 26.9.0 in September 2026, 450+ contributors
Security response	2	GitHub security advisories issued and patched; no formal response SLA

Security record of the product itself: None found in the KEV catalogue (the security record). Community-reported flaws are fixed through GitHub security advisories (for example GHSA-795p-q7c6-w29f).

Technical lock-in: 4.5 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Formats	1	MariaDB and RRDtool files; device definitions in plain text
Export path	1.5	mysqldump, REST API and InfluxDB or Prometheus streaming; no importers into other tools
Stack coupling	1	Standard SNMP, no proprietary agent; needs PHP, MariaDB and RRDtool
Hardware / cloud coupling	0	Any Linux host, VM or Docker; fully offline
Skills and tooling coupling	1	LAMP, SNMP and SQL skills

Integrator fit: 6.0 / 20

Criterion	Score	Basis
Partner programme openness	0.5	No partner programme, resellers or vendor
Multi-tenancy and self-service	1.5	Device- and group-scoped users and ISP billing module; no tenants or MSP portal
API and infrastructure-as-code	3	REST API v0 with 100+ endpoints and OpenAPI docs, official Docker images; Ansible only community
Skills and certification	1	No certification; community forum of about 12,000 users

AI leverage: 5.5 / 20

Strand	Today	Latest step
AIOps on monitoring data	1.5	2024: 24.4 (2024): native GPU graphs; 24.9 400G and InfiniBand port polling
AI platform stack	0	none
AI-assisted operations	1.5	2022: 22.10 (2022): statistical latency deviation alerts; no ML or assistant
Agent openness	2.5	2026: 26.9.0 (2026): MCP bridge preview listed; AI evidence calls the server community-built, so half credit

AI say-do: 2 announced, 1 GA (GPU graphs), 1 preview (community MCP server), 0 pending, 0 dropped. No machine learning: anomaly flags are moving-average latency checks, and there is no assistant.

Reading

LibreNMS is a volunteer-run GPLv3 network monitor that keeps widening SNMP device coverage, topology maps and poller scale, and added Proxmox discovery in 2024. It releases monthly and shipped every tracked item since 2023, but has no company, about $2,000 a year in donations and no commercial support. Buyers get open formats and almost no lock-in, at the cost of thin server, application and hypervisor-API depth and reliance on a handful of maintainers.

Open questions and evidence caveats

The 26.9.0 release lists an MCP bridge preview while the AI evidence says the MCP server is community-built; agent openness got half credit.
Release dates differ between files (24.4.0 on 2024-04-19 or 2024-04-28).
Scale figures (10,000 to 20,000+ devices) are documentation statements, not benchmarks.
Funding and maintainer counts come from one Open Collective and GitHub snapshot.