A detailed look at how NetSense NMS and Cacti compare across the capabilities ISPs care about most.
| Feature | NetSense NMS | Cacti |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | ||
| Model | Cloud SaaS | Self-hosted, LAMP stack required |
| Infrastructure management | None required | Linux server, Apache/Nginx, MySQL, PHP, cron jobs |
| Updates | Automatic | Manual - package manager or source updates |
| OLT Monitoring | ||
| OLT health (CPU, temp, memory, PSU, fans) | Generic SNMP graphs only, no ISP-specific views | |
| PON port utilization | Requires custom SNMP templates, no OLT-native support | |
| Multi-vendor OLT support (15+) | Huawei, Genexis, VSOL... | Generic SNMP - community templates vary by vendor |
| PON & ONU | ||
| Partial PON failure detection | ||
| ONU Rx/Tx signal monitoring | No PON protocol support | |
| ONU status tracking & inventory | ||
| ONU QoE scoring | ||
| Fiber degradation trending | ||
| Switch Monitoring | ||
| Port utilization & traffic | Core use case - MRTG-style graphs | |
| Error & discard tracking | Requires custom templates | |
| SFP monitoring | ||
| TR-069 / CPE | ||
| TR-069 ACS integration | Built-in | |
| Remote CPE management | ||
| WiFi telemetry | ||
| Zero-touch provisioning | ||
| Alerting | ||
| Smart alert correlation | 95% noise reduction | Threshold plugin only, no correlation |
| Alert suppression / maintenance windows | Thold plugin required, limited | |
| Multi-channel notifications | Telegram, Email, Slack, Webhook | Email via plugin only |
| Topology | ||
| Auto-discovery (SNMP, LLDP, CDP) | Manual device addition only | |
| Live-updating network map | Real-time interactive map | No topology features |
| Impact analysis | ||
| Scale & Performance | ||
| Polling frequency | 30s for critical metrics | 5-minute default, 1-minute minimum with Spine |
| Proven scale | 4,500+ OLTs, 6,000+ switches, 1.4M+ ONUs | Degrades with thousands of devices without significant tuning |
| Clustering / HA | Cloud-native, managed | Distributed pollers possible but complex |
| Support & Service | ||
| 24/7 technical support | Dedicated support team | Community forums only, no official support |
| Custom device integrations | On request | Community templates, DIY |
| Pricing | ||
| Model | SaaS subscription | Free, open-source - but requires server infrastructure costs and engineering time |
Where NetSense goes beyond what a legacy open-source graphing tool can offer ISPs.
Cacti excels at historical bandwidth graphs but gives you yesterday's data. NetSense monitors every layer of your FTTH network in real time - OLT health, PON port states, ONU signal levels, and partial fiber failures - with 30-second polling. When a PON card fails at 2am, Cacti's 5-minute graphs show you after the fact. NetSense alerts you before customers call.
Cacti requires the Thold plugin for basic threshold alerts and generates a separate alert for every breached metric. NetSense uses smart alert correlation to suppress 95% of noise - recognizing that 500 ONU alerts on a single PON port are one upstream fault, not 500 incidents. Teams can focus on root causes rather than managing alert floods.
Running Cacti means managing a LAMP stack, cron jobs, RRDtool databases, and performance tuning as your device count grows. NetSense is a fully managed cloud SaaS - no servers to provision, no databases to tune, no updates to schedule. Your team monitors networks, not monitoring infrastructure.
NetSense includes built-in TR-069 ACS for managing customer premises equipment - zero-touch provisioning, WiFi telemetry, remote diagnostics. Correlate customer-side issues with network-side data in a single platform. Cacti has no CPE management capabilities.
Common questions about switching from Cacti to NetSense NMS.
See how NetSense NMS gives your ISP the real-time OLT and PON visibility that graphing tools cannot. Book a live demo and we'll walk you through your network.
