10 Best Virtual Machine (VM) Monitoring Tools in 2025

VM (Virtual Machine) monitoring tools are essential for maintaining the performance, availability, and security of virtualized environments.

These tools provide real-time visibility into VM health and performance, enabling administrators to track key metrics such as CPU usage, memory utilization, disk I/O, and network traffic.

VM monitoring tools offer customizable dashboards and alerts, helping quickly identify and resolve potential issues and ensuring optimal virtual infrastructure operation.

They often integrate with various virtualization platforms, such as VMware, Hyper-V, and KVM, providing a unified view of the entire virtual ecosystem.

Additionally, advanced analytics and reporting capabilities aid in capacity planning, performance optimization, and compliance, making these tools vital for efficient VM management in small—and large-scale deployments.

10 Best VM Monitoring Tools in 2025

VMware vRealize Operations: Advanced analytics and performance monitoring for VMware environments with predictive insights and automated remediation.
SolarWinds Virtualization Manager: Comprehensive VM performance monitoring and management, including capacity planning and optimization.
Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM): Centralized virtualized data center management and monitoring with resource optimization and automation capabilities.
Nagios XI: Robust monitoring for VM infrastructure with customizable dashboards, extensive plugin support, and alerting features.
Zabbix: Open-source monitoring solution with real-time performance tracking and alerting for virtual machines and other IT assets.
PRTG Network Monitor: All-in-one monitoring tool with pre-configured sensors for VM performance and health tracking.
Datadog: Cloud-based monitoring and analytics platform offering comprehensive VM monitoring with real-time alerts and dashboards.
ManageEngine OpManager: Integrated network and VM monitoring solution with real-time performance tracking and automated management features.
Dynatrace: AI-driven monitoring and analytics for VM environments with automatic root cause analysis and full-stack visibility.
Veeam ONE: Comprehensive monitoring and reporting for virtual environments, including real-time alerts, capacity planning, and backup monitoring.

VM Monitoring Tools Features

VM Monitoring Tools	Features	Stand Alone Feature	Pricing	Free Trial / Demo
1. VMware vRealize Operations	1. Intelligent monitoring and predictive analytics 2. Unified visibility and management. 3. Automated capacity optimization and planning. 4. Policy-based automation and compliance. 5. Open and extensible platform.	Automated performance and capacity management.	Starts at $1,745 per CPU	Yes
2. SolarWinds Virtualization Manager	1. Comprehensive virtualization monitoring. 2. Automated capacity planning and predictive recommendations. 3. Integrated troubleshooting and remediation. 4. Control and eliminate VM sprawl. 5. Chargeback and usage reporting.	Integrated VM monitoring and management.	Starts at $2,995	Yes
3. Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM)	1. Centralized management for multiple hypervisors. 2. Integrated network and storage provisioning. 3. Automated VM deployment and lifecycle management. 4. Self-service portal and role-based access. 5. Enhanced monitoring, automation, and security.	Centralized virtual machine management.	Custom pricing	No
4. Nagios XI	1. Comprehensive infrastructure monitoring:. 2. Scalable and flexible architecture. 3. Advanced alerting and reporting. 4. Configuration wizards and bulk management. 5. User-friendly, customizable dashboards.	Comprehensive infrastructure and VM monitoring.	Starts at $1,995	No
5. Zabbix	1. Agentless, template-driven VMware monitoring. 2. Extensive discovery and auto-monitoring. 3. Granular performance and health tracking. 4. Custom triggers and alerting. 5. Flexible, open-source extensibility.	Open-source VM performance monitoring.	Free, open-source	No
6. PRTG Network Monitor	1. Comprehensive, multi-environment monitoring. 2. Highly customizable alerts and data visualization. 3. Out-of-the-box flexibility. 4. Performance and capacity tracking. 5. Fast setup and ease of use.	Versatile VM and network monitoring.	Free, then $1,799	Yes
7. Datadog	1. Unified full-stack monitoring. 2. Customizable, real-time dashboards and visualizations. 3. Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and distributed tracing. 4. AI-driven alerting and anomaly detection. 5. Extensive integrations and scalability.	Cloud-based VM performance and health monitoring.	Starts at $15 per host/month	Yes
8. ManageEngine OpManager	1. Unified, multi-hypervisor virtual machine monitoring. 2. Proactive, real-time performance alerts. 3. Built-in VM sprawl management. 4. Extensive, customizable reporting and analytics. 5. Workflow automation for fault remediation.	Integrated VM monitoring with network management.	Starts at $245	Yes
9. Dynatrace	1. Unified observability and security. 2. AI-powered insights and automation. 3. Automatic discovery and topology mapping. 4. Advanced log analytics and real-time dashboards. 5. Comprehensive digital experience and application monitoring.	AI-driven VM performance and application monitoring.	Starts at $69 per month	Yes
10. Veeam ONE	1. 24/7 real-time monitoring and alerting. 2. Comprehensive reporting and analytics. 3. Intelligent diagnostics and root-cause analysis. 4. Capacity planning and resource optimization. 5. Ransomware detection and security monitoring.	Real-time VM monitoring and reporting.	Starts at $400 per socket	Yes

1. VMware vRealize Operations

VMware vRealize Operations is a comprehensive virtual machine monitoring tool that provides a unified platform for tracking and evaluating virtual machine performance, capacity, and effectiveness across hosts and clusters.

It provides real-time insight into performance metrics, resource consumption, and workload management and gives administrators a complete picture of their virtual infrastructure.

The tool uses advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms to detect anomalies, predict capacity requirements, and automate troubleshooting.

This proactive strategy allows administrators to optimize resource allocation, take preventative measures, and keep virtualized systems running smoothly. Its scalability makes it suitable for companies with large virtual infrastructures.

Strong connections between this tool and other VMware products enable smooth management across the VMware ecosystem.

Capabilities such as capacity planning, real-time performance monitoring and analytics, predictive analytics, automation, and orchestration are available.

Features

Provides holistic cloud monitoring using AI analytics for both public and private clouds.
Offers workload optimization and capacity planning to ensure efficient resource utilization.
Delivers automated remediation and guided troubleshooting with smart alerts and recommendations.
Supports customizable dashboards and federated views for segmented, persona-driven insights.
Integrates seamlessly with other VMware solutions for end-to-end infrastructure and application visibility.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Proactive identification and remediation of performance/capacity issues.	Steep learning curve for new users, especially for setup.
Holistic visibility across all cloud and on-prem infrastructure in one console.	Integration with non-VMware platforms can require add-ons or extra setup.
Intelligent analytics help optimize workloads and right-size resources.	Implementation and ongoing maintenance can be complex in large environments.
Customizable dashboards and deep reporting for fast troubleshooting.	Limited synthetic monitoring and some gaps in in-guest metrics for VM.

VMware vRealize Operations – Trial / Demo

2. SolarWinds Virtualization Manager

SolarWinds Virtualization Manager is a powerful virtual machine monitoring tool that provides a range of real-time monitoring, performance optimization, and capacity planning functions to help administrators ensure the effective functioning of Virtual Infrastructures.

Utilizing several hosts, SolarWinds Virtualization Manager enables you to monitor crucial metrics like CPU, memory, storage, and network use for virtual machines.

This tool allows admins to spot bottlenecks and improve performance by giving them granular visibility into resource utilization.

It also provides proactive alerting and troubleshooting features to assist in swiftly finding and fixing problems.

This application can implement many features, such as Virtual Machine Growth Control, Real-Time Performance Monitoring, Capacity Planning, Resource Optimization, and Resource Optimization.

Moreover, IT professionals can identify and address issues quickly through complete visibility into Virtual Environments.

Features

Provides comprehensive monitoring and performance management for VMware, Hyper-V, and Nutanix environments from a single dashboard.
Offers capacity planning and predictive analytics to optimize resource usage and prevent future bottlenecks.
Delivers actionable recommendations and automated remediation for troubleshooting and resolving VM issues faster.
Controls VM sprawl and rightsizing by identifying idle, over- or under-provisioned VMs and reclaiming resources.
Supports end-to-end visibility and integration with other SolarWinds tools for unified virtual infrastructure management.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Comprehensive, multi-hypervisor monitoring for VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix, and public cloud.	Initial setup and integration can be complex, especially in hybrid environments.
Provides actionable recommendations and automated remediation for VM performance issues.	The user interface, while improved, still has a learning curve for customization.
Intuitive dashboards and rich visualizations for capacity, health, and performance metrics.	Reports of performance slowdowns when monitoring very large environments.
Strong VM sprawl control and resource optimization with predictive analytics.	Limited native support for monitoring platforms outside mainstream hypervisors (add-ons may be needed).

SolarWinds Virtualization Manager – Trial / Demo

3. Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM)

The complete management tool Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) was created especially for virtualized systems. Offers a consolidated platform for controlling storage, virtual networks, and virtual machines.

It offers features such as provisioning, setup, and monitoring for virtual machines, enabling administrators to manage their virtual infrastructure effectively.

The tool provides a range of functionality, including provisioning, cloning, and migrating virtual machines, performance monitoring, reporting, automation, and orchestration.

The VM monitoring software enables efficient administration inside the Microsoft ecosystem by seamlessly integrating with other Microsoft technologies, such as Hyper-V and Active Directory.

SCVMM also offers capabilities, including live migration, dynamic optimization, and resource allocation, to assist administrators in optimizing efficiency and resource use in virtualized settings.

Features

Enables centralized management and provisioning of Hyper-V and VMware virtualized infrastructures in the datacenter.
Provides end-to-end network and storage management including support for network virtualization and storage pooling.
Supports VM lifecycle automation with self-service portals, templates, and integration with Azure Arc for hybrid management.
Offers comprehensive monitoring, reporting, and role-based access control across virtual environments.
Facilitates rapid VM deployment, migration, and optimization, including cross-platform (V2V) migrations and performance-based workload placement.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Centralized management of Hyper-V and VMware environments from one console.	Complex setup and a steep learning curve for new administrators.
Supports automated VM deployment, migration, and intelligent workload placement.	Requires full System Center suite purchase; cannot be licensed standalone.
Offers role-based access, self-service provisioning, and extensive scripting support via PowerShell.	High resource requirements; needs a dedicated server and SQL database.
Comprehensive monitoring, reporting, and integration with cloud/hybrid environments (Azure Arc).	Can be costly and operationally heavy for smaller environments.

Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) – Trial /Demo

4. Nagios XI

Nagios XI is a potent virtual machine monitoring tool with extensive infrastructure and network monitoring features.

It offers a single platform for tracking the functionality, performance, and accessibility of network equipment, software, services, and virtual machines.

Administrators may use this application to monitor virtual machines’ CPU, RAM, storage space, and network connection. The tool offers real-time alerts and notifications to respond quickly to problems and reduce downtime.

It has sophisticated reporting capabilities let users design their reports and monitor previous patterns. It also provides an extensive collection of plugins that may be used to track specific programs, services, or infrastructure parts.

This flexibility allows administrators to customize their monitoring environment to meet their unique demands.

Features

Delivers comprehensive IT infrastructure monitoring with a scalable engine supporting hosts, services, and network devices.
Provides customizable dashboards and advanced visualization, including historical performance graphs and capacity planning.
Enables rapid deployment and simplified management through configuration wizards, auto-discovery, and bulk configuration tools.
Supports powerful alerting, reporting, and automated remediation with notification options and integrated action/event handlers.
Offers fine-grained user management and security controls for access permissions, role-based views, and audit trails.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Powerful extensibility—vast plugin support enables deep customization and broad monitoring.	Initial setup and advanced customization require a steep learning curve.
Comprehensive, real-time alerting and issue detection with flexible notification options.	Reporting templates are limited and less customizable compared to peers.
Scalable architecture supports both small and large enterprise environments efficiently.	The UI is functional but considered outdated and less intuitive by some users.
Integration and automation via APIs and wizards streamline routine management tasks.	In-depth root cause analysis and advanced visualization features are less mature.

Nagios XI – Trial / Demo

5. Zabbix

Zabbix is a feature-rich virtual machine monitoring solution that provides comprehensive monitoring, alerting, and analysis of your virtualization environment.

This open-source virtual monitoring system provides a single platform for monitoring the health, performance, and availability of virtual machines, network devices, and applications.

The solution offers many features, including capacity planning, performance reporting, real-time monitoring of virtual machines and their resources, configurable dashboards, and more.

Additionally, it provides compatibility with a wide range of virtualization platforms and operating systems.

Additionally, it has visualization and reporting features that enable administrators to design unique reports and see past patterns.

It can handle big deployments with thousands of virtual machines, making it suitable for businesses with extensive virtual infrastructures.

Features

Provides real-time monitoring and visualization for networks, servers, cloud services, and applications.
Enables flexible alerting and automated remediation with customizable notification and escalation workflows.
Supports distributed and scalable deployments via Zabbix proxies and agentless monitoring options.
Features advanced problem detection and intelligent triggers for proactive issue identification and root cause analysis.
Delivers customizable dashboards, maps, and reporting tools for insightful and role-based operational views.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Highly flexible and customizable monitoring for diverse IT infrastructure and devices.	Steep learning curve; setup and management can be complex for new users.
Open-source, cost-effective, and scalable for large enterprise or multi-tenant environments.	User interface looks outdated; not as intuitive or modern as some competitors.
Advanced visualization, reporting, and automation features—great for capacity planning.	Scaling and performance tuning in large setups require advanced planning.
Powerful alerting and remediation with extensible templates and integrations.	Limited native support for cloud-native workloads; cloud/K8s monitoring needs tuning.

Zabbix – Trial / Demo

6. PRTG Network Monitor

Designed to monitor network infrastructure and offer a uniform platform to track real-time performance, availability, and health indicators, PRTG Network Monitor is a thorough virtual machine monitoring software.

Admins are given helpful information in real time in their virtualized environments. With this VM monitoring tool, administrators can monitor various indicators, such as CPU and memory consumption, network traffic, and virtual machine reaction time.

Users may rapidly recognize and evaluate performance patterns thanks to its easy graphics and customizable dashboards.

Additionally, it offers proactive alerting, which involves delivering messages when a certain threshold is crossed or an abnormality is found.

This tool uses autodiscovery, which employs automated detection and adding virtual machines to the monitoring environment, to simplify the initial setup procedure.

It also provides an easy-to-use online interface and mobile app for seamless control and monitoring from any location.

Features

Provides real-time monitoring and visualization for networks, servers, and applications with customizable dashboards and maps.
Enables automatic network discovery and adds pre-configured sensors for seamless setup and comprehensive coverage.
Delivers smart alerts and multi-channel notifications via email, SMS, push, and custom integrations to minimize downtime.
Supports distributed monitoring for multiple remote sites, all unified under a single, centralized interface.
Offers customizable reporting and in-depth analysis, allowing tailored reports, historic data, and capacity planning insights.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Highly customizable dashboards, wide protocol/device support for visibility.	Sensor-based licensing can get expensive as scaling up or for large networks.
Easy to deploy and intuitive interface, even for smaller IT teams.	Recent price increases and costly upgrades have frustrated longtime customers.
Real-time monitoring, flexible alerting, and many sensor types out-of-the-box.	Alert system can generate false positives/“unusual” alarms, sometimes annoying.
Scalable for distributed/remote sites, strong reporting and analytics.	Advanced features (custom sensors, maps) are time-consuming to configure, and the UI can feel outdated or overwhelming.

PRTG Network Monitor – Trial / Demo

7. Datadog

Datadog is robust VM monitoring software that provides complete visibility and analytical capabilities for simulated environments. It provides a common platform for monitoring virtual machines’ performance, availability, and health.

The tool offers many features, such as active time monitoring and notification, configurable dashboards and reports, capacity planning, and infrastructure automation.

This tool enables administrators to gather and analyze various metrics for Virtual Machines, such as CPU consumption, memory utilization, disk input-output, and network traffic.

It offers real-time visibility on performance trends and facilitates the correlation and analysis of data from various sources.

It can also proactively alert the administrators to anomalies or issues, thus allowing them to set up their own thresholds and be notified if problems occur.

It also makes it easy to monitor and manage multiple cloud environments simultaneously.

Features

Provides full-stack observability by monitoring infrastructure, applications, logs, and user experience in real time from a unified dashboard.
Delivers AI-powered anomaly detection and proactive alerting for rapid issue identification and incident response.
Supports customizable dashboards and visually rich analytics for data correlation and operational insights.
Enables seamless integration with 600+ technologies, including cloud platforms, DevOps tools, and container environments for holistic visibility.
Offers automated log management and end-to-end tracing for diagnostics, troubleshooting, and application performance optimization.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Unified monitoring stack: correlates metrics, logs, and traces in one platform for full visibility.	Can become expensive as data volume, users, or integrations scale up.
Fast deployment and 600+ integrations enable rapid, flexible visibility across modern stacks.	Some advanced dashboards and analytics have a learning curve for new users.
Powerful AI-driven anomaly detection and root-cause analysis simplify troubleshooting.	Custom metric limits and retention policies can restrict historical analysis.
Rich dashboards and real-time alerting empower proactive issue response and deep insights.	Occasional lag or limitations in agentless/cloud-only monitoring scenarios.

Datadog – Trial / Demo

8. ManageEngine, OpManager

A consolidated platform for monitoring the health, performance, and availability of virtual machines, network devices, servers, and applications is offered by ManageEngine OpManager, a thorough virtual machine monitoring software.

Administrators can monitor crucial virtual machine metrics using OpManager, including CPU and memory utilization, storage space, network traffic, and memory consumption.

It offers real-time monitoring, scalable dashboards, and simple visualizations that let admins see performance issues and take appropriate action.

Additionally, it provides proactive warnings, informing administrators if certain thresholds are surpassed or an abnormality is found.

It is highly suited for companies with substantial virtual infrastructures since it can handle large-scale deployments involving thousands of virtual machines.

The tool offers thorough monitoring in heterogeneous settings and supports several virtualization technologies, including VMware, Hyper-V, and XenServer.

Features

Delivers comprehensive real-time monitoring for networks, servers, VMs, and hybrid infrastructure from a single console.
Provides intuitive dashboards and visualizations with detailed performance metrics and topological network maps for actionable insights.
Supports proactive alerting and automated workflows, minimizing downtime via instant, customizable notifications and multi-channel integrations.
Enables automated discovery and network configuration management, tracking device changes and ensuring compliance across distributed environments.
Integrates capacity planning, reporting, and root cause analysis tools to optimize resource utilization and accelerate troubleshooting.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Intuitive interface with customizable dashboards for comprehensive network visibility.	Initial setup and advanced configuration can be complex for large environments.
Real-time monitoring and rapid alerting enable proactive issue response and troubleshooting.	Some advanced features and add-ons require separate licensing or extra cost.
Automated device discovery and network mapping streamline onboarding and compliance.	Reporting templates and analytics depth may not match some high-end rivals.
Integration with workflows and third-party tools boosts operational efficiency.	UI responsiveness and mobile experience can lag behind modern expectations.

ManageEngine OpManager – Trial / Demo

9. Dynatrace

Administrators may monitor the health, performance, and user experience of virtual machines, apps, containers, and cloud services with the help of Dynatrace, a potent virtual machine monitoring tool.

Dynatrace provides real-time insights into virtual machine performance using AI-powered automation and monitoring.

It automatically detects and maps the interdependence of virtualized environments, giving a comprehensive picture of the complete infrastructure.

The application offers in-depth statistics and visualizations that enable administrators to locate bottlenecks, allocate resources more efficiently, and resolve performance problems.

It supports container technologies like Kubernetes and Docker and cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and GCP.

As a result, hybrid and multi-cloud installations may be seamlessly monitored, offering managers a single picture of their virtualized infrastructure.

Features

Offers full-stack monitoring and observability for applications, infrastructure, cloud, and microservices from a single platform.
Delivers AI-powered root cause analysis and anomaly detection for proactive problem identification and rapid resolution.
Provides real-user and synthetic monitoring to enhance digital experience and track user interactions for all applications.
Enables automatic discovery, mapping, and dependency tracing across complex, dynamic environments including containers and hybrid clouds.
Integrates intelligent log management and analytics for deep troubleshooting and actionable insights at scale.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
AI-powered, full-stack observability with automatic root cause analysis speeds up troubleshooting.	Steep learning curve and complex initial setup, especially for new users.
Unified platform covers infrastructure, applications, user experience, and security in real time.	High licensing costs; can become expensive at scale for large environments.
Easy deployment via OneAgent with out-of-the-box integrations and automation.	Dashboard and alert customization is limited for specific advanced use cases.
Proactive, automated problem detection and real-time dependency mapping reduce operational overhead.	Occasional over-alerting and potential performance impact in huge deployments.

ManageEngine OpManager – Trial / Demo

10. Veeam ONE

The virtual machine monitoring software Veeam ONE gives virtualized environments visibility, reporting, and analysis. It is intended to monitor and improve the infrastructure’s underpinning virtual machines’ setup, performance, and availability.

It offers real-time monitoring, enabling managers to monitor crucial performance indicators for virtual machines, including CPU, memory, storage, and network traffic. It is made to assist IT managers in maximizing the functionality and accessibility of their virtual infrastructure.

The solution provides real-time monitoring, alarms, custom dashboards, performance reporting, capacity planning, and automation. It also provides dashboards and customizable data to help administrators evaluate their virtual infrastructure.

Administrators are warned of potential difficulties or deviations from established practices so they can avert performance loss or downtime. It helps administrators maximize resource consumption and build expansion plans with capacity planning and forecasting tools.

Features

Delivers 24×7 real-time monitoring and deep analytics for backup, physical, cloud, and virtual environments, helping prevent downtime and meet SLAs.
Provides comprehensive reporting and customizable dashboards for performance, capacity planning, audit tracking, and compliance documentation.
Offers intelligent diagnostics, alarms, and automated alerting to rapidly identify and resolve issues across the entire infrastructure.
Enables proactive ransomware detection and security monitoring with abnormal activity alerts on VMs, workloads, and infrastructure components.
Integrates change tracking, audit trails, and chargeback capabilities to optimize resources, ensure compliance, and control costs within multi-cloud and hybrid environments.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Real-time monitoring, deep analytics, and customizable alerts for backup, virtual, and cloud systems.	User interface can feel dated and less intuitive compared to newer competitors; needs modernization.
Advanced, customizable reporting and dashboards support capacity planning, compliance, and auditing.	Reporting on certain backup environments or customizations can be less granular than desired.
Integrated ransomware detection, threat analytics, and proactive alerting enhance security posture.	Setup and configuration, especially in larger environments, can be complex and resource-intensive.
Automated remediation and guided troubleshooting reduce downtime and accelerate root cause analysis.	Pricing and licensing can get expensive as environments scale; free/community edition has feature limits.

Veeam ONE – Trial / Demo

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