# Infrastructure monitoring: what AI models recommend, September 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "infrastructure monitoring tool" and as "server and cloud infrastructure monitoring solution", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/operations/infrastructure-monitoring/

**Standing:** Site24x7 leads with 24% of first choices; verdict contested. 45 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Site24x7 | 24% | 4% | 25 |
| 2 | New Relic | 22% | 15% | 48 |
| 3 | Zabbix | 18% | 25% | 44 |
| 4 | Datadog | 13% | 43% | 54 |
| 5 | Netdata | 7% | 0% | 20 |
| 6 | Grafana | 4% | 9% | 32 |
| 7 | Prometheus | 4% | 25% | 28 |
| 8 | LogicMonitor | 2% | 0% | 15 |
| 9 | Dynatrace | 2% | 30% | 37 |
| 10 | Prometheus + Grafana | 0% | 11% | 18 |
| 11 | Paessler PRTG | 0% | 12% | 16 |
| 12 | Nagios | 0% | 55% | 22 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Sematext; alternatives LogicMonitor, Site24x7
- GPT-5.4 mini: New Relic; alternatives Dynatrace, Grafana
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: New Relic; alternatives Better Stack, LogicMonitor, Netdata
- Perplexity Sonar: LogicMonitor; alternatives ManageEngine OpManager, Progress WhatsUp Gold, Site24x7
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Site24x7; alternatives Datadog, LogicMonitor
- Mistral Small: Netdata, Site24x7; alternatives LogicMonitor
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: New Relic; alternatives Grafana, ManageEngine OpManager, Site24x7
- Llama 4 Maverick: Netdata, Site24x7
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Datadog; alternatives Grafana, New Relic
- Kimi K2: Site24x7; alternatives ManageEngine OpManager, New Relic
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Site24x7; alternatives LogicMonitor, New Relic, Prometheus + Grafana
- MiniMax M2.5: Site24x7; alternatives Netdata, New Relic

## Sources the answers cite

58 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- netdata.cloud: 40 answers, 40 citations
- gartner.com: 38 answers, 45 citations
- middleware.io: 36 answers, 38 citations
- motadata.com: 22 answers, 28 citations
- newrelic.com: 22 answers, 28 citations
- learn.g2.com: 18 answers, 18 citations
- instatus.com: 16 answers, 16 citations
- signoz.io: 15 answers, 15 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://netdata.cloud/resources/best-infrastructure-monitoring-tools (40 answers)
- https://gartner.com/reviews/market/infrastructure-monitoring-tools (38 answers)
- https://middleware.io/blog/infrastructure-monitoring-tools (36 answers)
- https://motadata.com/blog/best-it-infrastructure-monitoring-tools (22 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/cloud-monitoring-tools (18 answers)
- https://newrelic.com/blog/infrastructure-monitoring/how-to-choose-the-best-infrastructure-monitoring-tools-2026-guide (16 answers)
- https://instatus.com/blog/infrastructure-monitoring-tools (15 answers)
- https://signoz.io/comparisons/infrastructure-monitoring-tools (15 answers)
- https://sematext.com/blog/infrastructure-monitoring-tools (14 answers)
- https://dash0.com/comparisons/infrastructure-monitoring-tools (13 answers)

## Warned against

- Zabbix: 11 of 44 labels negative. "Who to avoid: Older, static monitoring platforms (like early versions of Nagios or basic configurations of Zabbix)" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)
- Datadog: 23 of 54 labels negative. "Avoid Datadog for mid-market unless you have a specific need" (Kimi K2, direct prompt)
- Nagios: 12 of 22 labels negative. "Who to avoid: Older, static monitoring platforms (like early versions of Nagios or basic configurations of Zabbix) when running at scale on Kubernetes." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)
- Dynatrace: 11 of 37 labels negative. "great for large, complex environments and heavier automation, but often more expensive and enterprise-oriented" (GPT-5.4 mini, paraphrase prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.