head to head · open source
Sentry vs Icinga
Sentry has 44,806 GitHub stars, 4,857 forks, 2,265 open issues and last shipped today. Icinga has 2,238 stars, 616 forks, 496 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Sentry leads on adoption by 1,902% (44,806 vs 2,238 stars). Sentry is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; Icinga is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. Sentry has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Icinga 28%. Sentry was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (monitoring), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Sentry | Icinga | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.9K | ⑂ 616 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Sentry if
- You weight community size — 45K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Icinga if
- You want the Icinga feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and Icinga fits your workflow better
About Sentry
Sentry is an open source debugging platform for detecting, tracing, and fixing software issues in real time. It lives in the developer infrastructure ecosystem and provides error tracking and performance monitoring across languages, frameworks, and runtime environments.
read the full Sentry overview →
About Icinga
Icinga is an open source monitoring system for complex IT infrastructure. It checks the availability of network resources, notifies users of outages, and generates performance data for reporting. The project sits in the Infrastructure & Operations / Monitoring & Observability ecosystem, and Icinga 2 is the monitoring server component of the broader Icinga stack.
read the full Icinga overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Sentry or Icinga more popular?
Sentry has 44,806 GitHub stars and Icinga has 2,238. Sentry has the larger community by that measure.
Are Sentry and Icinga free?
Both are open source. Sentry has no licence declared in this registry, and Icinga is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Sentry and Icinga?
Sentry is written in Python and Icinga in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Sentry or Icinga?
Choose Sentry if you want the larger community (44,806 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Icinga if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.