I'm looking for a piece of software akin to Cacti, one that is preferably much easier to set up, and has a high-quality frontend to it.
I had a headless Linux desktop that I used to poll my Time Machine and graph network statistics off of, but that computer is currently undergoing repairs, so I'm left with the remaining computers I have in the house, which are all Mac.
I have no specific requirements that I consider as a sticking point. My baseline of features would be something with the granularity that Cacti/RRDTool provide. Graphs with scalable units of time/history (configurable is a plus!), quick/easy to get started with little installation is preferable, something that perhaps just runs as a daemon/program and doesn't require a web server and detailed tailored configuration (read: discovery) would be just fine, and possibly even preferred.
Best Answer
Unfortunately I'm not aware of any serious competition to Cacti, but have you considered using a Cacti virtual appliance? There are several pre-configured VMs available with everything pre-installed and ready to go.
Cacti 0.8.7g
rPath Cacti Appliance
You might also want to take a look here: A Half-Dozen or So Essential Open Source Network Administraton Tools and in particular at: Graph Network Performance with NRG - Part 1
He also has a page on how to install Cacti on OS X.
Now I can't say that this meets your desire for something as simple as a typical OS X application install but it certainly meets the free requirement.
I can't say I've played with any of these tools on OS X bar Mac Ports which I consider an essential on any OS X system.
Another really simplistic app (OS X widget actually) is iEyeNet, it definitely meets the free and simple criteria but isn't anywhere as configurable as Cacti. I tried it with my Airport Extreme and it "just worked".
Another option is documented here, it uses a combination of MRTG/Lingon/Geektool to generate and display the network graphs. Reasonably easy to setup...