Azure Monitor vs. PRTG Network Monitor

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure Monitor
Score 6.4 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft's Azure Monitor is used to analyze and optimize the performance of web applications and infrastructure, including virtual machines (VMs), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Storage, and databases.
$2.76
pay as you go per GB
PRTG
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
PRTG Network Monitor is the flagship offering from German software company Paessler, for monitoring local and wide area networks (LANs & WANs), servers, websites, apps, and more.
$2,149
per year
Pricing
Azure MonitorPRTG Network Monitor
Editions & Modules
Pay-As-You-Go
$2.76
per GB
100 GB per day
$219.5
2 per day
200 GB per day
$412.1
6 per day
300 GB per day
$604.8
0 per day
400 GB per day
$788.4
8 per day
500 GB per day
$968.8
0 per day
600 GB per day
$1,904
per day
700 GB per day
$3,718
40 per day
800 GB per day
$9,016
per day
PRTG 500
$2,149
per year
Hosted 500
$2,149
per year
PRTG 1,000
$3,899
per year
Hosted 1000
$3,899
per year
PRTG 2,500
$8,099
per year
Hosted 2500
$8,099
per year
PRTG 5,000
$14,199
per year
Hosted 5000
$14,199
per year
PRTG 10000
$17,899
per year
PRTG Enterprise
Custom Pricing
subscription license
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Azure MonitorPRTG
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Azure MonitorPRTG Network Monitor
Features
Azure MonitorPRTG Network Monitor
Network Performance Monitoring
Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of Product A and Product B
Azure Monitor
-
Ratings
PRTG Network Monitor
7.4
66 Ratings
8% below category average
Automated network device discovery00 Ratings7.559 Ratings
Network monitoring00 Ratings9.465 Ratings
Baseline threshold calculation00 Ratings7.656 Ratings
Alerts00 Ratings8.766 Ratings
Network capacity planning00 Ratings5.747 Ratings
Packet capture analysis00 Ratings7.033 Ratings
Network mapping00 Ratings5.746 Ratings
Customizable reports00 Ratings6.356 Ratings
Wireless infrastructure monitoring00 Ratings7.148 Ratings
Hardware health monitoring00 Ratings9.163 Ratings
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User Ratings
Azure MonitorPRTG Network Monitor
Likelihood to Recommend
7.6
(2 ratings)
8.6
(67 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(6 ratings)
Support Rating
6.7
(2 ratings)
8.0
(18 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azure MonitorPRTG Network Monitor
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
We were able to get a single pane of glass for all our monitoring needs on Azure Monitor. However, we would like to see it improve to auto scale out and scale in depending on the load without human intervention. This can help us get to the No Ops model and rely on automated processes rather than manual intervention.
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Paessler
integrates seamlessly with Windows servers via WMI and PowerShell, providing deep insights into resource usage, performance metrics, and system health. It's excellent at tracking CPU, memory, disk space, and event logs, enabling rapid troubleshooting and proactive maintenance. PRTG Network Monitor also effectively monitors Fortigate devices, providing detailed data on firewall health, traffic patterns, bandwidth utilization, VPN status, and security alerts. This visibility helps detect and resolve network security issues promptly.
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Pros
Microsoft
  • It supports all the Azure PAAS services.
  • Can monitor both infrastructure and application
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Paessler
  • Switch monitoring and finding out if there are communication issues or throughput alerts are reached
  • Big picture view of the whole infrastructure and what is functioning and what is not
  • Uptime tracking is great and lets us know for how long a device is down or overall uptime
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Cons
Microsoft
  • Custom metrics
  • Ease of use
Read full review
Paessler
  • Licensing on a per entity basis can be cumbersome for devices which have a ton of monitoring points like network switches\routers. Each sensor may count against a license, which could be a lot of you were monitoring every TX\RX of an SFP for example
  • A better method to easily template\copy monitors across devices
  • The navigation in the web GUI could be a little more straightforward in terms of the hierarchy
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Paessler
I would renew it because the platform has brought us many technical and economic benefits that make the cost-benefit ratio very good. Additionally, to do so does not require large investments in training, licensing or infrastructure, and at the administration level, extensive knowledge is not required to be able to bear it.
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Usability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Paessler
The tool is very intuitive to use and it is Windows-based (everybody knows how to use Windows) so it's easy to get into. Every time is setup in a hierarchy so if you have a good initial hierarchy design, it will really reduce administrative effort down the road.
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Support Rating
Microsoft
I have not had to work with Azure Monitor support, so it is difficult to say how well the support team is. I assume that Azure has a well-versed team on the customer service side to assist with any issues customers may have. I may need them in the feature.
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Paessler
PRTG does everything we need it to do and more. Ease of use, ease of management and maintenance and clarity of monitoring of hundreds of different types of device and service gives this a large advantage over other products on the market that I have tried. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who needs a network monitoring product in their environment and even to people who don't know they need a solution yet!
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Implementation Rating
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Paessler
It's very important that de project's teams have different member of the TI. We have learned too late the importa of Security Analyst at the design architecture moment. We have to rebuild part of the implementation for made this big mistake.
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Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
While other tools have their own unique capability, Azure Monitor helps us monitor essential PAAS services that are not supported by other tools. So even though we have one other APM tool, we still rely on Azure Monitor for some of the special PAAS services, this is a huge advantage.
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Paessler
PRTG offers more versatility in monitoring when compared to the other solutions we tested. The other solutions were also limited as far as customization options, which made them less adaptable to our networks. When compared to Auvik, for instance, we prefer PRTG as it offers immediate notifications through the desktop client - not limited to email notifications as with Auvik. We also appreciate the fact that PRTG can be self/on-prem hosted vs Auvik's cloud model. This makes for an easier deployment and less firewall adjustments to allow traffic to cloud-hosted solutions.
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Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • We are able to react quickly to the issues.
  • Debugging sessions are yielding quicker results to generate RCA.
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Paessler
  • The ability to analyze multiple pieces of information in one place, especially with historical data, has saved our IT department time and headaches. It would be so much more difficult to trace an issue without PRTG, just relying on event logs and an open task manager window.
  • The cost is not cheap, so it's an expense that hits the bottom line like everything else. Figure in hardware costs as well, ideally a server outside of your main environment.
  • I keep saying this, but the historical data piece is worth so much. There's really no good way to collect all of that information in one place without something like PRTG. And that definitely saves time and money in the long run.
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