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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    LevelBlue USM Anywhere

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/AThe LevelBlue USM Anywhere XDR platform (replacing the former AlienVault USM) delivers threat detection, incident response, and compliance management.

    $1,075

    per month

    Paessler PRTG

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/APRTG 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
    LevelBlue USM AnywherePaessler PRTG
    Editions & Modules
    Essentials
    $1,075
    per month
    Standard
    $1,695
    per month
    Premium
    $2,595
    per month
    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
    LevelBlue USM AnywherePaessler PRTG
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    LevelBlue USM AnywherePaessler PRTG
    Considered Both Products
    LevelBlue
    Chose LevelBlue USM Anywhere
    AlienVault, unfortunately, was not a replacement for any of our current solutions.
    We use other products like PRTG for network status monitoring, Uptime SLAs, drive space, device performance, etc. AlienVault has none of these features. We use Network Auditor to collect a lot of …
    Incentivized
    Chose LevelBlue USM Anywhere
    We are looking at IBM Qradar and PRTG by Paessler since we are academic partners with both IBM and Paessler. Since AlienVault is a bundle of multiple tools which is used in the forensic track it is nice to see them in a bundled product where the tools are used in the background …
    Incentivized
    Paessler
    Chose Paessler PRTG
    Both PRTG and Solarwinds work great, and they are great systems. But for the specific task of monitoring and alerting if there is a VPN connection failure, PRTG works great at monitoring and sending out a status report when a failure does occur. I like both products, but I find …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    86%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    98%
    Would buy again
    41 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    40 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    42 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    28 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    86%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    38 Answers
    Features
    LevelBlue USM AnywherePaessler PRTG
    Network Performance Monitoring
    Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of LevelBlue USM Anywhere and Paessler PRTG
    Feature
    LevelBlue USM Anywhere
    -
    Ratings
    Paessler PRTG
    7.3
    67 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Automated network device discovery00 Ratings7.260 Ratings
    Network monitoring00 Ratings9.666 Ratings
    Baseline threshold calculation00 Ratings8.557 Ratings
    Alerts00 Ratings8.867 Ratings
    Network capacity planning00 Ratings6.448 Ratings
    Packet capture analysis00 Ratings6.234 Ratings
    Network mapping00 Ratings5.547 Ratings
    Customizable reports00 Ratings5.857 Ratings
    Wireless infrastructure monitoring00 Ratings6.249 Ratings
    Hardware health monitoring00 Ratings9.264 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    LevelBlue USM AnywherePaessler PRTG
    Small Businesses
    Microsoft Defender XDR
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Auvik
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    InsightIDR
    Score8.6 out of 10
    PingPlotter
    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Microsoft Defender XDR
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Nmap
    Score8.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    LevelBlue USM AnywherePaessler PRTG
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.8
    (390 ratings)
    8.8
    (68 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.2
    (18 ratings)
    9.9
    (5 ratings)
    Usability
    6.7
    (34 ratings)
    8.3
    (7 ratings)
    Availability
    6.4
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.3
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.3
    (25 ratings)
    8.0
    (19 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.3
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    6.4
    (38 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    7.3
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    6.3
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    7.6
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.2
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    LevelBlue USM AnywherePaessler PRTG
    Likelihood to Recommend
    LevelBlue
    At this point I'm saying a 4. While the marketing material make it appear to be easy to use and it was relatively easy to set up, as previously mentioned, each event description is based upon the individual asset making it nearly impossible for the administrator to be a SME for each asset. For example, if one of the assets reporting is a router, the administrator monitoring alerts would need to know what the various events are that can be triggered as an event for the particular router; however, if the asset is a workstation, the administrator would need to know the various events that are triggered for workstations.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    LevelBlue
    • AlienVault USM is simple and easy to deploy. Sensors can be deployed in as little as 15 minutes through the setup wizard.
    • The USM UI is easy to understand. I've trained multiple analysts who are able to perform their duties on their first day, in part because of USM Anywhere's ease of use.
    • Top-notch built-in compliance templates and reporting features.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    LevelBlue
    • Personally, I've wished I could purchase a service that would configure AV for my environment. I get a lot of traffic on a daily basis and I almost need to hire an analyst that just works on AV.
    • Some of the filters when looking for a specific alert aren't that easy to use.
    Incentivized
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    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    LevelBlue
    The centralized logging and retention for PCI compliance was our main driver, and it is meeting that need. Otherwise there has been enough frustration with the lack of documentation and the need to customize through the CLI that I would be open to alternatives.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    LevelBlue
    Once you are able to navigate the different panels, finding what you need is quite easily. Before getting used it it can be a bit of challenge . Each panel is quite well laid out and the filtering search capabilities are quite strong.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    LevelBlue
    We do have issues with maintenance on the AlienVault USM as the disk fills up from time to time with other data sources. Sources for scanning logs and net flow data isn't calculated in regular disk maintenance and can easily fill up our disk if we do not keep an eye on it with some custom Nagios plugins. The system does properly trim logging data from logging sources properly.
    Incentivized
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    Paessler
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    LevelBlue
    With the latest release of AlienVault USM overall performance has not been an issue. We have noticed single source events per second does not scale well with the overall system. 2,000eps on a vmware system with a single source produces delays of up to an hour for us. Pages, reporting and even raw log searches are rather quick though.
    Incentivized
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    Paessler
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    LevelBlue
    The support we received from alienvault was excellent. They went above and beyond in making sure everything was working as it needed to be. They REALLY want their product implementation to be a success and our security goals be achieved. They are like a member of our security team.
    Incentivized
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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!
    Incentivized
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    In-Person Training
    LevelBlue
    I did not have any experience with "in person" training directly. The free online classes offered for a half a day are based on the actual training offered. These little teasers are very good and well worth your time to learn a few quick and dirty ways of getting more information from your SIEM
    Incentivized
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    Paessler
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    LevelBlue
    It was very well organized and helpful in using the product to the fullest extent. The instructor allowed time for folks who were involved with managed services to receive tuning tips in order to better support their customers. In addition, the course materials were automatically updated when the new version came out.
    Incentivized
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    Paessler
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    LevelBlue
    AlienVault USM was a very simple to implement and get up and running. We started with a trial version and had that up and going within an hour of receiving email instructions from the sales engineer. We never had to contact support to get the system up and going. It was extremely easy to convert over to a full license once we started with a paid version.
    Incentivized
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    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.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    LevelBlue
    Splunk's ES is a paid add-on on top of an already pricey product. Finding a MSSP that supports Splunk and isn't a 6 figure annual commitment seems unlikely. LogRhythm did not have a cloud-based solution when we were considering SIEMs. Fantastic product though and have a good MSSP base. Devo did not have a MSSP partner base when we looked. Their product is fantastic too. AlienVault USM has good partners to choose from as well as an affordable cloud model, that's why we chose it.
    Incentivized
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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.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    LevelBlue
    The AlienVault USM is not very scalable. Some scalability can be achieved by installing additional sensors, but this only offers 500eps per sensor and is still overall limited by the installation type of VM or physical. We have also noticed the EPS (events per second) is rated overall and not towards a single source. A single source on a very healthy VMware partition tops out at 2,000eps for us, no matter how we configure it. Maybe this is a problem of the 5.2 release?
    Incentivized
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    Paessler
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    LevelBlue
    • Once you hit the 150 asset mark, you have to jump to their unlimited license. There is no middle ground. We were only 10 or so assets above the 150 so we had to chose to either not monitor those assets or pay the price of the upgrade.
    • AlienVault brings all the information to one place which makes it much quicker to track down problems.
    Incentivized
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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.
    Incentivized
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