Observium vs. PRTG Network Monitor

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Observium
Score 9.9 out of 10
N/A
N/AN/A
PRTG
Score 8.7 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
ObserviumPRTG Network Monitor
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
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
ObserviumPRTG
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
ObserviumPRTG Network Monitor
Features
ObserviumPRTG Network Monitor
Network Performance Monitoring
Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of Product A and Product B
Observium
-
Ratings
PRTG Network Monitor
7.8
65 Ratings
4% below category average
Automated network device discovery00 Ratings8.158 Ratings
Network monitoring00 Ratings9.464 Ratings
Baseline threshold calculation00 Ratings7.655 Ratings
Alerts00 Ratings8.765 Ratings
Network capacity planning00 Ratings6.746 Ratings
Packet capture analysis00 Ratings6.833 Ratings
Network mapping00 Ratings6.946 Ratings
Customizable reports00 Ratings7.155 Ratings
Wireless infrastructure monitoring00 Ratings7.547 Ratings
Hardware health monitoring00 Ratings8.962 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ObserviumPRTG Network Monitor
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Intermapper
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Score 8.4 out of 10
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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Score 9.1 out of 10
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
ObserviumPRTG Network Monitor
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(4 ratings)
8.8
(66 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.7
(5 ratings)
Support Rating
5.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(18 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
ObserviumPRTG Network Monitor
Likelihood to Recommend
Observium
  • If you are on a budget, this is one heck of a tool for the price (including the ~$200/year for the Pro subscription).
  • If you are OK with maintaining and updating open source tools, this is a great tool.
  • If you are afraid of the Linux command line or live in a Windows-centric world, this might not be the tool for you.
  • If you can't stand things occasionally not working, this is probably not a good fit.
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.
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Pros
Observium
  • Automatic device discovery.
  • Scalability
  • Real-time monitoring.
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
Read full review
Cons
Observium
  • Documentation
  • Community support
  • Easy to set up but hard to customise fully
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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
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Observium
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
Observium
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
Observium
It's open source. Your mileage may vary. Sometimes the provided documentation is beyond frustrating, other times it's right on the mark.
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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
Observium
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
Observium
I haven't used other products that are similar to Observium. Observium is an open tool, with a robust feature set. There are elements of comparable monitoring across other tools, but nothing I've seen that is a complete parallel in terms of feature set and visualizations. If I were asked, I wouldn't have another tool to recommend over Observium.
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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
Observium
  • It is good for DC admin.
  • Only positive impact.
  • Highly recommended.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
ScreenShots