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Paessler PRTG vs. SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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

    SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)

    Score10 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds® Virtualization Manager (VMAN) is a tool for monitoring, performance management, capacity planning and optimization for on-premises or cloud-based virtual environments. It also integrates with other SolarWinds products.N/A
    Pricing
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)
    Editions & Modules
    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
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)
    Considered Both Products
    Paessler
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)
    • Good performance of the application
    • Visually well designed
    • Really useful topology creation in comparison to most competitors
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)
    If you used these two products, you know the difference. It's too vast to explain here. PRTG does have its place in a network, but SolarWinds is the high bar in this space.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)
    We settled on VMan as it had the best support out of all the products, but also was built on Windows infrastructure with agentless monitoring which was a requirement.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    41 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    14 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    40 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    14 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    42 Answers
    93%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    28 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    12 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    38 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    13 Answers
    Features
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)
    Network Performance Monitoring
    Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of Paessler PRTG and SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)
    Feature
    Paessler PRTG
    7.3
    67 Ratings
    8% below category average
    SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)
    -
    Ratings
    Automated network device discovery7.260 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network monitoring9.666 Ratings00 Ratings
    Baseline threshold calculation8.557 Ratings00 Ratings
    Alerts8.867 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network capacity planning6.448 Ratings00 Ratings
    Packet capture analysis6.234 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network mapping5.447 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable reports5.857 Ratings00 Ratings
    Wireless infrastructure monitoring6.249 Ratings00 Ratings
    Hardware health monitoring9.264 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)
    Small Businesses
    Auvik
    Score8.8 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    PingPlotter
    Score9 out of 10
    OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter
    Score7.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Nmap
    Score8.7 out of 10
    OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter
    Score7.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.8
    (68 ratings)
    10.0
    (66 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.9
    (5 ratings)
    8.6
    (7 ratings)
    Usability
    8.3
    (7 ratings)
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (19 ratings)
    8.8
    (6 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
    SolarWinds
    On the whole, Solarwinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN) is an excellent product which gives us a single point to monitor our virtual environment. After our initial trial I was sold on the product and what it had to offer. Immediately after implementing VMAN, we were able to spot virtual machines with old snapshots which were never deleted and no longer needed, we could spot virtual machines which either had over allocated resources or under allocated resources meaning we could make changes and fine tune them for best performance. We could also monitor virtual machine latency, IOPS, and show us where our bottlenecks were.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    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
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • I created custom dashboards, to view the different elements of the virtual environment. For example, you can view the number of online VMs and those off, or disconnected. You can also choose to see the status of every virtual cluster, the storage disk usage on every VM, the RAM usage, CPU usage.
    • I used this application to see the growth of virtual memory in each cluster and accordingly do forecasting for future growth. A capacity planner included in this application would help in doing accurate estimations and setting a future upgrade budget.
    • Another powerful tool was the customized reports, where i could generate reports on any element of the VM or cluster. Reports can be exported to Excel or PDF and are very useful for sharing information with colleagues and management.
    • Alerts can be customized. For example, you can set a rule to get an email alert if any virtual server RAM usage exceeds 85% and send a text message if RAM usage exceeds 90% for more than 10 minutes.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    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
    SolarWinds
    • We did have issues during the setup, with successfully connecting to some of our hosts and vCenters and we found support were just sending us back to articles we had already read, it was also taking long periods before getting a response. The issue is still ongoing, in fact.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    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
    SolarWinds
    Currently, there is no other tool that gives us what we need to monitor a geographically disperse environment with multiple non-related instances of VM clusters. In addition, the level of reporting, historical data trending, and alerting that VMAN provides is essential for our business process. Lastly, the effort to customize and set up any monitoring system is not trivial. This makes switching to any other product very difficult without being able to clearly demonstrate a ROI.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    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
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds VMAN is easy to use for everyone. When I say everyone which literally means anyone e.g. Virtualization Environment SME, Consultant, Support Team, Management Officers etc. Anyone who have worked on IT technologies could easily deploy SolarWinds by reading videos, Thwack posts or Virtual Classrooms (Custom Success Centers) - this makes this application easy to operation and for maintenance support is always there.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Paessler
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    We have yet to enconter any issues in terms of availability. We have a highly available SQL cluster running Orion.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Paessler
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    We find page load times to be quite slow at times. Flipping between tabs can also be very slow.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    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
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds gives good support. I have never had a time when i was working through a support case where I did not get the support I needed for the required issues to be resolved. I have always had resolutions from SolarWinds support. They are top notch. Issues once had are no more.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    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
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    Its really the best product on the market for someone looking to have total control over their VM environment. anyone interested should download a demo and try it, I know you will buy it after you do. It changing the way you have to manage on a daily basis
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    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
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    The operation began using Nagios XI, after a year of use, and based on the results obtained, we realized that what our client wanted was not fully met. Our client asked us to use WhatsUp, however, SolarWinds covered in a more efficient way what was required by our client (IT) and even more.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Paessler
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Purchasing the correct license allows the platform to scale with your environment.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    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
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • VMAN has been used for reports provided to executive-level meetings. These reports showed our growth patterns, allowing for easier decisions on purchasing additional hardware.
    • VMAN has provided a positive impact on allowing for near real-time monitoring of resources, able to pinpoint when services are using more memory than expected, not running at all, or other options as defined.
    • VMAN was purchased to help monitor our VMware platform, the added abilities for AWS allowed us to migrate clients from on-prem to cloud-based with the same views.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN) Screenshots

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