PRTG Network Monitor vs. SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
PRTG
Score 8.9 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.
$1,750
perpetual license
SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
SolarWinds® Engineer’s Toolset (ETS) helps users monitor and troubleshoot a network with over 60 tools for network management. ETS allows users to monitor and receive alerts in real time on network availability and health, and perform network diagnostics for faster troubleshooting and resolution of complex network issues. With ETS users can deploy an array of network discovery tools including Port Scanner, Switch Port Mapper or advanced Subnet Calculator, manage Cisco® devices with specialized…
$1,585
Per Instance
Pricing
PRTG Network MonitorSolarWinds Engineer's Toolset
Editions & Modules
PRTG 500
1,750
perpetual license
PRTG 1,000
3,200
perpetual license
PRTG 2,500
6,500
perpetual license
PRTG 5,000
11,500
perpetual license
PRTG XL 1
15,500
perpetual license
PRTG Enterprise
Custom Pricing
subscription license
One Time Price
$1,585
Per Instance
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PRTGSolarWinds Engineer's Toolset
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
PRTG Network MonitorSolarWinds Engineer's Toolset
Considered Both Products
PRTG
Chose PRTG Network Monitor
PRTG is much simpler to use than SolarWinds. SolarWinds wins in the category of a massive amount of purpose built bolt-ons. If the intention is to go after a system which you can fully use to customize and integrate into your needs easily, PRTG wins. This was what the need was …
SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset
Chose SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset
We have used LogicMonitor, PRTG and WhatsUp Gold previously which are similar to SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset capability. However SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset is completely unique with features like - Realtime monitoring, diagnostics on the fly, network discovery, easy …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
PRTG Network MonitorSolarWinds Engineer's Toolset
Network Performance Monitoring
Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of Product A and Product B
PRTG Network Monitor
8.1
64 Ratings
3% below category average
SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset
-
Ratings
Automated network device discovery8.257 Ratings00 Ratings
Network monitoring9.563 Ratings00 Ratings
Baseline threshold calculation7.954 Ratings00 Ratings
Alerts9.064 Ratings00 Ratings
Network capacity planning7.345 Ratings00 Ratings
Packet capture analysis6.733 Ratings00 Ratings
Network mapping7.945 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable reports7.954 Ratings00 Ratings
Wireless infrastructure monitoring8.146 Ratings00 Ratings
Hardware health monitoring8.961 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
PRTG Network MonitorSolarWinds Engineer's Toolset
Small Businesses
NinjaOne
NinjaOne
Score 9.3 out of 10
NinjaOne
NinjaOne
Score 9.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PingPlotter
PingPlotter
Score 9.5 out of 10
NinjaOne
NinjaOne
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
PingPlotter
PingPlotter
Score 9.5 out of 10
Cisco DNA Analytics and Assurance
Cisco DNA Analytics and Assurance
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
PRTG Network MonitorSolarWinds Engineer's Toolset
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
(64 ratings)
8.6
(11 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.3
(4 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(18 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
PRTG Network MonitorSolarWinds Engineer's Toolset
Likelihood to Recommend
Paessler
It is well suited for an environment that deploys networking equipment and is needing monitoring 24/7. It works well to deliver real time data and alerts that are suited for taking action and notifying groups of members. It is less appropriate for use cases that involve only a few devices that don’t have dedicated teams looking for problems or uptime.
Read full review
SolarWinds
I have found the toolset especially useful for scanning subnets to discover devices, and for setting up temporary real-time monitors when we are troubleshooting or setting up new connections. The most useful aspect has been the ability to apply the tools to help troubleshoot and pinpoint intermittent issues. More general tools like Orion often do not have the granularity to detect issues like intermittent packet loss which are especially impactful to applications like Voice. The toolset gives us another level of capability to dig into issues.
Read full review
Pros
Paessler
  • Very, very configurable. You can create all kinds of monitors for all kinds of things. Plus it has loads of suggestions out of the box. It can get complicated but monitoring is complicated. Pretty decent interface and good support - active community.
  • I really liked how easy it was to add alerts by SMS. So easy to setup.
  • I like their sizing models (for purchase). We're actually small enough that we are free. But it's not free as in stripped down - it's free because we don't use many "sensors" and don't honestly have the need.
Read full review
SolarWinds
  • Various monitoring
  • Stores history
  • Suggests indices
  • Helps to find the SQL query text
  • Helps to see what machines/users the bad queries are coming from
  • Shows current blocking session
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
Read full review
SolarWinds
  • The unifying component that is intended to be the initial interface to the tools seems clunky. I prefer to start the tools individually rather than using it.
  • The port scanner could use some improvements to make it easier to use.
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.
Read full review
SolarWinds
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
SolarWinds
Very easy to use and intuitive. Just be careful with the WAN Killer...it does what it says.
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!
Read full review
SolarWinds
Our organization uses it regularly. It is reliable, and we keep finding new uses for it
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.
Read full review
SolarWinds
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
SolarWinds
I haven't compared any tools similar to SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset. This might be because I'm pretty biased when it comes to monitoring, and reporting solutions. I've found that SolarWinds provides the biggest bang for the buck in my opinion. I'm sure there are other solutions on the market that compete, but I haven't tried any of them because I've been very satisfied with SolarWinds.
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.
Read full review
SolarWinds
  • Spend less time downloading free buggy tools
  • All the tools in one spot, so you don't have to look around for tools
  • Get to the solution sooner
Read full review
ScreenShots

SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset Screenshots

Screenshot of Perform network stress tests with Engineer's Toolset WAN Killer. You don’t need to use real traffic for studying network activities, like testing traffic and load balancing. Instead, deploy Engineer's Toolset WAN Killer to help interactively test connections and adjust the IP traffic generated to achieve the desired network load based on your requirements.Screenshot of Quickly troubleshoot your network with enhanced ping capabilities and packet route tracing, among other network bandwidth usage and monitoring tools included in ETS.Screenshot of Using ETS, you can run scans to gain insight into how routers, hubs switches, and other devices are configured by analyzing SNMP queries and viewing MIB attributes. ETS is designed to help you more easily understand whether your network and ports are using appropriate settings.Screenshot of Config Compare, a part of ETS, is built to compare the running configuration of a Cisco router with the startup configuration. With the Cisco configuration compare tool, you can easily detect the changes made to the network, switch, and router configurations that are not committed to non-volatile memory (NVRAM).Screenshot of Manage your IP network from discovery to address tracking. Discover subnets on a seed router and scan the subnet or a range of IP addresses, generate a list of subnets along with their mask, size, range, and broadcast address and actively monitor subnets to identify and track which IP addresses are in use on your network.