Likelihood to Recommend If there are a number of different protocols and devices to monitor PRTG is really an all in one solution. There are network specific solutions, telephony solutions, server solutions, etc - but this tool can do anything. Even if you don't use this tool as your main "monitoring solutions" every IT professional should have access to this tool for at least troubleshooting purposes. If you are looking for something specific built for a task you may be able to find [a] more direct and easy tool to use that would be easier and quicker to setup as customization is not needed.
Read full review Statseeker is an excellent choice to monitor a small, medium or large network. It uses SNMP to monitor switches, routers, appliances and really anything that has SNMP. The reports and output you can get from the system are invaluable. The speed of the system compared to other monitoing systems is great. Overall an excellent system.
Read full review Pros 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 Extremely fast and responsive. It can poll huge amounts of data quickly. Excellent reporting features. Read full review Cons The probe service can be quite resource-intensive. This can cause false-positive readings from some sensors sometimes. The software gets updated very regularly. Whilst this is usually a good thing to fix bugs etc, it does meantime downtime of the monitoring quite often while they are installed. The ability to create Maps from Libraries. Very specific issue but a lot of people have been asking for it for years and it is still not available. Read full review The user interface could be improved. Support can take some time to respond as they are based in Australia. However, they may be moving to the US. More dashboard customization. Read full review Likelihood to Renew It is now an essential tool for monitoring and maintaining the health of our network and systems.
Read full review Usability 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 Support Rating I am giving this a 6 simply because I have never had to contact support. The online documentation is adequate for most things, and the user-maintained knowledgebase is excellent. The few times I have run into issues that were not easily resolvable with intuitive UI, I was able to find the answers that I needed either in the PRTG-provided documentation, the knowledgebase, or with a quick online web search.
Read full review Support is very good, however, they have been based out of Australia so you have to deal with the time difference. Once you get them they are excellent. I have heard they are shifting some of the company to the US so that should help with support.
Read full review Alternatives Considered I have deployed and tested three products for evaluation I found [PRTG Network Monitor] very easy to deploy, the deployment literally took not more than one hour including basic configuration and network discovery. After deployment few configuration changes and creation of maps, reports and little tweaking is required. [Then] it would go through its process of recommendation that took some time to complete, while [on] other hand other software's took lot of time to install and configure. And features were also missing, which resulted in decision in favor of [PRTG Network Monitor].
Read full review Both are similar, but I feel Statseeker is more feature-rich and the user interfaces much much faster than NPM. The UI is not quite as good as NPM, but I believe the slimmed-down UI is what allows for such fast query speeds.
Read full review Return on Investment 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 Great visualization of problem areas. It helps speed up problem resolution. Great capacity planning. Read full review ScreenShots