PRTG Network Monitor vs. SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
PRTG
Score 8.5 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 IP Address Manager (IPAM)
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
Austin-based SolarWinds offers Internet Protocal address management (IPAM) networking service.N/A
Pricing
PRTG Network MonitorSolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
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
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PRTGSolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsSolarWinds professional support is included to help customers on active maintenance 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
PRTG Network MonitorSolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
Considered Both Products
PRTG

No answer on this topic

SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
Chose SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
I hate to admit this, but I honestly did not even consider another solution after we evaluated IPAM. We had already been using DameWare for many years, so I knew that SolarWinds support was outstanding. Pulling the trigger on this purchase was not difficult.
Chose SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
I think the SolarWinds interface is more easy to use and understand. The way you can customize the views and have only the most important information or the one that interests you most visible. It seems to me that that is something that makes IPAM stand out from the rest.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
PRTG Network MonitorSolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
Network Performance Monitoring
Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of Product A and Product B
PRTG Network Monitor
7.0
55 Ratings
16% below category average
SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
-
Ratings
Automated network device discovery7.449 Ratings00 Ratings
Network monitoring7.654 Ratings00 Ratings
Baseline threshold calculation6.647 Ratings00 Ratings
Alerts7.655 Ratings00 Ratings
Network capacity planning6.639 Ratings00 Ratings
Packet capture analysis5.328 Ratings00 Ratings
Network mapping7.539 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable reports7.448 Ratings00 Ratings
Wireless infrastructure monitoring7.338 Ratings00 Ratings
Hardware health monitoring6.852 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
PRTG Network MonitorSolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
Small Businesses
NinjaOne
NinjaOne
Score 9.2 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
PingPlotter
PingPlotter
Score 9.4 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Enterprises
Nmap
Nmap
Score 8.8 out of 10

No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
PRTG Network MonitorSolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
(55 ratings)
9.4
(91 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(2 ratings)
8.3
(4 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(1 ratings)
7.2
(11 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
8.5
(17 ratings)
10.0
(58 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
PRTG Network MonitorSolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
Likelihood to Recommend
Paessler
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
SolarWinds
SolarWinds IP Address Manager is very useful the bigger and more complex the environment. Smaller organizations will have to consider the cost as it provides little benefit over monitoring maybe 2-3 servers. But I have over 24 DHCP servers with on average 15 subnets each so tracking and monitoring all that was very time-consuming. As a result, it was generally ignored until there was an issue. With SolarWinds IP Address Manager, I was able to set alerts to monitor scope utilization and duplicate IP addresses.
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.
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SolarWinds
  • With IPAM automated address scanning, we can be confident that we are looking at an up-to-date, accurate snapshot of our network.
  • The built-in alerts are a great safety net. We know that even if we aren't paying close attention to our IP address space, IPAM is. If a range is nearly full, IPAM lets us know before it becomes a real problem.
  • IPAM's event logging gives us insight into any and all changes made by our network engineers.
Read full review
Cons
Paessler
  • 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
SolarWinds
  • The user experience is not as intuitive as other products. We have to be more restrictive around level 1 help desk access compared to NCM or NPM in SolarWinds.
  • Making and enforcing changes, not just monitoring, has been hit or miss in some instances.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Paessler
It is now an essential tool for monitoring and maintaining the health of our network and systems.
Read full review
SolarWinds
We are heavily invested in SolarWinds. We currently own Network Performance Monitor, Netflow Traffic Analyzer, User Device Tracker, Server Application Monitor and Network Configuration Manager. We have NOC mode setup for deskside support for monitoring any down devices that may effect our network across the globe. This application gives us the information we need when we need it.
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.
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SolarWinds
SolarWinds IPAM is like what SolarWinds itself says, i.e. easy to use and simple. SolarWinds has really made their orion and non-orion platform products so simple that any newbie can give a try and make the best use out of it. I learned SolarWinds IPAM by myself in a POC environment, and not just IPAM but other modules and now I own 6 certifications. You see how easy to use this product is.
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Reliability and Availability
Paessler
No answers on this topic
SolarWinds
We don't have any issues with availability. Our cluster setup provide us a 99,9% availability that is enough for us.
Read full review
Performance
Paessler
No answers on this topic
SolarWinds
We do not integrate IPAM into other systems other than the standard Orion integration. The performance is reasonable, however, we are running all the SolarWinds applications on a very large server.
Read full review
Support Rating
Paessler
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.
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SolarWinds
I have not contacted customer support and therefore have no experience in this area. I know we have some issues with our VAR support at this time for Orion, but I don't know if the IPAM falls into the same support structure. Perhaps others in the organization may know more regarding the support area.
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Implementation Rating
Paessler
No answers on this topic
SolarWinds
Know the full scope of what you will be installing. Solarwinds can be a very complex installation. IPAM is just one fairly simplistic piece.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Paessler
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].
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SolarWinds
SolarWinds IP Address Manager was cheaper than both alternatives and far easier to manage. Device42 interface is years behind what Solarwinds offers. It is very outdated; BT Diamond required remote management and we constantly had to message support, it reached a point where it was better not to have the product at all.
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Scalability
Paessler
No answers on this topic
SolarWinds
We have not experienced any scalability issues with this product. However, SolarWinds needs to allow users to scale horizontally without any license restrictions. For example, we would like to separate Netflow and Orion onto different platforms but are unable to due to license restrictions.
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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
  • IPAM has saved countless hours of running scripts and gathering data to compile reports to plan re-subnetting globally.
  • IPAM has reduced helpdesk incidents by immediately spotting bad DNSR and IP conflicts.
  • IPAM has helped eliminate blocks on projects whereas there is not currently enough address space requiring major changes to accommodate more IP'ed servers, gear, etc.
Read full review
ScreenShots

SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM) Screenshots

Screenshot of Customize your IP address management dashboard to quickly focus on your top priorities.Screenshot of Manage your DHCP and DNS services in one place.Screenshot of Streamline IP requests with a simple intake and approval wizard.Screenshot of Automatically scan for subnets or manually add.