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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 Observability

    Score8 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds® Hybrid Cloud Observability aims to provide a comprehensive, integrated, and full-stack solution designed to optimize performance, improve availability, and reduce remediation time by correlating data from across the IT ecosystem, including networks, servers, applications, databases, and more.

    $5

    per month node

    Pricing
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds Observability
    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
    Essentials
    $5
    per month per node
    Advanced
    $9
    per month per node
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds Observability
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPricing is set per node, per month, and billing is annual. The prices listed are base prices that could increase depending on your environment. Please speak to a representative to get a quote.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds Observability
    Considered Both Products
    Paessler
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds Observability
    The primary motivator to disqualify PRTG was the limit of nodes. Above 10,000 nodes are required, and an additional separate primary polling host. This would have meant managing two separate instances and was not an acceptable or viable approach. The sales support and …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    41 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    40 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    42 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    28 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    38 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds Observability
    Network Performance Monitoring
    Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of Paessler PRTG and SolarWinds Observability
    Feature
    Paessler PRTG
    7.3
    67 Ratings
    8% below category average
    SolarWinds Observability
    -
    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 planning6.348 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 monitoring9.164 Ratings00 Ratings
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    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds Observability
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    Auvik
    Score8.8 out of 10
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    Score7.6 out of 10
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    PingPlotter
    Score8.7 out of 10
    LogicMonitor
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Nmap
    Score8.7 out of 10
    ManageEngine Site24x7
    Score10 out of 10
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    User Ratings
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds Observability
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (68 ratings)
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.9
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.3
    (7 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (19 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds Observability
    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
    - For small teams serving big organizations - it's a really simple tool to install and set up relatively quickly. - the new installer is also great - I don't have to understand what modules need to be installed; it's all streamlined. - The HCO Licensing allows you to run the Additional polling engines at a scale where the previous licensing model didn't. We can deploy APEs in locations now, which would not have been worth the investment in previously as there weren't enough devices in that location/region to spend the $$$$ on an APE License.
    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
    • Automated dependency mapping is a big hit.
    • High availability is extremely simple to implement.
    • Simple to use and drill into issues.
    • Analysis of growth patterns driving the recommendation engine.
    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
    • Can be complex to setup
    • Is strongest with network resources
    • Assumes a fairly large amount of base knowledge
    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
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    - decent ease of use - good training materials - good documentation - acceptable level of expected knowledge
    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
    No answers on this topic
    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
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    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    Solarwinds has the best overlap of the two others I've mentioned - the other two tools (Datadog and Dynatrace) are great in their own way but Solarwinds is just good at everything; if I had to pick one tool of the above, it would be Solarwinds for the compatibility and ease of use, the other tools are more focused on being great at certain things while Solarwinds is the jack of all trades.
    Incentivized
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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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • one license requiring 1 PO to be raised
    • sharing costs between departments for monitoring under one platform using APEs
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    SolarWinds Observability Screenshots

    Screenshot of ITOM Executive DashboardScreenshot of Observability MapsScreenshot of Performance Analysis DashboardScreenshot of Application Alerting DashboardScreenshot of Network Path Analysis