Start small & monitor your bandwidth for free with PRTG
- Includes 100 PRTG sensors for free that never expire
- Bandwidth monitoring with ping, SNMP, and packet sniffing
- Reliable network monitoring for your entire IT infrastructure
Our users give top ratings for monitoring with Paessler PRTG
PRTG free bandwidth monitor: What you’ll find on this page
PRTG makes bandwidth monitoring for free easy
Custom alerts and data visualization make it easy to monitor, identify, and prevent network congestion and performance issues.
Start small for free – no matter the environment size
Large & enterprise networks
As a sysadmin of a large network, you may face issues of budgeting or management approval to get bandwidth monitoring tools. However, Paessler PRTG makes your job easy.
It comes with 100 free sensors to quickly prove the worth of bandwidth monitoring, plus it offers flexible, scalable licenses and subscriptions that let you buy according to need. This way, you can convince management without putting pressure on your budget.
Small to medium networks
If you work for a small to medium-sized company, you may worry about the cost of PRTG to monitor routers, switches, and workstations.
If you have a small to medium-sized network, PRTG can serve as a free bandwidth monitoring tool. The first 100 sensors are free and never expire, which may be all you need for reliable bandwidth and network monitoring.
Home networks and labs
As a sysadmin, you may have a small home network that you like to outfit with professional hardware. But you likely want to spend as little money as possible on your bandwidth or network monitoring.
PRTG works great for use on home networks to get a feel for the software, and the free 100-sensor edition should suffice.
What’s included in the free edition of PRTG?
Free network monitoring with 100 free sensors
The Freeware edition of PRTG includes 100 sensors free for life. This means you can immediately start monitoring your entire IT infrastructure, including bandwidth, hardware, software, network performance, data traffic, and more.
Free alerts, reports, network mapping & more
PRTG’s free edition includes all essential features: alerting & notifications, reports, visualization, and more. Plus, setup is quick and easy with PRTG’s automatic network discovery. It detects all devices within a given IP address range and automatically integrates them into your monitoring setup.
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Flexible licensing & transparent pricing
Need to monitor more? Our simple, scalable licensing lets you buy according to need. On top of the 100 free sensors, you can upgrade to several thousand or even unlimited sensors. For professional network monitoring, you’ll need around 10 sensors for each device.
Easily find the source of the problem with our free PRTG bandwidth monitor solution
Real-time alerts and custom notifications make it easy to solve issues with bandwidth bottlenecks and overall network performance.
What network bandwidth monitoring looks like in PRTG
Diagnose network issues by continuously monitoring network traffic, bandwidth, and overall performance. Show data traffic and bandwidth utilization in real time and visualize data in graphic maps & dashboards to identify problems more easily. Gain the visibility you need to troubleshoot network congestions and bandwidth bottlenecks.
Live data graph of a Packet Sniffer sensor
Packet Sniffer sensor in PRTG
Complete overview of all devices in a hierarchical tree structure
“All-around winning “The real beauty of PRTG is the endless possibilities it offers” “PRTG Network MonitorIT experts agree: Paessler PRTG is a great solution for IT infrastructure monitoring
network monitor”
is very hard to beat”
3 tips for setting up PRTG monitoring
Start big
The PRTG Auto-Discovery function is launched upon installation. It searches for available devices within a certain range of IP addresses and sets up an initial monitoring environment. This facilitates the configuration and maintenance of your monitoring.
Narrow down
With the 100-sensor edition of PRTG, you’ll have to delete most of the sensors created by the automatic network discovery. For basic monitoring, use most of your sensors for essential servers, routers, and switches.
Get free bandwidth monitoring
Want to focus on bandwidth monitoring? Then utilize essential, preconfigured sensors as shown below.
3 preconfigured sensors for bandwidth monitoring with PRTG
Ping v2
The Ping v2 sensor monitors the overall availability of your network devices and promptly notifies you in the event of malfunctions. Ping monitoring is a fundamental part of bandwidth monitoring, for if a device is unavailable, then traffic cannot pass through it.
SNMP Traffic
Create an SNMP Traffic sensor for your most important devices. You’ll see how much traffic is flowing through your network and which applications and servers are putting the greatest strain on your bandwidth using SNMP as the technology of your choice.
Packet Sniffer
The Packet Sniffer sensor is ideal for in-depth bandwidth monitoring. It lets you analyze the headers of data packets and filter traffic by IP address, protocol, data type, and more. This way, you can get a precise look at which devices and data are using the most bandwidth using packet sniffing.
Start free network bandwidth monitoring with PRTG and see how it can make your network more reliable and your job easier.
PRTG is compatible with all major vendors, products, and systems
3 business reasons for choosing PRTG
An investment that pays off
Your investment in PRTG usually pays for itself in weeks. The benefit of preventing costly crashes, support inquiries, and ineffective network management means a quick boost to your ROI. With PRTG, you’ll often eliminate these costs entirely.
Peace of mind & productivity
When your IT infrastructure is down, your support hotline can quickly become overloaded. Your coworkers become annoyed because they are no longer able to work, and frustration reigns. PRTG contributes to a stress-free workplace by allowing you to prevent crashes and downtime.
Long-term efficiency
Save money and boost efficiency by planning ahead. PRTG performs long-term network monitoring so you can plan for the future instead of reacting to a crisis. Stop playing catch-up, and use PRTG to plan your resources with vision and efficiency.
Your free network bandwidth monitor at a glance – even on the go
Set up PRTG in minutes and use it on almost any mobile device.
Create innovative solutions with Paessler’s partners
Partnering with innovative vendors, Paessler unleashes synergies to create
new and additional benefits for joined customers.
Combining their tools to a powerful solution for advanced analysis and automation, KnowledgeRiver and Paessler enable IT teams to ensure best performance for their infrastructure and networks.
KnowledgeRiver
Easily find the source of the problem with our free PRTG bandwidth monitor solution
Real-time alerts and custom notifications make it easy to solve issues with bandwidth bottlenecks and overall network performance.
Monitor bandwidth: FAQ
What is bandwidth?
Bandwidth is measured as the amount of data that can be transferred from one point to another within a network in a specific amount of time. Typically, bandwidth is expressed as a bitrate and measured in bits per second (bps). It refers to the transmission capacity of a connection and is an important factor when determining the quality and speed of a network.
What is bandwidth monitoring?
Bandwidth monitoring is the process of tracking and analyzing the amount of data transmitted over a network connection within a specific period. It helps administrators understand the usage patterns, identify potential bottlenecks, and optimize network performance. By monitoring bandwidth usage, organizations can allocate resources effectively, detect unusual activity or unauthorized usage, and plan for capacity upgrades as needed.
Is PRTG for free?
No, PRTG is proprietary network monitoring software by Paessler GmbH for which you need to own a commercial license if you want to monitor your business network. However, for small networks, PRTG offers a Freeware edition that comes with 100 sensors free of charge and includes important features like alerting, reporting, and network mapping.
Can PRTG only monitor bandwidth?
No, PRTG can monitor your entire IT infrastructure, including:
- CPU and memory monitoring: It’s a good idea to monitor your hardware’s CPU usage, memory, and storage, since bottlenecks can creep up and cause devices to overload. With PRTG, you’ll be alerted before your devices crash so you can quickly see if their capacity limits have been exceeded.
- Website monitoring: How stable is your website? Does it load quickly? Is it accessible by users all over the world? Do errors occur during the order process? PRTG comes with sensors that will answer these questions and more. If your website has a high volume of customer traffic, then monitoring is a must.
- Cloud monitoring: You definitely need PRTG if you use worldwide cloud services, including email, virtual machines, and SaaS solutions. PRTG monitors the availability of each of these services.
- QoS monitoring: Interrupted video calls? VoIP down yet again? Monitor your quality of service with PRTG to quickly identify loopholes and prevent emergencies before they occur.
- File monitoring: Log files, event logs, file servers—PRTG monitors each and every file in your network. It even lets you monitor individual files, as well as folders and file contents.
- And much more
What is a sensor in PRTG?
In PRTG, “sensors” are the basic monitoring elements. One sensor usually monitors one measured value in your network, for example the traffic of a switch port, the CPU load of a server, or the free space on a disk drive.
On average, you need about 5-10 sensors per device or one sensor per switch port.
PRTG: The multi-tool for sysadmins
Adapt PRTG individually and dynamically to your needs and rely on a strong API:- HTTP API: Access monitoring data and manipulate monitoring objects via HTTP requests
- Custom sensors: Create your own PRTG sensors for customized monitoring
- Custom notifications: Create your own notifications and send action triggers to external systems
- REST Custom sensor: Monitor almost everything that provides data in XML or JSON format
More than just a monitoring tool:
Reasons our customers love PRTG
Paessler PRTG is used by companies of all sizes. Sysadmins love PRTG because it makes their job a whole lot easier. Bandwidth, servers, virtual environments, websites, VoIP services – PRTG keeps an eye on your entire network. Everyone has different monitoring needs. That’s why we let you try PRTG for free.Still not convinced?
More than 500,000
sysadmins love PRTG
Monitor your entire IT infrastructure
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Start free network bandwidth monitoring with PRTG and see how it can make your network more reliable and your job easier.
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PRTG |
Network Monitoring Software - Version 24.2.96.1375 (June 26th, 2024) |
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Hosting |
Download for Windows and cloud-based version PRTG Hosted Monitor available |
Languages |
English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese |
Pricing |
Up to 100 sensors for free (Price List) |
Unified Monitoring |
Network devices, bandwidth, servers, applications, virtual environments, remote systems, IoT, and more |
Supported Vendors & Applications |
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