Custom alerts and data visualization let you quickly identify and prevent all kinds of network issues.
Hardware, applications, network traffic, bandwidth usage: PRTG keeps an eye on everything. And that’s important, because just one malfunctioning switch can cause disruptions – and require hours of troubleshooting. A clear advantage of PRTG over “smaller” alternatives.
Customizable, threshold-based alerts and notifications, in-depth reporting, custom network mapping, and all monitoring features: with PRTG, everything is included. No need to pay extra for costly add-ons or modules to get a full picture of your IT infrastructure.
Want to start small? Good idea! Thanks to our flexible subscription licensing, you can upgrade whenever you please. Each PRTG license is based on the number of sensors in use. You pay for exactly for what you need to monitor your network.
Diagnose network issues by continuously tracking the health, availability, and performance of your entire IT infrastructure. Show hardware parameters, application performance, network traffic, bandwidth usage, and other key metrics in real time. Visualize data in clear graphs and dashboards to identify problems more easily. Gain the overview you need to troubleshoot all kinds of issues in your network.
Device tree view of the complete monitoring setup
Custom PRTG dashboard for keeping an eye on the entire IT infrastructure
Live traffic data graph in PRTG
“All-around winning
network monitor”
“The real beauty of PRTG is the endless possibilities it offers”
“PRTG Network Monitor
is very hard to beat”
You are interested to know if PRTG could be an alternative to your current implementation?
We believe in PRTG. 100%. That’s why we also compared our products with other monitoring software on the market. See what PRTG offers.
The basic version of the open-source tool Nagios is free of charge. But most users spent many hours to set up and customize the tool. In case of problems, browsing through forums is often the only solution.
SolarWinds might be interesting for extremely complex network environments. But it also means you need to invest in higher costs for a platform made up of different modules and add-ons (that cost extra).
Zabbix is open-source software with a strong community support. But it requires lots of manual configuration work to install and set it up. You also need to install agents on the monitored systems.
PRTG and ManageEngine might seem similar at first. However, with ManageEngine, you have to choose between individual functions and purchase several modules to access the full range of features.
WhatsUp Gold might be your choice if you need good network mapping capabilities for networks which aren’t that complex. But to get the full set of monitoring features, you need to invest in costly add-ons.
Ethereal is a legacy packet sniffing tool acquired by Wireshark. It lacks more comprehensive network monitoring and traffic analysis features which let you keep a close eye on your entire infrastructure.
Cacti is a free network monitoring tool offers bandwidth and traffic monitoring via SNMP and displays data in charts. It may not be enough if you are hoping to analyze network bandwidth in more detail.
Auvik is a cloud-based monitoring & mapping tool that is relatively easy to install and configure. However, many monitoring features need to be purchased as extra modules, which can quickly drive up costs.
LogicMonitor might be your choice if your organization is cloud-first and relies heavily on cloud services. However, LogicMonitor’s out-of-the-box monitoring functionality is much more limited.
Checkmk is a comprehensive network monitoring tool, but it uses open-source add-ons for some functions. This means additional work in setting up, operating, and maintaining the monitoring systems.
Microsoft SCOM is based on the installation of agents. Management Packs that you must buy additionally expand the monitoring offering, which is more specialized in Microsoft applications.
VMware vRealize Operations provides information on the performance of your vSphere environment. However, it cannot monitor components such as server hardware along with your entire network.
DX Spectrum is highly scalable and suitable for monitoring dynamic, complex IT infrastructures. But it also needs one server installation for each monitoring functionality, which makes it extremely expensive.
SolarWinds is a module-based platform. But this also means that scaling your monitoring can quickly cost hundreds of thousands of dollars if you want to get a comprehensive software bundle.
Icinga is an open-source monitoring tool offering flexibility but requiring advanced technical knowledge. Its setup and maintenance can be complex, especially for teams lacking dedicated Linux expertise.
Custom alerts and data visualization let you quickly identify and prevent all kinds of network issues.
Set up PRTG in minutes and use it on almost any mobile device.
Real-time notifications mean faster troubleshooting so that you can act before more serious issues occur.
Partnering with innovative IT vendors, Paessler unleashes synergies to create
new and additional benefits for joined customers.
Combining PRTG’s broad monitoring feature set with IP Fabric’s automated network assurance creates a new level of network visibility and reliability.
Paessler and Plixer provide a complete solution adding flow and metadata analysis to a powerful network monitoring tool.
With ScriptRunner Paessler integrates a powerful event automation platform into PRTG Network Monitor.
Network Monitoring Software – Version 26.1.116.1532 (February 9th, 2026)
Download for Windows and cloud-based version PRTG Hosted Monitor available
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Network devices, bandwidth, servers, applications, virtual environments, remote systems, IoT, and more
Choose the PRTG Network Monitor subscription that's best for you
Should I choose PRTG or a different monitoring solution?
Choosing between Paessler PRTG and other monitoring tools depends on several factors, such as your specific network monitoring needs, budget, and technical resources available in your organization.
PRTG is ideal:
PRTG is used by full-time IT managers and system administrators in IT teams of all sizes. Although our software is easy to use and you don’t need to have deep programming skills to set up your monitoring environment, you still might have technical questions if your learning curve is rising.
In this case, there are many helpful resources like the Paessler Knowledge Base, which contains thousands of tips on how to use PRTG.
With our free monitoring tool, you get:
With the freeware edition of PRTG, you can get started with network monitoring in a matter of minutes. Our auto-discovery function detects all network devices within a given IP address range and automatically incorporates them into your monitoring environment.
PRTG’s flexible, cost-effective subscription licensing makes it easy to scale as needed. You pay only for the number of sensors you need. After your 30-day free trial of the unlimited version of PRTG, you can still use the free version with 100 free sensors.
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.
Paessler conducted trials in over 600 IT departments worldwide to tune its network monitoring software closer to the needs of sysadmins. The result of the survey: over 95% of the participants would recommend PRTG – or already have.
You are interested to know if PRTG could be an alternative to your current implementation?