Nmap vs PRTG Network Monitor comparison

Nmap and Paessler GmbH are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Nmap is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.3, while Paessler GmbH is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.7. Nmap holds a 0.6% mindshare in NMS, compared to Paessler GmbH’s 4.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Nmap users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Paessler GmbH users who would recommend it.

Nmap

Read 22 Nmap reviews

1,456 Views
719 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

PRTG Network Monitor

Read 100 PRTG Network Monitor reviews

8,484 Views
5,711 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Nmap

PRTG Network Monitor

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 24, 2024

Nmap and PRTG Network Monitor compete in the network monitoring solutions category. PRTG Network Monitor has the upper hand due to its extensive feature set and robustness, offering significant ROI potential that many find worth the investment.

Features: Nmap excels at network discovery, port scanning, and detecting security vulnerabilities. It is favored for its probing tasks and scripting abilities in security auditing. PRTG Network Monitor provides comprehensive monitoring capabilities, including bandwidth usage, uptime monitoring, and packet sniffing, all available through a central dashboard, focusing on broader IT health.

Room for Improvement: Nmap could improve user experience by offering a graphical user interface, improve documentation for beginners, and expand integration capabilities with other security tools. PRTG Network Monitor could enhance its alert customization settings, improve its mobile app user experience, and offer more detailed historical data analysis tools.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nmap's command-line-based deployment requires scripting know-how, making it a better fit for those experienced with network protocols. PRTG Network Monitor offers a more guided setup with ample technical support, providing a more accessible solution for organizations seeking ease of management and deployment support.

Pricing and ROI: Nmap is open-source, making it cost-effective with minimal setup costs, suitable for budget-conscious users. PRTG Network Monitor, though requiring a more significant initial investment, offers potentially higher ROI through its extensive monitoring features, valued by enterprises for its advanced capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Nmap vs. PRTG Network Monitor Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Nmap vs. PRTG Network Monitor

December 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Nmap

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

16th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

PRTG Network Monitor

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

100

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (6th), Cloud Monitoring Software (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nmap is 0.6%, down from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PRTG Network Monitor is 4.2%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Aqeel Junaid

Junior Executive - Information Security at sunshine holdings

Offers easy-to-use features and helps scan ports

The product's port scan capabilities have positively impacted my company's network management tasks. The OS detection feature has benefited our company's network analysis since it shows me the open ports that are vulnerable. The product helps me get details about the vulnerability in open ports. I have not integrated the product with other tools except for the fact that I have used Nmap in Metasploit. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it for network security and management. The tool provides full scanning of ports. Though there are other products in the market, many of the solutions are not as good as Nmap, which offers a lot of features that are easy to use. I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

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Noman-Saleem

Network Support Officer at Habib Metropolitan Bank Ltd

Detects suden changes but significant pricing concerns affect the effectiveness of network traffic troubleshooting

We use PRTG Network Monitor for monitoring traffic on interfaces and the behavior of network traffic. If there are sudden changes in traffic or any configuration issues, we can sort them out using PRTG. It's very helpful for troubleshooting and monitoring traffic utilization on our interfaces…

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The most valuable feature of the solution for security audits stems from the fact that it serves as a powerful tool with the ability to scan a large number of ports."

"From a functionality standpoint, it's robust and straightforward to comprehend."

"The most important function, according to me, is the capability to use some arguments in the scanning. The solution's capability to go figure and do a deep dive, discovering information on specific aspects."

"Nmap is mostly helpful during compliance checks. We run the scanner to see how many devices are on our network and find vulnerabilities in those that aren't compliant. We also use it monthly to scan our network and identify devices that aren't connected properly. This helps us detect any issues related to the operating systems of these devices."

"The solution detects the operating systems, which makes testing the software much easier before making the payload."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its scripts. These scripts prove beneficial when security features may obscure or block connections. Nmap helps identify vulnerabilities across different systems, including web servers and various server types."

"Nmap has a powerful command line tool and a set of diagnostic features."

"The initial setup was simple."

More Nmap pros

"PRTG Network Monitor is easy to set up."

"It's very easy to manage when you've got time to do some work on it: things like adding devices, adding groups, adding sensor clusters, and being able to clone and move stuff around."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is being able to see things graphically."

"I found PRTG Network Monitor very useful for troubleshooting and monitoring the utilization of either the network or server."

"PRTG is simple to manage. First, you can create a template for a device, then apply it to hundreds of similar devices. That's a great advantage."

"The solution provides us with needed feedback on our IT infrastructure. It gives us really good quality of service when it comes to monitoring of available space and available resources. It allows us to preempt issues before they become a problem for the business."

"PRTG is integrated on Windows."

"The solution has excellent redundant features."

More PRTG Network Monitor pros

Cons

"The challenge often lies in finding suitable courses and professional resources."

"Nmap needs to improve its scanning speed."

"They should deliver Playtech's username and password."

"There could be a specific option to check non-pingable endpoints for the product."

"It takes a bit of time to get familiar with the solution and its options."

"The solution should increase the number of features under a free license."

"There is room for improvement in the design, the GUI. It looks a bit odd. Maybe Nmap should improve it or add more widgets to make it more attractive, but the basic functionality is good and provides what we need."

"The solution is not that easy for a beginner to learn."

More Nmap cons

"It would be good if there were better graphical interfaces when you have it on multiple monitors... Because we have so many servers, things can get lost in the fog a little bit. Maybe having a better way of showing different geographies, Flash, etc., would help."

"Once you start going above 5000 sensors, things do start to get a bit shaky. There are some best practice out there that you will need to adopt and be aware of."

"This product can be improved by updating the net flow interface. The one that is in place works – I can get all the information I need from it – but it is a little bit clunky."

"If PRTG could help me see the bandwidth for each host I have on my network, either for a wireless or a wired network, that would be very helpful."

"Users need to buy the more expensive licenses if they expect to be able to scale."

"PRTG Network Monitor needs to enhance network performance monitoring. Moving towards observability, similar to what Datadog offers, could be beneficial."

"In a very few cases, customers want more detailed reports, which we cannot meet."

"PRTG Network Monitor could improve by having descriptions for the tab usages. The dashboards or interface could be easier to understand."

More PRTG Network Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's an open-source product, and I haven't seen any premiums. Options are available for those who purchase, but for my use case, everything I need is available in the community and forums."

"The product's pricing is fine. The licensing options for Nmap include perpetual licenses and volume-based licenses. For perpetual licenses, once you purchase it, there's no need to invest in renewals. And for volume-based licenses, enterprise companies can use it multiple times based on the number of users or devices they need to scan. It's a pay-as-you-go model, similar to how you pay for what you use."

"Nmap is an open-source and free product."

"It's an open-source solution. Commerically, only the support service is available."

"I am using the free version of Nmap."

"I am using the standard free version of Nmap."

"The solution is free of cost."

"Nmap is open source software, which suits us well because we are a manufacturing company and not an IT company, for example. If we were an IT company, we would probably need to pay for extra support or instead go for another software solution. But as it is, we don't have any need for high-end troubleshooting tools."

More Nmap pricing and cost advice

"PRTG Network Monitor is very expensive."

"The price of PRTG is reasonable. PRTG's competitors like SolarWinds and ManageEngine charge more for the same functionality."

"The pricing is not too bad. It's not massively expensive, and the ability to upscale or even downscale licenses every year is brilliant for us."

"The price is actually on the cheaper side. If you're going with the unlimited license code, it's very cheap compared to competitors unless you're going for something free, like Zabbix. But you get what you pay for, and it doesn't have the full suite of products or tools like SolarWinds or a ScienceLogic."

"The pricing for PRTG in our case is reasonable because we have a lot of applications to monitor within PRTG. It is not that expensive."

"The licensing fees are billed annually and there are no costs in addition to this."

"Licenses are very expensive, so I would like to see cheaper licensing."

"PRTG is now available as PRTG Enterprise Monitor, and the price varies depending on the total number of sensors the customer buys"

More PRTG Network Monitor pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.

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Comparison Review

it_user174738

IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

May 31, 2015

Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor

I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

University

10%

Government

Educational Organization

53%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Nmap?

Nmap is mostly helpful during compliance checks. We run the scanner to see how many devices are on our network and find vulnerabilities in those that aren't compliant. We also use it monthly to sca...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nmap?

I am using the free version of Nmap.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Nmap?

Nmap is used for network scanning to map the network, identify devices, and assess their status. It helps determine open ports and services running on a particular endpoint or server within an ente...

See all answers

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

PRTG network monitor is one of the best tool i have ever used for the monitoring. It have auto discovery option. it avoid the configuring the device in PRTG. It automatically discover the device an...

See all answers

What do you like most about PRTG Network Monitor?

The tool is integrated with our email for the alerts.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PRTG Network Monitor?

PRTG comes in different bands: there are options with 500, 1500, 2500, and so on. Pricing is by the number of devices, not by sensor.

See all answers

Comparisons

SolarWinds NPM vs Nmap

Compared 28% of the time

Azure Network Watcher vs Nmap

Compared 20% of the time

Nagios Core vs Nmap

Compared 15% of the time

Zabbix vs Nmap

Compared 14% of the time

Nagios XI vs Nmap

Compared 12% of the time

More Nmap Competitors

Zabbix vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 7% of the time

Centreon vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 7% of the time

LibreNMS vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 7% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 6% of the time

Nagios XI vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 6% of the time

More PRTG Network Monitor Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Nmap

December 2024

Download Nmap product report

Buyer's Guide

PRTG Network Monitor

December 2024

Download PRTG Network Monitor product report

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Nmap

Paessler GmbH

Overview

Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free and open source (license) utility for network discovery and security auditing. Many systems and network administrators also find it useful for tasks such as network inventory, managing service upgrade schedules, and monitoring host or service uptime. Nmap uses raw IP packets in novel ways to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are running, what type of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens of other characteristics. It was designed to rapidly scan large networks, but works fine against single hosts. Nmap runs on all major computer operating systems, and official binary packages are available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. In addition to the classic command-line Nmap executable, the Nmap suite includes an advanced GUI and results viewer (Zenmap), a flexible data transfer, redirection, and debugging tool (Ncat), a utility for comparing scan results (Ndiff), and a packet generation and response analysis tool (Nping).

PRTG Network Monitor runs on a Windows machine within your network, collecting various statistics from the machines, software, and devices which you designate. PRTG comes with an easy-to-use web interface with point-and-click configuration. You can easily share data from it with non-technical colleagues and customers, including via live graphs and custom reports. This will let you plan for network expansion, see what applications are using most of your connection, and make sure that no one is hogging the entire network just to torrent videos.

To monitor a large IT environment, it's important to be able to scale PRTG up. Paessler PRTG Enterprise Monitor includes all the proven capabilities of PRTG Network Monitor, which are enhanced by exclusive ITOps Board for a service-oriented, central overview of multiple PRTG servers.

Sample Customers

Lockheed Martin, Eastern Bank Boston, Perspecta, Harris Corporation, Discovery Communication

Jameson Bank, Sidnix, RungeICT, MedicalAnimal, Truck-lite, GamingGrids, The Covell Group, Forsythn County Schools, NetMass, Musgrove Park Hospital, Lanes Health, Columbia Southern University, Vodafone, Intrust Bank

Buyer's Guide

Nmap vs. PRTG Network Monitor

December 2024

Free Report: Nmap vs. PRTG Network Monitor

Find out what your peers are saying about Nmap vs. PRTG Network Monitor and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.

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