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PRTG Network Monitor vs SolarWinds NPM vs Zabbix comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.9
PRTG Network Monitor boosts efficiency by improving issue detection, reducing costs, and enabling reliable operations for small offices.
Sentiment score
7.4
SolarWinds NPM delivers quick ROI with cost savings, enhanced efficiency, and improved network visibility for proactive management and profitability.
Sentiment score
7.7
Zabbix reduces operational costs with open-source service, enhancing visibility, minimizing downtime, and providing substantial financial savings.
The return on investment is significant as the solution effectively reduces costs while being worth its expense.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
PRTG Network Monitor's customer service is mixed, with both praise for responsiveness and criticism for response times and support quality.
Sentiment score
6.9
SolarWinds NPM's support is knowledgeable but faces issues in response speed, sales tactics, and customization support options.
Sentiment score
6.9
Zabbix offers responsive support with valuable community forums while some users find paid support costly but effective.
Tutorials are available so I can manage any issue with PRTG Network Monitor easily.
The setup process is well-documented, making it easy to deploy.
We had contact with SolarWinds regarding the implementation, and they were helpful.
They have good technical support.
It is so straightforward that I have never had to use the support.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
PRTG Network Monitor is scalable and flexible, supporting various environments but requires careful planning for growth and licensing.
Sentiment score
6.9
SolarWinds NPM is scalable and adaptable, with flexible deployments but may need dedicated hardware for optimal performance.
Sentiment score
6.8
Zabbix is scalable and reliable, efficiently handling millions of metrics, but may require significant database and hardware resources.
PRTG Network Monitor has the ability to scale and add new devices.
On a scale of one to ten, scalability is rated as 9.5.
SolarWinds NPM is scalable and effective in handling large network infrastructures.
Zabbix is very scalable and lightweight.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
PRTG Network Monitor is generally reliable, with minor configuration issues, requiring proper hardware and maintenance for optimal performance.
Sentiment score
7.5
Properly managed SolarWinds NPM is stable, with fewer issues in updated versions, relying on infrastructure planning and resource allocation.
Sentiment score
7.6
Zabbix is stable, efficient, and reliable, with occasional tuning needed, attributed to external factors like database configurations.
 

Room For Improvement

PRTG Network Monitor needs improvements in templates, flexibility, apps, integrations, performance, support, security, monitoring, reporting, and costs.
SolarWinds NPM faces challenges with accuracy, user interface, scalability, support, stability, resource use, and pricing concerns.
Zabbix requires enhancements in discovery, UI, reporting, integration, automation, scalability, customization, and security for improved user experience.
They need to improve application performance monitoring, error tracing mechanisms, and log management.
PRTG Network Monitor should provide syslog monitoring since it is not available at this time.
SolarWinds needs to upscale on observability and add full-fledged observability features, including security features.
The only issue I can note is that it's Linux-based, and Linux documentation is not the best.
 

Setup Cost

PRTG Network Monitor's tiered pricing is economical but can be costly for large-scale use, with flexible licensing options.
SolarWinds NPM offers competitive pricing but can be costly; complex licensing and additional fees may impact smaller businesses.
Zabbix attracts enterprises with its cost-effective open-source model, offering free use and optional paid support and training.
Pricing is by the number of devices, not by sensor.
The prices are very high for PRTG Network Monitor.
The solution is considered expensive.
Pricing-wise, SolarWinds NPM is more expensive than PRTG.
 

Valuable Features

PRTG Network Monitor provides efficient deployment, real-time monitoring, customization, and supports various environments with advanced features and responsive support.
SolarWinds NPM offers easy deployment, intuitive monitoring, customizable dashboards, multi-vendor support, scalability, and community-driven enhancements for proactive management.
Zabbix provides flexible, scalable open-source monitoring with customizable features, cost-effectiveness, and strong community support for IT infrastructure.
PRTG Network Monitor already provided me with 100 free sensors, which is enough for my network monitoring.
The pricing is affordable compared to SolarWinds.
The most valuable feature for us is the database performance analyzer, which we use a lot.
SolarWinds NPM has specific modules for monitoring different network capabilities, which provides rich features for carrying out specific tasks.
If disk usage surpasses a threshold, say 70%, I receive alerts and can take proactive action.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of PRTG Network Monitor is 4.2%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 5.2%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zabbix is 11.5%, down from 11.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

Tochukwu Uzomba - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficiently monitor networks across regions with seamless setup and robust feature set
PRTG Network Monitor is easy to set up. Within a few minutes, it is operational. It is an all-in-one monitoring solution without extra costs. For example, we set it up for an insurance company with branches across Africa. We are able to monitor from Lagos without installing anything in the branches, using the agentless feature. We just put in the IP address and the parameter, and we monitor from those ends. Additionally, all the sensors are very useful. Most people are interested in the bandwidth monitoring sensor to see what bandwidth the users are consuming. The pricing is affordable compared to SolarWinds.
MohitKumar - PeerSpot reviewer
High-level, comprehensive, and proactive monitoring in a user-friendly interface
The solution needs to integrate with additional SDN technologies that are part of the hyper market. The solution supports many vendors by default and just included Meraki SDN with the new release, but continued expansion is important. We created a custom method to pair with unsupported vendors but that can produce a lag in performance so future releases should expand SDN support. The solution does a good job of automating features but could expand that even more.
ASM Naushad Alam - PeerSpot reviewer
Allows any number of customizations but lacks functionality for finding root causes
We have not yet purchased the commercial version so have a lack of technical ability. We do not yet fully know the key points or key features of the solution. We just use what we use along with WhatsUp Gold. Based on our use only, stability is rated a seven out of ten.
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Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
54%
Computer Software Company
7%
Government
5%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Educational Organization
58%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Educational Organization
39%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 a...
What do you like most about PRTG Network Monitor?
The tool is integrated with our email for the alerts.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PRTG Network Monitor?
The prices are very high for PRTG Network Monitor. That's why I'm using the free100 sensor license.
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
It actually depends on the exact purpose or kind of devices (network devices, servers, something else). Some tools ar...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We are partners with SolarWinds and we sell a lot of Network management to large enterprises also because of scalabil...
What do you like most about Zabbix?
The template system in Zabbix is very beneficial as it saves time in configuration.
What needs improvement with Zabbix?
I'm using the free version of Zabbix, and I'd like to see more customization options, especially for setting trigger ...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard
1. IBM 2. Dell 3. Cisco 4. HP 5. Oracle 6. Microsoft 7. Amazon 8. Google 9. Facebook 10. Twitter 11. LinkedIn 12. Netflix 13. Adobe 14. VMware 15. Salesforce 16. SAP 17. Intel 18. AT&T 19. Verizon 20. T-Mobile 21. Vodafone 22. Ericsson 23. Nokia 24. Siemens 25. General Electric 26. Honeywell 27. Philips 28. Sony 29. Samsung 30. LG 31. Panasonic 32. Toshiba
Find out what your peers are saying about Zabbix, Auvik, Datadog and others in Network Monitoring Software. Updated: January 2025.
831,369 professionals have used our research since 2012.