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PRTG Network Monitor vs Wireshark comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Juniper Mist Premium Analytics
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (58th)
PRTG Network Monitor
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (5th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (6th), Cloud Monitoring Software (8th)
Wireshark
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Network Troubleshooting (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Network Monitoring Software
Network Troubleshooting
 

Featured Reviews

ALEXANDRE VIANNA - PeerSpot reviewer
May 3, 2024
Has a single dashboard, but is expensive
We use this solution to manage our mission environment The single dashboard is a valuable feature.  The technical support needs improvement. The initial setup is straightforward. The solution is expensive. I rate the pricing an eight out of ten.  Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of…
Noman-Saleem - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 29, 2024
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…
DonniUgalde - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 18, 2024
Provides visibility into the network, and the GUI is easy to use
I wish the filters were a little bit more prepopulated. It would have been easy to hit a drop-down and select a filter. If I only wanted to look at DCP, UDP, or IP, it would be easy to filter it out. Advanced network knowledge is required to get a lot out of the tool. However, it's very easy to install and deploy. It would be nice if there were some handheld Android devices with a Wireshark-specialized application that would allow us to mirror a Cisco port. Then, we can just plug into the port and click the green start button, and it will start ingesting the packet capture. Then, we won’t be using a laptop. The only downside is that we must have a laptop and connect a network cable. Some new laptops don't have network ports, so we have to get another adapter. Having an all-in-one device, like NetAlly or Fluke, and some of their network devices would be cool.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The single dashboard is a valuable feature."
"We can manage the entire system across the network and troubleshoot the pain points."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is being able to see things graphically."
"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."
"We like the alerting system, the SNMP monitoring and the customization of the bandwidth."
"I found PRTG Network Monitor very useful for troubleshooting and monitoring the utilization of either the network or server."
"The initial setup is very simple."
"The most valuable feature of PRTG Network Monitor is its ease of use."
"The real-time monitoring feature in PRTG is invaluable to me"
"Ability to create a dashboard inside software monitoring."
"You can use Wireshark to see the traffic packet format, the IP layers, the fields, and the enabled flags."
"The transmission and reception issues are valuable."
"The most valuable feature is the traffic gate, which shows which IPs are getting more bandwidth or traffic."
"The best part about Wireshark, in my opinion, is its ability to analyze packet capture files."
"The options that are required to get the details for the packet drops are good."
"I like the filtering feature as we can filter data easily. This feature is also available in tcpdump, but it's a simple piece of software. Wireshark is more advanced and has many features. It allows you to filter a lot of things. The output can be filtered easily. The most important feature is colorization. If I say, "Okay, this particular SMB protocol in red, it will show me red." It's easy to identify that protocol or capture data."
"It has good basic features."
"I use the filters very often, to determine what type of traffic I am looking for. The use of filter allows traffic to be segmented so that a value can be looked at individually apart from the other traffic."
 

Cons

"The technical support needs improvement."
"The Wi-Fi side needs improvement."
"The technical support could respond a little bit quicker."
"Mostly, this software has sensors for devices to monitor specs and you can build or develop or modify various sensors, according to your company's needs. But you may need to do that with coding or plugins or with the support of Paessler AG, the manufacturer."
"We would like more cloud native sensors for AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, etc. A lot of businesses are moving in that direction, so having something where we can pull performance stats out of these cloud services would be great for us."
"The Desktop app is good but it can be really sluggish at times, especially when you're editing different elements."
"I would like to see them take their graphing tools and convert them into a collector so that we can point telemetry to them"
"The thing that we do struggle with a bit is in the historic data. If I want look over 30 days, because it averages out onto one graph, you can't zoom in and drill down information."
"The dashboarding definitely needs improvement."
"I would like to see Office 365 monitoring. Essentially, it doesn't do it. I assumed not at all, but apparently it does it slightly. However, due to issues with APIs, they currently don't provide full monitoring for O365."
"It is difficult to scale this solution."
"The product is great but I wish there were more of an emphasis on the command line tools."
"The initial setup depends upon the basics. You need to have a clear understanding of the basics."
"The average person would probably find Wireshark hard to use. When I first installed it, I was overwhelmed by all the data it was shooting out. It doesn't make sense until you start doing some research and figure out what everything means. It isn't the most user-friendly tool. It just provides so much information."
"I wish the filters were a little bit more prepopulated."
"We'd like to be able to extract the output into an Excel table."
"The Wireshark search function shows green for a correct search and red for an incorrect search. If there were a way to provide a description about what a search - and the similar ones which are available - can do, while a person is typing it, it would make the product easier to use and simultaneously decrease the learning curve."
"Wireshark could be improved with a delay option when getting data automatically."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"Pricing for PRTG Network Monitor is a nine out of ten. It meets my company's budget and monitoring requirements. My company is on a perpetual license."
"We've got the unlimited package... I believe it was around the £15,000 per year mark."
"The pricing is very low compared to other solutions."
"I would like better pricing models for smaller businesses. The free version is fantastic, but it's too restrictive. If they could just get up to 200 sensors for a reasonable fee for on-premise, I would give PRTG my credit card right now."
"The ability to use the base version with 100 free sensors is great. The cost on other packages can be very reasonable."
"While I am not the person who deals with pricing, I would say that we pay around 1000 pounds a year."
"The price of PRTG is reasonable. PRTG's competitors like SolarWinds and ManageEngine charge more for the same functionality."
"One thing I like is that when you buy sensors, it's a perpetual license, so once you buy 2,000 sensors, you've got 2,000 sensors; it's not a recurring cost."
"The tool is free."
"Wireshark is free software, so you don't have to pay any licensing fee. Individual people can use it and then donate to Wireshark."
"It is free."
"We're using the free version of Wireshark."
"Wireshark is an open-source product, so it's free to use."
"Wireshark is free of charge, and there's no license involved."
"Wireshark is open source and gives great value and functionality to the network investigation."
"We are using a freeware version of this solution, so there are no licence costs involved."
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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
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
52%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
5%
Financial Services Firm
4%
University
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Educational Organization
10%
Government
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Juniper Mist Premium Analytics?
We can manage the entire system across the network and troubleshoot the pain points.
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?
PRTG Network Monitor used to be reasonably priced, but after changing to subscription models, the costs have increase...
What needs improvement with Wireshark?
I wish the filters were a little bit more prepopulated. It would have been easy to hit a drop-down and select a filte...
 

Learn More

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
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
Comversion, ADP, Talbots
Find out what your peers are saying about Zabbix, Datadog, Auvik and others in Network Monitoring Software. Updated: November 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.