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Regional Head of IT at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Good even for beginners, and cost-wise, it isn't that expensive, but its sensors and web GUI need improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "There was only one feature I liked about PRTG Network Monitor a lot, and that was bandwidth monitoring, though, in the newer versions of the tool, that feature is now a bit lacking. Pricing for PRTG Network Monitor is also not as expensive. It's a good tool, even for beginners."
  • "A room for improvement in PRTG Network Monitor is its sensors. Its application technology sensor, such as the IAS, .NET, etc., needs some improvement because it doesn't work as expected. For example, the IAS sensor doesn't give immediate information, and the information you get from it isn't of good value. The web GUI of PRTG Network Monitor also needs improvement because errors keep popping up if it's not been updated to the latest version. What I'd like to see in the next release of the tool is end-to-end topology mapping for the business model, and that should be required. There has to be a technical map. Technical mapping and topological creation are missing in PRTG Network Monitor, so I would like to see those in the future."

What is our primary use case?

Our use case for PRTG Network Monitor was end-to-end monitoring, but we couldn't achieve it, particularly the monitoring from the perspective of looking at the complete dashboard of the entire infrastructure, though it's a server virtualization network. For example, monitoring any device, even a swiping machine or a camera, or any device which comes and adopts an IP address should be monitored using PRTG Network Monitor, so that was our use case in the beginning.

Eventually, we then wanted the tool to also monitor our applications, so our current use case for PRTG Network Monitor is to monitor applications residing on our infrastructure, apart from devices that use or adopt IP addresses.

What is most valuable?

There was only one feature I liked about PRTG Network Monitor a lot, and that was bandwidth monitoring, though, in the newer versions of the tool, that feature is now a bit lacking.

Pricing for PRTG Network Monitor is also not as expensive.

It's a good tool, even for beginners.

What needs improvement?

A room for improvement in PRTG Network Monitor is its sensors. Its application technology sensor, such as the IAS, .NET, etc., needs some improvement because it doesn't work as expected. For example, the IAS sensor doesn't give immediate information, and the information you get from it isn't of good value.

The web GUI of PRTG Network Monitor also needs improvement because errors keep popping up if it's not been updated to the latest version.

What I'd like to see in the next release of the tool is end-to-end topology mapping for the business model, and that should be required. There has to be a technical map. Technical mapping and topological creation are missing in PRTG Network Monitor, so I would like to see those in the future.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using PRTG Network Monitor effectively for five years now, though I also used it in 2010, but only for very basic monitoring. Nowadays, I'm using the tool more extensively and doing a lot of monitoring on it.

Buyer's Guide
PRTG Network Monitor
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about PRTG Network Monitor. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In terms of the stability of PRTG Network Monitor, I would rate it a three out of five because this works on the web browser, but it requires too many updates. You have to update it frequently. For example, as soon as it's not running on the latest version, it starts giving you errors on the browsers, so it has a big room for improvement in terms of its web GUI.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

PRTG Network Monitor is a scalable tool, and I'm rating it three out of five in terms of scalability.

How are customer service and support?

We were in discussion with the PRTG Network Monitor technical support team quite intensively, but they weren't able to answer all our questions. We find them okay and up to the mark because they know what the tool can do and cannot do, so they were very, very precise, so at least their knowledge about their product was good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used a different solution before using PRTG Network Monitor, but that wasn't an apple-to-apple comparison. For example, we used an IP monitor from SolarWinds, but that was just a Ping or ICMP utility.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup for PRTG Network Monitor was not that complex, but you need to understand how it works, so it's not very difficult, yet it's not very easy. The setup for the tool is on the moderate side. On a scale of one to five, I'd give the setup a rating of three because if you'd like to effectively use PRTG Network Monitor, you need to set it up correctly.

It took almost a week to set the tool up correctly, but the actual installation was done in one day, with the bare minimum configuration and discoveries because it has a good discovery feature.

What about the implementation team?

We deployed PRTG Network Monitor through our in-house team.

What was our ROI?

I've already seen ROI from PRTG Network Monitor.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

PRTG Network Monitor is not that expensive, so I like it cost-wise. There's no additional cost apart from the standard licensing fees. On a scale of one to five, with one being the cheapest and five being the most expensive, I would rate the cost of PRTG Network Monitor a two.

What other advice do I have?

I'm using the latest version of PRTG Network Monitor because my company keeps updating the tool.

In my company, teams in Support and IT use PRTG Network Monitor and quite effectively look at the dashboard very often, so around one hundred people use it. Deployment was done in multiple places so seven to eight people in different regions took care of the deployment separately. At the moment, my company has no plans of increasing the usage of PRTG Network Monitor.

My advice to others looking into implementing PRTG Network Monitor is that if you're looking from a holistic infrastructure deployment and monitoring perspective, it's a good tool to use and to start with. PRTG Network Monitor is a good tool for beginners, so if you're a beginner, use it. If you're not a beginner, then you would need a tool with very exclusive end-to-end features.

I'm rating PRTG Network Monitor six out of ten.

My company is a customer of PRTG Network Monitor and has no partnership with the vendor.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
Senior Network Analyst at New Signal Systems
Real User
Web-based, friendly, easy to use, good graphs, and easy to implement
Pros and Cons
  • "The up-to-date graphs and the history are very good."
  • "The free version only gives us 100 free sensors to use. It would be nice if there was double that."

What is our primary use case?

Our clients use this solution to see if the network is up and running, for pings and services such as emails and disk space.

How has it helped my organization?

I use it for monitoring since I am the system admin to keep things up. Overall, the information it gave didn't offer any suggestions to change anything.

What is most valuable?

The up-to-date graphs and the history are very good.

They keep adding services, such as MS SQL monitoring, and email monitoring to keep the different parts of the e-mails going.

The implementation is easy, initially.

Also, the servicing of Linux and Windows Operating Systems are useful.

What needs improvement?

The free version only gives us 100 free sensors to use. It would be nice if there was double that.

The additional services such as MS SQL and email monitoring took a bit of work, so I would like to see it easier to do.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been acquainted with PRTG Network Monitor for approximately seven years.

I have used it for a customer in the last 12 months.

We are using the latest version. I keep them updated.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable product and I have not experienced any issues. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our clients are not that large. It's single-server monitoring for some systems. We didn't have to scale it.

Our clients are small businesses, with under 100 seats.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have not needed to contact technical support, but the forums are pretty good.

We did not use technical support because it was pretty straightforward. I kept my monitoring pretty simplistic, and I didn't try to do anything extra that would cause more angst and set things up.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We haven't used a monitoring system before.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. It was easy to set up and implement.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

To have the additional features costs a lot. It's too much. If it was half the price, we would purchase more.

All monitoring systems are close to the same pricing scheme.

What other advice do I have?

For others who are interested in using this solution, I would recommend it. Please use it, it's good. It's very friendly, easy to use, and it's web-based, which means you don't have to be logged into a server to get something done.

Also, the updates are easy to do, just double click and away it went. On occasion, updates had to be done from the server, but that wasn't very often.

I would rate PRTG Network Monitor a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
PRTG Network Monitor
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about PRTG Network Monitor. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
824,019 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Security66f5 - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Engineer at a wellness & fitness company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Within 24 hours of setup, we had a days worth of logs to look through
Pros and Cons
  • "The real-time monitoring and alerting are its most valuable features."
  • "Sometimes, it is difficult to drill down further to get information, e.g., if we saw spike in traffic, then we would want to drill down and find out what is causing that spike in traffic."

What is our primary use case?

It is for monitoring the up/down of our core infrastructure: Internally, the edge routers in our major occupancies, core switches, access switches, etc. It sort of give us real-time feedback for what is going on.

We use it to determine if a switch is up, our traffic is running optimally or at a normal rate.

How has it helped my organization?

We set up the solution, and it provided us with feedback on our IT infrastructure instantaneously. Because of the sensors that we are using, the graph started populating straightaway. Also, Pings and SNMPs were coming back straightaway. So, within 24 hours, we had a days worth of logs to look through.

Yesterday, we were having an issue with one of our major occupancies. We were able to quickly determine whether or not it was because of network performance. Because we could literally just look at the graph and screen on our wallboard, and say, "It wasn't because of network utilization." 

It is easy to rule things out, or say, "Because we had this huge spike it traffic, it maxed out our line. Therefore, it was a bandwidth problem."

What is most valuable?

The real-time monitoring and alerting are its most valuable features. 

What needs improvement?

Sometimes, it is difficult to drill down further to get information, e.g., if we saw spike in traffic, then we would want to drill down and find out what is causing that spike in traffic. Now, it could be because of the way we're using it, but we find that it' difficult to do, which is why we are using another product for this.

SolarWinds has server application monitors (SAMs), which we are using to check our processes on critical systems to see if they were to go down that we would get an alert for it. Because it's all network-based, it would be great if this was something that we could have included.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have never seen it go down. I think it has only ever gone down when I have been messing with it and caused it to go down. The solution is nice and stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is really good. At one point, I did enable a sort of clustering and found that much easier than SolarWinds. 

SolarWinds clustering is an absolute nightmare, whereas clustering with PRTG, was ridiculously simple. In order to scale and add more load balancing, PRTG was a lot smoother and quicker to do it. 

Obviously, there are different levels. We're currently limited to 100 sensors, but if we were to purchase an enhanced version of it, we could scale to whatever we purchased.

How are customer service and technical support?

I haven't used the technical support. I haven't needed them.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were actually using PRTG before we were using SolarWinds. From the feature side of things, I don't think that we ever fully implemented and tested PRTG. Then, we started testing SolarWinds and found SolarWinds was giving us a more detailed reporting. So, that is the avenue we went down for actually purchasing a product. We chose SolarWinds, but we still keep a hold of PRTG for its real-time stuff.

How was the initial setup?

We just installed it, then started configuring sensors. That was about it. There wasn't much to it.

What about the implementation team?

We set it up in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The historical data does not help us optimize our network performance, as we are not really using it to that level. We could, but because we are only on the free version, we have a limited number of sensors. Therefore, we are not monitoring as much as we want to be to obtain historical information.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also have monitoring with SolarWinds, as well. What we find is that SolarWinds is great for reporting and delving back into logs, but PRTG is better for that instant on knowing what is going on right now.

There are quite a wide array of different sensors with PRTG. However, we are only really utilizing SNMP, Ping, and similar functions at the moment. Because our NetFlow data goes into SolarWind, we want that report inside it. We find SolarWinds better for this. Though, we know that we could do this if we wanted and put some NetFlow data into PRTG with its multiple different sensors.

We are not using the solution to its fullest capacity. At this point, I don't think we will because we are so involved with SolarWinds. We are getting out of PRTG what we want to get out of it, but we are not getting enough from it that we could ditch SolarWinds and move over to it.

What other advice do I have?

For the solutions features that we are using, they are great. We have no issues with the feature set.

I don't think we've ever used the desktop app, as I didn't know there was a desktop app. We just use the web.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
reviewer1647066 - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Good support, reasonable price, and easy to set up health checks and run scans
Pros and Cons
  • "It is user-friendly. It is easy to set up health checks within PRTG and use scans. It is like a self-service tool, and anyone can configure their own settings within PRTG."
  • "In our organization, we encounter performance issues with our PRTG probe service. I saw documentation from the vendor or Paessler mentioning that there are limitations for WMI sensors. Other than that, we are okay with PRTG."

What is our primary use case?

We are using this solution for the health check of our infrastructure.

What is most valuable?

It is user-friendly. It is easy to set up health checks within PRTG and use scans. It is like a self-service tool, and anyone can configure their own settings within PRTG.

What needs improvement?

In our organization, we encounter performance issues with our PRTG probe service. I saw documentation from the vendor or Paessler mentioning that there are limitations for WMI sensors. Other than that, we are okay with PRTG.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for almost two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Its scalability is fine. We have between 300 to 500 people. We have plans to increase its usage.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their support is good. We can easily reach out to the vendor or the Paessler support team.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

When I started with my company, they were already using PRTG and SCOM. PRTG is more user-friendly than SCOM. I prefer PRTG over SCOM, but it also depends on the use case.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate PRTG Network Monitor a nine out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
reviewer1318632 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network & Security Engineer at a construction company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Accurate reports, easy to use, but protocols need updating
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is easy to manage and the reports are very accurate."
  • "There is room for improvement in this solution for the performance and third-party monitoring protocols. They need to be updated to the latest ones."

What is most valuable?

The solution is easy to manage and the reports are very accurate.

What needs improvement?

There is room for improvement in this solution for the performance and third-party monitoring protocols. They need to be updated to the latest ones.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable in my experience.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have found the scalability to be good. Most of my clients have been medium-size businesses using this solution.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support needs some improvement. The response time is slow, we normally get a response the next business day for urgent issues which is long time.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used Cisco solutions in the past. The main difference when comparing Cisco and this solution is Cisco supports Cisco Prime and this solution does not. This is the disadvantage if you want to use Cisco Prime. However, this solution is open sourced which has its benefits over Cisco.

How was the initial setup?

The installation is straightforward.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to those wanting to purchase a monitoring solution with simple and easy-to-use features, go with this solution. It is a good option, especially for medium businesses.

I rate PRTG Network Monitor a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: reseller

PeerSpot user
Ahmed Nagm - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Solution Consultant at PCS
Real User
Top 10
Effective network troubleshooting, simple installation, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "I found PRTG Network Monitor very useful for troubleshooting and monitoring the utilization of either the network or server."
  • "PRTG Network Monitor could improve by having a feature to allow uploading of preset standard network switch configurations and the ability to monitor the SLA configuration, such as uptime for the switches or internet connectivity. This would be very useful."

What is our primary use case?

RTG Network Monitor is used for monitoring many parts of our network, such as IP telephone system, internet traffic, firewall, and network utilization. Additionally, it can monitor server information, for example, CPU and memory usage.

What is most valuable?

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

What needs improvement?

PRTG Network Monitor could improve by having a feature to allow uploading of preset standard network switch configurations and the ability to monitor the SLA configuration, such as uptime for the switches or internet connectivity. This would be very useful.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using PRTG Network Monitor for approximately five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

PRTG Network Monitor is scalable, I can add more network components if I was to need them.

This solution is best fitted for small to medium-sized businesses.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have not needed to contact technical support.

How was the initial setup?

The initial installation was easy and it took approximately two weeks to cover all the network components.

What about the implementation team?

I can do the implementation of the solution myself.

What other advice do I have?

I rate PRTG Network Monitor an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:

PeerSpot user
NetworkE56d0 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Real User
Sensors can be modified, based on your needs, or easily removed if not needed
Pros and Cons
  • "The feature whereby it shows when my hard drives are moving towards thresholds that would be considered outages, before they reach that point - that is valuable."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for monitoring items on the network: switches, servers, and other devices, to guarantee or at least monitor uptime.

How has it helped my organization?

It has provided us with early warning for potential issues and has stopped potential downtime before it occurs. It also reduces the amount of wasted time that comes with dealing with things after the fact, so scheduled maintenance can be more easily performed.

It provides us with needed feedback on our IT infrastructure by telling us whether things are up, what the current usage is, and whether we need to plan to modify that. It tells us whether there are spikes in usage that either need to be addressed within the application, based on additional resourcing for the application, or at the server level.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the alerting when there's downtime. 

Also, the feature whereby it shows when my hard drives are moving towards thresholds that would be considered outages, before they reach that point - that is valuable. That's the main thing we want out of it, a warning.

The Desktop app is fine, it's easy enough to use, it installs relatively easily. It's lightweight, it sits in the corner, and it pops up if there's a real issue. I tend to use the web interface to actually do any of the work within it. But the Desktop app sits there in the background and it works fine.

The sensors are good, there's a large availability, and they provide relevant information. The way those sensors are deployed allows you to modify and tweak them, based on what you want to achieve out of them. But you can equally remove sensors with relative ease if they automatically include things that you don't want to monitor.

What 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 something they're looking into.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I've not seen any outages with it so I'd say it's stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scaled as far as we've needed it to so far and we're planning to roll it out further. It scales perfectly fine. It's pretty easy to introduce new offices. We've got it on a core set of offices at the moment, but adding additional offices as they've been deployed has been a straightforward, easy process.

How are customer service and technical support?

I've not had to use the tech support. I do use the online resources and, from that point of view, there seems to be a reasonably extensive knowledge library that answers any questions I've had to address.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used SCOM as a solution and migrated to this because the feature set is quite similar, but it cuts out a lot of the noise and the complexity of the configuration. We started looking for other solutions which would give us something that was easier to configure whilst producing the same amount of information.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was fine. It was straightforward enough.

I didn't personally install it so it's difficult for me to say how long it took from the time it was installed until it provided feedback on our IT infrastructure, but I assume it was within minutes of it actually being installed. The installation of the sensors is quite quick, so it would have been five minutes or ten minutes after installation.

What about the implementation team?

We had somebody internally who had used the product previously at another company. They were able to install it due to intrinsic knowledge of the product.

What was our ROI?

It's possible that it has saved us money, but it's difficult to measure because it's a sort of intangible in terms of downtime and the cost of downtime, depending on the system.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did look at a couple of other solutions, but partly because we had somebody with in-house knowledge of PRTG and ability in it, they essentially gave it reasonably good reviews from their personal usage. So we chose to go with something that was a known factor.

We would have looked at stuff like SolarWinds and some others, but off the top of my head, I can't remember which ones.

What other advice do I have?

It is a good solution, one that is at least worth investigating.

The historical data provided by the solution would potentially help optimize network performance, but it's not something I directly look at so I can't really pass along an opinion on that.

Overall, the feature set looks good. It covers off a lot of what we're interested in.

I would rate PRTG at eight out of ten. It does a lot of the things that I need it to do in terms of monitoring. It provides great feedback and produces it in an easily consumable way. The caveat is that it doesn't quite cover off everything I need it to do at the moment.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.

PeerSpot user
it_user1422201 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Department MAnager at Engineering Consultants Group S.A.
Real User
Provides stable and reliable network monitoring
Pros and Cons
  • "It gives me a live view of the traffic on the WAN."
  • "It would be nice if it gave us alerts via Gmail or SMS message."

What is our primary use case?

Within our organization, only the network department uses this solution — there are eight of us.

What is most valuable?

It gives me a live view of the traffic on the WAN. It produces reports on errors and faulty devices. It also produces a lot of logs on what is afoot. I can produce many reports using it.

What needs improvement?

It needs to have more monitoring on end-user devices. We can monitor a set of network devices, but not end-users' devices.

It would be nice if it gave us alerts via Gmail or SMS message.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for five years. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

PRTG Network Monitor is both scalable and stable.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is excellent.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very straightforward — it's just a simple cover server.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We are currently evaluating many other security solutions.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution because it's great for monitoring network traffic and producing reports.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of nine.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free PRTG Network Monitor Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: November 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free PRTG Network Monitor Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.