The most valuable features of PRTG Network Monitor are bandwidth utilization, user-friendliness, all past report simple retrievals, and timeout features. Additionally, if the solution does go down it is simple to bring it back.
Tech Specialist at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Beneficial bandwidth utilization, user-friendly, but interface could improve
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of PRTG Network Monitor are bandwidth utilization, user-friendliness, all past report simple retrievals, and timeout features. Additionally, if the solution does go down it is simple to bring it back."
- "PRTG Network Monitor could improve by having descriptions for the tab usages. The dashboards or interface could be easier to understand."
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
PRTG Network Monitor could improve by having descriptions for the tab usages. The dashboards or interface could be easier to understand.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using PRTG Network Monitor for approximately two and a half years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
PRTG Network Monitor is scalable.
We have approximately 200 to 250 devices that are being used with PRTG Network Monitor.
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PRTG Network Monitor
November 2024
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Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used other solutions previously but they did not compare in features with that of PRTG Network Monitor.
How was the initial setup?
The setup of PRTG Network Monitor is simple. There are five or six steps to complete it.
We have more than two locations and for that two locations' network connectivities, we are using PRTG Network Monitor. For example, we monitor firewalls, switches, and for ISPs. For servers, we are using the Zabbix.
What about the implementation team?
One person is monitoring everything using PRTG Network Monitor. We have been providing support to our customers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are using the premium version of PRTG Network Monitor. The price of the solution is a bit higher than competitors but it is worth the extra money. However, it would be helpful if the price was lower.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have compared other tools to PRTG Network Monitor. I found that PRTG Network Monitor is more user-friendly than the others I compared.
What other advice do I have?
I rate PRTG Network Monitor a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Network Engineer at Axesat S.A.
An easy initial setup with good stability and great reporting capabilities
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup is pretty easy."
- "The licensing policy needs more flexibility."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution to recollect data from past equipment.
What is most valuable?
The solution's most valuable aspect is its ability to make reports. We appreciate that in the tool. It could be to relay corrupt data information, and we tell ourselves that it's gone, however, tools for that are expensive in terms of the labor. To perform your analyses with this solution is easier. We can recover past data and make analysis effectively.
The initial setup is pretty easy.
What needs improvement?
The option to perform cross-correlated information about the server, I think could be better. This tool doesn't have this.
The ability to get another license if you need another tool, or to license specific aspects that may not be covered under your existing license could be better. Right now, it's not easy to switch contracts. The licensing policy needs more flexibility.
There may be some scalability issues.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've used the solution for several years at this point. It's been a while. It's been as much as perhaps nine or ten years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is there when you implement this generic service. We had to migrate in a bad scenario, due to the fact that we suffered from several issues. I still implemented it in one server to collect all the information. The product worked well and maintained its stability in general.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
While I've never tried to scale the solution, the potential to scale looks fine. It's pretty dated, however, and I'm personally looking for another solution for that aspect.
We have about 20 people using the solution currently.
We're actually in the process of looking for another tool that would be able to collect information for us. I'm not sure if we'd increase the usage of this tool for that purpose.
How are customer service and technical support?
I've never dealt with technical support. We have an IT team that deals with issues and any problems are typically handled internally. I wouldn't be able to comment on their knowledgeability or responsiveness due to my lack of experience dealing with them.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I don't recall using a different solution in the past.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup isn't overly complex. It's straightforward.
The deployment took about three weeks across ten servers.
What about the implementation team?
We handled the implementation ourselves in-house. We didn't need any consultants or integrators to assist us.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don't deal with the licensing or billing aspect of the solution and therefore can't speak to the exact costs of the product.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We might be considering looking into other solutions in the future.
What other advice do I have?
We're a customer and end-user. We don't have a business relationship with the company.
This solution's deployment is in the server through our machine. We have maybe eight or ten data machines with it.
I'd recommend this solution for larger implementations.
Overall, I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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.
823,875 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Infrastructure Analyst
Monitors a wide range of aspects of our equipment and has a lot of alerting options
Pros and Cons
- "The authentication links into our standard Active Directory authentication, which is very good."
- "The remote probes are very useful. They allow us to provide a reference across different areas in the network. In trying to localize issues, that's very useful."
- "We're using more cloud services now. It would be useful to be able to get information back from these cloud services in detail, and display any issues within PRTG for the rest of our systems."
What is our primary use case?
We use it to monitor our servers. We try to monitor all of the functions the servers as closely as possible.
How has it helped my organization?
The historical data provided by the solution allows us to look back in time and look at the baseline performance of the sensors. We can compare them over time to see if anything has gotten worse or improved. The data helps us optimize network performance.
It allows us to be more proactive when monitoring our infrastructure. With PRTG, we normally know of issues with our servers before anybody reports them. We used to be very reactive, but now we are alerted instantly. We've got hundreds of servers, so it's impossible to monitor them manually.
It definitely enables our IT department to be more cost-effective because we don't waste time checking things manually, which can be quite time-consuming. It frees us up to concentrate on the issues that we've been alerted to through PRTG.
The solution also provides us with defined measures of performance so we can see whether it has improved or decreased over time. We can then improve our infrastructure. We can measure that using PRTG.
What is most valuable?
Some of the valuable features include the following.
- Ease of use. The authentication links into our standard Active Directory authentication, which is very good.
- It's got a wide variety of sensors that can be applied to many different aspects of the service to monitor them. There's a very good selection.
- The remote probes are very useful. They allow us to provide a reference across different areas in the network. In trying to localize issues, that's very useful.
- It's web-based, which is a big advantage when you can access it from anywhere.
- It's very reliable.
- It's independent of other equipment, so it's not going to fail due to anything else failing in the infrastructure.
- It's got apps as well, so it's accessible, even on your mobile.
It's an excellent product. In terms of the overall feature set, it has a lot of features. It can monitor a wide range of aspects of our equipment and it has a lot of options for alerting.
What needs improvement?
It's very good for monitoring our internal infrastructure, but we're using more cloud services now. It would be useful to be able to get information back from these cloud services in detail, and display any issues within PRTG for the rest of our systems.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable. It has to be when it's monitoring for failures in other parts of the system. We've had very few issues with stability. It's been very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It allows us to easily increase the number of sensors and the scope of what we can monitor. The scalability is very good. It grows with our business. We initially bought a set number of licenses and then upgraded it and bought additional server licenses to monitor other things in the business.
How are customer service and technical support?
We haven't had to resort to contacting tech support much over the years that we've been using it. When we have, they've always responded quickly and been very good at helping to resolve any issues.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We didn't have a previous solution in place.
How was the initial setup?
It was very easy to set up a trial version of the server and evaluate it for a period to see what we could get out of the product.
The time from setup of the solution until it provided us with feedback on our IT infrastructure was quite quick. Before the trial was over, we already had a lot more information than we had had before. It was worth definitely the cost of licensing it and paying for it.
What about the implementation team?
We did it ourselves. It was so easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not involved in the commercial aspect of the solution, but the pricing is very low compared to other solutions.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated a number of different server monitoring solutions and selected PRTG as the best solution to go forward with. We looked at WhatsUp Gold and Nagios. PRTG was much easier to use, configure, set up, and get running. It provided better information which was very well displayed.
We also had downtime previously. That was definitely why we went ahead with a monitoring solution, so we could be alerted quickly to any issues and resolve them before they affected our service and users.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend trying PRTG and seeing the benefits.
We don't tend to use the Desktop app because the web-based interface is so good. I really don't have a lot of experience with the Desktop app.
I would say the product is a nine out of ten. It's been very successful and done exactly what we wanted it to do.
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.
IT strategist at Convergent Wireless Communications
It is easy to deploy and cost-effective, helping the entire organization become digitally enabled
Pros and Cons
- "The product is simple and easy to implement."
- "I can create my own program sensor. This means I can add extra monitoring capabilities into the already fundamentally strong foundation."
- "It helps the entire organization become digitally enabled."
- "We would like to monitor certain aspects of the user experience. We should be able to analyze the cause of end user experience, bad or good, so we can do some research and development on our own."
- "In a very few cases, customers want more detailed reports, which we cannot meet."
What is our primary use case?
We sell the product to customers and handle their problems. From every problem that we handle, we learn from it.
As a company, we deploy WiFi network in major hotels (four or five star level). The guests who come to stay in those hotels are very sensitive to availability and performance. So, we have to monitor the bandwidth high availability, as well as the basic infrastructure, such as checking the system and all the IT infrastructure in those hotels.
Today, we have a lot of customers, hundreds in India and neighboring countries, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Some of our customers have taken us to Malaysia because they did business with us in India. We also work with two countries in Africa, Congo and Nigeria.
How has it helped my organization?
We use the product internally. Because we are a networking company, we are able to diagnose customer's network problems so our customers are happy.
We go to the customer telling them that we are not here to sell the product. If you don't like it, don't buy it. If we have an unhappy customer, we can't sleep.
What is most valuable?
- The product is simple and easy to implement.
- The licensing is quick and simple.
- I can create my own program sensor. This means I can add extra monitoring capabilities into the already fundamentally strong foundation.
- I can write a few pieces of code in the partial capture.
- It helps the entire organization become digitally enabled.
PRTG is very good to do business with. The contract is simple. They are very responsive.
What needs improvement?
We would like to monitor certain aspects of the user experience. We should be able to analyze the cause of end user experience, bad or good, so we can do some research and development on our own.
In a very few cases, customers want more detailed reports, which we cannot meet.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
PRTG has another level of scaling. There are XL1 and XL5. XL1 has one core and XL5 has four cores. If your network is big, you can distribute the database and reporting load on five different servers. You can have a common view of the entire global network using the enterprise console.
It is scalable. We have yet to hit a ceiling.
How is customer service and technical support?
95% of the problems or more that we get from customers are solved locally.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
When you buy PRTG, everything comes in one bundle. Licensing is very easy. It is not like SolarWinds or Ops Manager, where I can buy pieces separately if I want high availability or Syslog. It becomes painful. The basic version looks cheap, but NetFlow has to be bought separately on SolarWinds. In PRTG, there are no questions asked, and everything comes together.
SolarWinds is a bit complex, so the customer may have to buy the product license and have to pay a little extra for training and deployment of the license. In the case of PRTG, the product is so easy that we give the customer three online sessions, and they are happy since we don't charge them for that.
What other advice do I have?
Don't believe what you see in writing. Deploy it, then test it. It is easy to deploy and cost-effective.
Most important criteria when selecting a vendor:
- Easy to do business with.
- Responsiveness.
- The vendor should be committed.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller.
server at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Useful for network monitoring but needs to show bandwidth utilization in proper graphs
Pros and Cons
- "The tool is integrated with our email for the alerts."
- "PRTG Network Monitor needs to show bandwidth utilization in proper graphs. It isn't easy to learn."
What is our primary use case?
We use the product for network monitoring.
What is most valuable?
The tool is integrated with our email for the alerts.
What needs improvement?
PRTG Network Monitor needs to show bandwidth utilization in proper graphs. It isn't easy to learn.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
PRTG Network Monitor is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
My company has two users for the product.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't contacted the tool's technical support yet.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
PRTG Network Monitor is cheap.
What other advice do I have?
I rate the solution a five 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.
CTO at Joan Cross Infosystems Ltd
Different monitoring probes available, good support, and reliable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of PRTG Network Monitor is the different monitoring probes available."
- "PRTG Network Monitor could improve the price."
What is our primary use case?
PRTG Network Monitor is used by network monitoring teams for keeping a tab on services that are down. Once you are aware of a failure you are able to quickly reinstate the service before customers or brand users notice. This can be done even before the service is down, if you see a pattern of service degradation, it can quickly attend to it.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of PRTG Network Monitor is the different monitoring probes available.
What needs improvement?
PRTG Network Monitor could improve the price.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using PRTG Network Monitor for approximately three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
PRTG Network Monitor is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have two clients that are using PRTG Network Monitor.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support from PRTG Network Monitor has been good.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I rate the licensing for PRTG Network Monitor an eight out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
I rate PRTG Network Monitor an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Technician-type internship at EIGSI La Rochelle, Ecole d'ingenieurs generalistes
Allows us to supervise our network and anticipate problems
Pros and Cons
- "PRTG is integrated on Windows."
- "This solution is a good product so far, but I haven't been using it long enough to know how it could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution for security and supervision of our network. There are two people using PRTG Network Monitor in my company.
The solution is deployed on a private cloud with Microsoft Azure.
How has it helped my organization?
It allows me to detect problems with the network, and it helps users propose the solution to resolve the problem.
What is most valuable?
The difference between PRTG and other products is that PRTG is integrated on Windows.
What needs improvement?
This solution is a good product so far, but I haven't been using it long enough to know how it could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for two months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's stable.
How was the initial setup?
It's not complex. We used eight people for deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's expensive to maintain. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution 8 out of 10.
I would recommend this solution for someone who wants to start using it.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Group Information Security Manager at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Makes available a great diversity of pre-configured metrics that can be monitored
Pros and Cons
- "One of the valuable features is the diversity of metrics available to us to monitor. It's all there, it's all in the box. It's all made very easy, by virtue of it being pre-configured."
- "Scalability is the only major sticking point for me. There is a recommended number of sensors, which is around 10,000 and we're double that... The only option we have to scale is to buy another core, which would be a separate, stand-alone instance..."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for network monitoring, mostly. We look at any metrics that the sensors pull back for us, such as availability, performance. We have some custom sensors for service monitoring.
How has it helped my organization?
The solution's historical data helps us optimize network performance. We can find issues by looking at historical data and benchmark it against what it should be.
It's given us metrics which we can then pass on to customers, availability statistics and things like that. It's really added value to the services we provide. From that point of view, it has definitely improved things.
It makes our IT department more cost-effective because we can detect failures faster, we can do something about them. We can get early warnings on things that are going to go wrong, be proactive about dealing with them, and have less downtime.
It gives us the needed feedback on our IT infrastructure, such as utilization of disks on a server. We get that information back and are able to act on it.
What is most valuable?
One of the valuable features is the diversity of metrics available to us to monitor. It's all there, it's all in the box. It's all made very easy, by virtue of it being pre-configured. You point it at the box, pull your credentials in if you need to, and off it goes and does it. A lot of solutions do that, but this just has it all in one box, which is what makes it really good.
The solution’s sensors and remote probes are great, spot on. They keep improving them. It's only a problem from time to time when old sensors get deprecated and you have to replace them with a new one, but other than that it's a very good selection.
The overall feature set is good. It's diverse, it's all there.
What needs improvement?
I don't think the Desktop app is that great. I don't like it. I would like to see cross-compatibility on different platforms. Also, the window management isn't that great, and the refresh rates aren't that great.
Their roadmap is good and the features that they're releasing are good, but our main ask is around the scalability issue that I've mentioned elsewhere in this review.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
If you have enough resources the stability is fine, fairly rock-solid. We're at double the recommended capacity in terms of sensors for our instance, and it's running fine.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is the only major sticking point for me. There is a recommended number of sensors, which is around 10,000, and we're double that. We're not comfortable putting any more than that, even though the server might be able to handle it. It's already well outside the support boundaries for the solution.
The only option we have to scale is to buy another core, which would be a separate, stand-alone instance, would not be managed through the same interface, and we would have to be looking in two different places. We love the product, but at the moment that is the main sticking point for us.
How are customer service and technical support?
There have been no real problems with tech support. We don't really need to go to them, the product takes care of itself. When we have needed them, they have been very responsive and gotten back to us quickly.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did have system downtown before implementing the solution, but it didn't really influence our decision to get PRTG. We needed a monitoring system anyway, by virtue of the nature of our business.
We would have been using an open-source solution before PRTG but we needed a more feature-rich product to work with, given the number of solutions we were operating.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very easy. There's nothing much to do, honestly. You just install the software on the core server and then you can install remote probes in any private sub-nets that you need and they will speak back to the core. It's very straightforward.
Within about a half an hour of installing it, we had information back.
What about the implementation team?
We did it ourselves.
What was our ROI?
Subjectively, it probably has saved our organization money, but it would be difficult to quantify it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We pay for a perpetual license and we have a support fee.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We've had PRTG in place for a number of years, so what we evaluated was in the early days, a lot of open-source solutions: Zabbix, Nagios, Cacti, etc. PRTG is differentiated because it caters to all platforms and endpoints, has features for Windows, and WMI sensors which aren't necessarily available out-of-the-box in the other solutions. That would have been a determining factor.
What other advice do I have?
It will do the job, more than anything I can think of. It will give you really useful monitoring statistics out-of-the-box, and will give you the ability to customize and do things that aren't there by default. It will take care of all your monitoring needs, pretty much, but just be conscious of scale.
I would say PRTG is an eight out of ten. We're very happy with the functionality. Those missing two points come from the scalability issues.
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.
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Updated: November 2024
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