PRTG Network Monitor and Amazon CloudWatch are both contenders in the network and system monitoring category. PRTG appears to have an advantage due to its robust features, extensive sensor coverage, and ease of integration in on-premises environments.
Features: PRTG Network Monitor offers rapid deployment, scalability, and accurate monitoring across various environments without the need for customization. Its ease of use is complemented by extensive sensor options and effective alert management. Customer reviews praise its network monitoring and customization capabilities that ensure peak performance. Amazon CloudWatch excels with its deep integration within AWS environments, providing detailed metrics and user-friendly dashboards. It automates tasks like instance launching during high CPU usage but often requires third-party tools for comprehensive application performance monitoring.
Room for Improvement: PRTG Network Monitor has scope for improvement in template management, dashboard interfaces, and application monitoring. Enhancing customization options, sensor expansion, and remote probe stability are additional areas for growth. Users also request more direct and timely technical support. Amazon CloudWatch could improve in application monitoring, real-time data visualization, and offering insights beyond AWS. Users desire better hybrid cloud integration, an enhanced UI, and improved third-party compatibility for better utility across diverse cloud environments.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: PRTG Network Monitor provides an intuitive deployment process for on-premises solutions and is known for quick setup with configurable sensors. Its customer service is generally responsive, though it relies heavily on email and online resources. Amazon CloudWatch integrates seamlessly within AWS but has a learning curve for users not familiar with cloud-based deployments. It benefits from AWS's extensive documentation, though customer interactions vary by region.
Pricing and ROI: PRTG Network Monitor offers a comprehensive package with no hidden costs, making it a cost-effective choice for large-scale deployments. Its pricing is considered high by smaller businesses but flexibility in licensing is appreciated by enterprises. ROI is noted through saved time and reduced downtime. Amazon CloudWatch uses pay-as-you-go pricing, aligning with its cloud-native focus, but costs can rise as usage scales. Its integrated AWS billing structure is ideal for those embedded in AWS ecosystems, benefiting from efficient and detailed monitoring services.
Amazon CloudWatch offers cost-saving advantages by being an inbuilt solution that requires no separate setup or maintenance for monitoring tasks.
It provides accurate data for utilization, allowing us to monitor and optimize our investments in WAN connection capacity.
After introducing PRTG Network Monitor, we have saved time, and it's easy for everybody to monitor everything.
I have seen a return on investment with PRTG Network Monitor as it has saved a lot of time, and its monitoring has reduced manpower requirements, which has been helpful.
In recent years, due to business expansion, knowledge levels among support engineers seem to vary.
While using their cloud and cloud resources, if you have an issue with CloudWatch, you must pay additional monthly fees to get time from dedicated tech support.
They resolve our queries 24/7.
The setup process is well-documented, making it easy to deploy.
Tutorials are available so I can manage any issue with PRTG Network Monitor easily.
Amazon CloudWatch's scalability is managed by AWS.
On a scale of one to ten, scalability is rated as 9.5.
PRTG Network Monitor has the ability to scale and add new devices.
You can install them in each network, even if they are not connected, and it works.
I sometimes notice slowness when Amazon CloudWatch agents are installed on machines with less capacity, causing me to use other monitoring tools.
We haven't needed vendor support for the last three years, which demonstrates the product's stability.
PRTG Network Monitor is stable in my experience, and I have not encountered issues with crashes or downtime.
When using third-party dashboards such as Kibana or Grafana and other visualization tools, there should be a way to feed CloudWatch's data and logging capabilities into these visualization tools.
Maybe Amazon Web Services can improve by providing a library for CloudWatch with some useful features.
Amazon CloudWatch charges extra for custom metrics, which is a significant disadvantage.
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.
PRTG Network Monitor can sometimes be too detailed and cluttered at the beginning, making it heavy to use.
Overall, the pricing of Amazon CloudWatch is very expensive.
Amazon CloudWatch charges more for custom metrics as well as for changes in the timeline.
The licensing part is a recurring license for every year, which is very affordable, making PRTG Network Monitor budget-friendly.
Pricing is by the number of devices, not by sensor.
The prices are very high for PRTG Network Monitor.
Amazon CloudWatch allows me to set up and view even historical logs, which is one of the features I find valuable.
I like its filtering capability and its ability to give the cyber engine insights.
The best features of Amazon CloudWatch need to improve visibility into the network because when using hundreds of network resources such as transit gateway, VPNs, routers, route tables, and firewalls, it does not give many details in a structured manner.
PRTG Network Monitor already provided me with 100 free sensors, which is enough for my network monitoring.
PRTG Network Monitor has a good dashboard that shows each and every piece of information, so we can easily find out what is happening with the systems.
These reports help me in my day-to-day work, and I rely on them because they provide proof during escalation, with exact downtime logs and related information.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| PRTG Network Monitor | 5.0% |
| Amazon CloudWatch | 2.3% |
| Other | 92.7% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 17 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 9 |
| Large Enterprise | 24 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 57 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 18 |
| Large Enterprise | 41 |
Amazon CloudWatch integrates seamlessly with AWS, providing real-time monitoring and alerting features. Its interface supports task automation, enhancing troubleshooting and analytics capabilities, while offering strong security and scalability at a cost-effective rate.
Amazon CloudWatch is an impactful platform for monitoring AWS resources and managing application performance. It simplifies infrastructure performance monitoring by providing comprehensive analytics capabilities, including application insights and event scheduling. Users appreciate CloudWatch for its detailed metrics, dashboards, and support in issuing alerts to detect anomalies. It efficiently tracks performance, optimizes resource utilization, and ensures service availability. CloudWatch is recognized for its robust alerting features and integration with other AWS services, further supporting its resource monitoring capabilities. However, there is room for improvement in dashboard customization, log streaming speed, and integration with non-AWS services. Enhancements in API integration, machine learning features, and support for third-party tools are also desired.
What features does Amazon CloudWatch offer?Industries implementing Amazon CloudWatch often focus on optimizing IT infrastructure. Companies in sectors like finance and e-commerce rely on its monitoring and alerting capabilities to ensure service uptime and performance. The platform's automation and analytics features empower teams to proactively manage performance and detect potential issues promptly.
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.
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