Azure Network Watcher vs PRTG Enterprise Monitor comparison

Microsoft and Paessler GmbH are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Microsoft is ranked #41 with an average rating of 8.7, while Paessler GmbH is ranked #32 with an average rating of 7.4. Microsoft holds a 0.5% mindshare in NMS, compared to Paessler GmbH’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Paessler GmbH users who would recommend it.

Azure Network Watcher

Read 13 Azure Network Watcher reviews

846 Views
804 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

PRTG Enterprise Monitor

Read 11 PRTG Enterprise Monitor reviews

925 Views
925 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Azure Network Watcher

PRTG Enterprise Monitor

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Azure Network Watcher and PRTG Enterprise Monitor compete in network management. PRTG Enterprise Monitor has the upper hand due to its extensive monitoring features and adaptability across IT environments.

Features:Azure Network Watcher integrates seamlessly with Azure, offers advanced diagnostics, and focuses on security, making it ideal for businesses invested in Azure. PRTG Enterprise Monitor delivers comprehensive network monitoring, customized alerts, and a flexible sensor-based architecture, suitable for diverse IT infrastructures.

Room for Improvement:Azure Network Watcher could expand support for non-Azure environments, enhance its feature set beyond Azure integration, and provide more comprehensive reporting tools. PRTG Enterprise Monitor may improve by simplifying its interface, reducing setup complexity for newcomers, and offering more affordable pricing tiers for smaller businesses.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:Azure Network Watcher provides easy setup within Azure and benefits from robust Azure support. PRTG Enterprise Monitor ensures straightforward deployment with responsive customer service, making it adaptable across various IT landscapes.

Pricing and ROI:Azure Network Watcher offers competitive pricing within Azure services, representing good ROI for existing Azure users. PRTG Enterprise Monitor might be more expensive but ensures high ROI through its extensive functionalities and efficiency for large-scale monitoring needs.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Network Watcher vs. PRTG Enterprise Monitor Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher vs. PRTG Enterprise Monitor

December 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Azure Network Watcher

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

41st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

PRTG Enterprise Monitor

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

32nd

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Azure Network Watcher is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PRTG Enterprise Monitor is 0.6%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
PRTG Enterprise Monitor	0.6%
Azure Network Watcher	0.5%
Other	98.9%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Bijoyendra Roychowdhury

Program Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

Network monitoring provides comprehensive analytics while the interface requires further development

The quality of Azure Network Watcher is quite good in terms of the in-depth analysis you can create from these matrices. There are other monitoring tools such as New Relic, AppDynamics, and Dynatrace which provide very detailed network tracing. Cloud providers such as Azure or AWS do not have that kind of GUI-based capability at this point, but using PowerShell or Python, you can develop it yourself. From the GUI perspective, it still needs to evolve in terms of quality and standard, though overall, it is quite good for troubleshooting. Regarding areas for improvement, when comparing to other network tools beyond Azure Monitor or Azure Network Watcher, those tools can identify single failed packets. This level of granularity is not currently possible with cloud providers as they only go to a certain level rather than the granular level needed for deep troubleshooting, though they do provide hints with available matrices.

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Moshiur-Rahman Khan

CEO at IOPoint.com

Offers perfect real-time bandwidth monitoring and SNMP functionality

The licensing policy needs to change. The current model requires customers to purchase a minimum of two thousand licenses, which is not flexible for all customers. They should consider a more flexible licensing approach. Furthermore, alignment with customer expectations rather than offering numerous features that are not requested would be beneficial.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The stability is very good. I rate it a ten out of ten."

"We use the solution to monitor network services. It helps to capture any network issues."

"The solution is stable."

"The most valuable feature of Azure Network Watcher is using the gateways with the connections. The monitoring is useful for the logs and application insights into the data. The traffic filtering issues when it comes to deploying those applications are helpful."

"The most valuable feature of Azure Network Watcher is the cloud-native application firewall. It is helpful for securing databases."

"What I like most about Azure Network Watcher is that it's focused more on the architecture. I also like that it has a packet capture feature that tells you how the packet travels and whether it's exiting Azure, etc."

"Azure Network Watcher provides valuable features based on your specific requirements and use cases, helping you monitor network bandwidth, throughput, data flow consumption, and control costs by giving insight into egress and ingress traffic, total input and output operations, bandwidth, and threats through IP identification."

"The most valuable features I have found are typology, visualization, and capture."

More Azure Network Watcher pros

"It can identify downtimes and disruptions."

"It provides a vast array of options for dashboard creation and monitoring of the activities within the environment."

"I would recommend PRTG Enterprise Monitor to others as it works well with Android devices, and you can try the free version before purchasing."

"PRTG is good and very easy to use."

"What I really appreciate about PRTG Enterprise Monitor is that it is very easy to set up, especially the configuration, which is not complicated, and it is very straightforward to go in and change things."

"The product is easy to use and you don't need to have any training. You can use it even if you don't have an IT background."

"The product is easy to understand."

"The solution's ability to monitor each and every aspect of our devices, such as memory utilization and port connectivity, is valuable."

More PRTG Enterprise Monitor pros

Cons

"I would like to see in the future if we can troubleshoot as a firewall because it is equipment as a network player and some diagnostics."

"Azure Network Watcher needs to have better documentation and it needs to capture information accurately."

"I still use Wireshark and Azure Network Watcher to get the required data. My team captures the traffic from Azure Network Watcher, downloads it, then imports that traffic into Wireshark to get more details on the number of hits and replies, for example. If you can do that on Azure Network Watcher and have Wireshark built-in, that would make Azure Network Watcher better. If Azure Network Watcher has that functionality where you won't need a third-party tool to get what you need, that would be helpful. I'm also expecting more from Azure Network Watcher. It's more complex than knowing how the IP flows from its source to the destination. The tool also needs more open-source features, such as having some built-in Wireshark that improves monitoring for customers. Sometimes, you encounter a VPN tunnel, network, or routing issue, but finding out more about the blockage is challenging. Is it one hundred percent an Azure issue? Is it a peer issue? You don't get complete information from Azure Network Watcher, so you must use other tools and depend on your strategies to resolve a specific issue. If more features could be added in the next release of Azure Network Watcher, specifically ones you can find on open-source tools, then that would be a plus point for the tool."

"Technical support from Microsoft needs significant improvement compared to other product vendors."

"The initial setup and deployment could be improved to be simplified."

"User experience could be improved."

"Lacks sufficient security features."

"Azure is good, however, the Fortinet GUI is more intuitive and I like it more than anything else."

More Azure Network Watcher cons

"The solution could be improved by introducing security features similar to those available in Teams, as the current version only monitors devices and does not integrate IoT or OT devices."

"They should work on minimizing false positives by sending alerts promptly and confirming errors with minimal troubleshooting requirements."

"The solution could be improved by including a processing monitor, possibly with a language interface like Lua, allowing for writing custom sensors and processing outcomes of inputs."

"The licensing policy needs to change."

"The licensing policy needs to change. The current model requires customers to purchase a minimum of two thousand licenses, which is not flexible for all customers."

"There is no unified monitoring in PRTG. It needs a lot of improvement in terms of integration."

"There could be more security features included in PRTG Enterprise Monitor."

"When it comes to dashboard customization in PRTG Enterprise Monitor, there are not too many options, and I think that would not be a strong point for PRTG, but for our use cases, we do not really need that kind of customization."

More PRTG Enterprise Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is good. It's not too expensive."

"The price of the solution is reasonable."

"Azure Network Watcher is a little bit expensive."

"Price-wise, I have no information on how much Azure Network Watcher costs."

"The solution is affordable."

"I rate the product's pricing an eight to seven out of ten."

"PRTG Enterprise Monitor is an expensive product."

"The pricing is $2,149 for software without maintenance, and licenses are sold in the minimum bundle of 500 interfaces."

"PRTG Enterprise Monitor's pricing is reasonable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Government

11%

University

Comms Service Provider

Educational Organization

11%

University

10%

Healthcare Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Network Watcher?

Azure Network Watcher is affordable from the perspective of basic costing. It doesn't cost too much at this point unless you are requesting customizable detailed matrices. For the default configura...

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What needs improvement with Azure Network Watcher?

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What is your primary use case for Azure Network Watcher?

The purpose of using Azure Network Watcher is to observe the network flow logs during any kind of troubleshooting. If there is any performance issue or latency issue over the network, we check the ...

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What do you like most about PRTG Enterprise Monitor?

If an event is detected, such as a resource running low on storage or RAM, the product will notify you via email. Upon receiving the notification, action must be taken to address and resolve the is...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PRTG Enterprise Monitor?

I would rate the pricing of PRTG Enterprise Monitor maybe a six. I think a six is fine, as it is reasonable and not expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with PRTG Enterprise Monitor?

When it comes to dashboard customization in PRTG Enterprise Monitor, there are not too many options, and I think that would not be a strong point for PRTG, but for our use cases, we do not really n...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher

January 2026

Download Azure Network Watcher product report

Buyer's Guide

PRTG Enterprise Monitor

January 2026

Download PRTG Enterprise Monitor product report

Overview

Azure Network Watcher is a comprehensive network monitoring and diagnostic service offered by Microsoft Azure. It provides a range of tools and capabilities to help users monitor, diagnose, and gain insights into their Azure network infrastructure. With Network Watcher, users can capture and analyze network traffic, monitor network performance, troubleshoot connectivity issues, and gain visibility into network topology. It also offers features like packet capture, flow logs, connection monitoring, and VPN diagnostics to ensure the smooth operation of Azure networks. Network Watcher enables users to proactively identify and resolve network issues, optimize network performance, and enhance the overall reliability and security of their Azure network environment.

Microsoft

PRTG Enterprise Monitor serves enterprises by ensuring comprehensive monitoring of servers, services, and applications, empowering users to track sensor data effectively and detect performance or security issues across their networks.

PRTG Enterprise Monitor is widely recognized for its capability to efficiently monitor technical sensors such as ping, uptime, CPU load, and memory usage. It supports users in tracking network resource performance, detecting malicious activity, and preventing failures. Its custom frameworks enable monitoring of certificate expirations and process availability. The intuitive interface requires no specialized IT background, featuring agentless operations that enhance responsiveness and SNMP monitoring valued across platforms. The tool is appreciated for its anomaly detection and notification features, allowing users to address issues proactively. Installation is straightforward and support is robust, although users seek enhancements in real-time SMS alerts, SAP system integration, fault management, and more flexible manual configurations.

What are the key features of PRTG Enterprise Monitor?

Network Analysis: Offers in-depth insights into network performance.
Custom Dashboards: Provides a library for tailored dashboard creation.
Alerting System: Effective user notifications prevent escalation of issues.
Agentless Monitoring: Enhances response times without installing agents.
SNMP Monitoring: Useful for monitoring multiple platforms.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Easy Installation: Simplifies the setup process for companies.
Proactive Anomaly Detection: Identifies and resolves issues swiftly.
Comprehensive Coverage: Ensures efficient fault detection and management.
User Support: Strong support capabilities aid troubleshooting.

Enterprises in industries such as IT services, finance, and healthcare rely on PRTG Enterprise Monitor for monitoring critical infrastructure. This includes ensuring internet connectivity, monitoring mail services, and tracking network performance and security, thereby maintaining operational efficiency and service availability.

Paessler GmbH

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher vs. PRTG Enterprise Monitor

December 2025

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