Nagios Core vs PRTG Enterprise Monitor comparison

Nagios and Paessler GmbH are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Nagios is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.2, while Paessler GmbH is ranked #38 with an average rating of 7.3. Nagios holds a 2.9% mindshare in NMS, compared to Paessler GmbH’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Nagios users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Paessler GmbH users who would recommend it.

Nagios Core

Read 51 Nagios Core reviews

4,123 Views
1,863 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

PRTG Enterprise Monitor

Read 9 PRTG Enterprise Monitor reviews

465 Views
276 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Nagios Core

PRTG Enterprise Monitor

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Nagios Core and PRTG Enterprise Monitor are competing network monitoring solutions. PRTG Enterprise Monitor seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive suite of features, despite higher costs and complexity.

Features: Nagios Core offers flexible plugin architecture, enabling broad customization and integration with third-party tools. It provides a modular approach that allows organizations to tailor their monitoring needs but may require more technical input. PRTG Enterprise Monitor provides an all-in-one platform, including bandwidth monitoring, traffic analysis, and a variety of pre-configured sensors. It is designed to handle larger IT environments with an integrated feature set, offering robust monitoring capabilities out of the box.

Room for Improvement: Nagios Core could improve in ease of deployment and direct customer service, as it relies heavily on community support. Its interface might be enhanced for a more modern user experience. PRTG Enterprise Monitor could benefit from offering more flexible pricing models to accommodate smaller organizations. Reducing complexity in its feature set might appeal to users with less technical expertise. Improving the depth of customization options could help cater to specific advanced monitoring scenarios.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: PRTG Enterprise Monitor facilitates a user-friendly setup with guided configurations and strong customer service support, making it suitable for fast deployment scenarios. Conversely, Nagios Core requires a higher level of technical expertise for installation and configuration, as it lacks formal direct customer support services. However, its open-source nature offers extensive community-driven assistance, which may be attractive to technical teams.

Pricing and ROI: Nagios Core’s open-source model reduces setup costs, potentially offering higher ROI for organizations able to leverage its community-driven ecosystem. PRTG Enterprise Monitor, with its all-inclusive pricing strategy, simplifies budgeting and delivers value through its comprehensive feature set and service. Despite higher initial costs, it offers a substantial ROI for enterprises needing robust, all-encompassing monitoring solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Nagios Core vs. PRTG Enterprise Monitor Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core vs. PRTG Enterprise Monitor

June 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 859,129 peers since 2012

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

Nagios Core

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

13th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (10th)

PRTG Enterprise Monitor

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

38th

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nagios Core is 2.9%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PRTG Enterprise Monitor is 0.5%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Nishith-Vyas

Tech Lead at STL Digital Limited

Valuable reporting and alert system with room for PDF export improvements

The NetEase reporting structure needs improvement, especially the availability report, which is weak. It should be generated automatically with minimal human intervention and should be exportable as a PDF. Besides that, an integrated PDF export feature for reports is necessary. Also, the alert mechanism and graphing mechanism need to be integrated properly into Nagios Core. Currently, integrating these requires advanced Linux knowledge. Integration of more visualization tools like Grafana and Prometheus for better graphing and visualization is also recommended.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Nagios Core is the ability to check the availability of the server for network connectivity. Additionally, the interface is good."

"I like the way the solution sends alerts and how it keeps on escalating them."

"What I like about Nagios Core is that it helps me ensure everything is running smoothly by checking the status of hosts and services."

"Dashboard provides monitor of total assets."

"The good thing about Nagios Core is it covers everything."

"Nagios Core is stable."

"The notifications are definitely one of the most valuable features of Nagios Core. We know what to look for and what to expect when things are down."

"It has made the life of the network operations staff more proactive in managing the resources of the infrastructure. It prevents disasters long before they can take place."

More Nagios Core pros

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

"The product is easy to understand."

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

"PRTG is good and very easy to use."

"The product's most valuable feature is network analysis."

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

"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 issue. The feature I find most effective is its comprehensive nature. It's like having a permanent eye monitoring the network and all its nodes. Instead of manual monitoring, it detects anomalies automatically and alerts us accordingly."

More PRTG Enterprise Monitor pros

Cons

"Bandwidth monitoring is the pain point for me because Nagios Core does not monitor bandwidth effectively like Cacti does."

"Nagios Core can improve the graphical interface, it would make things a little easier."

"There is room for improvement in the graphics."

"The alerting mechanism in Nagios Core could be improved."

"We're using the free version, which limits us in terms of the things that we can do. If we had the paid version, a lot of our issues would probably go away. For example, we can't isolate instances that are being built or updated with the production ones. When they're being built, on Nagios, they're showing in red. It'd be nice to be able to partition those off until they're all green, and then we can bring them into the environment. This is probably because we've got the free version and not the paid version. If we went for the paid version, it would probably allow us to do exactly what we want to or remove the restrictions that we have, but if we are able to isolate instances in the free version, it would make life much easier."

"The dashboard should be improved."

"Nagios Core could improve by adding a user interface. If you want the user interface you have to use Nagios XI."

"Making it a little easier to configure and set up from the start would help. There are multiple layers that you have to wade through to be able to set it up, to do it the right way, and to get it to do what you want it to do."

More Nagios Core cons

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

"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."

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

"The support must be improved."

"The licensing policy needs to change."

"In my opinion, one area that could be improved in PRTG Enterprise Monitor is the capability to send SMS notifications. Notifications are crucial for alerting us to areas that require attention."

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

More PRTG Enterprise Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The Nagios Core (PNP4Nagios + Core) is free and can be setup by Netadmin within a few hours. The only additional cost is the cloud server."

"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."

"The enterprise version has technical support. The version we are using is free."

"We are using the free version."

"We are using the open-source, unpaid version."

"We are using the free version of Nagios Core."

"Nagios Core is free to use."

"The solution is expensive."

More Nagios Core pricing and cost advice

"PRTG Enterprise Monitor's pricing is reasonable."

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

"The solution is affordable."

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

"PRTG Enterprise Monitor is an expensive product."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

859,129 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

University

11%

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Nagios Core?

What I like about Nagios Core is that it helps me ensure everything is running smoothly by checking the status of hosts and services.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nagios Core?

Nagios Core is a free and open-source product. We don't charge for the product itself, but we charge for the man-hour costs related to installation, configuration, ongoing operation, and maintenance.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Nagios Core?

The dashboard should be improved. It's very simple. I don't have a very clear or specific suggestion. You can change the skin of the dashboard, however, it's good for me.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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

I have no idea about the pricing as I am not the sales person. The sales team coordinates these matters.

See all answers

What needs improvement with PRTG Enterprise Monitor?

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.

See all answers

Comparisons

Icinga vs Nagios Core

Compared 25% of the time

Nagios XI vs Nagios Core

Compared 16% of the time

Zabbix vs Nagios Core

Compared 13% of the time

Centreon vs Nagios Core

Compared 8% of the time

Checkmk vs Nagios Core

Compared 4% of the time

More Nagios Core Competitors

PRTG Network Monitor vs PRTG Enterprise Monitor

Compared 90% of the time

HPE Aruba Networking UXI vs PRTG Enterprise Monitor

Compared 10% of the time

More PRTG Enterprise Monitor Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core

June 2025

Download Nagios Core product report

Buyer's Guide

Network Monitoring Software

May 2025

Download PRTG Enterprise Monitor product report

Overview

This is IT infrastructure monitoring's industry-standard, open-source core. Free without professional support services.

Nagios

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

Sample Customers

Airbnb, Cisco, PayPal, FanDuel

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core vs. PRTG Enterprise Monitor

June 2025

Free Report: Nagios Core vs. PRTG Enterprise Monitor

Find out what your peers are saying about Nagios Core vs. PRTG Enterprise Monitor and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

859,129 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Nagios Core vs. PRTG Enterprise Monitor report.

See our list of best Network Monitoring Software vendors.

We monitor all Network Monitoring Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.