No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs PRTG Network Monitor comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

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

NETSCOUT vSTREAM
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
87th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
PRTG Network Monitor
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
113
Ranking in other categories
IT Infrastructure Monitoring (4th), Cloud Monitoring Software (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of NETSCOUT vSTREAM is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PRTG Network Monitor is 2.6%, down from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
PRTG Network Monitor2.6%
NETSCOUT vSTREAM0.4%
Other97.0%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

KL
Network Engineer at Inniti Network Solution
A user-friendly solution that is easy to install and improves visibility
I would like to see improvements made to the user guide. From my personal experience, it is helpful to see a list of steps describing what to do next in different situations. An example is what to do and what to back up in the case of certain types of failure. There are also cases where a customer can't understand specific features. Enhancements to the user guide would be helpful for this. More features for network fragmentation would be helpful.
madhan kumar hs - PeerSpot reviewer
software engineer at Capgemini
Alerting precision has reduced incident response times and improved department-level network visibility
The auto-pause sensor during the maintenance window is good without any false alerts, and it prevents me from getting flooded with alerts during planned maintenance, helping department heads understand their own network usage better. It has reduced incident response time by giving clearer ownership of each alert, ensuring alerts go to the proper recipient. SNMP testers and auto-pause are among the best features of PRTG Network Monitor, which is particularly useful for different departments such as HR and finance, where alerts can be filtered accordingly. The alerting features and dashboard of PRTG Network Monitor are very helpful, especially in our industry. However, the dashboard can look cluttered on smaller screens, which is one negative aspect. PRTG Network Monitor has impacted us positively; we have stopped getting flooded with alerts during planned maintenance or unplanned outages. Compared to others, this gives specific alerts very quickly and helps department heads understand their own network usage better, thus reducing incident response time so that each alert has clear ownership.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Sometimes it took a month to troubleshoot something that we can now do within days."
"vSTREAM gives us better visibility and reporting about our network infrastructure, allowing for cost-optimization."
"The generation of KPI-like information that feeds to the nGeniusONE (management) server is the most valuable feature."
"One of the valuable features is the packet decoding."
"The initial setup was easy. We didn't have any issues with the process and everything rolled out smoothly."
"My company runs a large scale SAAS infrastructure with a large mix of technologies, and PRTG is the first software product we have used to accurately alert the right people of trouble."
"The authentication links into our standard Active Directory authentication, which is very good."
"My advice to those wanting to purchase a monitoring solution with simple and easy-to-use features, go with this solution."
"You will not find anything cheaper that really does the job."
"If you're looking from a holistic infrastructure deployment and monitoring perspective, it's a good tool to use and to start with."
"We're more proactive. Usually, we already know when something has gone down by the time we get the phone calls."
"It will take care of all your monitoring needs, pretty much, but just be conscious of scale."
 

Cons

"Room for improvement exists in filtering in the packet decode."
"The stability is okay, but sometimes we see that the memory on the server is not 100 percent correct and we need to stop and start the software to have it reallocated again."
"I would like for it to have a smaller footprint of the virtual appliance and better performance."
"I would say that this is not a scalable solution."
"I would like to see improvements made to the user guide."
"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."
"The licensing policy needs more flexibility."
"They could improve the process of updating the license."
"The solution could be better and faster when it comes to performance."
"I've encountered a challenge in my functions, particularly in adding and printing."
"When it comes to third-party integration, one of the things we were looking at was putting some sensors onto our firewall, for instance. If there were a little bit more documentation and some step-by-step guides around that, that would be useful for us."
"It would be nice if it gave us alerts via Gmail or SMS message."
"The most significant disadvantage of PRTG Network Monitor is that the dashboard for NetFlow is not user-friendly at all."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing is quite expensive."
"The price of PRTG Network Monitor is more expensive than other solutions, such as OP Network Manager."
"The licensing fees are billed annually and there are no costs in addition to this."
"PRTG Network Monitor is very expensive."
"We are licensed for 2500 endpoints."
"It's a cost-efficient tool."
"Licenses are very expensive, so I would like to see cheaper licensing."
"I'm paying something like €1000 per year for the maintenance. I've got unlimited sensors."
"We are using the basic PRTG that we can download for free. For now, we only need to monitor less than 100 devices. For more than 100 devices, we would need to buy a license. PRTG is much cheaper than SolarWinds."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
May 31, 2015
Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor
I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
19%
Energy/Utilities Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Retailer
6%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business60
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise50
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
PRTG network monitor is one of the best tool i have ever used for the monitoring. It have auto discovery option. it avoid the configuring the device in PRTG. It automatically discover the device an...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PRTG Network Monitor?
The pricing was higher at the beginning, but the recurring licensing cost is affordable and reasonable. Overall, the pricing, setup cost, and licensing is fair for our industry. They have quoted us...
What needs improvement with PRTG Network Monitor?
The reporting features look very technical and that can be improved. If they can change the report so everyone can understand it, that would be helpful.
 

Also Known As

vSTREAM
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Metropolitan Police Agency, Banpara, PropertyRoom.com
Jameson Bank, Sidnix, RungeICT, MedicalAnimal, Truck-lite, GamingGrids, The Covell Group, Forsythn County Schools, NetMass, Musgrove Park Hospital, Lanes Health, Columbia Southern University, Vodafone, Intrust Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about NETSCOUT vSTREAM vs. PRTG Network Monitor and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.