Observer GigaStor vs PRTG Network Monitor comparison

Viavi Solutions and Paessler GmbH are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Viavi Solutions is ranked #95, while Paessler GmbH is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.7. Viavi Solutions holds a 0.2% mindshare in NMS, compared to Paessler GmbH’s 4.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Viavi Solutions users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Paessler GmbH users who would recommend it.

Observer GigaStor

Read 7 Observer GigaStor reviews

241 Views
108 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

PRTG Network Monitor

Read 102 PRTG Network Monitor reviews

6,545 Views
2,960 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Observer GigaStor

PRTG Network Monitor

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

PRTG Network Monitor and Observer GigaStor are competing in the network monitoring category. PRTG Network Monitor has the upper hand in pricing and customer service, while Observer GigaStor leads with advanced features.

Features: PRTG Network Monitor excels in rapid deployment, scalability, and a user-friendly interface. It offers robust diagnostic features like network monitoring, real-time alerts, and customizable dashboards. Observer GigaStor shines with deep packet analysis, extensive data retention, and advanced forensic capabilities for network issues, providing detailed insights into application performance and network health.

Room for Improvement: PRTG Network Monitor can improve by enhancing support for packet-level analysis, offering more in-depth data retention options, and expanding its forensic capabilities. Observer GigaStor could benefit from simplifying its deployment process, improving integration options with third-party tools, and reducing its initial setup complexity to make it more user-friendly.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: PRTG Network Monitor is known for its straightforward deployment and quick setup, whether on-premise or cloud-based, supported by responsive customer care. Observer GigaStor’s setup is more complex, often demanding specialized knowledge, but it offers comprehensive support throughout the deployment process.

Pricing and ROI: PRTG Network Monitor is cost-effective, with scalable pricing offering solid ROI, making it accessible to businesses with different budgets. Observer GigaStor requires a higher initial investment, which is offset by its advanced features that promise enhanced long-term ROI. PRTG is more affordable, whereas Observer GigaStor provides extensive functionalities for its price.

To learn more, read our detailed Observer GigaStor vs. PRTG Network Monitor Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor vs. PRTG Network Monitor

June 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

Observer GigaStor

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

95th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Troubleshooting (14th), Network Packet Broker (NPB) (9th)

PRTG Network Monitor

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

102

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (6th), Cloud Monitoring Software (11th)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Observer GigaStor is 0.2%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PRTG Network Monitor is 4.3%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Jeroen-Dubbelman

Director at Bitrate

Aids significantly in the threat-hunting process and provides a score-based evaluation of user experience

There are many valuable features, but understanding end-user response times stands out. It provides a score-based evaluation of user experience, helping customers quickly pinpoint whether issues originate from the network, server, client, or application. Additionally, it facilitates in-depth analysis of application dependencies. The retrospective network analysis capability of Observer GigaStor has been beneficial. It's a pivotal feature for network performance solutions. However, I prefer to consider the entire solution suite - GigaStor, along with GigaFlow and Apex - for comprehensive network visibility and monitoring. So, I prefer to integrate all three solutions to provide the best visibility. They complement each other well, with Apex aggregating and correlating data from both GigaStor and GigaFlow to enhance environmental understanding and troubleshooting efficiency.

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Noman-Saleem

Network Support Officer at Habib Metropolitan Bank Ltd

Detects suden changes but significant pricing concerns affect the effectiveness of network traffic troubleshooting

We use PRTG Network Monitor for monitoring traffic on interfaces and the behavior of network traffic. If there are sudden changes in traffic or any configuration issues, we can sort them out using PRTG. It's very helpful for troubleshooting and monitoring traffic utilization on our interfaces…

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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

"It's able to capture packets and, after a long time, you can come and use that information; to check, to analyze - everything you would want to do. So it's very good and helpful if you want to protect your data. It is stored in a certain place where you can access it every time you want to analyze it."

"This solution allows us to see exactly what is going on in the network and we can very quickly solve issues with users."

"It can help to write your rules, organize firewalls, your block, and also your protocols and IP address to come in or out of your network."

"I also have the ability to see an application's performance, to see what's going on, why a network is slow, why this program for this user is experiencing a delay or some network issue"

"There are many valuable features, but understanding end-user response times stands out. It provides a score-based evaluation of user experience, helping customers quickly pinpoint whether issues originate from the network, server, client, or application. Additionally, it facilitates in-depth analysis of application dependencies."

"The ability to capture packets. It is not only for monitoring. That is very important for a company that wants to keep an eye on the packets, the transactions, the flows..."

"The fact that I can use custom MIB files to customize my sensors for the things that are not there as a default is a good feature."

"It improves the status of my infrastructure, from networking devices to real-time machines."

"The tool is integrated with our email for the alerts."

"PRTG Network Monitor is user-friendly and offers flexible alerting systems."

"Technical support has been very helpful so far."

"It is pretty simple to use, which is always a good thing. It's been very reliable in updating us if any issues crop up."

"The most valuable features of PRTG Network Monitor are the threshold notification when certain traffic increases and goes beyond the defined threshold. The up and down status email notifications and other notifications are useful. Additionally, it is user-friendly, and customizable, and there are many features available."

"PRTG Network Monitor is a very stable product."

More PRTG Network Monitor pros

Cons

"Maybe the graphical user interface could be simplified to allow people to use it more easily. It's already good, but they can work more on it to make it even easier."

"I would like to have more than 4TB of storage available in the portable version of this solution."

"Graphics need improvement. Because a lot of the information there you have to input first in some case to have full potential. It could be more automated."

"GigaStor feeds into Apex. So, the area where there could be improvement would be in artificial intelligence. For example, the incorporation of more advanced machine learning or AI capabilities could enhance its functionality."

"Users need to buy the more expensive licenses if they expect to be able to scale."

"The operations dashboard is only available in PRTG's enterprise version, but I wish it could be accessed in the standard licensing. It would also be nice if PRTG had templates for dashboard monitoring, software monitoring, etc. It can help me set up a dashboard because now we don't have a template from PRTG, so we need to create one from scratch."

"If PRTG could help me see the bandwidth for each host I have on my network, either for a wireless or a wired network, that would be very helpful."

"It would be nice if it gave us alerts via Gmail or SMS message."

"The user interface could be more modern as it is quite dated. PRTG Network Monitor can sometimes be too detailed and cluttered at the beginning, making it heavy to use."

"Needs ability to monitor standard notification time (notify after X time)."

"It would be good if there were better graphical interfaces when you have it on multiple monitors... Because we have so many servers, things can get lost in the fog a little bit. Maybe having a better way of showing different geographies, Flash, etc., would help."

"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."

More PRTG Network Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's quite expensive."

"It depends on the requirements you have. There are three types of license. There's the updates license, the work group license, and the workstation license."

"There is a license to use PRTG Network Monitor and it is annually."

"The price of PRTG Network Monitor is reasonable."

"I rate the licensing for PRTG Network Monitor an eight out of ten."

"PRTG Network Monitor is very expensive."

"Sensors on free version can run out quick."

"We pay for a perpetual license and we have a support fee."

"We bought a license for 4000 sensors."

"It's an annual license that is based on the number of endpoints that we're tracking and using."

More PRTG Network Monitor pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user174738

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…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

22%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Insurance Company

Educational Organization

40%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Observer GigaStor?

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Observer GigaStor?

I would rate the pricing a ten out of ten. It's quite expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Observer GigaStor?

GigaStor feeds into Apex. So, the area where there could be improvement would be in artificial intelligence. For example, the incorporation of more advanced machine learning or AI capabilities coul...

See all answers

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...

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What do you like most about PRTG Network Monitor?

The tool is integrated with our email for the alerts.

See all answers

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

The pricing is in the middle. It's not too high, nor too low, but it's reasonable.

See all answers

Comparisons

Gigamon Deep Observability Pipeline vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 27% of the time

Wireshark vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 22% of the time

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Data Broker vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 20% of the time

AppNeta by Broadcom vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 16% of the time

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 15% of the time

More Observer GigaStor Competitors

Zabbix vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 7% of the time

PRTG Enterprise Monitor vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 7% of the time

LibreNMS vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 6% of the time

Centreon vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 6% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 5% of the time

More PRTG Network Monitor Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor

May 2025

Download Observer GigaStor product report

Buyer's Guide

PRTG Network Monitor

May 2025

Download PRTG Network Monitor product report

Overview

Observer GigaStor is a network analysis tool that comes in a variety of form factors, including rack mount, portable, and virtual. Capable of storing up to a petabyte of traffic for later analysis, GigaStor helps ensure optimal network and application performance.

Viavi Solutions

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.

Paessler GmbH

Sample Customers

Cisco Systems, Hawaiian Telecom, Renown Health, State of Nevada, U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Allstate Insurance, Jack Henry & Associates, United States Airforce, US Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Chicago Board Options Exchange

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

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor vs. PRTG Network Monitor

June 2025

Free Report: Observer GigaStor vs. PRTG Network Monitor

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