PRTG Network Monitor vs Plixer Scrutinizer comparison

Plixer and Paessler GmbH are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Plixer is ranked #54 with an average rating of 8.0, while Paessler GmbH is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.7. Plixer holds a 0.4% mindshare in NMS, compared to Paessler GmbH’s 4.2% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Plixer users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Paessler GmbH users who would recommend it.

Plixer Scrutinizer

Read 15 Plixer Scrutinizer reviews

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304 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

PRTG Network Monitor

Read 102 PRTG Network Monitor reviews

6,177 Views
2,906 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Plixer Scrutinizer

PRTG Network Monitor

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

PRTG Network Monitor and Plixer Scrutinizer are leading solutions in network monitoring and analysis. PRTG Network Monitor is favored for fast deployment and customizable sensors, while Plixer Scrutinizer is recognized for in-depth network traffic analysis and advanced reporting. PRTG seems to have an edge in ease of setup and cost-effective entry, although Scrutinizer’s data insights are crucial for complex environments.

Features: PRTG Network Monitor stands out with rapid deployment, innovative customizable sensors, and cost-effective licensing. It supports versatile deployment in Private, Public, and Hybrid Cloud environments. Plixer Scrutinizer excels in network traffic analysis offering in-depth insights and advanced reporting capabilities, enhancing its utility in complex IT environments.

Room for Improvement: PRTG could benefit from more flexible templates, improved application monitoring, and enhanced dashboards. Plixer Scrutinizer needs advancements in data visualization tools, user interface, and cloud integration to keep pace with evolving demands.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both solutions are praised for easy on-premise deployment, with PRTG additionally offering cloud options. PRTG provides comprehensive documentation but relies on email-based support. Plixer Scrutinizer offers reliable assistance through online resources and ticketing systems, although it lacks direct engagement.

Pricing and ROI: PRTG uses a pay-per-sensor model, offering affordable entry and scaling well for smaller deployments, providing a robust ROI. Plixer Scrutinizer features competitive per-device pricing without per-interface charges. Despite higher initial costs, its network insights drive substantial ROI.

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

Buyer's Guide

PRTG Network Monitor vs. Plixer Scrutinizer

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

Plixer Scrutinizer

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

54th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (11th)

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 July 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Plixer Scrutinizer is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PRTG Network Monitor is 4.2%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Ira Mulyanti

Sales Director at ARGA SOLUSI

An affordable product with great integration capabilities

Plixer Core Platform is a valuable feature and a good software. Plixer Scrutinizer uses NetFlow analysis to monitor whatever is there in a network. Price-wise, Plixer Scrutinizer is not an expensive product. Basically, Plixer Scrutinizer is an affordable product. Plixer Scrutinizer is a tool that allows for customization, especially in scenarios where customers need new product features. Plixer Scrutinizer is a tool that can integrate with any other brand or product in the market, so it is not an area of concern.

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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

"There are other tools out there that will do what Scrutinizer does. But what I have found with Scrutinizer is that it does it very quickly. I've taken 25 million individual data fragments from the different sensors, and it has graphed that and mapped it and presented a picture within 30 seconds. It has a very efficient database algorithm that I am really impressed with."

"The solution helps to enrich the data context of our network traffic. It allows me to see what applications are most in use on a slightly historical basis, going back a day or week at tops. It allows me to tune QoS or traffic shaping around what's being used. It saves me from having to unnecessarily upgrade, if I don't need to."

"One feature I found most valuable in Plixer Scrutinizer is the very extensive reporting. Reporting is very flexible, though sometimes you need a little bit of support from Plixer Scrutinizer to create custom-made reporting in a very short time. Reporting is a very strong feature of the product."

"It helps us determine what is going on with our Internet and who is hogging it all up. If we get a real high throughput or a throughput that's going over and getting dropped fairly quickly, we can tell who (or what device) is consuming that traffic."

"Visualization of the network traffic is the most valuable feature. It allows you to drill into information quite quickly."

"The reporting and generating troubleshooting reports would be the best feature; our host-to-host conversation reporting."

"It's agnostic as far as what your network gear is. As long as it supports an sFlow, JFlow, NetFlow, some kind of flow monitoring, Plixer will support it very well."

"The ability to view the status of the top-10 at a glance is helpful. We immediately know which link is over-utilized or heavily used... and it's all in real-time."

More Plixer Scrutinizer pros

"The bandwidth monitoring is a very attractive feature, it can tell you the bandwidth utilization while it is attempting to connect to the host for feedback."

"PRTG Network Monitor is easy to set up. Within a few minutes, it is operational."

"The most valuable feature of PRTG Network Monitor is real-time monitoring."

"The product is simple and easy to implement."

"It is easy when it comes to dependencies of devices, so if your router goes down, the three or four switches behind it will automatically be paused so that you don't get multiple alerts."

"I think net flow is PRTG's most valuable feature because it doesn't cost much for us because the net flow sensor is already included in the PRTG license. We can monitor our traffic in our proxy and router."

"We use the remote probes a lot for our branch offices. Instead of deploying the full instance of PRTG, we'll put a remote probe out there. This simplifies the whole deployment for us."

"The most valuable feature of PRTG Network Monitor is its ease of use."

More PRTG Network Monitor pros

Cons

"Knowing that they're coming out with a new user interface, that is an area where there is room for improvement. There are so many variables. They should limit the variables in the user interface and create some classes, like "simple," "novice," and "expert" to narrow down the variables within it."

"They're working on the security areas, so it can provide more insight. What they have is still pretty much IP-concentric. If they were to make it IP and URL, they'd be a little bit ahead on that."

"The reporting structure, the front-end GUI, also needs some work. It needs some getting used to. It works fairly well, but it's a technical tool rather than a user tool. You have to understand the structure of the databases before you can really use it."

"It would be useful if there was a way to back up the configuration information. E.g., if you wanted to deploy a new instance or disaster recovery, you could quite easily deploy and restore the config, as opposed to having to restore all the NetFlow data. If there was just a button that said "backup config information", that would be good."

"There is room for improvement around the data that they have on the website about solutions... they should have more templated solutions on their website. Going out and identifying how to do RTP performance with a Cisco router, or how to do application response times in an Arrista data center deployment was where most of the work was... They should spend some more time documenting solutions and putting together white papers."

"The solution creates a visual map of a particular location and how the network flows. You need to spend time to generate all those maps. If they could figure out a way to reduce the time needed to generate the maps, that would be great."

"Data retention needs improvement. Data retention is a thing where we are looking for a better way to collect flow data for a longer time to do forensic research on security incidents. By default, data retention is quite low. We need detailed data in safe storage for a longer time, e.g., for a couple of months. An improvement would be a way to export data into a secure long-term storage."

"In Plixer Scrutinizer, scalability is an area with minor concerns where improvements are required."

More Plixer Scrutinizer cons

"Maybe in the future there will be room for improvement, but currently, there is nothing pressing that I can think of"

"Once you start going above 5000 sensors, things do start to get a bit shaky. There are some best practice out there that you will need to adopt and be aware of."

"I would like to have a VM version that can be installed on a cloud such as Azure. We're using Azure, and we're eliminating on-premise servers. It would be helpful to have a PRTG version that can be installed on the Azure cloud."

"Their penetration within the market could be much better. If their pricing was lower, even though it's reasonable now, it might help them achieve this."

"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."

"Performance-wise, PRTG Network Monitor still needs improvement because a large number of SNMPv3 queries reduces tool performance."

"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."

"PRTG's documentation could be improved."

More PRTG Network Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Compared to some of the other tools we have, it's incredibly reasonably priced."

"We recently bought a license upgrade, so we will integrate more exporters. We upgraded from a 25 exporter license to a 50 exporter license. Therefore, there will be more flows, and this will be an extension. I don't know when we will purchase a faster server, because the server that we have is quite new."

"I rate Plixer Scrutinizer's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price or affordable, and ten is high price or expensive."

"We just renewed. The pricing is 5,000 euro per year. This is the final price. All tax (20 percent) is included."

"We have increased the license over time. We have added more licenses as the network has grown."

"The licensing cost for Plixer Scrutinizer is in the middle. It's not the cheapest, but it's not the most expensive. Its licensing model is based on how many exporters, how many devices export information to the system. Plixer Scrutinizer has different modules you could add such as the security module which would cost extra."

"The license is per device. We have 50 devices."

"There are no extra costs. It's about $8,000 a year. The bang for the buck (cost) is definitely a plus."

More Plixer Scrutinizer pricing and cost advice

"Right now, the smallest sensor pack that they have is just a bit out of range for me, as a business. This kills me, as I need the product. Therefore, there is always a balance between needing to buy it or continuing their free version."

"If you're looking for a cost effective software I’d suggest this product."

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

"The pricing is very low compared to other solutions."

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

"The ability to use the base version with 100 free sensors is great. The cost on other packages can be very reasonable."

"While I am not the person who deals with pricing, I would say that we pay around 1000 pounds a year."

"On a yearly basis, I believe it's between £1,200 and £1,500."

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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Educational Organization

25%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Plixer Scrutinizer?

Plixer Scrutinizer is an affordable product. Plixer Scrutinizer is a tool that allows for customization, especially in scenarios where customers need new product features.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Plixer Scrutinizer?

I rate Plixer Scrutinizer's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price or affordable, and ten is high price or expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Plixer Scrutinizer?

I don't have deep enough knowledge to comment on what requires improvements in Plixer Scrutinizer. In Plixer Scrutinizer, scalability is an area with minor concerns where improvements are required.

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...

See all answers

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

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Compared 22% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

LogicMonitor vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 12% of the time

ExtraHop Reveal(x) for IT Operations vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 10% of the time

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Compared 8% 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 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Plixer Scrutinizer

June 2025

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Buyer's Guide

PRTG Network Monitor

June 2025

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Overview

The Scrutinizer incident response system leverages network traffic analytics to provide active monitoring, visualization, and reporting of network and security incidents. The system quickly delivers the rich forensic data needed by IT professionals to support fast and efficient incident response.

Plixer

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

Oxford Networks, Squaw Valley Ski Holdings, UltiSat, Wipro, West Aurora School District 129, SUNY Geneseo College, Bloomington Public Schools, First National Bank of Pennsylvania, Kitsap Credit Union, Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County Houston Texas, Carilion Clinic, Banner Health, IDEXX Laboratories, Phibro Animal Health Corporation, Goodwill Industries, Parmalat, Armstrong Coal Company, Flybe, James Walker

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

PRTG Network Monitor vs. Plixer Scrutinizer

June 2025

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