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PRTG Enterprise Monitor vs SolarWinds NPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

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

PRTG Enterprise Monitor
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
37th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds NPM
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
158
Ranking in other categories
IT Infrastructure Monitoring (4th), Cloud Monitoring Software (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of PRTG Enterprise Monitor is 0.5%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 4.5%, down from 5.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

Moshiur-Rahman Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Masud Alam - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers alerting service to trigger alerts and easy to manage
For end-user performance monitoring, we like features such as availability of our all devices and device/interface monitoring. We have also used NCM (Network Configuration Manager) for our network. We use the alerting service to trigger alerts based on specific thresholds, like CPU or memory utilization exceeding a certain percentage. There are AI network initiatives in SolarWinds NPM for some lengthy issues. For example, it shows availability reports. But for bandwidth monitoring, it's not very clear how much bandwidth is being consumed. SolarWinds provide real-time bandwidth monitoring. It is not difficult to manage the network with SolarWinds. We have one customer with a satellite location. If we have a large network with, let's say, 43,000 elements, and our current SolarWinds license supports only 30,000, we would need to create another polling engine to accommodate the additional 13,000 elements. It's limited to the polling engine, so we can only support 30,000 elements per engine. So it's only for 30,000, but we have at least 40,000 elements in our network.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution offers perfect real-time bandwidth monitoring and SNMP functionality."
"The solution's ability to monitor each and every aspect of our devices, such as memory utilization and port connectivity, is valuable."
"It can identify downtimes and disruptions."
"From a technical perspective, the product's most valuable feature is SNMP, an open standard monitoring protocol that works across various network devices and operating systems, including UNIX and Windows."
"The product is easy to understand."
"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."
"PRTG is good and very easy to use."
"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 is stable and reliable."
"Their support team is efficient, and it is easy to set up."
"We have configured multiple alerts for our network devices, including routers and switches, so that we are notified if any interface goes down."
"The most valuable features of SolarWinds NPM are network performance monitoring and the overall benefit for servers."
"All the features are very good. The monitoring of the equipment, the configuration manager, and the IP address monitoring are great."
"It is very extensible with 'SWQL' and APIs to where we are beginning to integrate it with network automation."
"Everything has been complete and stable for our needs over the past four years."
"The benefit of this solution is the reporting. We're able to report on and see our network in a graphical form. We are able to detect when a device is added to a network."
 

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."
"The support must be improved."
"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."
"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 is no unified monitoring in PRTG. It needs a lot of improvement in terms of integration."
"PRTG Enterprise Monitor should include more functionalities and features that are similar to SolarWinds."
"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."
"We are looking to change away from this solution because of the documentation and the solution doesn't have enough integration in our country. The documentation is too weak."
"The interface could be made more user-friendly."
"The solution needs to integrate with additional SDN technologies that are part of the hyper market."
"They have had a rather large security breach in the past. It's cost some companies customers."
"SolarWinds NPM could improve by adding the deepest inspection, performance networking, and IP address discovery."
"This solution would benefit from expanding on the capabilities within the API."
"A feature I would ask for is for them to have this solution available for Linux systems instead of Windows."
"Fortigate firewalls are one example of a product that we are unable to monitor properly via SolarWinds NPM."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"PRTG Enterprise Monitor's pricing is reasonable."
"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."
"I rate the product's pricing an eight to seven out of ten."
"It is not an expensive product."
"There's standard licensing, and then it depends on the size of the customer."
"Though I don't remember the price for SolarWinds NPM, its price is somewhat okay when you compare it with other tools in the market. The price isn't too high and isn't too low, so it's okay."
"The price is more expensive than some other products, such as ManageEngine."
"I find that the pricing is acceptable."
"The pricing needs to be improved. It is too high. One full engine costs around $10 000, which is why we don't have high availability right now."
"Our customer reports that the solution is somewhat costly and licensing is a bit complicated."
"SolarWinds NPM has different pricing models available. The cost of the solution is less than some competitors."
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Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
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
Educational Organization
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
University
11%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Educational Organization
35%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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.
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.
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
It actually depends on the exact purpose or kind of devices (network devices, servers, something else). Some tools are better for only network devices while others are better for a cloud monitoring...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We are partners with SolarWinds and we sell a lot of Network management to large enterprises also because of scalability, products like Network Performance Monitor & Netflow Traffic Analyzer ar...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard
Find out what your peers are saying about PRTG Enterprise Monitor vs. SolarWinds NPM and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
857,162 professionals have used our research since 2012.