PRTG Network Monitor vs Wireshark comparison

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PRTG Network Monitor

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between PRTG Network Monitor and Wireshark based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Zabbix, Auvik, SolarWinds and others in Network Monitoring Software.

To learn more, read our detailed Network Monitoring Software Report (Updated: September 2025).

Network Monitoring Software

September 2025

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Helped 866,778 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

PRTG Network Monitor

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

103

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (5th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (6th), Cloud Monitoring Software (11th)

Wireshark

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Troubleshooting (4th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Management solutions, they serve different purposes. PRTG Network Monitor is designed for Network Monitoring Software and holds a mindshare of 4.2%, down 4.4% compared to last year.
Wireshark, on the other hand, focuses on Network Troubleshooting, holds 12.6% mindshare, up 11.6% since last year.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
PRTG Network Monitor	4.2%
Zabbix	11.7%
LibreNMS	4.6%
Other	79.5%

Network Monitoring Software

Network Troubleshooting Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Wireshark	12.6%
LinkRunner	13.6%
NetAlly EtherScope nXG	10.1%
Other	63.7%

Network Troubleshooting

Featured Reviews

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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Vijay Duggal

Network Specialist at Squarepoint Capital

Provides detailed traffic analysis and helps troubleshoot issues

There is a disadvantage when it comes to sampling intervals. While the solution supports sampling as fine as one millisecond, it requires a copy at that interval. My Python script allows me to achieve a granularity of up to ten microseconds, but I can't go beyond that. When dealing with provisioning on both issues, it would be beneficial if I could go down to the microsecond level, if not the nanosecond. Additionally, I've heard from a colleague that Wireshark might be less effective in the voice domain.

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

"What I've found most valuable is the custom sensor, which allows you to write scripts or code to monitor a specific metric in your environment."

"The solution provides us response times to issues."

"I like the mobility of the PRTG Network Monitor and ITOps Dashboard."

"One of the valuable features is the diversity of metrics available to us to monitor. It's all there, it's all in the box. It's all made very easy, by virtue of it being pre-configured."

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

"It gives me a live view of the traffic on the WAN."

"One of its valuable features is the fact that it handles multiple operating systems... And I like the fact that it tells me when things are about to fall over, which means I can preempt it and not have to wake up at three in the morning to fix it."

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

More PRTG Network Monitor pros

"I can save the traffic and analysis when I want to. Also, it's especially helpful to follow the stream (TCP, UDP, etc.)."

"The transmission and reception issues are valuable."

"Wireshark's best feature is that it's adaptive, which means it's the go-to tool for network-related developers."

"The initial setup is simple."

"Wireshark has a lot of features. It's a powerful tool if you're familiar with it. You can see everything on the network with it."

"It gives us the ability to pinpoint problems and to communicate network problems with software and hardware vendors."

"Wireshark is a good tool to start with network analyzing and packet capturing."

"The most valuable feature of Wireshark is the ability to choose a destination of flow that has not been working as expected."

More Wireshark pros

Cons

"It probably has this already, but if it had a mobile app that would be helpful. For example, on a day like today when I'm out, if I could just fire it up and see green, green, green, green, green or red, that would be good."

"I wouldn't mind better categories for the sensors. When I go to add a new sensor for a new device, there are some categories in there already, and they can be filtered out, but there's quite a large pool of sensors... When I want to go in and find something quite specific, I have got to scroll down and scroll down to find what I'm actually looking for,"

"I've encountered a challenge in my functions, particularly in adding and printing."

"PRTG access works best from the web GUI. There are dedicated apps on Windows/Android/iOS, but they are slow and don’t work as well as the web GUI."

"In the next release, PRTG Network Monitor should add a backup solution."

"Having a Unix implementation or Unix installation could be an improvement. Right now, it's based just on Windows, and that's a problem for some customers."

"The product could be improved by being cross-platform friendly."

"The clustering aspect needs improvement, as there is a bit of confusion about you do when hit that 5000 probe mark."

More PRTG Network Monitor cons

"Wireshark's UI isn't easy to handle and doesn't have as nice a view as Omnipeek."

"I have not used Wireshark to an advanced point where I could provide a detailed opinion on improvements needed."

"There is a disadvantage when it comes to sampling intervals. Additionally, I've heard from a colleague that Wireshark might be less effective in the voice domain."

"In the future, it would be nice to see color coding. It is just black and white."

"Wireshark gets stuck when it is a larger file."

"The solution’s user interface could be improved."

"We would like the product to be developed so that it doesn't rely on internet access for installation. We would like to see all of the components required to be integrated into the installer."

"Wireshark could make the filtering rules easier to apply and offer a drag-and-drop option as opposed to type and text."

More Wireshark cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"PRTG Network Monitor is very expensive."

"The price is pretty comparable."

"The price of PRTG Network Monitor is more expensive than other solutions, such as OP Network Manager."

"All monitoring system is close to the same pricing scheme."

"PRTG Network Monitor's price is a little high."

"We used a product called SolarWinds in the past, and its cost was high. Whereas, PRTG came in at a third of SolarWind's cost."

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

"The pricing is not too bad. It's not massively expensive, and the ability to upscale or even downscale licenses every year is brilliant for us."

More PRTG Network Monitor pricing and cost advice

"It's free."

"It's a stand-alone tool. If there is a commercial license for it I am unaware of it."

"The solution is open source so is free."

"It is free to download and install. It runs on multiple platforms, so how can you go wrong?"

"Wireshark is open-source and free of charge."

"We're using the free version of Wireshark."

"This is an open-source product that can be used free of charge."

"We are using a freeware version of this solution, so there are no licence costs involved."

More Wireshark pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

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

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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

13%

Government

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

University

10%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	54
Midsize Enterprise	18
Large Enterprise	37

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	31
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	27

Questions from the Community

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 do you like most about PRTG Network Monitor?

The tool is integrated with our email for the alerts.

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.

What do you like most about Wireshark?

The GUI is easy to use.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Wireshark?

Wireshark is priced at a medium range, not too high, not too low. The pricing could be more flexible, and they might make it more expensive. That said, compared to other products, it is competitive.

What needs improvement with Wireshark?

The speed of the Internet could be improved, especially its performance. Performance can sometimes be a challenge due to numerous factors.

Zabbix vs PRTG Network Monitor

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Compared 7% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 6% of the time

Centreon vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 5% of the time

LibreNMS vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 22% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Wireshark

Compared 15% of the time

Colasoft Capsa vs Wireshark

Compared 11% of the time

Zabbix vs Wireshark

Compared 11% of the time

ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer vs Wireshark

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Download PRTG Network Monitor product report

PRTG Network Monitor

August 2025

Download Wireshark product report

August 2025

Overview

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

Wireshark is the world's foremost network protocol analyzer.

Sample Customers

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

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