PRTG Network Monitor Reviews

We are using PRTG to monitor networks, applications, and databases like Oracle Database or SQL Database. Now we plan to use PRTG for IT aggression management. 

Though it's not suitable, I think we can also use PRTG for operations monitoring. We will make a dashboard in PRTG and use it to control when we have a problem. We can analyze which part has a problem so that we can analyze and report to our SQL. We have about 10 to 12 people in the IT department working with PRTG. 

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.

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. 

I've been using PRTG for four or five years.

I was using a free product called Nagios, but it was challenging to deploy, so I changed to PRTG. It's a similar configuration, so I can easily switch using PRTG.

It's easy for me to set up the server because PRTG guided us through it. The installation only took a day, but it takes two to four weeks to collect data from other devices because I need to coordinate with another database person.

I deployed it by myself. 

We see a return, but I've never calculated ROI for this application. Monitoring takes time, and anything that cuts down on time spent monitoring saves money. 

When monitoring hardware before using PRTG, I needed to check the capacity, etc., and then create a report, but PRTG does it and reports automatically. This makes operations more cost-efficient and increases the return on investment.

I pay for a yearly license that's all-inclusive. We get all the resources, but PRTG doesn't have local support in Indonesia, so when I have a problem with PRTG, I need to create a ticket with global support. 

I rate PRTG Network Monitor nine out of 10.  

It's a globally distributed network. We have multiple data centers or IT setups, and PRTG is deployed at the local data centers. Some of the applications are in the cloud, and PRTG can also monitor those.

PRTG is simple to manage. First, you can create a template for a device, then apply it to hundreds of similar devices. That's a great advantage. Secondly, I can use the 80-20 functional rule for any devices I need to monitor. 

For infrastructure monitoring, 80 percent of parameters are monitored every minute or so. I can define all of them at the highest level, and those definitions are inherited at the lowest level. Then you need to customize the setup for the remaining 20 percent. You can deploy them in various groups and do a group-level setup, which will again percolate down to devices. 

The third thing is the concept of tags. PRTG assigns tags to devices and also the parameters you monitor. For example, if you choose to deploy a bandwidth sensor, PRTG automatically tags it with that parameter while giving you the freedom to apply your own tag. 

Let's say my organization has three or even four ISPs. If I'm globally distributed, the ISPs could be different. Now I can monitor all the bandwidth across ISPs based on the tag, or I can see the bandwidth of each ISP individually. I know my uptime and recovery in case of failure. I can also group by choosing a specific ISP tag and getting a report. I now know which of my ISPs is a better performer, which helps me improve the service and decide who to go with.

PRTG is constantly evolving. You have between eight to 12 releases every year, including enhancements to functionality and performance as well as security and bug fixes, so it stays current with our business requirements. It's a well-rounded product.

There's always room for improvement. The high availability feature is good, but it's an area that PRTG could marginally improve. For example, in PRTG, both servers have a different IP, but it would make things a lot easier if they were bound by a single IP.  I'm not necessarily trying to say PRTG should imitate other products. 

I'm saying it should be like a typical HA solution should be. It is a fail-safe feature, and the HA component should act like one. In PRTG, it is in an active-active mode, not active-passive. Now, the customers don't need to know the mechanism behind the high availability. They just need to know how many servers are required for deployment. If there is a cluster with a single IP address, it's much easier from the customer's point of view. 

We've been working on various versions of PRTG since 2003. While we are using PRTG, we are also looking at various alternatives, but we haven't seen a reason to switch so far.

PRTG itself is a highly reliable product because of large installed base.

Overall, PRTG is easy to install and understand. We provide frontline support for our customers, but our more competent customers don't come back to us for any support at all. If they don't have the skills, they can install and do the basic deployment, but they require hand-holding and coaching for some things. Still, I think it's a straightforward product. Once a user gets started with the product, they don't need hand-holding for basic functions.

The price of PRTG is reasonable. PRTG's competitors like SolarWinds and ManageEngine charge more for the same functionality. They are much more expensive at licensing level. What's more, PRTG comes as one bundle. For example, the database is part of the PRTG release, so Paessler takes total responsibility for all components they deliver. With other products, you need a separate database engine and databases, and these NMS companies don't take responsibility. When they put out new releases, what if it doesn't work with the previous release of a database? Things become a little tricky. You have to deal with two or more entities for NMS but only one with PRTG.

I rate PRTG Network Monitor 9.5 out of 10. If you're planning to implement PRTG, my advice is to first create a master plan. Set a goal for monitoring. Decide what you want to monitor and why. You need to get ready by organizing network management at the technical and policy level. If you start with a clear understanding of your goals and your environment, PRTG will be a cakewalk.

Our use case is limited.

It does what we need it to do in terms of learning.

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

Our biggest issue, and the reason we are trying to move away from PRTG, is that it is not scalable across an enterprise solution.

The scalability of this solution could improve as well as the automated provisioning of the infrastructure.

I have been using PRTG Network Monitor off and on for approximately ten years.

I don't recall the version that we are working with but we recently upgraded it.

PRTG Network Monitor is a stable solution. I would rate the stability of PRTG Network Monitor a ten out of ten.

The scalability could be improved.

When we first started using it, we had four hundred different resources. Now we have four or five thousand different resources, it is not a scalable solution that automatically correctly adds devices where they belong, they are added to the end of the filter. They don't monitor appropriately; it's highly manual in terms of what and how it monitors.

We don't use their technical support. I would rate them a five out of ten.

It's a complex environment. The initial setup was just as complex.

I have not seen a return on investment.

Pricing is comparable. 

I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten.

Check the size of your infrastructure. If you have more than a thousand units or thousand devices to monitor, you should choose a better solution.

In my environment, I would rate PRTG Network Monitor a four out of ten.

My primary use case for the PRTG solution is network device monitoring. For example, if one of my Ubiquity access points goes down, PRTG will send an alert so that I can go and try to restart it and bring it back up before people start complaining.

This product can be improved by updating the net flow interface. The one that is in place works – I can get all the information I need from it – but it is a little bit clunky.

I have not had any problems with the stability of this solution. I have to reboot it once a year, which is a chance for me to do the updates anyway.

The scalability of this solution has gone smoothly for me so far. I am mostly using it just for pings, and because I don't have a ton of net flows going into it, I am not heavily taxing it. We have a couple of thousand devices that it i monitoring and we have had no problems.

I never had a reason to be in touch with the tech support for the solution.

The initial setup was pretty straightforward. It's an application that you can run on a Windows box. I have it running on a virtual Windows server, so it's not a standalone operating system, and it can come off as an application.

PRTG is relatively intuitive and fairly straightforward. It has net flow monitoring and that works all right. I would describe it as a decent middle-of-the-road solution. It costs about $500 a year, so if you're looking just to watch basic traffic and keep an eye on devices, it works fine.

I would rate PRTG Network Monitoring a seven out of ten.

PRTG Network Monitor is used to monitor internal network infrastructure servers. We use the solution to check to see if our equipment is up or down. 

The solution has helped our organization with proactive monitoring. It has made our infrastructure more reliable.

PRTG is a very flexible tool. The most valuable feature of this product is ping testing.

PRTG would be improved if it required less memory to run.

I have been using PRTG Network Monitor for five years.

This solution is stable. However, it does require a significant amount of memory to run.

PRTG Network Monitor is scalable because you can offload the work to remote probes. We have 150 users in our company.

One person was required to deploy and maintain the solution.

I would recommend to anyone that is thinking of implementing this solution into their organization that they start out small and use the free version, or the 500 sensor. 

This product is a good solution, overall I would rate it an eight out of ten.

We are using PRTG Network Monitor mainly for real-time monitoring and communication in our environment.

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

PRTG Network Monitor should improve the NetFlow dashboard, there is no flexibility, and the NetFlow is not meeting the business needs. Additionally, they are missing part of the configuration management.

I have been using PRTG Network Monitor for approximately six years.

PRTG Network Monitor is stable.

I did not face any issues with the scalability of PRTG Network Monitor. However, I did not test it.

There are approximately 17 administrators using this solution in my organization.

I have not needed to use the support from PRTG Network Monitor.

The initial setup of PRTG Network Monitor is simple. It took approximately 15 minutes to deploy.

We did the deployment of PRTG Network Monitor in-house.

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

We have evaluated a lot of software and we found PRTG Network Monitor the best solution.

It's a good solution regarding real-time monitoring only, but for the site of the operation, you can't rely on it without any other solution to fit all use cases.

I rate PRTG Network Monitor a five out of ten.

We are working with a web version of PRTG Network Monitor.

I use PRTG Network Monitor for the monitoring of all my switches and backbone infrastructure in my hotels. This includes my remote sites and for the monitoring and notification of our business lines in our hotels and traffic monitoring.

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.

When using PRTG Network Monitor it is beneficial if you have prior experience with it, the user interface could improve.

I have been using PRTG Network Monitor for approximately six years.

The stability of PRTG Network Monitor is good.

PRTG Network Monitor is scalable and easy to scale.

We have a lot of viewers using PRTG Network Monitor but we only have approximately four administrators using it.

I have not contacted technical support. We did at some point have technical issues but the online technical documentation is rich, and we never had to call for support.

I have not used any other solution other than PRTG Network Monitor.

The initial setup of PRTG Network Monitor is straightforward. The setup is very dynamic and took us approximately one month to have some data, and devices in it. We referred to a lot of documentation that was very helpful.

We were not very fluent in the software. 

I rate the initial setup of PRTG Network Monitor approximately three out of five.

The deployment of the PRTG Network Monitor was done in-house.

There is not a lot of maintenance. We do regular updates and we do add quite a lot of devices on a regular basis.

We have received a return on investment using PRTG Network Monitor. We're able to do proactive support to tackle an issue before it collapses. There is a return on investment, but it's something quite hard to explain to non-IT personnel.

We have unlimited devices and sensors, and it is a bit pricey, but we do have unlimited sensors. With all things considered the price is fine, related to the solution itself. PRTG Network Monitor is good value for money.

I rate the price of PRTG Network Monitor a four out of five.

A price decrease would be welcomed by the financial and accounts departments.

We did not evaluate other options.

I would recommend PRTG Network Monitor to others and the main reason would be to have visibility of the traffic from all the lines. For example, the visibility on the status of devices, up or down, threshold configuring, and notification of capacity being overused on the line before they collapse. We are able to take action with the suppliers and with service providers before the service gets interrupted.

I rate PRTG Network Monitor an eight out of ten.

Our primary use case for this solution is for every computer operator in my data center to be able to easily operate and use devices.

PRTG does not allow us to scan devices like we can scan software or another problem in it. Also, I cannot draw graphical graphs in Woodview/look. Another problem is that we cannot draw a good diagram in PRTG.

In the next release, I'd like to see more integration with, for example, SolarWinds.

I have been using this solution for about five or six years.

I would say that this solution is stable, but we'd like something more out of it. We need it to improve a little bit.

My opinion is that this is a scalable solution. There are currently 10 users of this solution in our company.

My opinion is that the setup was straightforward. It took seven people to deploy this solution.

The licenses are paid on a monthly basis. My opinion is that this solution is not very expensive.

We are using a cloud version of this solution.

Overall, I would rate this solution a 10, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.