Net Farm

PRTG Network Monitor

Sensor-based network and infrastructure monitoring from Paessler.

freemium hybrid

What it is

PRTG is a commercial monitoring tool built around "sensors": availability and load of servers, links, SNMP devices and traffic. One console gives maps, dashboards and alerting, and a hosted SaaS edition is available alongside the on-prem Windows server.

Problems it solves

  • You want quick, packaged monitoring on Windows without assembling open-source pieces.
  • Management wants clean dashboards and maps out of the box.

How administrators use it

  • Auto-discover a subnet and let PRTG create sensors for each device.
  • Build maps and dashboards for the NOC and route alerts by channel.
PRTG Network Monitor dashboard
Screenshot: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Strengths & trade-offs

Strengths

  • Fast to deploy.
  • Polished dashboards and maps.
  • Free tier up to 100 sensors.

Trade-offs

  • Sensor-based pricing climbs with scale.
  • On-prem server is Windows-bound.

Questions

How many sensors are free?

Up to 100 sensors are free; beyond that you buy a licensed tier.

Is there a cloud version?

Yes — PRTG Hosted Monitor is a SaaS edition alongside the on-prem Windows server.

Head to head

Alternatives