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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Colasoft Capsa

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AColasoft Capsa is a network performance monitoring and protocol analyzing tool. Capsa provides core monitoring features, as well as automated diagnostics and packet decoding. Colasoft offers a limited free version of the software.N/A

    PRTG

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/APRTG Network Monitor is the flagship offering from German software company Paessler, for monitoring local and wide area networks (LANs & WANs), servers, websites, apps, and more.

    $2,149

    per year

    Pricing
    Colasoft CapsaPRTG
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    PRTG 500
    $2,149
    per year
    Hosted 500
    $2,149
    per year
    PRTG 1,000
    $3,899
    per year
    Hosted 1000
    $3,899
    per year
    PRTG 2,500
    $8,099
    per year
    Hosted 2500
    $8,099
    per year
    PRTG 5,000
    $14,199
    per year
    Hosted 5000
    $14,199
    per year
    PRTG 10000
    $17,899
    per year
    PRTG Enterprise
    Custom Pricing
    subscription license
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Colasoft CapsaPRTG
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Colasoft CapsaPRTG
    Considered Both Products
    Colasoft
    No answer on this topic
    Paessler
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Would buy again
    39 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    38 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    40 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    26 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    36 Answers
    Features
    Colasoft CapsaPRTG
    Network Performance Monitoring
    Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of Colasoft Capsa and PRTG Network Monitor
    Feature
    Colasoft Capsa
    -
    Ratings
    PRTG Network Monitor
    8.3
    64 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Automated network device discovery00 Ratings8.357 Ratings
    Network monitoring00 Ratings9.763 Ratings
    Baseline threshold calculation00 Ratings8.154 Ratings
    Alerts00 Ratings9.264 Ratings
    Network capacity planning00 Ratings7.445 Ratings
    Packet capture analysis00 Ratings7.133 Ratings
    Network mapping00 Ratings8.045 Ratings
    Customizable reports00 Ratings7.954 Ratings
    Wireless infrastructure monitoring00 Ratings8.246 Ratings
    Hardware health monitoring00 Ratings9.161 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Colasoft CapsaPRTG
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Auvik
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    PingPlotter
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Nmap
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Colasoft CapsaPRTG
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.2
    (64 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.3
    (4 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (18 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Colasoft CapsaPRTG
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Colasoft
    Capsa is highly recommended to be used in small dense areas of a network where it makes sense to be able to run analytics off of a mirror port to gain insight into traffic trends. It is a costly product to install in branch locations, and requires a decent spec hardware to run appropriately
    Incentivized
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    Paessler
    integrates seamlessly with Windows servers via WMI and PowerShell, providing deep insights into resource usage, performance metrics, and system health. It's excellent at tracking CPU, memory, disk space, and event logs, enabling rapid troubleshooting and proactive maintenance. PRTG Network Monitor also effectively monitors Fortigate devices, providing detailed data on firewall health, traffic patterns, bandwidth utilization, VPN status, and security alerts. This visibility helps detect and resolve network security issues promptly.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Colasoft
    • Robust Application. Able to handle traffic that most businesses will throw at it.
    • Easy to use. Easy to setup captures and filter down to specific traffic types.
    • Relatively cheap for what it's able to accomplish.
    Incentivized
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    Paessler
    • Switch monitoring and finding out if there are communication issues or throughput alerts are reached
    • Big picture view of the whole infrastructure and what is functioning and what is not
    • Uptime tracking is great and lets us know for how long a device is down or overall uptime
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Colasoft
    • Needs options to scale to 10Gb/s networks. The cutoff for performance looks to be around 3Gb/sl
    • Needs API access to trigger capturesl
    • Needs Agents for remote capturesl
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Paessler
    • Licensing on a per entity basis can be cumbersome for devices which have a ton of monitoring points like network switches\routers. Each sensor may count against a license, which could be a lot of you were monitoring every TX\RX of an SFP for example
    • A better method to easily template\copy monitors across devices
    • The navigation in the web GUI could be a little more straightforward in terms of the hierarchy
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Colasoft
    No answers on this topic
    Paessler
    I would renew it because the platform has brought us many technical and economic benefits that make the cost-benefit ratio very good. Additionally, to do so does not require large investments in training, licensing or infrastructure, and at the administration level, extensive knowledge is not required to be able to bear it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Colasoft
    No answers on this topic
    Paessler
    The tool is very intuitive to use and it is Windows-based (everybody knows how to use Windows) so it's easy to get into. Every time is setup in a hierarchy so if you have a good initial hierarchy design, it will really reduce administrative effort down the road.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Colasoft
    No answers on this topic
    Paessler
    PRTG does everything we need it to do and more. Ease of use, ease of management and maintenance and clarity of monitoring of hundreds of different types of device and service gives this a large advantage over other products on the market that I have tried. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who needs a network monitoring product in their environment and even to people who don't know they need a solution yet!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Colasoft
    No answers on this topic
    Paessler
    It's very important that de project's teams have different member of the TI. We have learned too late the importa of Security Analyst at the design architecture moment. We have to rebuild part of the implementation for made this big mistake.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Colasoft
    Colasoft performs more like the traditional wireshark as opposed to other solutions that tend to focus on graphs instead of giving you the raw data. I personally prefer the raw data, and then the ability to build graphs upon this (which Capsa can do). This allows for quicker analysis and makes it easier to relate to.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Paessler
    PRTG offers more versatility in monitoring when compared to the other solutions we tested. The other solutions were also limited as far as customization options, which made them less adaptable to our networks. When compared to Auvik, for instance, we prefer PRTG as it offers immediate notifications through the desktop client - not limited to email notifications as with Auvik. We also appreciate the fact that PRTG can be self/on-prem hosted vs Auvik's cloud model. This makes for an easier deployment and less firewall adjustments to allow traffic to cloud-hosted solutions.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Colasoft
    • While the product doesn't detect malware, it has helped track down malware infected machines by using data from other applications to run filters to look for known traffic destinations for that malware. For me this is a huge ROI since malware can be the great unknown.
    • Relatively cheap compared to the feature set.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Paessler
    • The ability to analyze multiple pieces of information in one place, especially with historical data, has saved our IT department time and headaches. It would be so much more difficult to trace an issue without PRTG, just relying on event logs and an open task manager window.
    • The cost is not cheap, so it's an expense that hits the bottom line like everything else. Figure in hardware costs as well, ideally a server outside of your main environment.
    • I keep saying this, but the historical data piece is worth so much. There's really no good way to collect all of that information in one place without something like PRTG. And that definitely saves time and money in the long run.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots