SolarWinds ipMonitor vs. PRTG Network Monitor

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
SolarWinds ipMonitor
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
SolarWinds ipMonitor is a lightweight performance monitoring tool. It enables monitoring from a single console and out-of-the-box visibility, with some automation available.
$1,570
installation
PRTG
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
PRTG 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
SolarWinds ipMonitorPRTG Network Monitor
Editions & Modules
ipMonitor - 500 Monitors
$1570
installation
ipMonitor - 1000 Monitors
$2620
installation
ipMonitor -2500 Monitors
$5770
installation
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
SolarWinds ipMonitorPRTG
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SolarWinds ipMonitorPRTG Network Monitor
Features
SolarWinds ipMonitorPRTG Network Monitor
Network Performance Monitoring
Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of Product A and Product B
SolarWinds ipMonitor
6.7
Ratings
20% below category average
PRTG Network Monitor
8.3
Ratings
1% above category average
Automated network device discovery6.70 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Network monitoring8.00 Ratings9.70 Ratings
Alerts8.20 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Network mapping6.60 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Customizable reports4.20 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Baseline threshold calculation00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Network capacity planning00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Packet capture analysis00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Wireless infrastructure monitoring00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Hardware health monitoring00 Ratings9.10 Ratings
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SolarWinds ipMonitorPRTG Network Monitor
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Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 9.3 out of 10
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Score 9.3 out of 10
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User Ratings
SolarWinds ipMonitorPRTG Network Monitor
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.2
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.2
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(0 ratings)
9.3
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
SolarWinds ipMonitorPRTG Network Monitor
Likelihood to Recommend
SolarWinds ipMonitor is very easy to set-up and use, but can be quite slow to execute. Therefore, I don't think it will work in a medium-to-large organisation. Also, the interface is not suited for 100s of devices. The customisibility could also be better, so enterprises that require strict branding rules need to look elsewhere.
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It is well suited for an environment that deploys networking equipment and is needing monitoring 24/7. It works well to deliver real time data and alerts that are suited for taking action and notifying groups of members. It is less appropriate for use cases that involve only a few devices that don’t have dedicated teams looking for problems or uptime.
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Pros
  • Both network devices and servers may be easily located on the network.
  • It notifies the user whenever any network device undergoes a change in status.
  • Powerful reporting capabilities that provide vital data about your network's devices (uptime, space, utilization of resources on your devices)
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  • Very, very configurable. You can create all kinds of monitors for all kinds of things. Plus it has loads of suggestions out of the box. It can get complicated but monitoring is complicated. Pretty decent interface and good support - active community.
  • I really liked how easy it was to add alerts by SMS. So easy to setup.
  • I like their sizing models (for purchase). We're actually small enough that we are free. But it's not free as in stripped down - it's free because we don't use many "sensors" and don't honestly have the need.
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Cons
  • It is a very complete and versatile software, but its price can be somewhat high for small companies.
  • During the analysis of the collected data the process can be somewhat slow, so it takes more time than expected.
  • Its configuration process can be somewhat complex since it requires several configurations so having prior knowledge is helpful.
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  • 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
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Likelihood to Renew
I have very few pieces of software, that are specific to IT and IT services, that just work. Honestly, I don't need the support as it never breaks, but I believe in rewarding vendors that make valuable products
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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.
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Usability
Although SolarWinds ipMonitor is great tool to start the SaaS based monitoring journey with SolarWinds products but it still requires a lot of enhancement and its user base which is primarily using on-premises products of SolarWinds needs to be shifted on SaaS based platform strategically and need to motivate. ipMonitor needs to be interated with infra monitoring products such as On-Premises NAM bundle, SAM, DPA etc
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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.
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Support Rating
Overall experience with SolarWinds support team is good. We never faced any delays or issues with the support team, they are knowledgeable or at least documentation is available to them I guess . Direct phone support is also nice and better than opening a support ticket in the system. Sometimes logs analysis take a lot of time and it seems support team is buying some time to fix the issue or to do more research on the issues but that is fine.
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I am giving this a 6 simply because I have never had to contact support. The online documentation is adequate for most things, and the user-maintained knowledgebase is excellent. The few times I have run into issues that were not easily resolvable with intuitive UI, I was able to find the answers that I needed either in the PRTG-provided documentation, the knowledgebase, or with a quick online web search.
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
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.
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Alternatives Considered
The way SolarWinds has clubbed the features and capabilities in SolarWinds ipMonitor is not available in other 3rd party or native tools. Even if they are available then they are very costly. I think SolarWinds is positioning ipMonitor so as to test their footprint on SaaS world with these small scale monitoring tools such as Loggly, ipmonitor, AppOptics which is a good sign to enter the SaaS based monitoring solution.
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When I evaluated Centreon back in 2014, it felt overly complex compared to PRTG Network Monitor. Centreon's configuration required deeper technical expertise, involving manual setup and extensive scripting. The interface seemed less intuitive and demanded more time to manage and maintain. In contrast, PRTG Network Monitor offered simpler sensor-based monitoring and a more user-friendly interface, which ultimately influenced my choice.
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Return on Investment
  • Cost was much higher than the services
  • ipMonitor was well suited but the costing factor wasn't justified as there are tons of open-source tools available in the market with more functionalities
  • Alerts response was very good and ipMonitor served well with health checks.
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  • PRTG has definitely had a positive impact on the business as monitoring can all be done from a central location and is easily accessible by all the relevant stakeholders.
  • It can easily give us stats on up time etc which is used for statistics and SLA monitoring etc - this provides customers with detailed information which we wouldn't' otherwise be able to provide.
  • For the price, I think it is the best product available on the market
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ScreenShots

SolarWinds ipMonitor Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Easy to navigate GUI interfaceScreenshot of Remediation FunctionalityScreenshot of Network Discovery Wizard