ControlUp vs PRTG Network Monitor comparison

ControlUp and Paessler GmbH are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. ControlUp is ranked #31 with an average rating of 8.0, while Paessler GmbH is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.9. ControlUp holds a 1.1% mindshare in IM, compared to Paessler GmbH’s 4.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of ControlUp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Paessler GmbH users who would recommend it.

ControlUp

Read 12 ControlUp reviews

2,373 Views
1,234 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

PRTG Network Monitor

Read 109 PRTG Network Monitor reviews

7,889 Views
4,655 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

ControlUp

PRTG Network Monitor

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 21, 2025

PRTG Network Monitor and ControlUp compete in the advanced monitoring solutions category. PRTG shines in network-based monitoring with its simplicity and rapid deployment, making it appealing for network-centric environments. ControlUp, however, has the upper hand with its comprehensive details and real-time insights, especially praised for its endpoint and virtual environment capabilities.

Features: PRTG Network Monitor is known for its rapid deployment and ease of use, with out-of-the-box compatibility with most infrastructure. It supports a wide range of sensors and offers customizable monitoring capabilities with minimal setup. ControlUp provides real-time endpoint insights, effective automation tools, and advanced analytics that allow for detailed analysis and proactive administration.

Room for Improvement: PRTG users often seek more flexible GUI options, improved template management, and enhanced cloud monitoring features. The licensing costs remain a concern for some users. ControlUp could enhance its network infrastructure monitoring and offer more flexible reporting options. Integration capabilities should also be more seamless for better data sharing.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: PRTG Network Monitor is simple to deploy, ideal for on-premises installations but less robust for hybrid cloud environments. While its customer service is generally reliable, response times can vary due to time zone discrepancies. ControlUp offers a similarly straightforward deployment process and is more suited to hybrid environments, although its integration process may benefit from more intuitive operation. Both services generally maintain responsive customer service.

Pricing and ROI: PRTG Network Monitor provides cost-effective solutions for small to mid-sized environments with tiered pricing based on sensor numbers, making it a budget-friendly choice. In contrast, ControlUp, though more expensive, offers strong ROI in large-scale and virtual environments due to its advanced features and automation, leading to improved productivity and reduced downtimes.

To learn more, read our detailed ControlUp vs. PRTG Network Monitor Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

ControlUp vs. PRTG Network Monitor

September 2025

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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

ControlUp

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

31st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (5th)

PRTG Network Monitor

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

109

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (5th), Cloud Monitoring Software (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of ControlUp is 1.1%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PRTG Network Monitor is 4.4%, up from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
PRTG Network Monitor	4.4%
ControlUp	1.1%
Other	94.5%

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Richasvi Tripathi

Solutions Developer at HCL Technologies

Used to monitor several devices, but most reports do not give information of all the devices

We have approximately 10 to 20 feature requests pending on the vendor side. Most reports give information about the top 100 devices, but not all of the devices. In our case, we are monitoring 200000 devices. So, we need details for all those devices, but that is limited to 100, which they have improved to an extent in some reports. I'm thinking of one feature request for ISPs because the dashboard does not provide a detailed list of ISPs, and it provides the wrong list. I feel some firewall issues are blocking that, and the team cannot send that detail. That may be the case. One feature request pending on the vendor side is the data format change. Once you see a detail in the report, it is mentioned in some other format, which is hard to analyze sometimes.

Read full review

madhan kumar hs

software engineer at Capgemini

Alerting precision has reduced incident response times and improved department-level network visibility

The auto-pause sensor during the maintenance window is good without any false alerts, and it prevents me from getting flooded with alerts during planned maintenance, helping department heads understand their own network usage better. It has reduced incident response time by giving clearer ownership of each alert, ensuring alerts go to the proper recipient. SNMP testers and auto-pause are among the best features of PRTG Network Monitor, which is particularly useful for different departments such as HR and finance, where alerts can be filtered accordingly. The alerting features and dashboard of PRTG Network Monitor are very helpful, especially in our industry. However, the dashboard can look cluttered on smaller screens, which is one negative aspect. PRTG Network Monitor has impacted us positively; we have stopped getting flooded with alerts during planned maintenance or unplanned outages. Compared to others, this gives specific alerts very quickly and helps department heads understand their own network usage better, thus reducing incident response time so that each alert has clear ownership.

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

"The script-based actions have allowed us to extend the core reporting capabilities."

"It shows you so many details of what's going on in that log-on that, if there's a problem, you can identify it in five minutes."

"It has a great career time monitoring tool."

"The visual look of the interface is very easy to understand what is happening and somewhat why it's happening."

"Integration with Netscaler and Scoutbees can provide a proper end-to-end analysis of the user's experience and give us a real ROI."

"When using ControlUp, the core feature that we have found valuable is its UI. It is a valuable tool to view the analysis reactions of a base core Level 2 or Level 1 team so that they can complete the necessary troubleshooting."

"ControlUp has some good functionalities, such as remotely pushing scripts in the device through the tool."

"The most valuable feature is the granularity of visibility into the resources that are in use by our applications."

More ControlUp pros

"The solution is scalable."

"Network Discovery is a feature that our customers like a lot."

"PRTG Network Monitor is a very stable product."

"This solution provides us with the needed feedback on our IT infrastructure. It allows us to grab all the information from a single point of view."

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

"It is able to satisfy all our requirements in terms of email notifications and specific errors on the devices."

"I really love the activity library. It gives the flexibility to discover data and metrics about my interface and data server."

"The product is easy to use and the web interface is fantastic."

More PRTG Network Monitor pros

Cons

"The graphical user interface needs to be improved from version to version."

"Something I would love to see from a partner perspective would be maybe a way to do this in a surface hosting provider."

"ControlUp could improve the integration. Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop monitoring has better integration."

"Most reports give information about the top 100 devices, but not all of the devices."

"There was some lag earlier, and reports pulled from the dashboard would sometimes be half an hour old. But now, the information provides real-time status, which is greatly appreciated. Overall, I've seen improvement in the product."

"Integration is always a problem, and we feel that we are doing our best and the service provider thinks they are doing their best. I guess if ControlUp's system could be more capable or if people could understand the integration part, that would be better."

"This solution be improved by including load throttling tools. For example, I can identify a service where we spend a lot of CPU but I cannot restrict the service from ControlUp. I have to use another tool like AppSense."

"Solve is a quick and intuitive tool for quickly mapping data together, however, once you have the view of the data that you like, it is difficult to share this with colleagues."

More ControlUp cons

"The icons on PRTG's network diagram are hard to find. For example, finding the icons for firewalls and servers is difficult, so we're struggling to create the network topology."

"Improvements in data storage flexibility, such as allowing customers to specify data retention periods, would enhance PRTG."

"PRTG Network Monitor can improve by adding prevention and detection features."

"PRTG Network Monitor is okay to use, but you'll need some time to analyze the data. If it can automatically locate or identify the problem area, it would be more helpful to users."

"There are some vendor-specific sensors in PRTG Network Monitor, particularly for older hardware, that don't always provide consistent results."

"Sometimes the error messages are too vague and don't directly tell me what went wrong."

"The dashboarding definitely needs improvement."

"There seems to be a big jump from the basic scan to the really thorough scan. There is a big jump in the quantity of sensors it uses for certain things. One minute you might get ten and then the next you get 200. There seems to be a big jump between the two at times."

More PRTG Network Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Personally, I would say that the only thing I could compare it to is another monitoring tool that we use, Nagios."

"We are satisfied with the price compared to other solutions."

"Based on my experience, ControlUp is not that expensive."

"The price is pretty comparable."

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

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

"We have an unlimited perpetual license, so we just pay support costs and it can scale throughout the organization."

"It is about £4,500 for the first year, then about another 15 to 20 percent annually after that. So, we are looking at about £1000 running costs a year. When you think about how much an outage costs per minute, it's negligible."

"If you're looking for a cost effective software I’d suggest this product."

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

"The price was pretty good, very competitive."

More PRTG Network Monitor pricing and cost advice

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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…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

Healthcare Company

11%

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	57
Midsize Enterprise	18
Large Enterprise	41

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ControlUp Real-time?

Based on my experience, ControlUp is not that expensive. It is a cheap tool because it is deployed to many devices where I work.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ControlUp Real-time?

There is area for improvement, maybe in the reporting. It could use some work in reporting.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for ControlUp Real-time?

My use cases include everything, and I don't mean that facetiously. I mean everything. We manage the servers, manage user sessions, manage everything. We monitor monitoring and take actual actions,...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about PRTG Network Monitor?

The tool is integrated with our email for the alerts.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PRTG Network Monitor?

PRTG Network Monitor remains affordable until now.

See all answers

Comparisons

Nexthink vs ControlUp

Compared 25% of the time

Citrix uberAgent Monitoring vs ControlUp

Compared 21% of the time

Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) vs ControlUp

Compared 9% of the time

SysTrack vs ControlUp

Compared 7% of the time

eG Enterprise vs ControlUp

Compared 7% of the time

More ControlUp Competitors

Zabbix vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 8% of the time

PRTG Enterprise Monitor vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 6% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 5% of the time

Centreon vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 5% of the time

Checkmk vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 4% of the time

More PRTG Network Monitor Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ControlUp

October 2025

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Buyer's Guide

PRTG Network Monitor

September 2025

Download PRTG Network Monitor product report

Overview

ControlUp is a digital experience monitoring management platform that makes it possible for IT teams to deliver a work-from-anywhere experience for employees. The solution makes fixing and preventing issues easy, enabling IT teams to make smarter decisions. It also provides monitoring performance, availability, and useful productivity metrics.

The ControlUp platform supports:

Any digital workstyle
Physical endpoints
Virtual desktops
Apps
SaaS
Web apps
Unified communications tools

ControlUp Features

ControlUp has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Out-of-the-box device and performance metrics
Custom metric and device data collection
Non-intrusive, secure agents with offline mode
Custom reporting
Easy-to-use dashboards
Scalable SaaS infrastructure
Built-in troubleshooting & remediation actions
Remote assist
Custom script actions
Multiple scripting languages
Automation and alerting

ControlUp Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing ControlUp. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Wide range of platform options: ControlUp offers multiple platform options including Windows, macOS, Linux, and IGE, independent of device location.

Powerful analytics: With ControlUp, you can analyze across your entire infrastructure or you can collect detailed individual device performance.

Optimizes performance: The solution enables you to remediate issues and optimize performance with its support of both manual and automated actions.

Minimize user downtime: ControlUp helps you catch common issues that lead to workflow interruptions. Self-correcting capabilities and comprehensive early-warning systems address issues before they impact employee productivity.

Resolve issues faster: The solution enables you to spend less time on support calls and more time driving value via its real-time troubleshooting and remediation solutions.

Increased visibility of remote environments: Gain real-time visibility across your entire network and find new ways to deliver the best end-user experience possible.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the ControlUp solution.

A Chair, IEEE Consumer Technology Society - Dallas,Texas, USA at a non-profit says, “In terms of the public cloud, ControlUp's features make us feel very secure. Security, uptime, and reduced capital expenditures are the main reasons we use ControlUp. So basically, the money that we consume is based on the amount of time we are using a service. ControlUp offers a return-on-investment type of approach that helps us.”

A VP Virtualisation and Citrix Engineer at BlackRock mentions, “Solve is quickly becoming one of the most-used features. Its interface allows us to connect to all 54,000 monitored endpoints in real-time. The script-based actions have allowed us to extend the core reporting capabilities. Combined with the triggers, we have been growing their usage to fix things before they become an issue. Lastly, the controller view allows us to compare the configurations of settings side-by-side which is extremely helpful when tracking down the RCA of an issue.”

A Senior Citrix Remote Access Engineer at Rabobank comments, “The high-level view of the estate coupled with powerful administration tools has been great. We can see real-time performance and trends and can create triggers for common issues with associated scripts that can automate a lot of the previous manual remediation steps.”

ControlUp

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

Sample Customers

B/E Aerospace, North Carolina SECU, Vancouver Island Health Authority, University of Florida

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

Buyer's Guide

ControlUp vs. PRTG Network Monitor

September 2025

Free Report: ControlUp vs. PRTG Network Monitor

Find out what your peers are saying about ControlUp vs. PRTG Network Monitor and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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