Instana Infrastructure Monitoring vs PRTG Network Monitor comparison

Instana and Paessler GmbH are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Instana is ranked #32 with an average rating of 10.0, while Paessler GmbH is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.4. Instana holds a 0.7% mindshare in IM, compared to Paessler GmbH’s 3.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Instana users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Paessler GmbH users who would recommend it.

Instana Infrastructure Moni...

Read 2 Instana Infrastructure Monitoring reviews

925 Views
722 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

PRTG Network Monitor

Read 112 PRTG Network Monitor reviews

9,185 Views
5,327 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Instana Infrastructure Moni...

PRTG Network Monitor

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

PRTG Network Monitor and Instana Infrastructure Monitoring compete in the network and infrastructure monitoring market. Instana appears to have an advantage with its advanced feature set despite PRTG's cost-effectiveness and strong user support.

Features: PRTG Network Monitor offers network monitoring, bandwidth analysis, and customizable reporting. Instana Infrastructure Monitoring provides automatic application discovery and mapping, real-time metrics, and AI-driven insights.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Instana's cloud-based deployment allows for quick setup without extensive hardware needs and offers automated integration with comprehensive documentation. PRTG requires more manual configuration but provides responsive support and extensive training resources.

Pricing and ROI: PRTG Network Monitor has a flexible pricing model offering strong ROI for businesses seeking affordable solutions. Instana, while more costly, delivers substantial ROI through high-level functionalities and operational insights.

To learn more, read our detailed Instana Infrastructure Monitoring vs. PRTG Network Monitor Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Instana Infrastructure Monitoring vs. PRTG Network Monitor

December 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

Instana Infrastructure Moni...

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

32nd

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

22nd

Average Rating

9.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

PRTG Network Monitor

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

4th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

9th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

112

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Instana Infrastructure Monitoring is 0.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PRTG Network Monitor is 3.9%, down from 4.1% 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	3.9%
Instana Infrastructure Monitoring	0.7%
Other	95.4%

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Hakimuddin Ronaque

Assistant Manager at Lauren Information Technologies Pvt Ltd

Has the capability to automatically integrate with a large number of products

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten. I have not worked much on other technologies, like SAP or VMware's virtualization part, on-prem infrastructure, or cloud infrastructure. Instana Infrastructure Monitoring is so fast and easy to adapt that it works fine. I have not explored other operating systems or infrastructure solutions because my company doesn't have that customer scale. Most of our customers are on-prem or on AWS or Azure, but Instana Infrastructure Monitoring adapts to their infrastructure very well. My company came to know how well Instana Infrastructure Monitoring adapts to our customers' infrastructures when we take care of the PoC phase. Around 12 to 15 people in my company use the product.

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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.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The product is easy to deploy."

"The product's initial setup is easy."

"Speed of deployment is one of the most valuable features."

"PRTG gives us true visibility of the downtime of particular circuit functions. So if a circuit is up but not routing traffic, I will know with this tool. I can write a customized script for a sensor to detect specific things."

"I can create my own program sensor. This means I can add extra monitoring capabilities into the already fundamentally strong foundation."

"The remote probes are very useful. They allow us to provide a reference across different areas in the network. In trying to localize issues, that's very useful."

"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."

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

"The tool is integrated with our email for the alerts."

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

More PRTG Network Monitor pros

Cons

"The product’s scalability is an area with certain limitations, making it an area where improvements are required."

"Instana Infrastructure Monitoring needs to support monitoring of the .NET framework since it is one of the areas where the solution currently has shortcomings."

"The user interface could be more modern as it is quite dated. PRTG Network Monitor can sometimes be too detailed and cluttered at the beginning, making it heavy to use."

"PRTG's documentation could be improved."

"Technical support is an area with concerns in PRTG Network Monitor, where improvements are required."

"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."

"Mostly, this software has sensors for devices to monitor specs and you can build or develop or modify various sensors, according to your company's needs. But you may need to do that with coding or plugins or with the support of Paessler AG, the manufacturer."

"I would like to see Office 365 monitoring. Essentially, it doesn't do it. I assumed not at all, but apparently it does it slightly. However, due to issues with APIs, they currently don't provide full monitoring for O365."

"I would like to see a more robust platform and a new dashboard. In addition, the code is good, but it needs improvement."

"The technical support could respond a little bit quicker."

More PRTG Network Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of the tool is around 130 USD per month."

"Licenses are very expensive, so I would like to see cheaper licensing."

"We pay nothing for it. Its 100 sensors have allowed us to put a magnifying glass on some systems, providing an extra layer of detail. Therefore, our outgoing is nothing and our incoming is a lot of useful data that we can react to proactively."

"I would like better pricing models for smaller businesses. The free version is fantastic, but it's too restrictive. If they could just get up to 200 sensors for a reasonable fee for on-premise, I would give PRTG my credit card right now."

"Cost was a factor when selecting this solution, but it just did everything we wanted it to do."

"The ability to use the base version with 100 free sensors is great. The cost on other packages can be very reasonable."

"Right now, the smallest sensor pack that they have is just a bit out of range for me, as a business. This kills me, as I need the product. Therefore, there is always a balance between needing to buy it or continuing their free version."

"We are using the premium version of PRTG Network Monitor. The price of the solution is a bit higher than competitors but it is worth the extra money. However, it would be helpful if the price was lower."

"One thing I like is that when you buy sensors, it's a perpetual license, so once you buy 2,000 sensors, you've got 2,000 sensors; it's not a recurring cost."

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

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	59
Midsize Enterprise	19
Large Enterprise	47

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Instana Infrastructure Monitoring?

The product is easy to deploy.

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What needs improvement with Instana Infrastructure Monitoring?

The product’s scalability is an area with certain limitations, making it an area where improvements are required.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Instana Infrastructure Monitoring?

I use the solution in my company, especially if an application is down and it is considered to be a P1 issue or a critical issue. The network team will blame the application team, while the applica...

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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...

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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?

The pricing was higher at the beginning, but the recurring licensing cost is affordable and reasonable. Overall, the pricing, setup cost, and licensing is fair for our industry. They have quoted us...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

Centreon vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 5% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 4% of the time

Checkmk vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 4% of the time

Nagios XI vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

December 2025

Instana Infrastructure Monitoring report

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Buyer's Guide

PRTG Network Monitor

January 2026

Download PRTG Network Monitor product report

Overview

Instana ensures that your application delivery organization has the data, visibility and information they need to manage the performance of critical business applications across the DevOps lifecycle. Built to handle the dynamic nature of containerized, microservice architectures, Instana automates infrastructure and application monitoring helping you to ensure the performance and quality of custom applications and accelerate your CI/CD cycle.

Instana

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

booxware, drivenow, scopevisio, enevo, TimoCom, mobitech

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

Instana Infrastructure Monitoring vs. PRTG Network Monitor

December 2025

Free Report: Instana Infrastructure Monitoring vs. PRTG Network Monitor

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