Nmap vs PRTG Network Monitor comparison

Nmap and Paessler GmbH are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Nmap is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.6, while Paessler GmbH is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.7. Nmap holds a 0.5% mindshare in NMS, compared to Paessler GmbH’s 4.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Nmap users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Paessler GmbH users who would recommend it.

Nmap

Read 22 Nmap reviews

1,121 Views
602 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

PRTG Network Monitor

Read 102 PRTG Network Monitor reviews

6,904 Views
4,836 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Nmap

PRTG Network Monitor

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

Nmap and PRTG Network Monitor compete in network monitoring. PRTG Network Monitor has an advantage with comprehensive monitoring features, which justify its higher cost with a broader array of tools and superior support.

Features: Nmap provides robust scanning with advanced scripting for OS detection, service detection, and vulnerability assessments. It identifies detailed information about network devices and open ports. PRTG Network Monitor offers real-time monitoring and customizable dashboards. It includes extensive sensor options for detailed infrastructure visibility and provides proactive alerts and reporting features.

Room for Improvement: Nmap could enhance its user interface to attract non-technical users and expand its customer support structure. It can also integrate more automation for scanning. PRTG Network Monitor could improve its initial configuration complexity and reduce notification overload. It may benefit from optimizing resource consumption and enhancing integration capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nmap is easy and free for deployment, favored by those with technical expertise, but lacks structured support. PRTG Network Monitor offers a user-friendly deployment with guided setup and responsive customer service, appealing to organizations desiring comprehensive assistance.

Pricing and ROI: Nmap, as an open-source tool, involves no setup costs, providing high ROI for detailed network scans. PRTG Network Monitor, with its higher price, delivers substantial ROI through its robust monitoring capabilities and strong support. It supports operational efficiency enhancements, justifying the investment.

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

Buyer's Guide

Nmap vs. PRTG Network Monitor

April 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

Nmap

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

12th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

PRTG Network Monitor

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

102

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (8th), Cloud Monitoring Software (9th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nmap is 0.5%, down from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PRTG Network Monitor is 4.3%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Harish (Kumar)

Cyber Security and IT Head at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees

Shows useful info on every network endpoint, but has slow scanning speed and no GUI

One of the drawbacks of the standard Nmap utility is that it does not come with a graphical user interface, unlike a number of other open-source alternatives such as Zenmap. A second drawback is that the network scanning process can be very slow. I believe that the developers should improve the scanning speed, or perhaps offer an extra option for quicker scanning. Lastly, even though I can scan the network, the utility doesn't provide any way to fix the network issues that may be discovered. That said, I understand that the tool is not intended for fixing anything, but rather for monitoring and discovery only.

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Noman-Saleem

Network Support Officer at Habib Metropolitan Bank Ltd

Detects suden changes but significant pricing concerns affect the effectiveness of network traffic troubleshooting

We use PRTG Network Monitor for monitoring traffic on interfaces and the behavior of network traffic. If there are sudden changes in traffic or any configuration issues, we can sort them out using PRTG. It's very helpful for troubleshooting and monitoring traffic utilization on our interfaces…

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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

"Nmap is easy to use. It's a command-line interface, and the output is quite good."

"The real-time reporting feature of Nmap is particularly valuable. It generates detailed reports on the source and destination IP addresses, the protocols used, and the types of traffic."

"The most important function, according to me, is the capability to use some arguments in the scanning. The solution's capability to go figure and do a deep dive, discovering information on specific aspects."

"Nmap's performance is great, and I've never noticed any issues in this respect. It really doesn't put a heavy load on the machine when using it."

"The solution detects the operating systems, which makes testing the software much easier before making the payload."

"Nmap is mostly helpful during compliance checks. We run the scanner to see how many devices are on our network and find vulnerabilities in those that aren't compliant. We also use it monthly to scan our network and identify devices that aren't connected properly. This helps us detect any issues related to the operating systems of these devices."

"It is a very user-friendly product."

"The most valuable feature of the solution for security audits stems from the fact that it serves as a powerful tool with the ability to scan a large number of ports."

More Nmap pros

"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."

"Accessibility, ease of use (Web GUI, MobileApps). In general, compared with other software"

"The feature whereby it shows when my hard drives are moving towards thresholds that would be considered outages, before they reach that point - that is valuable."

"Stable solution for monitoring networks and bandwidth, with multiple functions and features such as NetFlow Collector, graphical monitoring, etc."

"I can customize the port as per my need and the real-time monitoring feature that is already provided to me."

"It is a central solution in terms of how to actually use it. It has a very easy dashboard. Everything is concise. We are able to create custom sensors. For different parts of the business, we have many products across many environments, and it works for everything."

"It is easy when it comes to dependencies of devices, so if your router goes down, the three or four switches behind it will automatically be paused so that you don't get multiple alerts."

"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."

More PRTG Network Monitor pros

Cons

"It takes a bit of time to get familiar with the solution and its options."

"Since I started using Nmap, it has been completely based on the command prompt and I think it would help other users if they implemented a decent GUI as well."

"There could be a specific option to check non-pingable endpoints for the product."

"There are concerns with the stability of the product, making it an area where improvements are required."

"The solution's initial setup could be better."

"The tool's license limits the number of scans it can perform. Improving the license model could benefit customers by allowing more scans for compliance and other purposes."

"Nmap needs to improve its scanning speed."

"The solution should increase the number of features under a free license."

More Nmap cons

"The product could be improved by being cross-platform friendly."

"This solution is a good product so far, but I haven't been using it long enough to know how it could be improved."

"This product can be improved by updating the net flow interface. The one that is in place works – I can get all the information I need from it – but it is a little bit clunky."

"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."

"Performance-wise, PRTG Network Monitor still needs improvement because a large number of SNMPv3 queries reduces tool performance."

"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."

"When it comes to third-party integration, one of the things we were looking at was putting some sensors onto our firewall, for instance. If there were a little bit more documentation and some step-by-step guides around that, that would be useful for us."

"I would like a more straightforward ability to create dashboards and maps. The network maps should be a bit more flexibility in the GUI to do what we need to do."

More PRTG Network Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Nmap is open source software, which suits us well because we are a manufacturing company and not an IT company, for example. If we were an IT company, we would probably need to pay for extra support or instead go for another software solution. But as it is, we don't have any need for high-end troubleshooting tools."

"It's an open-source product, and I haven't seen any premiums. Options are available for those who purchase, but for my use case, everything I need is available in the community and forums."

"The product's pricing is fine. The licensing options for Nmap include perpetual licenses and volume-based licenses. For perpetual licenses, once you purchase it, there's no need to invest in renewals. And for volume-based licenses, enterprise companies can use it multiple times based on the number of users or devices they need to scan. It's a pay-as-you-go model, similar to how you pay for what you use."

"It's an open-source solution. Commerically, only the support service is available."

"Nmap is an open-source and free product."

"I am using the free version of Nmap."

"The solution is free of cost, but there are specific services that we have to buy."

"The solution is free of cost."

More Nmap pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is reasonable for the features provided."

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

"I'm paying something like €1000 per year for the maintenance. I've got unlimited sensors."

"It's an annual license that is based on the number of endpoints that we're tracking and using."

"The pricing is comparable."

"The price of PRTG is reasonable. PRTG's competitors like SolarWinds and ManageEngine charge more for the same functionality."

"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."

"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."

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

Retailer

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

45%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Nmap?

Nmap is mostly helpful during compliance checks. We run the scanner to see how many devices are on our network and find vulnerabilities in those that aren't compliant. We also use it monthly to sca...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nmap?

I am using the free version of Nmap.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Nmap?

Nmap is used for network scanning to map the network, identify devices, and assess their status. It helps determine open ports and services running on a particular endpoint or server within an ente...

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?

The pricing is in the middle. It's not too high, nor too low, but it's reasonable.

See all answers

Comparisons

SolarWinds NPM vs Nmap

Compared 17% of the time

Zabbix vs Nmap

Compared 17% of the time

Azure Network Watcher vs Nmap

Compared 12% of the time

LiveAction LiveNX vs Nmap

Compared 11% of the time

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs Nmap

Compared 11% of the time

More Nmap Competitors

Zabbix vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 7% of the time

LibreNMS vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 6% of the time

PRTG Enterprise Monitor vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 6% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 6% of the time

Centreon vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 6% of the time

More PRTG Network Monitor Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Nmap

May 2025

Download Nmap product report

Buyer's Guide

PRTG Network Monitor

May 2025

Download PRTG Network Monitor product report

Overview

Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free and open source (license) utility for network discovery and security auditing. Many systems and network administrators also find it useful for tasks such as network inventory, managing service upgrade schedules, and monitoring host or service uptime. Nmap uses raw IP packets in novel ways to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are running, what type of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens of other characteristics. It was designed to rapidly scan large networks, but works fine against single hosts. Nmap runs on all major computer operating systems, and official binary packages are available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. In addition to the classic command-line Nmap executable, the Nmap suite includes an advanced GUI and results viewer (Zenmap), a flexible data transfer, redirection, and debugging tool (Ncat), a utility for comparing scan results (Ndiff), and a packet generation and response analysis tool (Nping).

Nmap

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

Lockheed Martin, Eastern Bank Boston, Perspecta, Harris Corporation, Discovery Communication

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

Nmap vs. PRTG Network Monitor

April 2025

Free Report: Nmap vs. PRTG Network Monitor

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