Nmap vs PRTG Network Monitor comparison

Nmap and Paessler GmbH are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Nmap is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.8, while Paessler GmbH is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4. Nmap holds a 0.7% mindshare in NMS, compared to Paessler GmbH’s 3.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Nmap users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Paessler GmbH users who would recommend it.

Nmap

Read 22 Nmap reviews

1,820 Views
1,638 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

PRTG Network Monitor

Read 112 PRTG Network Monitor reviews

9,185 Views
6,338 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Nmap

PRTG Network Monitor

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

Nmap and PRTG Network Monitor are competitors in the network management category, with PRTG Network Monitor appearing to have the edge due to its comprehensive features, despite Nmap's competitive pricing and perceived efficiency.

Features: Nmap excels in its open-source availability and robust network scanning capabilities, enabling detailed security audits, network exploration, and open port identification. PRTG Network Monitor stands out with extensive monitoring functions such as bandwidth usage, uptime analytics, and network mapping. It provides a myriad of sensors that cover diverse IT needs.

Room for Improvement: Nmap can enhance its deployment simplicity and user interface, as its steep learning curve may pose challenges for non-technical users. Additionally, adding more real-time integration features would be beneficial. On the other hand, PRTG Network Monitor could improve its price point for smaller budgets, simplify complex configuration processes, and offer deeper customizability options to better meet unique organizational requirements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: PRTG Network Monitor offers easy deployment with robust support options, making it viable for diverse organizations. It provides customer assistance, online resources, and community forums. Nmap, being open-source, necessitates more technical expertise for its setup but offers extensive community support for troubleshooting and queries.

Pricing and ROI: Nmap provides high ROI due to its free, open-source model, making it accessible for smaller teams. PRTG Network Monitor incurs higher initial costs; however, it offers a scalable solution that presents significant long-term ROI through features like real-time monitoring and alert systems, justifying its investment for comprehensive network management needs.

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

Buyer's Guide

Nmap 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

Nmap

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

9th

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

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

112

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (4th), Cloud Monitoring Software (9th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nmap is 0.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PRTG Network Monitor is 3.3%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
PRTG Network Monitor	3.3%
Nmap	0.7%
Other	96.0%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

MoshiurRahman Khan

CEO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Improves network monitoring and offers insights into traffic, including VPNs

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. This feature is crucial for law enforcement agencies to monitor and analyze network connectivity effectively. It also has traffic analysis. For example, assessing bandwidth usage and configuring the tool to track specific types of traffic is crucial. Unlike SolarWinds, which requires configuration for this, Nmap has built-in functionality that allows it to check all 4,000 computer ports. It identifies the type of traffic each port is using and can easily generate reports on network communications between computers, whether there are 100 or 1000 in the network.

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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 initial setup was simple."

"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 best feature of Nmap is that it lets me see useful information about each endpoint in my entire network environment. For example, I can see every single connection of the network as well as each and every port."

"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."

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

"The scanning procedure includes UDP ports which sets it apart from competitors."

"From a functionality standpoint, it's robust and straightforward to comprehend."

"It is a very user-friendly product."

More Nmap pros

"The solution provides us response times to issues."

"Ease of set-up – it is quick and easy to add a probe and start collecting data from a device."

"PRTG Network Monitor's best features are its flexibility, ease of implementation, user-friendliness, and intuitive interfaces."

"It is a user-friendly solution."

"The initial setup is very simple."

"The most valuable features of PRTG Network Monitor are bandwidth utilization, user-friendliness, all past report simple retrievals, and timeout features. Additionally, if the solution does go down it is simple to bring it back."

"The sensors and probes are great, nice and lightweight, they don't take up too many resources on the system. We just deploy them out and they start reporting instantly."

"The best feature is that it lets me know what is going on. I need to know if something has gone down, I need to know if something is running very slowly. PRTG tells me that."

More PRTG Network Monitor pros

Cons

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

"They should deliver Playtech's username and password."

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

"The challenge often lies in finding suitable courses and professional resources."

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

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

"Customization is not very user-friendly in Nmap."

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

More Nmap cons

"PRTG Network Monitor can be improved as there is a lot of manual cleanup needed, which could be reduced."

"The dashboarding definitely needs improvement."

"They need to address the slowness issue that sometimes occurs with PRTG Network Monitor."

"PRTG Network Monitor needs to show bandwidth utilization in proper graphs. It isn't easy to learn."

"While the desktop app is good, they could slightly improve it. We would like it to be a single pane of glass. At the moment, you can only see certain portions of information. You have to scroll through to make it more granular. We want them to develop the desktop app to be more user-friendly."

"PRTG access works best from the web GUI. There are dedicated apps on Windows/Android/iOS, but they are slow and don’t work as well as the web GUI."

"PRTG could use reporting tools and mobile alert tools. It should be easier to diagnose and respond to problems from a mobile device on the go."

"The thing that we do struggle with a bit is in the historic data. If I want look over 30 days, because it averages out onto one graph, you can't zoom in and drill down information."

More PRTG Network Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The solution is open source so it is free."

"The solution is free of cost."

"Nmap is an open-source product. You don't need a license to install it."

"I am using the standard free version of Nmap."

"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."

"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."

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

More Nmap pricing and cost advice

"The price was pretty good, very competitive."

"Sensors on free version can run out quick."

"It is expensive."

"The price of PRTG Network Monitor is reasonable for the features that the solution provides. They charge you per monitoring, not per node, it is per port that you need for a device."

"All monitoring system is close to the same pricing scheme."

"The pricing is reasonable for the features provided."

"The scalability is there, but smaller companies might need CAM software to be able afford the product."

"Because we are only on the free version, we have a limited number of sensors. Therefore, we are not monitoring as much as we want to be to obtain historical information."

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

Manufacturing Company

14%

Government

University

Retailer

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	11

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

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...

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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...

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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

LiveNX vs Nmap

Compared 9% of the time

Zabbix vs Nmap

Compared 9% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Nmap

Compared 8% of the time

Domotz Pro vs Nmap

Compared 8% of the time

Meraki Dashboard vs Nmap

Compared 8% of the time

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Zabbix vs PRTG Network Monitor

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

Nmap

January 2026

Download Nmap product report

Buyer's Guide

PRTG Network Monitor

January 2026

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

December 2025

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