PRTG Network Monitor vs Wireshark comparison

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98% willing to recommend

PRTG Network Monitor

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between PRTG Network Monitor and Wireshark based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Zabbix, Auvik, SolarWinds and others in Network Monitoring Software.

To learn more, read our detailed Network Monitoring Software Report (Updated: August 2025).

Network Monitoring Software

August 2025

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Helped 865,384 peers since 2012

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

PRTG Network Monitor

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

103

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (5th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (6th), Cloud Monitoring Software (11th)

Wireshark

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Troubleshooting (4th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Management solutions, they serve different purposes. PRTG Network Monitor is designed for Network Monitoring Software and holds a mindshare of 4.2%, down 4.4% compared to last year.
Wireshark, on the other hand, focuses on Network Troubleshooting, holds 13.3% mindshare, up 11.9% since last year.

Network Monitoring Software

Network Troubleshooting

Featured Reviews

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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Vijay Duggal

Network Specialist at Squarepoint Capital

Provides detailed traffic analysis and helps troubleshoot issues

There is a disadvantage when it comes to sampling intervals. While the solution supports sampling as fine as one millisecond, it requires a copy at that interval. My Python script allows me to achieve a granularity of up to ten microseconds, but I can't go beyond that. When dealing with provisioning on both issues, it would be beneficial if I could go down to the microsecond level, if not the nanosecond. Additionally, I've heard from a colleague that Wireshark might be less effective in the voice domain.

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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 solution is easy to manage and the reports are very accurate."

"We have asked questions of their technical support and they have a very good response time."

"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 real-time monitoring feature in PRTG is invaluable to me"

"The solution provides us response times to issues."

"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."

"The most valuable feature of PRTG Network Monitor is the different monitoring probes available."

More PRTG Network Monitor pros

"Wireshark helps us to understand network traffic."

"It gives us the ability to pinpoint problems and to communicate network problems with software and hardware vendors."

"I find Wireshark a very useful tool. Its best feature is that it allows me to deeply understand what's going on at the packet level, as well as any adverse signatures that I can analyze. When I need to create an IPS rule, I need to check the traffic deeply to get more insights about the actual traffic, what's the name of certain flags, etc., and I'm able to do all that through Wireshark. The tool is also user-friendly."

"I have found the most valuable feature you can design your sniffer the way you want to."

"The product is simple to implement."

"It is a stable product. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten."

"The most valuable feature is the traffic gate, which shows which IPs are getting more bandwidth or traffic."

"Wireshark is very user-friendly; even someone with basic IT knowledge can use it."

More Wireshark pros

Cons

"We would like to monitor certain aspects of the user experience. We should be able to analyze the cause of end user experience, bad or good, so we can do some research and development on our own."

"If PRTG could help me see the bandwidth for each host I have on my network, either for a wireless or a wired network, that would be very helpful."

"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."

"The only sort of limitation is the actual probes. So, if you don't have enough probes on there, you can over flip them and cause the WMI sensors and SNMP sensors to sort of overload. Sometimes, they might timeout for a minute, but they do come back."

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

"We need something that is more predictive. We would prefer if it wasn't a solution that was corrective and instead offered predictive insights so that we can handle problems before they even occur."

"They should work on syncing the solution with Gmail."

"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."

More PRTG Network Monitor cons

"The speed of the Internet could be improved, especially its performance."

"We would like the product to be developed so that it doesn't rely on internet access for installation. We would like to see all of the components required to be integrated into the installer."

"The product has been using the same GUI for many years."

"It would be better if they offered a hybrid version like My Cloud Control."

"I would like to see Wireshark improve the ease of application of the command. The command is very powerful, but not easy to apply."

"I wish the filters were a little bit more prepopulated."

"Sometimes I need to use tcpdump when I need to check the packets on CLI."

"The decryption of encrypted packets could be better."

More Wireshark cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing fees are billed annually and there are no costs in addition to this."

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

"PRTG Network Monitor is very expensive."

"We pay for a perpetual license and we have a support fee."

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

"We have unlimited devices and sensors, and it is a bit pricey, but we do have unlimited sensors. With all things considered the price is fine, related to the solution itself. PRTG Network Monitor is good value for money."

"The pricing is comparable."

"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."

More PRTG Network Monitor pricing and cost advice

"Wireshark is free software, so you can download it and use it for free with no licensing fees."

"We're using the free version of Wireshark."

"Wireshark is free of charge, and there's no license involved."

"It's free."

"Wireshark is an open-source product, so it's free to use."

"I've never personally had to pay for it, making it a highly valuable internet resource that's accessible for use. While they offer some paid versions, our firm has utilized the free version for the past three years."

"Wireshark is free software, so you don't have to pay any licensing fee. Individual people can use it and then donate to Wireshark."

"We are using a freeware version of this solution, so there are no licence costs involved."

More Wireshark pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.

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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

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

University

10%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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...

What do you like most about PRTG Network Monitor?

The tool is integrated with our email for the alerts.

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.

What do you like most about Wireshark?

The GUI is easy to use.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Wireshark?

Wireshark is priced at a medium range, not too high, not too low. The pricing could be more flexible, and they might make it more expensive. That said, compared to other products, it is competitive.

What needs improvement with Wireshark?

The speed of the Internet could be improved, especially its performance. Performance can sometimes be a challenge due to numerous factors.

Zabbix vs PRTG Network Monitor

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Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 20% of the time

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Compared 14% of the time

Colasoft Capsa vs Wireshark

Compared 11% of the time

Zabbix vs Wireshark

Compared 10% of the time

ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer vs Wireshark

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Download PRTG Network Monitor product report

PRTG Network Monitor

August 2025

Download Wireshark product report

July 2025

Overview

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

Wireshark is the world's foremost network protocol analyzer.

Sample Customers

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

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