Paessler PRTG – The one-and-done alternative to N-able

Choosing between Paessler PRTG and N-able depends on several factors, such as your specific network monitoring needs, budget, and technical resources available in your organization.

PRTG is ideal:

• If you prefer an all-in-one, easy-to-use solution with minimal setup time.
• If you need sophisticated, customizable visualizations like dashboards and network maps.
• If you want to monitor an unlimited number of remote locations and networks at no extra cost.
• If you prefer high scalability and a software tailored to large, complex environments.
• If you want to get real-time alerting, custom notifications, and automated reporting.
• If you want to have the choice between an on-premises or cloud-based solution.
• If you want a straightforward licensing model at a comparatively low price.

N-able might be your choice:

• If you're a managed services provider, or MSP
• If your primary use cases are RMM and cyber resilience
• If you're comfortable paying for advanced features as and when you need them
• If you have the resources and know-how required to deploy, integrate, and orchestrate multiple monitoring modules

PRTG, hands down.

"Of course you'd say that" we hear you say. But, trust us, PRTG really is the better network monitoring and IT management solution, because it enables you to keep a close eye on all your IT services — and we do mean all of them: local and remote hardware, software, virtualized environments, third-party tools, and environmental metrics — from a single interface. And you can access all these features and capabilities on every pricing tier. Even the free plan. 

N-able, by contrast, is primarily focused on remote monitoring and management and cyber resilience. Their solution is also modular. Which, while great for flexibility, means your monitoring environment will require more hands-on management.

PRTG supports multi-level alerts with advanced logic, including notification triggers based on custom thresholds, severity, escalation policies, and dependencies. This means you have surgical control over when an alert is triggered, and less risk of false positives. You can also customize the notification's content so your IT team has all the information they need. 

N-able supports profile-based alerting via email. They integrate tightly with RMM and security events, but granularity is limited compared to PRTG, so there's more risk of false positives.

PRTG's sensor-based pricing means you pay for the metrics you want to monitor, not to access specific features or functionality. The base price includes everything. The first 100 sensors are free, forever, which means you can get the full PRTG experience from the get-go, even if you have an extremely limited IT budget. 

N-able, on the other hand, creates a custom quote based on the capabilities you need, the number of endpoints you'll be monitoring, and how many users need access. This can make it challenging to predict costs ahead of time.

In PRTG, “sensors” are the basic monitoring elements. One sensor usually monitors one measured value in your network, for example the traffic of a switch port, the CPU load of a server, or the free space on a disk drive. On average, you need about 5-10 sensors per device or one sensor per switch port.