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  1. Home>
  2. IT Topics>
  3. Comparison>
  4. WhatsUp Gold Alternative
PRTG Logo

Paessler PRTG – The perfect alternative to WhatsUp Gold

  • User-friendly software with custom dashboards, alerting, and reports
  • All-in-one monitoring for your entire network in real time
  • Save time, money, and effort in the long run
Free download
product overview

Our users give top ratings for monitoring with Paessler PRTG

Gartner peer insights
spiceworks
Capterra
G2
Trustpilot

PRTG as a WhatsUp Gold alternative: What you’ll find on this page

Table of content
  • All-in-one network monitoring tool, all features included
  • Fast setup and intuitive usability
  • What network monitoring looks like in PRTG
  • Compare PRTG to WhatsUp Gold
  • 5 reasons why to choose PRTG
  • PRTG vs. WhatsUp Gold: FAQ

PRTG makes network monitoring as easy as it gets

Custom alerts and data visualization let you quickly identify and prevent all kinds of network issues.

Free download
PRODUCT OVERVIEW

PRTG vs. WhatsUp Gold: All-in-one network monitoring tool, all features included

PRTG makes it easy to monitor your entire IT infrastructure from a single dashboard – from network, storage systems, cloud services, virtual systems, databases, and applications, to medical devices, CCTV systems, industrial environments, and more.

With PRTG, all monitoring features are included with every license. You don't need a separate module or add-on for features like application monitoring, virtualization monitoring, network traffic analysis with flow protocols, and more, as WhatsUp Gold requires.

Simply determine how many endpoints you wish to monitor and the number of sensors you’ll need to do so. This also makes PRTG way more cost effective than WhatsUp Gold.

Table of content

Fast setup and intuitive usability

Network monitoring should be quick and easy. Cumbersome and complicated software creates unnecessary work for the administrator. PRTG makes monitoring as user-friendly as possible – no matter if you choose an on-prem installation or our cloud-based product.

icon time

Quick installation with automatic network discovery and smart setup for instant monitoring

icon dashboard

Custom dashboard creation via drag & drop with easy-to-read visualized overviews

icon mobile

Different user interfaces for web, desktop, and mobile apps for monitoring on the go

icon partners

Network of qualified implementation partners to support you with a smooth migration to PRTG

What network monitoring looks like in PRTG

Diagnose network issues by continuously tracking the health, availability, and performance of your entire IT infrastructure. Show hardware parameters, application performance, network traffic, bandwidth usage, and other key metrics in real time. Visualize data in clear graphs and dashboards to identify problems more easily. Gain the overview you need to troubleshoot all kinds of issues in your network.

PRTG Screenshot device tree view

Device tree view of the complete monitoring setup

PRTG screenshot map entire it infrastructure

Custom PRTG dashboard for keeping an eye on the entire IT infrastructure

PRTG screenshot graph live data traffic

Live traffic data graph in PRTG

Compare PRTG to WhatsUp Gold

FEATURE

PRTG

PRTG

WhatsUp Gold

WhatsUp Gold

One tool for your entire network

PRTG
included

All monitoring features included

WhatsUp Gold
included

Monitoring solution for network, servers, and applications

Easy setup, intuitive monitoring

PRTG
included

User-friendly interfaces for web, desktop, and mobile

WhatsUp Gold
included

Web-based interface with dashboards and mobile app access

Automatic network discover

PRTG
included

Included

WhatsUp Gold
included

Included

Real-time alerts & notifications

PRTG
included

Advanced, highly customizable alerting via

different notification methods

WhatsUp Gold
included

Customizable alerts via email, SMS, and other channels with escalation policies

Custom maps & dashboards

PRTG
included

Custom dashboard creation via drag & drop

WhatsUp Gold
included

Interactive maps and customizable dashboards available

Agentless monitoring

PRTG
included

No need to install agents on the monitored systems

WhatsUp Gold
included

Primarily agentless, though agents available for certain monitoring scenarios

On-premises or cloud-based

PRTG
included

Flexible deployment options available

WhatsUp Gold
included

Available as on-premises solution, with cloud monitoring capabilities

Enterprise version

PRTG
included

Available

WhatsUp Gold
included

Available with tiered licensing options

Freeware version

PRTG
included

Available for up to 100 sensors, free for life

WhatsUp Gold
not included

No free version, only time-limited trial

Distributed network monitoring

PRTG
included

Monitoring an unlimited number of remote locations included

WhatsUp Gold
included

Supports distributed monitoring through polling engines, additional licensing may apply

Server & application monitoring

PRTG
included

Out-of-the-box integration, no extra cost

WhatsUp Gold
included

Included in base product, with application monitoring features

Network performance monitoring

PRTG
included

Out-of-the-box integration, no extra cost

WhatsUp Gold
included

Core functionality with detailed performance metrics

Bandwidth monitoring

PRTG
included

Out-of-the-box integration, no extra cost

WhatsUp Gold
included

Included with flow monitoring capabilities

Network traffic analyzer

PRTG
included

Out-of-the-box integration, no extra costs

WhatsUp Gold
included

Available through flow monitoring features

Cloud services monitoring

PRTG
included

Out-of-the-box integration, no extra cost

WhatsUp Gold
included

Supports monitoring of cloud services, though less comprehensive than PRTG

Virtual infrastructure monitoring

PRTG
included

Out-of-the-box integration, no extra cost

WhatsUp Gold
included

Supports VMware and Hyper-V monitoring

Storage resource monitoring

PRTG
included

Out-of-the-box integration, no extra cost

WhatsUp Gold
included

Included for monitoring storage devices and resources

Database monitoring

PRTG
included

Out-of-the-box integration, no extra cost

WhatsUp Gold
included

Supports monitoring of major database platforms

Web performance monitoring

PRTG
included

Out-of-the-box integration, no extra cost

WhatsUp Gold
included

Includes web performance monitoring capabilities

Supports leading technologies

PRTG
included

SNMP, flow protocols, packet sniffing, WMI, HTTP, ping, SQL, and much more

WhatsUp Gold
included

Supports SNMP, WMI, PowerShell, SSH, flow protocols, and more

Create your own scripts

PRTG
included

Own PRTG API included for custom sensors and scripts

WhatsUp Gold
included

Supports custom scripts and API for extending monitoring capabilities

Includes technical support

PRTG
included

Expert support included, no extra costs

WhatsUp Gold
included

Technical support included with active maintenance, different tiers available

Start monitoring your network with PRTG and see how it can make your network more reliable and your job easier.

Free download
PRODUCT OVERVIEW

IT experts agree: Paessler PRTG is a great solution for IT infrastructure monitoring

PCMag

“All-around winning
 network monitor”

IT Brief

“The real beauty of PRTG is the endless possibilities it offers”

ITPro

“PRTG Network Monitor 
is very hard to beat”

5 reasons why to choose PRTG

Outstanding functionality & usability

Even the very best monitoring software is of no use if it’s difficult to use. PRTG not only comes with an extensive range of features, but it’s also known for its excellent usability.

Countless customers have praised PRTG for its user-friendly design and intuitive user interface – just check our customer success stories!

Agentless monitoring

PRTG does not make you install any software on the devices that you want to monitor – the monitoring tool is agentless software.

PRTG uses known protocols such as SNMP, WMI, NetFlow, or SSH to integrate devices and services from any vendor or provider.

Distributed monitoring at no extra cost

With PRTG, you can install remote probes at any number of sites and then monitor them remotely with your central PRTG installation.

Each license of PRTG includes an unlimited number of remote probes, which makes monitoring distributed locations and networks as easy as 1,2,3.

Easily customizable monitoring

PRTG provides a whole range of sensor and device templates so that you can integrate your own queries into PRTG with little effort – including the REST Custom v2 sensor, which allows easy access to devices and applications via the PRTG API.

Save time, nerves, and money

For all-in-one network monitoring software, PRTG is remarkably inexpensive. Many of our customers have enjoyed substantial savings by using PRTG over other monitoring tools.

What’s more, the easy-to-use interface of PRTG saves sysadmins a considerable amount of time that can be used for other things. Since time is money, PRTG can help your company save big quickly.

Need help making a decision? 

You are interested to know if PRTG could be an alternative to your WhatsUp Gold implementation?

Contact Sales

PRTG is compatible with all major vendors, products, and systems

compatible with all major vendors, products, and systems

Your WhatsUp Gold alternative PRTG at a glance – even on the go

PRTG is set up in a matter of minutes and can be used on a wide variety of mobile devices.

device overview

PRTG vs. other monitoring tools

We also compared PRTG with other monitoring tools:

PRTG vs. Nagios

The basic version of the open-source tool Nagios is free of charge. But most users spent many hours to set up and customize the tool. In case of problems, browsing through forums is often the only solution.

Comparison with Nagios

PRTG vs. SolarWinds

SolarWinds might be interesting for extremely complex network environments. But it also means you need to invest in higher costs for a platform made up of different modules and add-ons (that cost extra).

Comparison with SolarWinds

PRTG vs. Zabbix

Zabbix is open-source software with a strong community support. But it requires lots of manual configuration work to install and set it up. You also need to install agents on the monitored systems.

Comparison with Zabbix

PRTG vs. ManageEngine

PRTG and ManageEngine might seem similar at first. However, with ManageEngine, you have to choose between individual functions and purchase several modules to access the full range of features.

Comparison with ManageEngine

Find the root cause of the problem with our PRTG network monitoring solution

Real-time notifications mean faster troubleshooting so that you can act before more serious issues occur.

Free download
PRODUCT OVERVIEW

Create innovative solutions with Paessler’s IT partners

Partnering with innovative IT vendors, Paessler unleashes synergies to create
new and additional benefits for joined customers.

baramundi

baramundi

baramundi and PRTG create a secure, reliable and powerful IT infrastructure where you have everything under control - from the traffic in your firewall to the configuration of your clients.

Read more
IP Fabric

IP Fabric

Combining PRTG’s broad monitoring feature set with IP Fabric’s automated network assurance creates a new level of network visibility and reliability.

Read more
NetBrain

NetBrain

Integrating monitoring results from PRTG into NetBrain maps makes the foundation for network automation.

Read more
Paessler PRTG

Paessler PRTG

Network Monitoring Software – Version 25.2.106.1114 (May 05th, 2025)

Hosting icon

Hosting

Download for Windows and cloud-based version PRTG Hosted Monitor available

Languages icon

Languages

English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese

test

Monitor everything

Network devices, bandwidth, servers, applications, virtual environments, remote systems, IoT, and more

test

Pricing

Choose the PRTG Network Monitor subscription that's best for you

PRTG vs. WhatsUp Gold: FAQ

 

Should I choose PRTG or WhatsUp Gold?

Choosing between Paessler PRTG and WhatsUp Gold 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.

WhatsUp Gold might be your choice:

  • If you need strong network mapping capabilities
  • If your network isn’t that complex and you therefore don’t need high scalability
  • If you’re looking for an integrated suite of tools for network and application performance monitoring
Which monitoring technologies does PRTG support?

PRTG offers a comprehensive overview of your IT systems in real time. It supports all the leading monitoring technologies, including:

  • SNMP
  • Flow protocols (NetFlow, jFlow, sFlow, and IPFIX)
  • Packet sniffing
  • WMI and Windows performance counters
  • HTTP requests
  • SSH for Linux and macOS systems
  • REST APIs for XML and JSON
  • Ping
  • SQL
  • and much more
What is a sensor in PRTG?

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.

We asked: would you recommend PRTG? Over 95% of our customers say yes!

Paessler conducted trials in over 600 IT departments worldwide to tune its network monitoring software closer to the needs of sysadmins. The result of the survey: over 95% of the participants would recommend PRTG – or already have.

recommendation
PRTG Logo

Need help making a decision? 

You are interested to know if PRTG could be an alternative to your WhatsUp Gold implementation?

Contact Sales

Products

  • Paessler PRTG
    Paessler PRTGMonitor your whole IT infrastructure
    • PRTG Network Monitor
    • PRTG Enterprise Monitor
    • PRTG Hosted Monitor
  • PRTG extensions
    Extensions for Paessler PRTGExtend your monitoring to a new level
  • Icon Features
    FeaturesExplore all monitoring features

Monitoring with PRTG

  • Network monitoring
  • Bandwidth monitoring
  • SNMP monitoring
  • Network mapping
  • Wi-Fi monitoring
  • Server monitoring
  • Network traffic analyzer
  • NetFlow monitoring
  • Syslog server

Useful Links

  • PRTG Manual
  • Knowledge Base
  • Customer Success Stories
  • About Paessler
  • Subscribe to newsletter
  • PRTG Support
  • PRTG Consulting

Contact

Paessler GmbH
Thurn-und-Taxis-Str. 14, 
90411 Nuremberg 
Germany

info@paessler.com

+49 911 93775-0

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