Paessler PRTG is commercial network and infrastructure monitoring sold as sensor-based subscriptions, on premises or as PRTG Hosted Monitor; pages here cover replacing it with self-hosted Zabbix, Checkmk or LibreNMS.
Comparing PRTG's sensor-based subscriptions with free Zabbix for network, server and application monitoring: SNMP and agent coverage, templates versus sensors, scaling with proxies, licensing after Zabbix moved to AGPL-3.0, and who runs each.
PRTG against Checkmk for Windows-heavy and mixed estates: auto-discovery, agents, what free Checkmk Community covers up to about 100 hosts, when the Pro or Ultimate editions are needed, and how licensing per sensor compares with licensing per service.
For network teams using PRTG mainly for switches, routers and bandwidth: LibreNMS's SNMP auto-discovery, traffic billing and routing protocol data, what it does not cover such as application checks, and when it is enough on its own.
Moving from PRTG to Zabbix: pulling devices, sensors and history through the PRTG HTTP API, mapping sensors to Zabbix templates and items, network discovery for SNMP devices, rebuilding notifications and maps, and running both until alerts match.
Moving PRTG devices to Checkmk: exporting the device list through the PRTG API, bulk host creation and service discovery in Checkmk, recreating thresholds and notification rules, and choosing between Checkmk Community and a commercial edition.
Cost of ownership by component: PRTG subscriptions by sensor tier and the jump to Enterprise Monitor, against Zabbix or Checkmk licensing or support subscriptions, servers and database, migration effort and the people who run monitoring.
What the PRTG HTTP API lets you export (device and sensor lists, live data and historic data as XML, JSON or CSV), what has to be rebuilt by hand such as maps, notification templates and custom sensors, and how to time the export against the subscription end.
PRTG Freeware stops at 100 sensors, about 10 devices. This page compares paying for the PRTG 500 subscription with moving to free self-hosted Zabbix, Checkmk Community or LibreNMS, and what each costs in setup time instead of license fees.
Tell us what you're working on, whether it's a deployment, an audit, a security test or a cyber range. You'll speak with an engineer who can help you scope it.