In search for a PRTG alternative?

OpManager's transparent licensing model VS PRTG's sensor-based licensing model

• PRTG follows sensor-based licensing model where every aspect which is required to be monitored on a device, such as the CPU load on a machine, a port of a switch, a specific URL or the traffic of a network connection will be considered as a sensor.
• OpManager, taking on as the best alternative to PRTG, follows a transparent device-based license model, where a user has to pay just for the nodes and monitor any number of interfaces, disks, or any performance metric.

Sample requirement in a network environment.

• To monitor 50 servers.
• Each server has 10 monitors and 5 disk volumes.
• Every monitor and every disk volume has 5 performance metrics to be monitored.

Cumulative calculation for the above requirement.

Total no. of servers: 50
Total no. of monitors: 10x50 = 500
Total no. of disk volume: 5x50 = 250
Performance metrics for one monitor/disk volume/server = 5
No. of sensors (performance metrics for monitors): 500 x 5 = 2500
No. of sensors (performance metrics for disk volume): 250 x 5 = 1250
No. of sensors (performance metrics for servers as a whole): 50 x 5 = 250

Total no. of sensors = 2500 + 1250 + 250 = 4000

Based on the cumulative count, the ideal licensing plans for the above requirements are tabulated below:

Drawbacks in PRTG Network Monitor's licensing model:

• Although the above requirement is for 4000 sensors, the users have to opt for a bigger plan since the PRTG follows a huge difference between two licensing slabs. Thus, a user is forced to purchase a plan which is more than his actual requirement.
• Since sensor-based licensing is based on the monitoring metric for different aspects, it does not give the users enough flexibility while monitoring.
• The pricing is more expensive when compared to a device-based licensing.