compare · manageengine opmanager vs paessler prtg
OpManager vs PRTG pricing and features for 50 to 1,000 devices
Short answer: on list price OpManager is the cheaper of the two by a wide margin. 100 devices cost $795 a year on OpManager Standard or $1,145 on Professional, and $4,296 a year on PRTG 1000. PRTG closes the gap once you need modules OpManager sells separately: a 250-device Professional bill with users, failover, configuration backup and flow analysis reaches $9,265, which is $361 more than PRTG 2500.
Both are servers you run inside the network. If what you really need is an alert when websites, VPN gateways and branch offices stop answering, AlertPing Team checks 100 of them from outside every 30 seconds for $348 a year.
alertping ▸ check preview
simulated
▸ type a domain to watch a check and an alert play out
▸ simulation of 2 regions · US East · EU Central
▸ waiting…▌
queued
probing▌
If ever goes down, you get:
Alert fired ▸ 2 channels · 6.2 s after first failure
AlertPing app
● DOWN : HTTP timeout confirmed from 2/2 regions (US East, EU Central). Incident opened.
sms · on-call
AlertPing: DOWN. Confirmed 2/2 regions . First fail: EU Central.
Simulation, not a measurement of your site: this preview runs entirely in your browser and the latencies are generated from the domain you typed. Real checks on your monitors run from our US East and EU Central regions.
$795 vs $4,296
a year for about 100 devices, OpManager Standard against PRTG 1000
3.3x to 5.4x
how much more PRTG lists than OpManager across 50 to 1,000 devices
+$361
where a fully loaded 250-device OpManager Professional bill passes PRTG 2500
$348 / yr
AlertPing Team, 100 outside checks every 30 seconds, no server
the one difference that decides the bill
OpManager counts devices and PRTG counts sensors
OpManager sells packs of devices. One license covers a switch, router, server or firewall with every interface, disk and metric on it, so a 48-port switch is one device. PRTG sells packs of sensors, where a sensor is a single measurement: one interface's traffic, one ping, one disk, one HTTP check. Paessler sizes its own tiers at about 10 sensors per device, which is why PRTG 1000 is described as enough for roughly 100 devices.
That 10-to-1 ratio is an average, not a rule. Watch traffic on every port of a few core switches and a device can use 30 or 50 sensors. On PRTG that moves you up a tier. On OpManager it changes nothing.
100 devices · yearly list price · by sensors per device
opmanager vs prtg pricing
OpManager vs PRTG price at every size
Annual subscription list prices in US dollars, read from ManageEngine's store and Paessler's pricing page in October 2026. PRTG is matched to devices with Paessler's own sizing of about 10 sensors per device.
| Devices | OpManager Standard | OpManager Professional | PRTG license | PRTG per year | PRTG per device | PRTG vs Professional |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | $445 | $645 | PRTG 500 | $2,400 | $48.00 | 3.72x |
| 100 | $795 | $1,145 | PRTG 1000 | $4,296 | $42.96 | 3.75x |
| 250 | $1,845 | $2,645 | PRTG 2500 | $8,904 | $35.62 | 3.37x |
| 500 | $2,895 | $3,845 | PRTG 5000 | $15,600 | $31.20 | 4.06x |
| 1,000 | $4,095 | $5,995 | PRTG 10000 | $19,704 | $19.70 | 3.29x |
PRTG is billed monthly-equivalent on an annual contract: $200, $358, $742, $1,300 and $1,642 a month. OpManager also sells perpetual licenses (Professional 100 devices is $2,845 once, plus 20% a year in maintenance), which beat the subscription after about five years. Below 50 devices, PRTG Freeware covers 100 sensors and OpManager's Free Edition covers 3 devices.
where prtg wins
When PRTG ends up cheaper than OpManager
OpManager's base price buys monitoring and two user logins. Configuration backup, flow analysis, firewall log analysis and a standby server are separate add-ons with their own tiers. PRTG prices flow monitoring as ordinary sensors inside the same license, and has no separate module catalog to buy.
So the honest comparison depends on what you would add. At 250 devices with the common add-ons, OpManager Professional lands at $9,265 against $8,904 for PRTG 2500. At 100 devices, Professional plus unlimited users, configuration backup for 100 devices and NetFlow for 100 interfaces is $4,475 against $4,296 for PRTG 1000. If you need none of those modules, OpManager stays three to five times cheaper.
250 devices, loaded
$9,265
OpManager Professional $2,645, unlimited users $958, failover $1,915, configuration backup $1,534, NetFlow 100 interfaces $1,318, firewall analysis for 2 $895
PRTG 2500 $8,904
100 devices, loaded
$4,475
OpManager Professional $1,145, unlimited users $958, configuration backup 100 devices $1,054, NetFlow 100 interfaces $1,318
PRTG 1000 $4,296
100 devices, monitoring only
OpManager Standard $795, plus an unlimited user pack $958 = $1,753. Still $2,543 under PRTG 1000.
opmanager vs prtg features
Features side by side, with the outside-in option
The AlertPing column is there because many teams comparing these two only need part of what either does. It is not a network monitor, and the table says so.
| ManageEngine OpManager | Paessler PRTG | AlertPing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | Device packs of 10 to 1,000, 2 users each | Sensor packs of 500 to 10,000 | Flat plan, 20 to 1,500 monitors |
| Entry paid price | Standard $95 a year for 10 devices | $2,400 a year for 500 sensors | Starter $288 a year for 20 monitors |
| Free tier | Free Edition, 3 devices | Freeware, 100 sensors | Interactive demo, then paid plans |
| Where it runs | Your Windows or Linux server | Your Windows server, or Paessler-hosted at about the same price | Our checkers in US East and EU Central |
| SNMP, discovery, maps | Yes (Layer 2 discovery from Professional) | Yes | No |
| VMware and Hyper-V | Professional and Enterprise | Yes, as sensors | No |
| Flow analysis | NetFlow add-on, from $198 a year | Flow sensors inside the license | No |
| Configuration backup | NCM add-on, from $190 a year | Not a core feature | No |
| Website, API and port checks | From your server | HTTP and port sensors from your server | Every 30 seconds on Team, from two outside regions |
| Knows when your own uplink is down | Only with a remote probe (Enterprise) or a second server | Only with a remote probe or the hosted edition | Yes, it checks from outside |
| Hosted public status page | Not included | Not included | 1 to 20 depending on plan |
| SMS alerts | Configured on your side | Configured on your side | Included, 100 to 3,000 a month by plan |
verdict by situation
Which one to buy for your network
Pick OpManager
You monitor many devices with many ports each, you want the lowest list price per device, and you do not need every add-on. A 48-port switch costs the same as a printer.
Pick PRTG
You want flow monitoring without buying a module, your devices need few sensors each, or you would rather have one license that grows by sensor count than a catalog of add-ons.
Add AlertPing to either
Your customers reach websites, APIs, VPN gateways or mail servers from the internet. Both tools watch from inside, so a dead uplink or a failed monitoring server can silence every alert at once.
Use AlertPing alone
Your list is mostly URLs, public IPs and ports, not switches. 100 of them cost $348 a year on Team, with SMS, escalation and a status page and no server to patch.
the blind spot both share
An inside monitor cannot report its own outage
OpManager and PRTG poll from a server on your network. When the internet link, the firewall or that server goes down, the alert has nowhere to go, and the first report comes from a customer. Remote probes help, but each one is another machine to place and maintain.
AlertPing checks your public endpoints from US East and EU Central and confirms each failure from the second region before it pages anyone. Point it at the website, the VPN gateway, the mail server and each branch office IP, and keep whichever network monitor you choose for the switches inside. The ping monitoring and port monitoring pages show the exact checks. If a hosted platform is also on your shortlist, the Site24x7 vs PRTG pricing breakdown runs the same device counts against Site24x7's component license, and Site24x7 vs OpManager pricing sets it against OpManager at 50 to 1,000 devices.
questions buyers ask
OpManager vs PRTG questions
Is OpManager better than PRTG?
Neither is better across the board. OpManager is cheaper per device and includes every interface on a device in one license, which suits networks with many ports. PRTG includes flow monitoring in its sensor license and has no add-on catalog, which suits networks with few checks per device. On list price, OpManager is 3.3 to 5.4 times cheaper.
Is OpManager cheaper than PRTG?
Yes on list price. About 100 devices cost $795 a year on OpManager Standard or $1,145 on Professional, against $4,296 a year for PRTG 1000. The gap closes when you add OpManager modules: 250 devices on Professional with unlimited users, failover, configuration backup, NetFlow and firewall analysis cost $9,265 a year, against $8,904 for PRTG 2500.
How much does PRTG cost per year?
PRTG costs $2,400 a year for 500 sensors, $4,296 for 1,000, $8,904 for 2,500, $15,600 for 5,000 and $19,704 for 10,000, billed annually with support and updates included. The Paessler-hosted edition costs about the same. Freeware covers 100 sensors.
How much does OpManager cost per device?
On an annual subscription, OpManager Standard works out to $8.90 a device for 50 devices, $7.95 for 100 and $4.10 for 1,000. Professional runs $12.90, $11.45 and $6.00 for the same sizes. Each pack includes two users, and the 25-device pack is slightly dearer per device than the 10-device pack.
What is the difference between a device and a sensor?
A device is one piece of equipment, such as a switch, server or firewall. A sensor in PRTG is one measurement on that device, such as one interface, one disk or one ping. Paessler estimates about 10 sensors per device, so a device with 30 monitored ports uses 30 or more PRTG sensors but one OpManager license.
Is there a PRTG or OpManager alternative for uptime checks only?
Yes. If you mainly need to know when websites, APIs, VPN gateways, mail servers and branch IPs stop answering, AlertPing Team checks 100 endpoints every 30 seconds from two outside regions for $348 a year, with SMS, escalation and a status page included. It does not do SNMP, maps or flow analysis.
Can OpManager and PRTG run in the cloud?
PRTG has a Paessler-hosted edition priced within a few dollars of the self-hosted license. OpManager is on-premises software; ManageEngine's parent company sells hosted monitoring separately as Site24x7. Either way, the network data still has to be collected by a probe or agent inside your network.
related comparisons
how we page you
Two regions have to agree
A single failed probe never wakes anybody. A second region, US East or EU Central, re-checks first, so a hiccup on one route is not a 3am phone call.
what a plan covers
SMS is in the price, not in credits
Email, Slack and webhook alerts are unlimited on every plan, SMS comes with a monthly allowance, and each plan hosts status pages. No credit packs, no per-message fee, no per-monitor math.
how setup works
One URL, no agent to install
Paste the address, choose where alerts go, and the first check runs from both regions. No agent, no config file, nothing to deploy on your side.
Outside checks for whichever monitor you pick
Websites, APIs, public IPs, ports and SSL certificates, confirmed from a second region. Team watches 100 monitors every 30 seconds for $59 a month, or $348 a year.