compare · alertping vs prtg
PRTG alternative without sensor licensing: PRTG alternatives, pricing and competitors compared
Short answer: PRTG is a network monitoring platform and AlertPing is not, so this is only a swap if what you license PRTG for is availability of public websites, APIs, ports and certificates. For that job the numbers are stark. PRTG's smallest license is $200 a month, $2,400 a year, and it is the floor whether you watch twenty endpoints or five hundred. AlertPing covers twenty for $180 a year, one hundred for $564 with 30-second checks, and five hundred for $1,812. If instead you need SNMP, NetFlow, switch ports, hardware sensors, network discovery or topology maps, nothing on this page replaces PRTG and you should keep it.
PRTG pricing read from paessler.com in USD, sensor definitions from Paessler's own knowledge base
alertping ▸ check preview
simulated
▸ type a domain to watch a check and an alert play out
▸ simulation of 3 regions · FRA · IAD · SIN
▸ 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 3/3 regions (FRA, IAD, SIN). Incident opened.
sms · on-call
AlertPing: DOWN. Confirmed 3/3 regions . First fail: Frankfurt.
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 Frankfurt, Virginia and Singapore regions.
the honest frame
These are not the same product. Here is the part where they overlap.
Most "PRTG alternatives" lists put nine tools in a table and pretend they are interchangeable. They are not. PRTG runs inside your network, discovers what is there, speaks SNMP and NetFlow, reads hardware, watches switch ports and draws you a topology map. AlertPing does none of that and never will. If your PRTG install is doing that work, this page is not a shopping list for you, and the honest recommendation is to compare PRTG against Checkmk, Zabbix, Auvik or ManageEngine OpManager instead.
There is a real overlap, though, and it is bigger than either vendor admits. A large share of PRTG sensors in the wild are HTTP checks, ping checks, port checks and SSL certificate checks on public endpoints. Those sensors do not need SNMP, do not need to be inside your network, and are actively better run from outside it, because a monitor sitting on the same network as the thing it watches cannot tell you what a customer in another state sees. That slice is what an external checker replaces, and the money involved is not small.
A $2,400 floor, whatever you monitor
PRTG's Freeware edition stops at 100 sensors. The next step is PRTG 500 at $200 a month, $2,400 a year. There is no tier between them, no per-sensor top-up, and Paessler states that one server accepts only one license key, so you cannot stack a small license onto an existing one. Twenty public URLs on that license work out at $120 per URL per year.
Inside the building versus outside it
PRTG's core server lives on your infrastructure, and remote probes extend it to your other sites. That is exactly right for internal monitoring and exactly wrong for answering "can a customer reach us". AlertPing checks from three independent regions and re-runs every failure in the other two before anyone is paged, so a bad route out of one region does not wake your on-call.
Sensors counted versus monitors counted
Both products count units, and the units are comparable for this job: one PRTG sensor and one AlertPing monitor both mean one checked thing. The difference is the rate. PRTG 500 works out at $4.80 per sensor per year with a hard $2,400 minimum. AlertPing Business is $3.62 per monitor per year at the same 500-unit capacity, with no minimum above the plan.
prtg pricing
PRTG pricing in full, both editions, in US dollars
Read from paessler.com in September 2026. PRTG Network Monitor is the self-hosted edition, quoted per month and billed annually. PRTG Hosted Monitor is the managed AWS edition, quoted per year. Every license differs from every other license in exactly one respect: the maximum number of sensors it permits.
| License | Sensors | Devices (Paessler estimate) | Self-hosted per month | Self-hosted per year | Hosted per year | Per sensor per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freeware | 100 | About 10 | $0 | $0 | Not offered | $0 |
| PRTG 500 | 500 | About 50 | $200 | $2,400 | $2,399 | $4.80 |
| PRTG 1000 | 1,000 | About 100 | $358 | $4,296 | $4,299 | $4.30 |
| PRTG 2500 | 2,500 | About 250 | $742 | $8,904 | $8,899 | $3.56 |
| PRTG 5000 | 5,000 | About 500 | $1,300 | $15,600 | $15,599 | $3.12 |
| PRTG 10000 | 10,000 | About 1,000 | $1,642 | $19,704 | $19,699 | $1.97 |
| Enterprise Monitor | Quoted | Over 1,000 | Quoted | Quoted | Quoted | Quoted |
The hosted edition costs the same money, which surprises people
Add the two columns up. All five self-hosted tiers total $50,904 a year and all five hosted tiers total $50,895, a difference of nine dollars across the whole catalog. Four tiers are one to five dollars cheaper hosted, one is three dollars dearer. Paessler charges essentially nothing for running the instance, the AWS capacity, the updates and the backups, so self-hosting does not save money. It adds the Windows Server, its license and whoever patches it, on top of an identical figure.
The device column is one assumption, applied five times
Every device estimate on Paessler's price list is the sensor count divided by exactly ten. Paessler's own knowledge base puts full coverage of a server at 5 to 10 sensors and one sensor per switch port, and its documented example of a single monitored firewall uses 14 sensors. At 14 per device, PRTG 500 covers 35.7 devices rather than 50, and the real cost per device rises from $48.00 to $67.20 a year. Count sensors before you trust the device number.
side by side
AlertPing vs PRTG, feature by feature
Scored on the external availability job only. On internal network monitoring PRTG wins every row, because AlertPing does not compete there at all.
| Capability | AlertPing | PRTG |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $19/mo, $180/yr | $200/mo, $2,400/yr |
| Free tier | None | 100 sensors, permanent |
| Billing unit | Monitor, flat per plan | Sensor, tiered ceiling |
| Fastest check | 30 seconds from $59, 15 seconds on Enterprise | 30 seconds by default, below 10 seconds unsupported |
| Where checks run | 3 independent regions, outside your network | Your server, plus remote probes you host |
| Outage confirmation | Re-run in the other two regions before alerting | Configurable retry on the same probe |
| HTTP and API checks | Yes, with response assertions | Yes, HTTP and REST sensors |
| TCP and UDP port checks | Yes | Yes |
| SSL certificate expiry | Yes, on every plan | Yes, one sensor per certificate |
| Cron and scheduled job heartbeats | Yes | Through a custom or push sensor |
| SNMP, NetFlow, switch ports | No | Yes, this is the core of the product |
| Hardware and agent-based host metrics | No | Yes, more than 250 sensor types |
| Automatic network discovery and maps | No | Yes |
| Public status page | Yes, custom domain | Public maps, not a status page product |
| SMS alerts | Included, unmetered, every plan | Through a notification gateway you supply |
| Operating system required | None, browser only | Windows for the self-hosted core server |
| Setup time | Minutes | Install, discover, tune, size the license |
where they win
Five things PRTG does that we do not
If any of these is the reason PRTG is on your network, keep it. A cheaper external checker is not an answer to any of them.
SNMP and NetFlow
Switch port traffic, bandwidth analysis, router interfaces, printers, UPS units. This is the reason most PRTG licenses exist and there is no external equivalent.
Internal visibility
Databases, file shares, virtualization hosts and anything else with no public address. We can only reach what the internet can reach.
Network discovery and mapping
PRTG scans a subnet, finds what is on it and draws the topology. That is a genuinely useful first day and we offer nothing like it.
A real free tier
100 sensors, permanently, no card. We have no free plan at all. For a homelab or a ten-device office, PRTG Freeware is simply the better answer.
Breadth of sensor types
More than 250 preconfigured sensors covering vendors and protocols we will never implement, plus custom sensors for anything left over.
Data stays on your kit
The self-hosted edition keeps every measurement inside your perimeter. If that is a policy requirement, the decision is already made.
the money
What the external slice costs on each side
One PRTG sensor and one AlertPing monitor both mean one checked thing, so this compares like with like. The PRTG column is the smallest license that fits, which for every row below is the same $2,400 license, because 500 sensors is where the price list starts.
| Endpoints watched | Smallest PRTG license | PRTG per year | AlertPing plan | AlertPing per year | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | PRTG 500 | $2,400 | Starter | $180 | $2,220 less, 92.5% |
| 20 | PRTG 500 | $2,400 | Starter | $180 | $2,220 less, 92.5% |
| 100 | PRTG 500 | $2,400 | Team | $564 | $1,836 less, 76.5% |
| 250 | PRTG 500 | $2,400 | Business | $1,812 | $588 less, 24.5% |
| 500 | PRTG 500 | $2,400 | Business | $1,812 | $588 less, 24.5% |
| 1,000 | PRTG 1000 | $4,296 | Enterprise | Quoted | Compare directly |
The gap closes as you scale
Note the direction of that last column. At twenty endpoints PRTG costs 13.3 times what we do, because you are paying for 480 sensors you will not use. At 500 endpoints the gap is 24.5% and PRTG is throwing in SNMP, discovery and hardware monitoring for the difference. The further right you go on this table, the better PRTG looks.
Where a sensor budget really goes
Switch ports, not servers, usually decide a PRTG tier. One sensor per port means a single 48-port switch is 48 sensors. Three of them plus thirty servers at ten sensors each is 444, and the next thing you add pushes you from $2,400 to $4,296. Moving the public website and API checks off the license frees sensors at exactly the moment that matters.
Running both is a normal answer
Plenty of teams keep PRTG for the infrastructure and add external checks for the customer view, because the two answer different questions. At $180 to $564 a year the external layer is rounding error against a PRTG renewal, and it is the layer that pages you when your own network is the thing that has failed.
who buys which
Six situations, and the honest recommendation for each
A SaaS team with no office network
Everything runs in a cloud account. There are no switches, no printers and no SNMP. Buying a sensor license to watch forty URLs and a handful of ports is $2,400 a year for capability you will never switch on. Take the external checker.
A 200-device corporate network
Switches, servers, virtualization hosts, a UPS, badge readers. This is what PRTG was built for and no external service touches it. Keep PRTG, and add outside-in checks for the handful of services customers reach.
An agency with 60 client websites
You need uptime and certificate expiry on domains you do not host and cannot install anything on. PRTG can do it at $2,400, but you also want a status page per client and alerts that reach non-technical people. Take the external checker, and see uptime monitoring for agencies.
A homelab or a ten-device office
100 sensors free covers this comfortably and we have no free plan to answer it with. Take PRTG Freeware. Come back when you need checks from outside your own connection, or when a paying customer starts asking about SLAs.
You are already over 500 sensors
Before paying the 79% jump from PRTG 500 to PRTG 1000, count how many of those sensors are HTTP, ping, port and certificate checks on public addresses. Moving that slice out often keeps you inside the license you already own. Do the count first.
You need an SLA you can evidence
A customer contract needs availability measured from outside your infrastructure by something with no incentive to flatter you. An internal monitor is the wrong evidence. Take the external checker, and see SLA monitoring software.
moving the external slice
How to move the public checks off a PRTG license in an afternoon
step 1
Filter the sensor tree
Sort by sensor type and pull out every HTTP, HTTP Advanced, Ping, Port and SSL Security Check sensor pointed at a public hostname. That list is what moves. Everything SNMP, WMI, agent-based or private stays exactly where it is.
step 2
Recreate them outside
One monitor per checked thing, same as one sensor per checked thing. Add the expected status code and any response assertion you had configured. Certificates are their own monitor and warn on days remaining rather than on failure.
step 3
Run both for two weeks
Leave the PRTG sensors paused rather than deleted and compare what each side reports. Expect the external checks to catch things PRTG missed, specifically DNS problems and upstream routing failures your internal probe cannot see.
step 4
Delete and re-size
Delete the moved sensors and check your count against the tier boundary. If the deletion drops you under 500, 1,000 or 2,500, your next PRTG renewal is a smaller number, and that saving is the whole point of the exercise.
questions people ask
PRTG alternatives, answered
What is the best PRTG alternative?
It depends which half of PRTG you are replacing. For SNMP, NetFlow and internal infrastructure the closest substitutes are Checkmk, Zabbix, Auvik and ManageEngine OpManager. For the external availability of websites, APIs, ports and certificates, AlertPing replaces that slice at $19 to $189 a month against PRTG's $200 floor. No single tool is a clean swap for both halves, and any list that says otherwise is selling something.
How much does PRTG cost?
$200 a month for 500 sensors, $358 for 1,000, $742 for 2,500, $1,300 for 5,000 and $1,642 for 10,000, all billed annually, so $2,400 to $19,704 a year. PRTG Hosted Monitor costs $2,399 to $19,699 a year for the same ceilings. Estates over about 1,000 devices go to PRTG Enterprise Monitor, which is quoted. Full working is in the PRTG pricing breakdown.
Is there a free alternative to PRTG?
PRTG itself is the free option up to 100 sensors, which beats most of what gets recommended in its place. Beyond that, Zabbix, Checkmk Raw and LibreNMS are open source and genuinely capable, at the cost of running and maintaining them yourself. AlertPing has no free plan, so if free is the requirement we are not the answer.
Why is PRTG so expensive for a small setup?
Because the price list starts at 500 sensors. There is nothing between the free 100-sensor edition and $2,400 a year, no per-sensor top-up, and Paessler states that one server takes one license key so licenses cannot be combined. A team that needs 130 sensors pays exactly what a team that needs 490 pays.
Can PRTG monitor websites and SSL certificates?
Yes. HTTP sensors check pages and endpoints, and an SSL Security Check sensor watches a certificate, each consuming one sensor from your license. The limitation is not capability but vantage point: those checks run from your own network, so they cannot tell you what a customer elsewhere sees, and they go dark exactly when your connectivity is the problem. SSL certificate monitoring from outside avoids both.
Does PRTG require Windows?
The self-hosted core server does. Paessler markets PRTG Hosted Monitor partly as the way to run PRTG without a Microsoft operating system and without the Microsoft license cost, and PRTG stores part of its configuration in the Windows registry. Since hosted and self-hosted cost the same, the Windows dependency is a real reason to pick the hosted edition rather than a reason to leave PRTG.
How many sensors do I need in PRTG?
Paessler says 5 to 10 per server for full coverage and one per switch port, and its price list assumes 10 to produce its device estimates. Its own firewall example uses 14. Count from your real intent rather than from the device column, and count switch ports first, because they are usually what pushes a license into the next tier.
Can I run PRTG and an external monitor together?
Yes, and it is the arrangement most teams end up in. PRTG answers "is the infrastructure healthy" from inside, an external checker answers "can a customer reach us" from outside, and neither can answer the other's question. At $180 to $564 a year the external layer costs a fraction of a PRTG renewal and it keeps paging when your own network is down.
keep reading
Related comparisons and pricing breakdowns
how we page you
Three regions have to agree
A single failed probe never wakes anybody. Frankfurt, Virginia and Singapore all re-check 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
SMS, email, Slack and webhook alerts are unlimited on every plan, 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 all three regions. No agent, no config file, nothing to deploy on your side.
External availability checks with no sensor license to size
Websites, APIs, ICMP hosts, TCP and UDP ports, SSL certificates and cron heartbeats, confirmed from three regions before anyone is paged. Flat from $19 a month, with 30-second checks from $59.