Paessler PRTG Network Monitor vs Visual Sentinel
Paessler PRTG Network Monitor
paessler.comVisual Sentinel
visualsentinel.comSide by side
| Figure | Paessler PRTG Network Monitor | Visual Sentinel |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $16.67/mo | $4.50/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 6 | 15 |
| Spec score · DNS Monitoring Software | 8.2 (#11) | 8.5 (#7) |
| API | PRTG provides an API for accessing monitoring data and developing custom features. | The public REST API uses scoped organization keys and exposes monitors, incidents, status pages, maintenance windows, reports, notification channels and servers. |
| Integrations | PRTG can send notifications to Slack and Microsoft Teams through webhooks; Paessler also lists compatibility with tools including ServiceNow, Jira Service Management, PagerDuty, and OpsGenie. | The pricing comparison lists Google Analytics 4, Google Search Console, Cloudflare import and proxy bypass, and server-to-site correlation. |
| Intended users | Paessler describes PRTG Network Monitor as best suited to small and medium IT infrastructures, with features also for OT and IoT environments. | The maker describes the product as serving small teams, agencies, and site owners. |
| Purpose | PRTG Network Monitor monitors systems, devices, network traffic, applications, and other infrastructure metrics from an on-premises installation. | Visual Sentinel monitors websites and servers and detects visual page changes that ordinary uptime checks may miss. |
| Security | Paessler says PRTG component communications use TLS encryption and its interfaces support local and remote access secured via SSL/TLS. | The privacy policy states that data is encrypted in transit with TLS 1.3 and sensitive integration credentials and API tokens are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM. |
Plans
Paessler PRTG Network Monitor
- Freeware EditionFree
- PRTG 500$200 a year
- PRTG 1000$358 a year
- PRTG 2500$742 a year
- PRTG 5000$1,300 a year
- PRTG 10000$1,642 a year
Visual Sentinel
- Solo$6 a month
- Solo$54 a year
- Starter$12 a month
- Starter$108 a year
- Business$39 a month
- Business$351 a year
- FreeFree
- Agency$149 a month
- Agency$1,341 a year
- FreeFree
In their own words
Paessler PRTG Network Monitor
Paessler PRTG Network Monitor monitors systems, devices, network traffic, applications, and other infrastructure metrics from an on-premises installation. It runs on Windows servers and includes more than 250 preconfigured sensors, each measuring one or more aspects of a device. Monitoring tools include customizable alerts, scheduled reports, distributed monitoring, and dashboards with live status information. Paessler also lists adaptive AI-driven anomaly detection and smart sensor recommendations. PRTG provides an API for monitoring data and custom features, and can send webhook notifications to Slack and Microsoft Teams. Its free iOS and Android apps display monitoring data and send push notifications, but do not support cluster setups. The free plan covers up to 100 sensors; paid plans start at $200 per month paid annually. Each server accepts one license key, so license sizes cannot be combined on a server.
Visual Sentinel
Visual Sentinel monitors websites and servers, including page changes that ordinary uptime checks may miss. Its monitoring covers uptime, screenshot-based visual comparison, SSL, DNS, performance, content, APIs, endpoints, and servers. For visual checks, it captures a page in a browser and compares the screenshot with a prior baseline. Users can exclude changing page elements with CSS selectors and set the amount of change needed to flag a capture. Failed uptime checks are repeated; a site is marked down only if it fails from all selected regions. Alerts can go to email, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, Telegram, Microsoft Teams, PagerDuty, OpsGenie, webhooks, Prometheus, and browser push. The REST API manages monitors, incidents, status pages, maintenance windows, reports, and notification channels; API access is listed for Business and Agency. The Free plan costs nothing and includes three monitors, 10-minute checks, and one status page. Solo costs $6 a month. Visual Sentinel is built and operated by Acefina LLC and is intended for small teams, agencies, and site owners.