FAQs: Paessler PRTG

How is PRTG licensed?

PRTG Licensing Explained

PRTG is licensed by the number of sensors. In general, most devices might have 5-10 sensors. For network switches, you’ll probably want one sensor per switch port. Each sensor may have multiple channels, those additional channels on an individual sensor do not incrementally increase the sensor count. Examples of a sensor might include:

  • A ping test
  • Testing http/https URL(s)
  • A DNS query test
  • CPU load on a server
  • Traffic usage on a network switch port
  • There are over 200 predefined sensor types to choose from

What is PRTG network monitor?

PRTG Monitoring

PRTG monitors the general health, performance, status of various devices such as routers, firewalls, servers, storage systems, web servers, databases, VoIP systems, network flow data and more. There are over 200 predefined sensors and by using SNMP you can monitor even more. Better yet, PRTG is an all in solution, you get all of the predefined sensor types.

Does PRTG require a database server?

PRTG Database

PRTG does not require a separate database server (e.g. SQL Server, etc). This means that:

  • With the integrated database, performance is up to 100 times more than compared to SQL server
  • Less network load since everything occurs on the same platform (and sizing requirements are very reasonable)
  • One application to update, no coordination and additional maintenance hassles
  • Just one license for PRTG, no additional SQL licensing needed

What kind of support is available for Paessler PRTG?

PRTG Support

If you keep a maintenance contract in place (which you should), then you can get support directly from Paessler in Germany via Email and from 7 AM to 10 PM (UTC+1). Most questions are answered within 24 hours on business days. Contact Paessler support via support@paessler.com.

Altaware, Inc. is a highly certified reseller of PRTG, US based, with decades of engineering experience, extensive hands-on PRTG experience and breadth of IT skills. We're available via phone and Email during US west coast PST hours. We support numerous customers across the USA when hands-on skills and expertise are desired. Our services are billable in 15 minute increments for remote assistance.

What happens when your PRTG support contract ends?

PRTG Support Coverage Cancelation

If you choose to not renew your PRTG support after the first year, you still have a perpetual license and your existing product version you had while under contract will remain functional. Make sure to keep reliable backups, of course.

What you won't get then is:

  • Access to the continuous rolling updates for bugs and ongoing new features
  • Access to Paessler support tickets

Unlike a lot of competitors, Paessler continues to improve, enhance and maintain their excellent monitoring software. We strongly encourage keeping maintenance current for a vital and essential application like this. However, you don't have to keep support current to continue to utilize your license.

Please contact us to renew any lapsed support contracts or add additional PRTG sensor licenses.

Can PRTG be purchased in the USA?

PRTG USA

Yes, you can purchase PRTG from us located in the USA and with US dollars.

What purchase choices are there for PRTG?

PRTG USA Purchase

If you're looking for the ability to purchase PRTG from a USA company along with options such as credit cards or POs, you found us!

Are there educational discounts for PRTG?

PRTG Edu (Educational) Discounts

Yes, there are discounts for PRTG purchases in educational institutions.

How much does PRTG maintenance cost?

PRTG Maintenance

When you initially purchase a new license for PRTG, you get one year of Paessler support and updates included. You can also purchase an additional one or two years on that initial purchase. After the initial period, the price will be 25% of the then current list price of the sensor count license.

How much do extra sites cost for PRTG?

PRTG Extra Sites

In terms of costs for extra sites, the answer is it depends:

  • If you monitor sites from a single instance of PRTG, that's basically extra sensors, so it depends on the number of sensors licenses that you purchased and have available.
  • If you want to monitor extra sites with remote probes, there is no additional cost for remote probes and the sensor licenses still apply. Remote probes can help address concerns due to firewalls, routers or WAN bandwidth.
  • If you want to create a clustered instance, there is no additional cost.
  • If you want to create a new stand-alone instance of PRTG for a site or collection of sites (e.g. west coast, east coast, DR site, different countries), then we recommend purchasing a higher level of license for additional core server installations.

Can PRTG be clustered?

PRTG Clustering

All of the self-hosted PRTG licenses include a core server license plus they allow for one failover node in a cluster. For multiple stand-alone core server installs, consider a special worldwide license from us.

What kind of help is available for PRTG via Altaware, Inc.?

PRTG Additional Help

As a US based company, heavy PRTG certifications and numerous years of hands-on experience, we're ideally suited to provide you with:

  • PRTG Best Practices advice and configurations
  • Custom PRTG implementations
  • PRTG training
  • PRTG alerts and notifications that meet your needs and your requirements
  • On demand phone and/or remote meetings to troubleshoot your networks

Does PRTG support network flow data?

Network flow support

Included in the base product without additional cost (beyond the sensor licensing) is the support for network flow data. This includes:

  • NetFlow (Cisco)
  • J-Flow (Juniper Networks)
  • SFlow

Flow data adds great additional visibility into network devices that support flow data. Having PRTG means you get historical views and live views of flow based data to help troubleshoot networks.

How much does it cost to add NetFlow to PRTG?

Network Cost

Flow sensors are included in all the PRTG licenses.

What kind of notifications does PRTG support?

PRTG Notifications, Alerts and Alarms

PRTG has several forms of notifications and alerts including visual indicators. PRTG also supports dependencies that can be used to minimize redundant alerts. Escalations can be used for specific needs and repeating and/or escalation alerts for SLA or other key concerns. In terms of user notifications, the most common ones are:

  • Email
  • SMS
  • Invoking scripts or programs
  • Creating event log entries
  • Push notifications to mobile devices

How does PRTG support product updates?

PRTG Maintenance Updates and Feature Upgrades

By having a Paessler maintenance contract, you get access to continuous rollouts from Paessler. Unlike traditional software updates, that means:

  • Releasing software updates in substantially shorter cycles
  • Quicker access to important bug fixes
  • A product that evolves and improves more rapidly over time

How are additional sensor licenses added?

Adding more sensors to PRTG

PRTG is licensed by sensors and not devices or some other metric. If you want to add sensors to a device, add them. If you want to add devices, add them.

In the end, you are licensed by the number of sensors you want. You can remove, delete or pause sensors that no longer apply.

If you need to purchase more sensor licenses, it's based upon the current list price difference from the level you have and the level you want. No more anxious moments about oversizing (and over paying) or running out and then looking at an entire new purchase point.

Is there a trial available for PRTG?

Getting a free unlimited PRTG trial

Yes, we can provide you a free unlimited sensor PRTG trial. Use this if:

  • You want to try the product first
  • You want to better understand how many sensors you might want/need for your environment
  • You want to prove to your management the benefits and simplicity of using the PRTG network monitoring solution

Plus, you get to get your trial setting and configuration if you want!

Is there a freeware version of PRTG?

PRTG Freeware

Yes, there is a PRTG freeware version. You get 100 sensors for free, that's a great amount for small environments or for testing some sophisticated sensors in your environment.

It's the exact same version, but limited to 100 sensors.

Are there best practices for PRTG?

PRTG Best Practices

There is no PRTG Best Practices guide and even if there were, it's all about what matters to you. There are various customization options, plenty of setting choices and discussions about visual techniques, alert and reporting.

Count on us to explain and quickly explore the relevant best practices for your needs and requirements. We have the PRTG gurus for you.

How can I reduce the number of PRTG alerts?

We see this a lot and we bet you used the default auto-discovery and sensor discovery…

Stop the madness, turn down the noise and focus on the important items. We know the value of having more with less sensors in PRTG.

We'll spare your sanity and maintain reasonable sensor amounts.

Is there a cloud hosted version of PRTG?

PRTG Cloud

Yes, there are PRTG cloud and MSP options. If you are an MSP, we can help you behind the scenes. There are some differences to be aware of:

  • Cloud is limited to 5,000 sensors
  • No freeware version in the cloud
  • Custom sensors on remote probe only
  • No cluster support
  • You need to run remote probes in your environment

How can I get more help for PRTG?

PRTG Expert Help and more

Some people just want more help than we listed and don't have the time to learn and do. So, when you want experts to run and tune your PRTG environment, then give us a call.

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