Vendor Spotlight: Paessler

Paessler has played a key role in making network monitoring tools more user-friendly. Not so long ago, a network monitor needed to be deeply familiar with command line tools and scripting in order to set up a custom monitoring system. However,. The advent of graphical user interfaces made the job of monitoring a network a lot easier. Automated monitoring with alerts was the next great leap forward and Paessler was at the forefront of both advancements with its code product, PRTG.

Paessler Founding and Background

Paessler GmbH is a German company founded in 1997 by Dirk Paessler. The company is best known for its flagship product, PRTG Network Monitor, which has become a leading solution for network monitoring and management worldwide. Paessler started as a one-man operation with software that could monitor network traffic and performance, which was relatively new at the time. The company’s early success was driven by the increasing need for businesses to monitor IT infrastructure more effectively as networks grew more complex.

Over the years, Paessler GmbH expanded its product offerings and grew its team, maintaining a strong focus on innovation and user-friendly design. PRTG Network Monitor gained popularity for its comprehensive monitoring capabilities, ease of use, and ability to scale across various network environments. Paessler is a leading brand, serving thousands of customers in diverse industries, including healthcare, education, finance, and telecommunications.

Timeline and Evolution

Paessler is still based in the town in which it was founded: Nuremberg, Germany. The HQ has expanded from a small office to a major contributor to the local economy. Here’s a timeline highlighting the key milestones and evolution of the company:

• 1997: Dirk Paessler establishes Paessler GmbH in Nuremberg, Germany. The initial focus is on developing software for network monitoring and traffic analysis.
• 2001: Paessler releases IPCheck Server Monitor, a tool for monitoring uptime and performance of servers and devices. This product gains traction as businesses increasingly require reliable network monitoring tools.
• 2003: Launch of PRTG Traffic Grapher, which quickly becomes popular for its ability to monitor network traffic using SNMP, packet sniffing, and NetFlow. The tool’s network usage visualization is groundbreaking.
• 2008: Paessler merges IPCheck Server Monitor and PRTG Traffic Grapher into a single product, PRTG Network Monitor.
• 2010s: Paessler expands its market reach globally, with PRTG becoming one of the leading network monitoring tools used by organizations of all sizes. The company develops features to support new technologies like cloud computing, virtualization, and IoT.
• 2015: PRTG Network Monitor reaches over 200,000 users worldwide. Paessler continues to enhance the product with features like distributed monitoring, advanced reporting, and enhanced security.
• 2017: 20th anniversary. The company introduces PRTG Enterprise Monitor to cater to the needs of large-scale enterprises.
• 2019-2020: Paessler forges partnerships with major technology companies to integrate PRTG with other IT management tools. The company commits to sustainability, aiming to reduce its carbon footprint and promote green IT initiatives.
• 2022: PRTG continues to evolve through integrations with more cloud services, IoT devices, and improving its user interface for better usability. The company also focuses on hybrid and distributed IT environments to support the growing complexity of modern networks.

Today, Paessler GmbH is a global leader in network monitoring with PRTG Network Monitor at its core. The company continues to innovate, focusing on AI-driven monitoring, cybersecurity integration, and expanding its global footprint with offices and partners around the world.

Paessler steadfastly refuses to follow rivals like Datadog, SolarWinds, and ManageEngine by branching out into the provision of system management tools. The company is only interested in providing monitoring tools and it invests all of its developments into expanding PRTG rather than developing other packages.

Company Ownership

Being a German company, Paessler has a different history of investment and expansion to the typical funding-led expansion of the typical US tech enterprise. Incubator funds are not as prevalent in Europe and this was particularly the case in 1997 when Dirk Paessler first created his monitoring product, the only options were personal investment, contact-list buy-ins, and bank loans.

The lack of external financing meant that the company grew organically. Expanding by reinvesting its annual profits. However, Paessler did manage to attract investment from some private individuals that he knew personally. The company has about 100 shareholders beside Dirk Paessler. By the time fund management caught on in Germany, Paessler had got through the tough times and didn’t need financial assistance from outsiders.

Paessler GmbH is still a private company that is majority owned by Dirk Paessler. The company surprised observers by turning to a technology investment fund in May 2024. Turn/River Capital Investment bought into Paessler PRTG as part of its strategy of expanding into the European tech sector.

Key People

Dirk Paessler ran the company for its first 20 years. Advancing from lone developer, to owner-manager, to CEO as the company grew in size and importance. Although Paessler is no longer the CEO of his company, is still Chairman of the Board. While retaining an interest in Paessler GmbH, Dirk Paessler has moved on to other interests. He has created and run 13 other businesses and is currently immersed in the management development of his carbon capture business, Carbon Drawdown Initiative.

Dirk Paessler handed the CEO role to Christian Twardawa in 2017. That was an internal promotion – Twardawa had previously been the Chief Operating Officer and had provided business management for the inventive Dirk Paessler since 2003.

Twardawa is now a management consultant for Savator GmbH, having passed on the role of Paessler’s CEO to Helmut Binder in 2019. Binder has a long history of running businesses in the German IT sector. So, his special gift is the ability to bring PRTG to the top tier of Germany’s business community. The company’s name has global recognition and sales in 170 countries. Paessler GmbH has 378 employees and there are more than 500,000 users of PRTG worldwide.

Locations

The headquarters of Paessler GmbH is in Nuremberg, Germany, Dirk Paessler’s hometown. This location is where Paessler conducts the majority of its operations, including development, marketing, and customer support.

Regional Offices and Partnerships:

• United States: Paessler has a strong presence in the U.S. with regional sales and support teams. Their operations often cater to North American customers.
• United Kingdom: Another key region where Paessler operates, providing local sales, support, and consulting services.
• Asia-Pacific: Paessler has a regional office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to manage operations and customer support across the Asia-Pacific region.
• Latin America: Paessler also has a presence in Latin America, often operating through local partners to provide tailored solutions and support.

Global Partners

Paessler works with a wide range of resellers, system integrators, and technology partners across various countries, allowing them to provide localized services and support.

Target Market and Customer Base

Here’s an overview of Paessler’s target market and customer base:

Target Market

1. Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs): Paessler’s PRTG Network Monitor is particularly popular among SMEs due to its scalability, ease of use, and cost-effectiveness. The tool sets itself up and there is a Free edition for SMEs.
2. Large Enterprises: PRTG scales to meet the needs of large enterprises. Paessler targets large organizations that require comprehensive monitoring across multiple locations and networks, including data centers, remote offices, and global operations.
3. IT Service Providers: Managed service providers (MSPs) and IT service companies are key segments for Paessler. PRTG’s multi-tenant capabilities allow these providers to monitor multiple client networks from a single interface.
4. Public Sector and Government: Paessler targets government agencies and public sector organizations that need to monitor critical infrastructure, ensure network security, and maintain compliance with regulatory requirements.
5. Healthcare Sector: Healthcare organizations rely on PRTG to monitor medical devices and patient data networks. It ensures the reliability of IT systems in environments where downtime can be critical.
6. Educational Institutions: Schools, colleges, and universities are another significant target market. Paessler provides solutions to monitor campus-wide networks, ensuring stable connectivity and protecting sensitive student and staff data.
7. Financial Services: Banks, insurance companies, and financial institutions use PRTG to monitor their complex IT environments, which often include a mix of legacy systems and modern applications, ensuring uptime and security.
8. Manufacturing and Industrial Sectors: Paessler targets industries such as manufacturing, energy, and utilities, where monitoring both IT and OT (Operational Technology) environments is crucial. PRTG supports the monitoring of industrial protocols and devices.

Customer Base

1. Global Reach: Paessler has a large and diverse customer base spread across more than 170 countries. This includes customers from various industries and sectors, ranging from small local businesses to large multinational corporations.
2. Notable Customers: Paessler’s customer base includes well-known companies and organizations such as Cisco, Airbus, Microsoft, and NASA. These organizations rely on PRTG for monitoring their extensive and complex networks.
3. Industry Diversity: The customer base spans a wide range of industries, including technology, healthcare, education, finance, government, and manufacturing. This diversity is a testament to PRTG’s versatility and adaptability to different environments.
4. User Community: Paessler has a strong and active user community that contributes to the development and enhancement of PRTG through feedback, forums, and collaboration. This community includes network administrators, IT managers, and system engineers who are deeply engaged with the product.

Paessler’s target market and customer base are broad and diverse, reflecting the adaptability of PRTG Network Monitor to various industries and organizational sizes. Whether it’s SMEs looking for cost-effective monitoring solutions or large enterprises needing to manage complex IT environments, Paessler has positioned itself as a key player in the network monitoring space.

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor is a widely recognized and robust network monitoring solution designed to meet the needs of IT professionals across various industries. Offering a broad range of features and flexible scalability, PRTG is suitable for both small businesses and large enterprises. Here’s a closer look at its key features, along with a balanced discussion of its pros and cons.

Key Features:

• Unified Monitoring: PRTG offers a comprehensive suite of monitoring tools that cover the entire IT infrastructure, including networks, servers, applications, and devices. It unifies these functions into a single, easy-to-use platform.
• Multi-Protocol Support: It supports multiple protocols such as SNMP, WMI, SSH, HTTP, and more, allowing users to monitor a wide array of devices and services.
• Real-Time Monitoring: PRTG provides real-time data visualization through customizable dashboards. Users can create personalized views that highlight critical metrics and trends.
• Advanced Alerts: PRTG’s alerting system is highly configurable, allowing users to set up alerts based on specific conditions and thresholds. Notifications can be sent via email, SMS, or push notifications.
• Scalable Licensing: PRTG is designed to grow with your business. It offers flexible licensing based on the number of sensors, making it accessible for both small networks and large, complex infrastructures.
• Quick Setup: PRTG is known for its ease of deployment. The auto-discovery feature helps quickly identify devices and services on the network, reducing the time needed for initial setup.

The core of PRTG is a network performance monitor. This uses the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to scan a network and identify all connected devices. The SNMP system is pre-installed on all network devices and can also be activated within endpoint operating systems. The device agent automatically compiles a status report and sends it out when a broadcast request is detected.

PRTG uses these SNMP responses to compile a hardware inventory and generate a network topology map. All other functions in the PRTG package rely on this documentation process, which repeats continuously to keep system data up to date.

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor is a powerful and versatile network monitoring tool that gained early success through its attractive graphics and automated monitoring routines. The company has kept its position as one of the market leaders by embracing new technologies, such as a cloud delivery option.

Read our Paessler PRTG Network Monitor Review.

PRTG Development

The origins of PRTG go back to 1997 when Dirk Paessler, still a student, started developing software for the search engine Fireball. The new software pushed the Fireball system to its limits, causing it to crash frequently and Paessler developed the Webserver Stress Tool as a product to enable system administrators to predict capacity problems. This was the first Paessler system monitoring package.

With one commercial product under his belt, Paessler started to formulate a business, hiring developers, including Jens Rupp, who is still with Paessler today as its Senior Software Developer. The company developed IPCheck Server Monitor, which became successful as a shareware product, earning money even though it was initially distributed for free.

IPCheck evolved into PRTG. The name stands for Paessler Router Traffic Grapher. The name was inspired by a rival product, the Multi-Router Traffic Grapher. This was an early network monitor that provided graphs, which was a big advancement on the command-line tools that network managers used up to that point. The problem with MRTG was that it was difficult to install and didn’t provide any automated monitoring features. Paessler thought he could do better.

PRTG Architecture

Most of the inner workings of PRTG are almost identical to the methods used by its rivals:

• Statistics displays in graphical formats: Line graphs, dials, and charts
• SNMP for discovery: The monitoring unit just has to broadcast a request and process responses
• Alert thresholds: Compares an incoming statistic to a preset value that will trigger an alert
• Alert forwarding: Can be set up to send alerts as messages by email or SMS
• Log scanning: Collects the log messages that all IT systems generate and interprets them

The standout feature of PRTG’s architecture is the way the system is delivered. Paessler calls each of its monitoring tools a “sensor.” All the sensors of PRTG are presented within the downloadable package. Other tools offer a core module and then allow access to a library of modules, which are called “plug-ins,” “add-ons,”, or “integrations”.

Effectively, the two models are the same. With PRTG, the buyer scans through the list of available sensors and decides which to activate, with the plug-in model, the user looks at available extras and decides which to add on.

PRTG Plans and Pricing

Every buyer of PRTG gets the same software package. However, none of the units within the installed console will work until the administrator activates them. The buyer’s account gives an allowance of sensors, and there is no specification of categories of sensors or dependencies.

There isn’t a price per sensor. Instead, Paessler produces a list of “editions” which are stepped allowance quantities. The plans are:

• Free Edition: 100 sensors = $0 per year
• PRTG 500: 500 sensors = $2,149 per year
• PRTG 1000: 1,000 sensors = $3,899 per year
• PRTG 2500: 2,500 sensors = $8,099 per year
• PRTG 5000: 5,000 sensors = $14,199 per year
• PRTG 10000: 10,000 sensors = $17,899 per year

Pre-paid multi-year contracts get discounts.

Free Trial and Demo

Paessler began by using the freeware model for its IPCheck product, and PRTG operates the same strategy. All buyers get the full PRTG package with no limits – they can activate all sensors and they will work for 30 days. At the end of the 30 days, the user gets a warning and the whole system switches over to the Free edition.

At the end of the 30-day free trial, users can avoid the downgrade to the Free edition by buying one of the sensor packs.

Major Competitors

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor faces competition from several other network monitoring tools and platforms in the market. These competitors offer a range of features and capabilities that appeal to various segments of the IT and network management industry. Here are some of the major competitors for PRTG:

1. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)

SolarWinds NPM is a widely-used network monitoring tool known for its comprehensive features and scalability. It offers extensive monitoring capabilities, including network performance, bandwidth usage, and device health.

Key Features:

• Advanced alerting and reporting
• Support for multiple monitoring protocols (SNMP, WMI, ICMP, etc.)
• Customizable dashboards and views
• Automated network discovery and mapping

2. Nagios XI

Nagios XI is an enterprise-level monitoring solution that builds on the open-source Nagios Core platform. It is highly customizable and supports monitoring for network devices, applications, and services.

Key Features:

• Extensive plugin library for customized monitoring
• Dashboards with drill-down capabilities
• Flexible alerting and notification system
• Multi-tenant capabilities for MSPs

3. Zabbix

Zabbix is an open-source monitoring solution that competes well with PRTG. It offers comprehensive monitoring for networks, servers, applications, and cloud services, with a focus on scalability.

Key Features:

• Real-time monitoring of network and server performance
• Flexible notifications and escalation policies
• Support for distributed monitoring
• Strong visualization tools, including customizable graphs and maps

4. ManageEngine OpManager

ManageEngine OpManager is a network device monitoring tool that also implements server monitoring. This package compiles a hardware inventory and a network map. It also includes some performance troubleshooting tools.

Key Features:

• Real-time network monitoring with advanced visualization tools
• Automatic discovery and mapping of network devices and endpoints
• Integrated fault management and workflow automation
• Support for multi-vendor environments

5. LogicMonitor

LogicMonitor is a cloud-based network monitoring platform that offers deep visibility into network performance, infrastructure, and applications. It is designed for both on-premises and cloud environments.

Key Features:

• Cloud-based architecture with easy scalability
• Pre-built integrations with a wide range of IT systems and services
• AI-driven insights and predictive analytics
• Automatic device discovery and monitoring configuration

6. WhatsUp Gold (by Progress)

WhatsUp Gold is a network monitoring tool known for its simplicity and ease of use. It provides comprehensive monitoring for networks, servers, and applications. The core module provides network device monitoring and add-on units offer traffic analysis, server and application monitoring, and monitors for specialist technologies, such as VMs.

Key Features:

• Network device performance monitoring with real-time visibility
• Interactive network maps and topology views
• Application and server monitoring through add-ons
• Simple, wizard-driven setup and configuration

7. Splunk (with Splunk IT Service Intelligence – ITSI)

Splunk is a powerful data analytics platform that, when combined with ITSI, offers deep monitoring and analytics for IT operations, including network monitoring. The package can be enhanced by extra data feeds and log analysis.

Key Features:

• Real-time monitoring and analytics with machine learning
• Custom dashboards and reports tailored to IT and business needs
• Correlation of events across multiple data sources
• Predictive analytics for proactive IT management

Conclusion

Paessler was one of the first producers of user-friendly system monitoring tools. Its early success came from harnessing new technologies to provide a better and more accurate monitoring service that is delivered with a high-quality interface. The company rose to the top of the market, keeping in the top three for decades, by adopting new technologies as they arose. While SolarWinds missed out on SaaS delivery, Paessler added that capability; while newer platforms, such as Datadog, expanded into system management and security tools, Paessler has kept its system focused on monitoring.