Best Network Monitoring Software (2026): Top 10 Compared

PRTG Network Monitor is the core product of Paessler GmbH, based in Nuremberg, Germany. It runs on the customer's own server and monitors through sensors, where each sensor is one measured aspect of a device, such as an interface's traffic, a CPU load or a ping response.

Paessler's feature list covers network, bandwidth and SNMP monitoring, NetFlow and traffic analysis, Wi-Fi and server monitoring, a syslog server, network maps and topology, dashboards, alerts and notifications, customizable reporting and distributed monitoring through remote probes. The pricing FAQ states that subscriptions include the latest version, security updates and email support through a ticket system.

Paessler also sells PRTG Enterprise Monitor for very large environments, PRTG Hosted Monitor as a cloud-hosted option and an MSP edition. Only one license key is accepted per server, so a team that outgrows its tier upgrades rather than stacking licenses.

Auvik Networks sells a cloud-based network management platform used by internal IT departments and managed service providers. The company states that more than 80,000 IT professionals and MSPs use it.

A collector on the local network discovers devices and builds an automated inventory and a live topology map that redraws as connections change. Each device on the map can be opened for traffic and performance details. Auvik lists support for more than 700 device vendors, so switches, firewalls, routers and wireless controllers can be monitored without custom templates. Configuration backups are captured as changes happen, with version comparison for recovery. Traffic analysis shows who is on the network and where traffic goes, and an AI troubleshooting agent suggests likely root causes.

APIs cover alert history, inventory and multi-tenant sites, and integrations include ServiceNow, PagerDuty, Slack and Microsoft Teams.

LogicMonitor sells LM Envision, a SaaS observability platform for hybrid infrastructure, with Edwin AI for event intelligence and Catchpoint capabilities for internet and user-experience monitoring.

For networks, scheduled IP range scans auto-discover routers, switches and firewalls and apply monitoring templates. Live Layer 3 topology maps support root cause analysis. Metrics are collected as often as every 30 seconds over SNMP, WMI or APIs, covering CPU, bandwidth and latency, and dynamic thresholds adapt to normal behaviour to cut false alerts. Flow-level data shows traffic by source, destination, application and protocol, alongside internet path performance.

Hybrid Units let a buyer shift capacity between on-premises devices, cloud resources and access points without changing the license model. Add-ons include LM Logs, LM Uptime, automated diagnostics and remediation, SaaS monitoring and a ServiceNow CMDB integration.

SolarWinds is known for Network Performance Monitor, NetFlow Traffic Analyzer and Network Configuration Manager, which remain available as self-hosted products under SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted. This entry covers SolarWinds Observability SaaS, the hosted platform with published module prices.

The Network and Infrastructure Observability module monitors network devices and hosts together. A node is counted by the highest number of active network devices or hosts in the previous calendar day, where active means the service received telemetry in that 24-hour window. Routers, hubs and other network devices count one to one, and wireless access points count at ten to one. Hosts with the SolarWinds agent or monitored through the Network Collector count one to one.

Other modules cover application observability with tracing and profiling, log management in 1 GB increments, database monitoring, synthetic checks and real user monitoring. Free trials are offered for each module.

OpManager is ManageEngine's network monitoring product. The vendor states it is used by more than 9,000 businesses.

Standard covers network discovery, availability monitoring, network device, physical server, interface, process and service monitoring, alarms and notifications, business views and custom dashboards. Professional adds advanced discovery, agent-based monitoring, virtual server and hardware monitoring, troubleshooting tools, consolidated reports and privilege-based user management. Enterprise adds distributed monitoring through a probe and central design, high availability and alerts from multiple sites.

Features include SNMP, WMI and CLI based health monitoring, VMware, Hyper-V and Citrix hypervisor monitoring, syslog rules, more than 100 reports, workflow automation and adaptive thresholds. ManageEngine sells NetFlow Analyzer, Network Configuration Manager and OpUtils separately, and bundles them in OpManager Nexus.

Datadog sells a SaaS observability and security platform, and its network monitoring products sit alongside infrastructure, APM and log management.

Network Device Monitoring discovers on-premises, SD-WAN and wireless devices across vendors such as Cisco, Juniper, Meraki, F5, Arista and Aruba, collecting SNMP metrics, SNMP traps, API data, NetFlow and syslog through the open-source Datadog agent. Out-of-the-box dashboards cover device and interface performance, traffic and site health, and automatic topology maps show physical connections and upstream or downstream impact. Alerts flag abnormal states, and forecasting projects future bandwidth.

NetFlow Monitoring identifies the top contributors to congestion and slices flows by source, destination, port, protocol and application. Cloud Network Monitoring tracks traffic between services, cloud providers and internet endpoints, and Network Path tests the route between hosts and endpoints.

Zabbix is an open-source monitoring platform. The software is free to download and run, and the company earns revenue from support subscriptions, training, professional services and the hosted Zabbix Cloud.

For networks, Zabbix collects SNMP metrics or uses its agent to track incoming and outgoing traffic, bandwidth, packet loss, interface errors, link status and speed. It supports SNMP v1, v2c and v3 and trap collection. Device health covers availability, CPU and memory, power supplies, temperature and fan states.

Alerting supports problem thresholds, maintenance windows, dependencies between alerts to reduce noise, dynamic baselines, escalation across users and departments and automatic remediation through remote commands and scripts. Zabbix Cloud Proxy extends hosted deployments to remote and distributed sites.

Checkmk is sold as a free Community edition, self-hosted Pro and Ultimate editions and a SaaS Cloud edition. It covers servers, networks, databases, cloud, Kubernetes, storage and IoT.

For networks, Checkmk monitors switches and routers for packet rates, error rates, port state and bandwidth, CPU utilisation, fans, power supplies and temperature, with support for vendors including Cisco, Juniper, Huawei, Dell, Extreme Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Brocade and TP-Link, as well as wireless equipment. Port monitoring can be set up across a network in minutes, with real-time and historical data for trend analysis.

Pro adds a more resource-efficient core, advanced analytics and reporting, automation, distributed monitoring and 8x5 support. Ultimate adds multi-tenancy and data segregation, full-stack observability, advanced cloud integrations and automated rollouts. Synthetic monitoring is available on Pro and Ultimate.

Domotz sells a cloud network monitoring and management platform aimed at managed service providers, enterprise IT, system integrators and security professionals. The company states it has more than 3,600 customers across 190 countries.

A collector is a lightweight agent that runs at a site on existing hardware or a Domotz appliance, with 16 deployment options, and discovers, monitors and manages every device on that network. Every plan includes automatic discovery, real-time monitoring and alerts, custom thresholds, SNMP monitoring, network topology maps, speed testing and diagnostics, remote power management and remote SSH, RDP and VNC access.

An API, PSA and ticketing integrations and a mobile app are included, and an MCP server connects network data to AI assistants. Buyers who need per-device licensing or a large, complex environment can request a package from sales.

WhatsUp Gold is a network monitoring product from Progress Software. It installs on the customer's own infrastructure and is sold in two editions.

Premium includes automatic discovery, topology mapping, availability and status monitoring, performance monitoring, alerting and reporting, cloud monitoring, wireless monitoring and certificate monitoring, with 10/5 email support. Total Plus adds configuration management for routers, switches and firewalls, network traffic analysis with threshold alerts on bandwidth and Cisco CBQoS and NBAR data, log management, virtualisation and application monitoring, and scalability pollers that split the workload across up to 25 systems. Distributed mode monitors remote sites from a central NOC.

Progress also lists a network detection and response product for threat hunting across hybrid networks.