OpManager vs PRTG Pricing for 50 to 1,000 Devices

OpManager is the cheaper of the two at every size both vendors publish. For 100 devices, OpManager Standard costs $795 a year and Professional $1,145, against $4,296 for PRTG 1000, the license Paessler sizes for about 100 devices. Across 50 to 1,000 devices PRTG costs 3.3 to 4.1 times OpManager Professional, and the gap only closes for fleets that need a single sensor per device.

The gap is large because the two licenses count different things. OpManager charges per device and covers every interface, disk and sensor on it. PRTG charges per sensor, and Paessler's own sizing assumes about ten sensors a device. Every figure below is a US dollar list price read from the ManageEngine store and from paessler.com, and every total is arithmetic you can check.

How much does OpManager cost?

OpManager is sold in device packs of 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500 and 1,000, each with two users. On an annual subscription, Standard costs $95 a year for 10 devices, $795 for 100 and $4,095 for 1,000; Professional costs $145, $1,145 and $5,995. Above 1,000 devices you move to Enterprise, from $4,595 a year for 250 devices up to $33,345 for 10,000. Standard and Professional are also sold as perpetual licenses at about 2.5 times the annual price, with 20% a year for maintenance after the first year. Every pack, add-on and the perpetual math are on our OpManager pricing page.

How much does PRTG cost?

PRTG Network Monitor is sold as a subscription in five sensor tiers: $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. Paessler maps those tiers to about 50, 100, 250, 500 and 1,000 devices. Support and updates are included in the subscription. The hosted version, PRTG Hosted Monitor, costs within $5 a year of the self-hosted price at every tier. The tier details are on our PRTG pricing page.

OpManager vs PRTG price at 50 to 1,000 devices

The fair comparison uses each vendor's own sizing. For PRTG that is the license Paessler recommends for each device count, at its ten sensors a device. For OpManager it is the device pack of the same size. Annual billing on both sides, support included on both.

Against Standard the ratio is 4.8 to 5.4 times. At 100 devices the difference is $3,151 a year against Professional and $3,501 against Standard, which over five years is more than a full PRTG year.

Why PRTG costs more for the same network

It comes down to the unit. A PRTG sensor is one measurement: ping on a switch is a sensor, traffic on each port you care about is a sensor, CPU and memory and each disk on a server are sensors. Ten sensors a device is Paessler's planning figure, not a limit, so a core switch where you watch 24 ports plus health uses 25 or more on its own. OpManager licenses the switch as one device and polls as many interfaces as it has.

That makes OpManager's bill easier to predict. Adding ports, disks or interfaces to a device you already monitor costs nothing extra, while on PRTG it eats into the tier and can push you to the next one. PRTG tiers do not stack either: Paessler accepts one license key per server, so going past 1,000 sensors means upgrading the whole license, not adding a small block.

When is PRTG cheaper than OpManager?

Only for large fleets of very simple devices. If 500 devices need just a ping sensor each, PRTG 500 covers them for $2,400 a year, while a 500-device OpManager Standard pack costs $2,895. At two sensors a device PRTG needs the 1,000 tier at $4,296 and OpManager is cheaper again. And OpManager has its own answer for ping-only targets: lite devices, sold from 50 for $225 a year. A 10-device Standard pack plus 500 lite devices costs $1,390, still below PRTG. On list price we could not build a realistic fleet where PRTG comes out ahead.

Perpetual license vs subscription

This is a real difference in how you can buy. Paessler states that every PRTG Network Monitor license size is available as a subscription, and its pricing page lists nothing else. ManageEngine still sells OpManager Standard and Professional as a perpetual license: $1,995 for 100 Standard devices with the first year of maintenance included, then $399 a year. Over five years that is $3,591, against $3,975 on the OpManager subscription and $21,480 on PRTG 1000.

Perpetual only pays back from the fourth or fifth year, so it suits a team that is confident it will keep the tool. It also changes how the purchase is approved. If your company runs software buying through procurement software, a perpetual license is one capital request followed by small renewals, while a subscription is an operating cost that comes back for approval every year. Some finance teams strongly prefer one or the other.

Hosted options and users

If you would rather not run the server, the two vendors go in different directions. Paessler offers PRTG Hosted Monitor at effectively the same price as self-hosted, $4,299 a year for the 1,000-sensor tier. ManageEngine does not sell a hosted OpManager; its store sends cloud buyers to Site24x7, its sister service, which has a separate price list that we cover on our Site24x7 pricing page.

OpManager packs include two users, and more cost from $98 a year for one to $958 a year for unlimited. A team that wants a dozen technicians in the console adds $378 a year for ten. That narrows the gap with PRTG a little at small sizes; it does not change the order in the table.

Which is cheaper for website and API uptime checks?

Both can check a URL. PRTG uses an HTTP sensor, OpManager a URL monitor licensed as a lite device. If either already watches your network, add the checks there. If you are pricing one of them only to watch public websites and APIs, you are buying a network monitor for a job it does from the wrong place: checks run from your own server, inside your network, where a DNS, CDN or routing fault that blocks customers is invisible. UptimeHub checks from six regions, confirms a failure from more than one before it alerts, and publishes a branded status page, from $49 a month on Pro billed yearly for 100 monitors.

OpManager vs PRTG pricing questions

Is OpManager cheaper than PRTG?

Yes, at list price and at every device count both vendors publish. For 50 to 1,000 devices OpManager Professional costs between a quarter and a third of the PRTG license Paessler sizes for the same network, and Standard costs about a fifth. PRTG is cheaper only when hundreds of devices need a single sensor each.

Does PRTG or OpManager charge per device?

OpManager charges per device, and the license covers every interface, disk and sensor on it. PRTG charges per sensor, where each measurement on a device counts separately; Paessler sizes its tiers at about ten sensors a device, so PRTG 500 covers roughly 50 devices, not 500.

Can I buy PRTG or OpManager as a one-time license?

OpManager Standard and Professional can be bought as perpetual licenses, at about 2.5 times the annual subscription with 20% a year in maintenance after the first year. Paessler sells PRTG Network Monitor licenses as subscriptions, with support and updates included.

Which is better for a small network of 25 devices?

On cost, OpManager by a wide margin: $245 a year for 25 Standard devices or $345 for Professional, against $2,400 for PRTG 500, the smallest paid PRTG tier. PRTG also has a free edition limited to 100 sensors, about 10 devices, which may cover a very small lab but not 25 devices at Paessler's own sizing.