How much does PRTG cost?

PRTG Network Monitor is sold as a perpetual license based on sensor count. Prices in 2026: PRTG 500 costs $2,149, PRTG 1000 costs $3,399, PRTG 2500 costs $6,899, PRTG 5000 costs $10,999, and PRTG Unlimited costs $15,999. Annual maintenance (required for updates) adds 20 to 25% of the original license price per year.

What is a PRTG sensor?

A PRTG sensor monitors one specific metric on one device. Monitoring CPU usage on a server is one sensor. Monitoring disk space on the same server is a second sensor. Monitoring HTTP response time from that server is a third sensor. A single server running four monitored services typically uses 10 to 20 sensors.

PRTG Freeware includes 100 sensors at no cost, permanently. For small environments (5 to 10 devices with basic monitoring), 100 sensors can be sufficient. For production infrastructure monitoring beyond that scale, paid licenses are required.

How many sensors do I need for PRTG?

Sensor count depends on what you monitor. A typical server uses 5 to 15 sensors (ping, CPU, memory, disk, network interfaces, services). A network switch with 48 ports monitored individually uses 48+ sensors just for port traffic. Teams monitoring 50 servers typically need 500 to 1,500 sensors.

What is better than PRTG?

Modern cloud-based alternatives include Datadog, Grafana Cloud, and Zabbix (open source). For teams monitoring primarily network equipment and Windows infrastructure, PRTG's Windows-native model works well. For teams that need HTTP uptime monitoring, SSL monitoring, and alerting without running a monitoring server, Vantaj starts at $9/month with no sensor limits.

PRTG Pricing 2026: Sensor-Based Model Explained, Every License Tier, and True Annual Cost

PRTG Network Monitor from Paessler is one of the most widely used infrastructure monitoring tools in mid-size enterprise environments. It runs on Windows, monitors networks and servers through a sensor model, and has a large library of pre-built sensors for common devices and platforms.

The pricing model is unique: you don't pay per host or per user. You pay per sensor. Understanding what that means for your real monitoring needs determines whether PRTG's license tiers fit your environment.

How PRTG Sensor Pricing Works

Each sensor in PRTG monitors one specific metric on one device. Examples:

CPU utilization on Server A → 1 sensor
Memory usage on Server A → 1 sensor
Ping to Server A → 1 sensor
C: drive free space on Server A → 1 sensor
HTTP response time to Server A's web service → 1 sensor
Port traffic on Switch B, port 1 → 1 sensor
Port traffic on Switch B, port 2 → 1 sensor

One server fully monitored (ping, CPU, memory, two disks, four network interfaces, one HTTP check, one service check) uses approximately 12 sensors. A 24-port switch with traffic monitoring per port uses 24+ sensors.

The sensor count compounds fast. Teams that approach PRTG thinking "I have 50 servers, so I need 50 licenses" discover they actually need 500 to 1,000 sensors for proper coverage.

PRTG License Pricing 2026

Perpetual Licenses

License	Sensor limit	One-time price
PRTG Freeware	100 sensors	Free
PRTG 500	500 sensors	$2,149
PRTG 1,000	1,000 sensors	$3,399
PRTG 2,500	2,500 sensors	$6,899
PRTG 5,000	5,000 sensors	$10,999
PRTG Unlimited	Unlimited	$15,999

Perpetual licenses give you the right to run PRTG indefinitely at the purchased sensor limit. Version upgrades beyond 12 months require active maintenance.

Annual Maintenance Fees

Maintenance is required to receive product updates and technical support. Paessler charges maintenance as a percentage of the original license price:

License	Annual maintenance
PRTG 500	~$430/year
PRTG 1,000	~$680/year
PRTG 2,500	~$1,380/year
PRTG 5,000	~$2,200/year
PRTG Unlimited	~$3,200/year

Running PRTG without maintenance is technically possible with the perpetual license, but you won't receive bug fixes, security patches, or new sensor types. Most teams keep maintenance current.

Subscription Pricing (PRTG Network Monitor as SaaS)

Paessler also offers PRTG as an annual subscription rather than a perpetual license. Subscription pricing bundles the license and maintenance into one annual fee:

Subscription	Annual price
PRTG 500	~$1,150/year
PRTG 1,000	~$1,850/year
PRTG 2,500	~$3,750/year
PRTG 5,000	~$5,500/year
PRTG Unlimited	~$7,500/year

Subscription pricing makes sense if you expect to upgrade PRTG versions regularly. After two years, perpetual + maintenance costs typically exceed subscription costs at lower tiers.

PRTG Hosted Monitor (Cloud)

Paessler offers PRTG Hosted Monitor as a cloud-based option where Paessler manages the infrastructure. Pricing is subscription-based:

Plan	Sensors	Annual price
Small	500 sensors	~$1,800/year
Medium	2,000 sensors	~$5,400/year
Large	5,000 sensors	~$11,000/year
Extra Large	10,000 sensors	~$21,000/year

Hosted Monitor eliminates the need to maintain a Windows server for PRTG but costs more than on-premise subscription pricing for equivalent sensor counts.

True Annual Cost Examples

Small team: 30 servers, basic monitoring (CPU, memory, ping, one disk, one network interface, one HTTP check = 7 sensors each = 210 sensors)

Running PRTG 500 (covers up to 500 sensors):

License: $2,149 (one-time) or $1,150/year (subscription)
Maintenance: $430/year (if perpetual)
Year 1 total: ~$2,579 (perpetual) or ~$1,150 (subscription)
Year 3 total: ~$3,439 (perpetual with maintenance) or ~$3,450 (subscription)

Mid-size team: 100 servers + 10 network switches (20 sensors/server, 50 sensors/switch = 2,500 sensors)

Running PRTG 2,500:

License: $6,899 (one-time) or $3,750/year (subscription)
Maintenance: $1,380/year (if perpetual)
Year 1 total: ~$8,279 (perpetual) or ~$3,750 (subscription)
Year 3 total: ~$11,039 (perpetual) or ~$11,250 (subscription)

Where Teams Underestimate PRTG Costs

Sensor count grows with infrastructure. Every new server adds sensors. Every new network device adds sensors. Teams that buy PRTG 500 for a 30-server environment find themselves buying PRTG 1,000 or 2,500 within two years as infrastructure scales.

Network monitoring generates high sensor counts. A 48-port switch with per-port bandwidth monitoring uses 48 sensors for traffic alone, plus additional sensors for device health, uptime, and CPU. Ten switches consumes 500+ sensors before you monitor a single server.

VMware and cloud integrations multiply sensor counts. PRTG's VMware sensor set monitors every virtual machine, every datastore, and every host. In a VMware environment with 200 VMs, PRTG's VMware sensors can consume 1,000+ sensors on their own.

License upgrades when limits are hit. Hitting a sensor limit doesn't reduce monitoring - PRTG pauses the sensors over the limit. Teams that cross a tier mid-year face an unplanned license upgrade cost. Planning sensor budget 20% above current usage prevents this.

PRTG vs. Alternatives

Tool	Pricing model	Free tier	Best for
PRTG	Per sensor (perpetual or subscription)	100 sensors free	Windows/network infrastructure monitoring
Nagios Core	Free	Unlimited (OSS)	Teams comfortable with Linux config files
Nagios XI	Per node (annual)	None	Teams wanting Nagios with better UI
Datadog	Per host + per GB	5 hosts (1-day retention)	SaaS observability, APM, logs
Zabbix	Free (OSS)	Unlimited	Teams wanting PRTG-like breadth at no cost
Vantaj	Per monitor (flat)	20 monitors	HTTP uptime, SSL, DNS, heartbeats, status pages

PRTG is the right tool for teams monitoring Windows servers and network equipment where its native Windows integration and large sensor library cover the use case well. For teams monitoring cloud infrastructure and SaaS services, its Windows-centric model and perpetual licensing structure feel dated relative to cloud-native alternatives.

PRTG for Uptime Monitoring Specifically

PRTG can perform HTTP checks and alert on service downtime. It is not designed as a synthetic uptime monitoring tool:

No multi-region monitoring. PRTG runs from a single Windows server. If that server's region has a network issue, checks fail even if your service is healthy.
No consensus alerting. Alerts fire on single-probe failures, generating false positives that alert fatigue studies consistently identify as the most common reason teams stop trusting their monitoring.
No hosted status pages. Customer-facing status pages require a separate tool.

For pure uptime monitoring, dedicated tools with multi-region probe networks cover the HTTP, SSL, DNS, and heartbeat use cases at lower cost and with less operational overhead than running PRTG for this purpose alone.

The Bottom Line

PRTG Network Monitor is well-suited for Windows environments and network infrastructure monitoring. The sensor model makes initial cost estimation harder than per-host tools - plan 20 to 30% more sensors than you think you need. Annual maintenance costs add 20% of the license price per year.

For uptime and availability monitoring without a monitoring server to manage, Vantaj covers HTTP, SSL, DNS, and heartbeat monitoring from 10 global probe regions at a flat monthly rate with no sensor calculations required.