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Network monitoring tools compared: Ping vs PRTG vs SolarWinds vs ThousandEyes vs managed monitoring

By Michael Obraitis, Managing Partner, and Michael Dale, CEO·Published August 12, 2026·Last reviewed August 2026·ADAM Pulse Knowledge Base

What is the best network monitoring tool?

That sounds like a simple question.

It is not.

A small IT department trying to monitor five internet circuits has very different requirements from a global enterprise monitoring thousands of network devices, cloud services, SaaS applications and remote employees.

And both organizations have a different problem from the business asking:

“Who is going to investigate the alert at 2:00 AM?”

The best network monitoring solution therefore depends on what you are actually trying to accomplish.

Do you need:

This guide compares several common approaches, including Ping, PRTG, SolarWinds, Cisco ThousandEyes, and managed network monitoring through services such as ADAM Pulse.

What Is the Best Network Monitoring Tool?

There is no single best network monitoring tool for every organization.

A better question is:

What Problem Are You Trying to Solve?

If your requirement is:

“Tell me whether this IP address responds.”

Ping may be enough.

If your requirement is:

“Monitor hundreds of routers, switches and servers.”

A platform such as PRTG or SolarWinds may be appropriate.

If your requirement is:

“Show me the user to SaaS experience across networks we do not own.”

Cisco ThousandEyes deserves consideration.

If your requirement is:

“Monitor our distributed sites and have someone investigate, isolate and escalate network problems.”

You may need managed network monitoring or a NOC service rather than software alone.

Network Monitoring Tool Comparison

| Approach | Strongest Use Case | Operational Responsibility | | —- | —- | —- | | Ping | Simple reachability testing | Customer | | Traceroute / MTR | Path diagnostics | Customer | | PRTG | Broad infrastructure monitoring | Customer | | SolarWinds | Enterprise network and hybrid IT monitoring | Customer | | Cisco ThousandEyes | Internet, cloud, SaaS and digital experience assurance | Customer | | ADAM Pulse Managed Monitoring | Distributed network monitoring plus operational response | Shared or managed |

The categories overlap.

The important difference is often not what each platform can monitor, but who is responsible for interpreting and acting on the results.

Option 1: Ping

Ping remains one of the most valuable networking tools ever created.

It helps answer:

Can I reach this destination?

It can also provide:

Ping is:

For troubleshooting, it is often the first test engineers run.

What Are the Limitations of Ping?

Ping does not provide a complete network diagnosis.

A successful response does not prove that:

Ping is an excellent tool.

It is not a complete monitoring strategy.

Option 2: Traceroute and MTR

Traceroute adds path visibility.

It helps answer:

How is traffic reaching the destination?

MTR adds repeated measurements to path testing and can provide useful latency and packet loss information.

These tools are excellent for:

But again, they usually depend on someone actively running and interpreting the test.

Option 3: PRTG Network Monitor

Paessler PRTG is a broad infrastructure monitoring platform.

PRTG currently supports monitoring methods including:

Paessler says PRTG "comes with more than 250 preconfigured sensors" and can retain historical data across its monitoring methods.

What Is PRTG Good At?

PRTG is well suited to organizations that want broad monitoring flexibility.

Potential use cases include:

PRTG can deploy remote probes at branch locations and centrally collect information from those sites.

How Much Does PRTG Cost?

As of August 2026, Paessler publicly lists the following prices for PRTG Network Monitor. Paessler quotes each figure as a price per month paid annually, not as a "starting at" figure:

PRTG 500: $200 per month

PRTG 1000: $358 per month

PRTG 2500: $742 per month

PRTG 5000: $1,300 per month

PRTG 10000: $1,642 per month

The tiers are based on sensor count. Paessler estimates, for example, that 500 sensors are "enough to monitor multiple aspects of 50 devices", working from a rule of thumb of roughly 5 to 10 sensors per device. These are list prices for PRTG Network Monitor specifically; PRTG Enterprise Monitor and PRTG Hosted Monitor are quoted separately. Paessler now sells PRTG on a subscription basis. Pricing can change, so buyers should verify current pricing directly with Paessler.

What Is the Operational Consideration with PRTG?

PRTG provides the monitoring platform.

Your organization generally remains responsible for:

For an organization with strong internal IT resources, that may be exactly what is wanted.

Option 4: SolarWinds

SolarWinds offers extensive network monitoring and observability capabilities.

Its current network products support areas including:

SolarWinds' NetPath technology, which SolarWinds now describes as a feature of SolarWinds Observability, provides hop-by-hop visibility into network paths across on-premises and cloud environments. Its broader observability platform can correlate information across network and hybrid IT environments.

What Is SolarWinds Good At?

SolarWinds is well suited to organizations that need significant depth across traditional network infrastructure.

It can be valuable for:

SolarWinds also supports SLA oriented reporting around availability and response time.

How Much Does SolarWinds Cost?

SolarWinds currently publishes multiple pricing models depending on the product and deployment.

As of August 2026, its pricing page lists broader Monitoring & Observability starting at $8 per node per month. Its Network and Infrastructure Observability SaaS offering is listed starting at $15.75 per node per month. The standalone Network Performance Monitor is listed at a starting price of $2,829. SolarWinds publishes that figure without stating a unit or a term, and the Network Performance Monitor product page itself directs buyers to contact sales for a quote, so treat it as an entry point rather than a comparable per-node price.

Because SolarWinds offers several product families and licensing options, organizations should request a current quote for their actual architecture.

What Is the Operational Consideration with SolarWinds?

As with most sophisticated monitoring platforms, someone must own:

The tool provides powerful information.

Your IT organization still needs an operating model around it.

Option 5: Cisco ThousandEyes

Cisco ThousandEyes addresses a somewhat different monitoring challenge.

Modern applications often traverse infrastructure the organization does not own.

For example:

User → WiFi → ISP → Internet → Cloud → SaaS application

Traditional infrastructure monitoring may provide excellent visibility into the first portion of that journey.

ThousandEyes is designed to extend visibility across internet, cloud, SaaS and external networks.

Cisco describes ThousandEyes as providing end to end visibility across both owned and unowned networks.

What Is ThousandEyes Good At?

ThousandEyes is especially strong for:

Its network and application capabilities can provide hop by hop visibility across LAN, WAN, internet and cloud networks, correlated with web, API and routing information.

What Is ThousandEyes Endpoint Experience?

ThousandEyes Endpoint Agents can monitor the experience from an employee's device through:

This can be particularly valuable for troubleshooting remote employee and SaaS experience issues.

How Much Does Cisco ThousandEyes Cost?

ThousandEyes uses several licensing methods.

The ThousandEyes pricing page publishes licensing metrics rather than dollar figures. The figures below come from Cisco's own public Cisco ThousandEyes Ordering Guide, updated March 2026, which lists examples including:

ThousandEyes Units: $0.85 per unit per month

Endpoint Experience Essentials: starting at $6 per user per month

Endpoint Experience Advantage: starting at $14.60 per user per month

Internet Insights: starting at $2,750 per package per month

Cisco also offers site based packages. The ordering guide lists the extra small site package at $131 per month, rising through small, medium and large tiers, with minimum purchase quantities applying to each.

Actual cost depends heavily on tests, agents, users, sites and services.

Is ThousandEyes Better Than PRTG or SolarWinds?

Not universally.

They solve overlapping but different problems.

A simplified distinction is:

PRTG and SolarWinds

strong infrastructure and device monitoring.

ThousandEyes

strong internet, SaaS, cloud path and digital experience visibility.

Many sophisticated organizations use different tools for different layers.

Option 6: Managed Network Monitoring

Managed network monitoring approaches the problem differently.

Instead of asking only:

Which monitoring software should we buy?

the question becomes:

Who Is Responsible for What Happens After the Alert?

A managed monitoring service or NOC may provide:

The value is not merely the monitoring technology.

It is the operational layer around the monitoring.

What Is ADAM Pulse?

ADAM Pulse is designed for organizations that need visibility across distributed networks and an operational process around that visibility.

The focus includes questions such as:

Which site is affected?

Is the gateway reachable?

Is the firewall reachable?

Is the primary WAN healthy?

Is the backup connection healthy?

Is packet loss occurring?

Is latency abnormal?

Does the evidence point toward the carrier or local environment?

Has this happened before?

ADAM Pulse vs Traditional Monitoring Software

The comparison is not simply:

Which dashboard has more features?

A traditional monitoring product may provide extremely deep technical capabilities.

ADAM Pulse should instead be evaluated around a different question:

Does Your Team Need Another Tool or Additional Operational Capacity?

If your organization already has:

a monitoring platform may be the best choice.

If your organization has:

managed monitoring may be a stronger fit.

Ping vs PRTG vs SolarWinds vs ThousandEyes vs ADAM Pulse

| Requirement | Ping | PRTG | SolarWinds | ThousandEyes | ADAM Pulse | | —- | —- | —- | —- | —- | —- | | Basic reachability | Strong | Strong | Strong | Strong | Strong | | Historical monitoring | No by itself | Strong | Strong | Strong | Strong | | SNMP device depth | No | Strong | Strong | Different focus | Based on service design | | Flow analytics | No | Yes | Yes | Traffic capabilities available | Based on service scope | | Internet path visibility | Limited | Moderate | Strong | Very strong | Fault isolation focused | | SaaS user experience | No | Some synthetic options | Broader observability | Very strong | Network context focused | | Multi site monitoring | Manual | Strong | Strong | Strong | Core focus | | Carrier fault isolation | Manual | Tools provided | Tools provided | Strong visibility | Core operational focus | | Human alert validation | No | Customer | Customer | Customer | Managed capability | | Carrier escalation | No | Customer | Customer | Customer | Can be managed | | Incident ownership | Customer | Customer | Customer | Customer | Shared or managed |

This table is intentionally conceptual.

Product capabilities and ADAM Pulse service scope should always be validated against the customer's actual requirements.

Which Solution Is Best for a Small IT Team?

If the team primarily needs infrastructure visibility and has enough time to manage the system, PRTG may be an attractive option.

If broader enterprise monitoring and hybrid IT observability are important, SolarWinds may be appropriate.

If cloud, SaaS, external internet paths and remote user experience are central problems, ThousandEyes may deserve serious evaluation.

If the problem is:

“We already have enough tools. We need someone to monitor the locations and help us act on what happens.”

managed monitoring becomes much more compelling.

Which Solution Is Best for Multi Location Businesses?

Ask:

The answers may matter more than feature comparisons.

Should Businesses Use More Than One Monitoring Tool?

Sometimes.

One system may provide excellent firewall telemetry.

Another may provide SaaS experience.

Another may monitor internet circuits.

The question is whether the resulting visibility can be operationally managed.

A stack of five excellent monitoring tools can still fail if nobody owns the incident.

The Real Comparison: Tool vs Outcome

Instead of asking:

Which tool has the most features?

ask:

Which solution helps us accomplish our operational objective?

That might mean:

More telemetry

or:

Better path visibility

or:

Faster troubleshooting

or:

24/7 operational coverage

or:

Better carrier management

The ADAM Pulse Difference

ADAM Pulse is not intended to win a feature checklist contest against every enterprise monitoring platform.

That is the wrong comparison.

Its value is the combination of:

Distributed network visibility

Gateway first fault isolation

Historical network evidence

Carrier versus firewall troubleshooting

Managed monitoring

USA Telecom network expertise

The objective is to help businesses move from:

Alert

to:

Understanding

to:

Action

Which Network Monitoring Approach Is Right for You?

Choose based on the problem.

Need a quick diagnostic?

Use ping, traceroute or MTR.

Need broad infrastructure monitoring you will operate internally?

Evaluate platforms such as PRTG or SolarWinds.

Need sophisticated internet, cloud and SaaS visibility?

Evaluate Cisco ThousandEyes.

Need someone to help continuously monitor distributed locations and act on network incidents?

Evaluate a managed monitoring model such as ADAM Pulse.

Do Not Buy a Tool Until You Define Who Owns the Alert

Before purchasing anything, answer:

Who will monitor it?

Who will validate alerts?

Who will troubleshoot?

Who will contact the carrier?

Who will follow the ticket?

Who will confirm restoration?

Who will analyze recurring problems?

The answers determine whether you primarily need:

Software

or:

Operations

or:

Both.

Learn more about ADAM Pulse and talk with USA Telecom about the network monitoring approach that fits your organization.

Frequently asked questions

What Is the Best Network Monitoring Tool?

There is no single best network monitoring tool for every organization. A better question is:

What Are the Limitations of Ping?

Ping does not provide a complete network diagnosis. A successful response does not prove that: Ping is an excellent tool.

What Is PRTG Good At?

PRTG is well suited to organizations that want broad monitoring flexibility. Potential use cases include: PRTG can deploy remote probes at branch locations and centrally collect information from those sites.

How Much Does PRTG Cost?

As of August 2026, Paessler publicly lists the following prices for PRTG Network Monitor. Paessler quotes each figure as a price per month paid annually, not as a "starting at" figure: The tiers are based on sensor count. Paessler estimates, for example, that 500 sensors are "enough to monitor multiple aspects of 50 devices", working from a rule of thumb of roughly 5 to 10 sensors per device. These are list prices for PRTG Network Monitor specifically; PRTG Enterprise Monitor and PRTG Hosted Monitor are quoted separately. Paessler now sells PRTG on a subscription basis. Pricing can change, so buyers should verify current pricing directly with Paessler.

What Is the Operational Consideration with PRTG?

PRTG provides the monitoring platform. Your organization generally remains responsible for: For an organization with strong internal IT resources, that may be exactly what is wanted.

What Is SolarWinds Good At?

SolarWinds is well suited to organizations that need significant depth across traditional network infrastructure. It can be valuable for: SolarWinds also supports SLA oriented reporting around availability and response time.

How Much Does SolarWinds Cost?

SolarWinds currently publishes multiple pricing models depending on the product and deployment. As of August 2026, its pricing page lists broader Monitoring & Observability starting at $8 per node per month. Its Network and Infrastructure Observability SaaS offering is listed starting at $15.75 per node per month. The standalone Network Performance Monitor is listed at a starting price of $2,829. SolarWinds publishes that figure without stating a unit or a term, and the Network Performance Monitor product page itself directs buyers to contact sales for a quote, so treat it as an entry point rather than a comparable per-node price. Because SolarWinds offers several product families and licensing options, organizations should request a current quote for their actual architecture.

What Is the Operational Consideration with SolarWinds?

As with most sophisticated monitoring platforms, someone must own: The tool provides powerful information. Your IT organization still needs an operating model around it.

What Is ThousandEyes Good At?

ThousandEyes is especially strong for: Its network and application capabilities can provide hop by hop visibility across LAN, WAN, internet and cloud networks, correlated with web, API and routing information.

What Is ThousandEyes Endpoint Experience?

ThousandEyes Endpoint Agents can monitor the experience from an employee's device through: This can be particularly valuable for troubleshooting remote employee and SaaS experience issues.

Sources

Editorial note

Third-party product names, capabilities and prices in this article were verified against each vendor’s own published documentation on 12 August 2026 and are quoted for comparison only. Pricing and packaging change frequently, list prices rarely reflect negotiated cost, and capabilities depend on edition and configuration. Verify current details directly with each vendor before making a purchasing decision. USA Telecom Consulting LLC is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Paessler, SolarWinds or Cisco, and all trademarks belong to their respective owners.

See where ADAM Pulse sits versus DIY monitoring tools

ADAM Pulse is the staffed-NOC side of this comparison: who is awake at 3am, who calls the carrier, and who owns the ticket after the alert.

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Prepared by ADAM Pulse (USA Telecom Consulting LLC) — managed AI governance, network, and NOC services. Support: (888) 989-4872 · support@adampulse.us