Commercial monitoring tools offer polished interfaces, support, and rapid deployment.
PRTG features:
- Sensor-based licensing
- Pre-built sensors for common tasks
- Auto-discovery of infrastructure
- Mobile apps for on-call response
Other options:
SolarWinds NPM. Deep network focus with SNMP and NetFlow.
Datadog. Cloud-hosted with strong integrations.
Dynatrace. Application performance with AI analysis.
When commercial makes sense:
- You need support contracts
- Staff lacks time for open-source solutions
- Compliance requires vendor accountability