Scanopy is for IT teams and MSPs who want a dedicated network diagram automation tool which works alongside their existing monitoring platform. PRTG Network Monitor is for teams already running Paessler for monitoring who want status dashboards alongside their sensor data. Discovery, the four topology views, pricing, and licensing are where the two differ, including PRTG Network Monitor's trade-offs.
Scanopy vs PRTG Network Monitor: head to head
| Scanopy | PRTG Network Monitor | |
|---|---|---|
| DiscoveryProtocols used to find devices and map connections | SNMP LLDP CDP ARP TCP/UDP | SNMP WMI ICMP [13] |
| ServicesNo No service awareness Basic Common port detection Yes Application-level fingerprinting | Yes250+ types | No |
| Network ViewsWhich topology views the tool produces from discovery. L2 Physical switch ports and links L3 Subnets, VLANs, routing Workload VM/container host nesting Application Service-dependency / app grouping Yes supported Tag ? unverified Greyed not supported | ||
| Live UpdatesWhether diagrams update automatically after the initial scan | Yes | Yes |
| Open SourceOSI OSI-approved open source license Source available Source code available, restricted license No Proprietary | OSI AGPL-3.0 | No |
| PricingStarting price or pricing model | Starts at $11.99 monthly, unlimited hosts | Free to 100 sensors, then $200-$1,642/mo [4] |
| Also IncludesCapabilities beyond network diagramming | Docker Visualization | Monitoring Traffic Analysis |
How they compare
PRTG and Scanopy both discover a network, but they produce different artifacts. PRTG is a mature, sensor-based monitoring platform released in 2003 with a large installed base, and its Maps feature builds dashboards: you assemble device icons, sensor status objects, graphs, tables, and geographic maps in a drag-and-drop Map Designer, and the result is an HTML page you can publish at its own URL. It has no native automatic Layer 2 or Layer 3 topology mapping. Paessler's knowledge base documents that "PRTG has no way of knowing which switch is connected to which so creating an automatic graph is not possible", and automatic Layer 2 mapping comes from PRTG UVexplorer, a separate product in the PRTG family. Scanopy's job is that topology: one daemon produces four switchable views (L2, L3, workloads, applications) and identifies the services on each host, with nothing else to buy.
The licensing models divide along the same line. PRTG charges by sensor, so cost scales with how many aspects you monitor rather than with the size of the network you want documented: subscriptions run $200/mo for 500 sensors up to $1,642/mo for 10,000, and the freeware edition covers 100 sensors, about 10 devices. If you already run PRTG and mainly want monitoring, alerting, and traffic analysis, with dashboards as a secondary view, staying in PRTG (and adding UVexplorer for automatic L2 maps) avoids another tool. Scanopy is flat monthly with unlimited hosts, self-hostable under a commercial license, or free under AGPL-3.0, and it runs alongside PRTG rather than replacing your monitoring.
PRTG's sensor library and monitoring feature set exceed Scanopy's, and Scanopy does no monitoring at all. This comparison is only about which tool draws the network map automatically.
When to choose which
Choose Scanopy when: Choose Scanopy for auto topology over sensor-based monitoring: automatic L2, L3, workload, and application views, per-host service detection, flat pricing regardless of host count, and a free, self-hostable Community edition. It sits alongside your monitoring stack rather than replacing it.
Choose PRTG Network Monitor when: If you already run PRTG for monitoring and want a status dashboard on a floor plan, a network operations center view, or a top-10 sensor list, the Maps feature covers it without adding a tool. The device and sensor inventory behind it is thorough.
This is a focused, two-tool comparison. Weighing other options too? See the best PRTG Network Monitor alternatives. For all 13 tools side by side, see the full network documentation tools comparison.
Sources
Started as a homelabber, now deep in SNMP MIBs, Layer 3 topology, and service fingerprinting - building the network documentation tool I wished existed.