Dynatrace vs Instana Dynamic APM comparison

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Dynatrace Logo
45,838 views|27,551 comparisons
95% willing to recommend
Instana Logo
3,948 views|3,150 comparisons
81% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Jun 27, 2023

We performed a comparison between Dynatrace and Instana Dynamic APM based on real PeerSpot user reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Dynatrace's setup is straightforward, but may require more technical knowledge for the Managed version, while Instana Dynamic APM has a fast and easy setup process with automated dashboards and no maintenance required. However, Instana Dynamic APM requires a previous Docker installation, but the process is simple. Navigation on Dynatrace can be long-winded.
  • Features: Dynatrace offers real user tracking, AI incident alerts, and Kubernetes topology visualization. Meanwhile, Instana Dynamic APM provides real-time monitoring, detailed application behavior, user-friendly GUI, App Connect middleware, and great AWS cloud monitoring. Instana's SLI and SLA features are better than Dynatrace's.
  • Pricing: Dynatrace's pricing is unclear and the premium support package is expensive. Instana Dynamic APM's pricing is generally reasonable, although some users found it a bit high compared to other vendors.
  • Service and Support: The customer service for both Dynatrace and Instana Dynamic APM received varying feedback from users. Some have praised the responsiveness and helpfulness of their technical support, while others have experienced slow or unreliable support from IBM.
  • ROI: Dynatrace offers substantial ROI through automation, feedback, and cost savings. It reduces mean time to repair by 70%, time to market by 50%, and saves money through tool consolidation. On the other hand, Instana is considered a profitable investment. Measuring the impact of Dynatrace's ROI can be difficult.

Comparison Results: Dynatrace is the preferred option over Instana Dynamic APM as it offers more comprehensive features and better AI capabilities, and has provided significant ROI through cost savings. While Instana Dynamic APM has a user-friendly GUI and fast implementation, it lacks certain features and detailed information about issues. Dynatrace's higher pricing is outweighed by the benefits of automation and decreased mean time to identification and repair.

To learn more, read our detailed Dynatrace vs. Instana Dynamic APM Report (Updated: May 2024).
771,212 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"PurePath does deep dive analysis, has dashboards, and provides real user experience monitoring. It has allowed us to do analysis which was never possible before.""Dynatrace is heavily automated which is a big advantage. You don't have to configure a lot, it installs and it runs straight away. There's direct return on investment and you can focus on more interesting stuff than always have to configure and change the configurations. Issues or problems in detection is also fully automated, which is great.""The solution is multi-tenant and based in Big data technology.""We’re monitoring our SQL databases, we’re monitoring our microservices infrastructure, we’re monitoring our front-end we’re monitoring our mobile apps. It has increased our productivity, we’ve been able to optimize all of our applications.""The most valuable features of Dynatrace are the ease of installation and management, as well as its extensibility.""The solution can be deployed quickly on-prem. Once it's deployed, you can use discovery and review the process and service on this application.""Dynatrace provide us the in-depth details to know what is wrong in the application and what are performance issues, then really quickly we are able to debug any performance issues or any other performance-related issues.""This solution has helped us to improve application performance and reduce issue-impact with faster resolutions."

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"It's great for monitoring services and applications.""With auto-discovery, we didn't need to consider much. We just installed the agent on the host and it was able to detect everything from the host level up to the service level, for whatever stack was installed, and that includes containers and dockers.""The primary selling point of this product is its unparalleled transparency into the infrastructure.""The overall capabilities are the most valuable.""The detailing of our application behavior and user experience is most valuable. In case there is an issue, we typically use Instana to figure it out. We can drill down to the application and figure out what's going on and where the issue is.""With Instana, the interface and the UI are very simple to use.""The most valuable feature of Instana Dynamic APM is auto-instrumentation.""Instana is very fast to implement and deploy because the dashboards are automated and don't need configuration."

More Instana Dynamic APM Pros →

Cons
"When it comes to monitoring, we did the integration with VMware vCenter, and we were able to see some good stuff. The VMware vCenter integration was really great, but what we really missed was the integration with the network management stuff such as Cisco ACI. We wanted to see integration in that area, but it was not provided by Dynatrace. So, the main feature for us is integration with things like Cisco ACI. If they can bring that one in, with vCenter in there, it would be a total solution. It would be absolutely incomparable to anything else in the market.""They should provide a guide to arrive at the solution for non-super experts.""Scalability-wise, on the data side, I'm really worried because they are giving only seven days data retention. They should plan something on that, to increase the data.""It was difficult to initially use the solution, how to use it and where to navigate.""The new Managed Edition is too complex. I feel like a fish out of water.""They need to develop how to capture the JDBC and MBeans metrics.""Alert triggers could be easier to setup and more granular.""I do know that for the size of our organization, we're talking thousands of agents and hundreds of applications, it does get to the point where the servers themselves that house Dynatrace are at a point where, in some cases, they are just too big for one machine, since you have to have an entire application ecosystem all funnel into a single system."

More Dynatrace Cons →

"Maybe log monitoring could be better.""We should be able to go back to scenarios during or before the issue. There should be something like a history playback. Such a feature or functionality would be good.""While it is already quite good, there is room for improvement in terms of providing better functionality""Many managers, as well as our customers, used to ask for reports, such as "top X number of queries that are slow," or "top pages that have the highest number of issues." This is something that can be improved by Instana. Currently, they don't have that kind of reporting available out-of-the-box.""They could improve the product’s dashboards and provide more dashboard options.""We'd always like to see additional functionalities.""The integration could be improved with more plugins or open API.""Its SLI and SLA features need improvement in setting up alerts."

More Instana Dynamic APM Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Pricing is based on the number of servers monitored, so for big applications, it is a bit expensive."
  • "Licensing is a bit complicated for Dynatrace, and pricing is dependent on how much your organization invests."
  • "We found an issue within the first week of ownership that has been costing us more than the entire license cost."
  • "Product pricing can seem a little over complex, however this is minor and does not detract from the benefits of the solution."
  • "Getting the first agents installed, getting information, and coverage in a initial set of systems can be done in hours and with a low cost entry point."
  • "Price (of the product) is a major concern for all the clients I work with."
  • "The licensing model is confusing in solutioning clients for the number of hosts needed to deploy."
  • "The product is superior to others, but it comes with a price tag that is often difficult to position back to clients."
  • More Dynatrace Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Pricing is quite competitive. Dynatrace, AppDynamics, and New Relic were all several times more expensive than Instana, both the on-prem and the SaaS versions. Price-wise they are a lot more competitive than anyone else out there."
  • "Its pricing isn't a big pain point. Its pricing seems to be better than some of the other competing products in the market, but they also have some of the features and functionalities that are better than Instana."
  • "The pricing is $1,200 per year which is a bit high compared to other vendors."
  • "The solution is less expensive than one of its competitors."
  • "It's reasonably priced and manageable, especially for individuals who grasp the significance of application monitoring."
  • "The solution's pricing is comparable to other products."
  • "Instana Dynamic APM is more affordable for small and medium-sized companies compared to other vendors."
  • More Instana Dynamic APM Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The key is to have a holistic view over the complete infrastructure, the ones you have listed are great for APM if you need to monitor applications end to end. I have tested them all and have not… more »
    Top Answer:While the environment does matter in the selection of an APM tool, I prefer to use Dynatrace to manage the entire stack. Both production and Dev/Test. I find it to be quite superior to anything else… more »
    Top Answer:There are many factors and we know little about your requirements (size of org, technology stack, management systems, the scope of implementation). Our goal was to consolidate APM and infra… more »
    Top Answer:The platform’s most valuable feature is the ability to monitor the performance of containers for request and response analysis.
    Top Answer:Instana Dynamic APM is more affordable for small and medium-sized companies compared to AppDynamics and Dynatrace.
    Top Answer:They could improve the product’s dashboards and provide more dashboard options. Additionally, the server and database monitoring needs enhancement compared to other vendors.
    Ranking
    Views
    45,838
    Comparisons
    27,551
    Reviews
    13
    Average Words per Review
    502
    Rating
    8.4
    Views
    3,948
    Comparisons
    3,150
    Reviews
    6
    Average Words per Review
    328
    Rating
    8.0
    Comparisons
    Learn More
    Overview

    Dynatrace is an AI-powered software intelligence monitoring platform that accelerates digital transformation and simplifies cloud complexities. Dynatrace is an entirely automated full-stack solution that provides data and answers about the performance of your applications and deep insight into every transaction throughout every application, including the end-user experience. By modernizing and automating enterprise cloud operations, users can deliver an optimal digital experience with higher quality software to customers faster.

    Dynatrace offers an all-in-one automated artificial intelligence solution that brings together application performance, cloud and infrastructure, and digital experience monitoring. Dynatrace accelerates performance-driven results through operations, development, and business teams with a shared metrics platform. In addition, users are provided a full-stack monitoring experience with three patented technologies:

    • Smartscape - visualization mechanism that maps the totality of everything working in your environment and detects any casual dependencies between your applications, processes, websites, services, hosts, cloud infrastructure, and networks.

    • OneAgent - a technology that analyzes, gathers ,and unifies all business performance metrics throughout every layer of your technology stack.

    • PurePath Technology - code-level context and timings are captured from the mainframe to the cloud for all end-to-end transactions.

    What does Dynatrace offer?

    Dynatrace redefines how organizations monitor their digital ecosystems. The solution offers:

    • Cloud Automation: With AI engine Davis®, users can see the exact reason for problems and facilitate quick auto-remediation and intelligent cloud orchestration.

    • Application Security: With automated application vulnerability management, users can deliver applications faster and more securely.

    • Infrastructure Monitoring: Convenient broad visibility across your environments is provided with streamlined, automated infrastructure monitoring.

    • Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM): Optimize your applications, provide better support, and improve user experience with a combination of Real User Monitoring (RUM), Session Replay, and synthetic monitoring throughout your environment.

    • Applications and Microservices: For complex cloud environments, Dynatrace can automatically provide visibility and root-cause answers. It can also monitor microservices.

    • Digital Business Analytics: Get AI-powered, real-time answers to analytical business queries with KPIs and metrics that are already flowing through applications.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Dynatrace is the only solution that provides answers to organizations based on deep insight into each user, transaction, and organization's environment.

    Barry P., a managing performance engineer at Medica Health Plans, writes, "With Dynatrace, we have synthetic checks and real-user monitoring of all of our websites, places where members and providers can interact with us over the web. We monitor the response times of those with Dynatrace, and it's all integrated into one place."

    A consultant at a tech service company notes, "A feature that's one of the highlights of Dynatrace is the AI. The second most valuable feature is OneAgent. Between infrastructures, applications, operating systems, you can deploy with just a single agent and can practically install and forget about it."

    Instana’s Enterprise Observability Platform, powered by automated Application Performance Monitoring, discovers and maps all services, infrastructure, and their inter-dependencies automatically. Instana ingests all observability metrics, traces each request, profiles every process, and updates application dependency maps in real-time to deliver the context and actionable feedback needed by Dev+Ops to optimize application performance, enable innovation, and mitigate risk to help them add value and efficiency to the pipeline. Learn more at https://instana.com.

    Sample Customers
    Audi, Best Buy, LinkedIn, CISCO, Intuit, KRONOS, Scottrade, Wells Fargo, ULTA Beauty, Lenovo, Swarovsk, Nike, Whirlpool, American Express
    Daxko Lifts Fitness Studios Through COVID Regulations with Quick Engineering PivotsAltissia Meets SLAs to Support Student DeadlinesImmocloud Unlocks Observability to Modernize Real EstateEnento Group Boosts Service Reliability with Real-Time Visibility into Application Performance Instana’s Observability for Amazon EKS Helps Yara Deliver Digital Farming Solutions
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm28%
    Insurance Company9%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization28%
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm26%
    Computer Software Company18%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Government6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise70%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business11%
    Midsize Enterprise34%
    Large Enterprise55%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise42%
    Large Enterprise33%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise69%
    Buyer's Guide
    Dynatrace vs. Instana Dynamic APM
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Dynatrace vs. Instana Dynamic APM and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    771,212 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Dynatrace is ranked 2nd in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability with 340 reviews while Instana Dynamic APM is ranked 23rd in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability with 12 reviews. Dynatrace is rated 8.8, while Instana Dynamic APM is rated 7.4. The top reviewer of Dynatrace writes "AI identifies all the components of a response-time issue or failure, hugely benefiting our triage efforts". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Instana Dynamic APM writes "A really good GUI that is easy for non-technical users to understand". Dynatrace is most compared with Datadog, New Relic, AppDynamics, Splunk Enterprise Security and SCOM, whereas Instana Dynamic APM is most compared with AppDynamics, New Relic, Elastic Observability, IBM Application Performance Management and Datadog. See our Dynatrace vs. Instana Dynamic APM report.

    See our list of best Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability vendors.

    We monitor all Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.