Dynatrace vs Instana Dynamic APM comparison

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48,043 views|28,865 comparisons
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4,090 views|3,234 comparisons
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: March 2024).
763,955 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
"We are using it on most of our platforms, which are on a big scale and across the globe.""It is a very good APM tool. There is a lot of thorough scanning of services and applications. It has got great monitoring features.""We're able to tell them which calls, which methods, which interface were the problem.""Great tool for deep diving into performance data and tracking issues through all the connected systems to better diagnose and pinpoint the real issues.""Dynatrace helps us to improve overall performance and allows us to detect the root cause of an outbreak on our systems.""The Recorder for setting up a synthetic monitor is a really great tool for non-technical staff to be able to set up a monitor.""Since Appmon has been leveraged, we are now down to just hours (sometimes minutes) in resolution times.""The server monitoring is very accurate in this tool. We are able to prevent many critical Incidents."

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"Its GUI is really good and it easy to understand for non-technical users.""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.""Visually, it's very good. It provides everything needed for dynamic detection, which is very useful.""With Instana, the interface and the UI are very simple to use.""The platform’s most valuable feature is the ability to monitor the performance of containers for request and response analysis.""The primary selling point of this product is its unparalleled transparency into the infrastructure.""If a key monitored value has crossed a threshold, it sends out an alert. And the solution is able to intelligently find out if something is beyond the range that it normally resides in.""It is a stable solution."

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Cons
"Improvements in Synthetic monitoring would be great. Certain features of thick client, if available in the web interface, would also be a great improvement.""Some of the APIs and integrations are a bit tougher than others to integrate.""Dynatrace has been difficult to set up and use to diagnose problems in the past due to the complex nature of the tool.""There is a limitation on timeframe. Now, if you look at the dashboard, it will state five minutes, then 15 minutes, then one hour, then six hours, and finally 24 hours. I would like them to provide a set of options defining the business hour.""There is still a certain amount of technical skills needed to be able to understand what you are seeing on it. You also need a large amount of technical or infrastructure skills to understand how and where to install it.""PurePath exports was a great feature in AppMon, but it is sometimes missing in Dynatrace.""It would be nice if there were a way that it could be made simpler, given the complexity of the things that we're monitoring.""It still has a long way to go to reach that single pane of glass."

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"The integration could be improved with more plugins or open API.""Maybe log monitoring could be better.""Its SLI and SLA features need improvement in setting up alerts.""New Relic has a better UI in terms of how it presents the data.""We'd always like to see additional functionalities.""While it is already quite good, there is room for improvement in terms of providing better functionality""I think that Instana should improve the university and the certification process, so the users can find experts in Instana with their certification module process.""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."

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
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    Comparisons
    28,865
    Reviews
    15
    Average Words per Review
    468
    Rating
    8.5
    Views
    4,090
    Comparisons
    3,234
    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 Organization27%
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm24%
    Computer Software Company17%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Government7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise71%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business11%
    Midsize Enterprise33%
    Large Enterprise56%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise42%
    Large Enterprise33%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise69%
    Buyer's Guide
    Dynatrace vs. Instana Dynamic APM
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Dynatrace vs. Instana Dynamic APM and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    763,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Dynatrace is ranked 2nd in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability with 16 reviews while Instana Dynamic APM is ranked 18th in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability with 7 reviews. Dynatrace is rated 8.8, while Instana Dynamic APM is rated 7.4. The top reviewer of Dynatrace writes "Allows us to monitor application performance, underlying infrastructure, and relationships with Smartscape technology". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Instana Dynamic APM writes "Empowering applications with real-time insights and seamless performance". 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.