Elastic Observability vs Instana Dynamic APM comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Jun 28, 2023

We performed a comparison between Elastic Observability 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: Elastic Observability's initial setup is not consistent, with some finding it simple and others finding it difficult. On the other hand, Instana Dynamic APM has an uncomplicated and speedy setup process that doesn't require maintenance, thanks to automated dashboards.
  • Features: Elastic Observability offers machine learning and custom development, while Instana Dynamic APM provides real-time monitoring and detailed application behavior. Instana Dynamic APM is ideal for AWS cloud monitoring and boasts the best SLI and SLA features. In contrast, Elastic Observability is a budget-friendly option with a good design.
  • Pricing: Elastic Observability's cost varies based on license and usage. Instana Dynamic APM's pricing, while generally reasonable, was found to be a bit high by some reviewers compared to other vendors. Both products were described as having reasonable licensing costs, but Instana has additional costs for data transfer.
  • Service and Support: Elastic Observability's customer service is highly regarded, with a supportive online community and knowledgeable tech support. In contrast, Instana Dynamic APM's customer service is inconsistent, with some positive experiences but also complaints about slow and unreliable support.
  • ROI: Elastic Observability provides affordable options with thorough monitoring and prompt issue resolution, while Instana Dynamic APM is a valuable expenditure for businesses.

Comparison Results: Instana Dynamic APM offers real-time monitoring with visually appealing dashboards and dynamic detection capabilities. Its setup process is easy and its pricing is reasonable. Elastic Observability has more features, including machine learning, but has a complex setup process, a steep learning curve, and a higher price point. Users have identified more areas for improvement in Elastic Observability compared to Instana Dynamic APM.

To learn more, read our detailed Elastic Observability 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
"The Elastic User Interface framework lets us do custom development when needed. You need to have some Javascript knowledge. We need that knowledge to develop new custom tests.""The solution has been stable in our usage.""The architecture and system's stability are simple.""It is a powerful tool that allows users to collect and transform logs as needed, enabling flexible visualization and analysis.""We use AppDynamics and Elastic. The reason why we're using Elastic APM is because of the license count. It's very favorable compared to AppDynamics. It's inexpensive; it's economical.""The solution allows us to dig deep into data.""It's easy to deploy, and it's very flexible.""Its diverse set of features available on the cloud is of significant importance."

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"Its GUI is really good and it easy to understand for non-technical users.""Instana is very fast to implement and deploy because the dashboards are automated and don't need configuration.""The overall capabilities are the most valuable.""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.""Visually, it's very good. It provides everything needed for dynamic detection, which is very useful.""The primary selling point of this product is its unparalleled transparency into the infrastructure.""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.""Sometimes it's able to provide a proper RCA on its own. It's able to correlate different events that occurred and that becomes like an RCA in itself."

More Instana Dynamic APM Pros →

Cons
"The price is the only issue in the solution. It can be made better and cheaper.""The auto-discovery isn't nearly as good. That's a big portion of it. When you drop the agent onto the JVM and you're trying to figure things out, having to go through and manually do all that is cumbersome.""Improving code insight related to infrastructure and network, particularly focusing on aspects such as firewalls, switches, routers, and testing would be beneficial.""There's a steep learning curve if you've never used this solution before.""If we had some pre-defined templates for observability that we could start using right away after deploying it – instead of having to build or to change some of the dashboards – that would be helpful.""Elastic Observability’s price could be improved.""The tool's scalability involves a more complex implementation process. It requires careful calculations to determine the number of nodes needed, the specifications of each node, and the configuration of hot, warm, and cold zones for data storage. Additionally, managing log retention policies adds further complexity. The solution's pricing also needs to be cheaper.""The solution would be better if it was capable of more automation, especially in a monitoring capacity or for the response to abnormalities."

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"While it is already quite good, there is room for improvement in terms of providing better functionality""New Relic has a better UI in terms of how it presents the data.""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.""We'd always like to see additional functionalities.""Its SLI and SLA features need improvement in setting up alerts.""The integration could be improved with more plugins or open API.""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."

More Instana Dynamic APM Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "So far, there are just the standard licensing fees. Several of the components are embedded in the license or are even open source. They're even free depending on what you use, which makes it even more appealing to someone that is discussing pricing of the solution."
  • "There are two types: cloud and SaaS. They charge based on data ingestion, ingest rate, hard retention, and warm retention. I believe it costs around $25,000 annually to ingest 30GB of data daily. That is the SaaS version. There is also a self-managed license where the customer manages their own infrastructure on-prem. In such cases, there are three license tiers that respectively cost $5,000 annually per node, $7,000 per node, and $12,500 per node."
  • "Pricing is one of those situations where the more you use it, the more you pay."
  • "The price of Elastic Observability is expensive."
  • "Users have to pay for some features, like the alerts on different channels, because they are unavailable in different source versions."
  • "One needs to pay for the licenses, and it is an annual subscription model right now."
  • "Since we are a huge company, Elastic Observability is an affordable solution for us."
  • "We will buy a premium license after POC."
  • More Elastic Observability 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 tool's most valuable feature is centralized logging. Elastic Common Search helps us to search for the logs across the organization.
    Top Answer:I rate the pricing a five out of ten. The product is not that cheap.
    Top Answer:Elastic Observability needs to have better standardization, logging, and schema.
    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.
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    Learn More
    Overview
    To effectively monitor and gain insights across your distributed systems, you need to have all your observability data in one stack. Break down silos by bringing together application, infrastructure, and user data into a unified solution for end-to-end observability and alerting.
    Rely on the most widely deployed observability platform available, built on the proven Elastic Stack (also known as the ELK Stack) to converge silos, delivering unified visibility and actionable insights.

    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
    PSCU, Entel, VITAS, Mimecast, Barrett Steel, Butterfield Bank
    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
    Computer Software Company27%
    Manufacturing Company18%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Healthcare Company9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm21%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Healthcare Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm24%
    Computer Software Company17%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Government7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise55%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise67%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise42%
    Large Enterprise33%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise69%
    Buyer's Guide
    Elastic Observability vs. Instana Dynamic APM
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Elastic Observability vs. Instana Dynamic APM and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    763,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Elastic Observability is ranked 7th in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability with 17 reviews while Instana Dynamic APM is ranked 18th in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability with 7 reviews. Elastic Observability is rated 7.8, while Instana Dynamic APM is rated 7.4. The top reviewer of Elastic Observability writes "Allows us capture data in observability points, place it into a database, and analyze it". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Instana Dynamic APM writes "Empowering applications with real-time insights and seamless performance". Elastic Observability is most compared with Dynatrace, New Relic, AppDynamics, Datadog and PRTG Network Monitor, whereas Instana Dynamic APM is most compared with Dynatrace, AppDynamics, New Relic, IBM Application Performance Management and Datadog. See our Elastic Observability 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.