AWS X-Ray Reviews

Name: AWS X-Ray
Brand: Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Rating: 3.9 (8 reviews)

3.9 out of 5

8 reviews
100% willing to recommend

What is AWS X-Ray?

AWS X-Ray is a powerful debugging and performance analysis tool offered by Amazon Web Services. It allows developers to trace requests made to their applications and identify bottlenecks and issues.

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AWS X-Ray is the #18 ranked solution in APM tools. PeerSpot users give AWS X-Ray an average rating of 7.8 out of 10. AWS X-Ray is most commonly compared to Dynatrace: AWS X-Ray vs Dynatrace. AWS X-Ray is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 68% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a financial services firm, accounting for 20% of all views.

Helped 838,533 peers since 2012

Featured reviews

Willy Moura

Solutions Architect/ Analyst at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

I have two use cases with my customers. One involves using AWS Fargate, and the other involves an application running on WordPress. The WordPress application was very slow, and we used AWS X-Ray to understand the main problem. X-Ray helped us identify issues with our EFS, allowing us to adjust…

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Parth Solanki

Founder & CEO at Quicklead.io

If we get any error, we can go to X-Ray and get all the requests for a certain error in one place. It makes it easy to find the issue in your own product. You can look at logs and error logs and find loopholes. You can do direct queries to get specific requests over the course of a day. It's very good at error reporting and quite fast. You also get a lot of information, including IP addresses, user locations, et cetera.

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Jiri Sostok

CEO at noriba

Interpreting data is an important aspect to consider when discussing improvement, along with identification. It involves not only generating data and KPIs using a tool but also understanding and evaluating those KPIs from different perspectives. Based on this evaluation, solutions can be suggested to either improve or confirm that everything is working well. First, you have to detect and name the problems, and then the second step is finding ways to mitigate those issues. It is not about needing extra tools but more about the decision if we want to spend more manpower or not because currently, there wouldn't be any tools unless it's some kind of AI, automated solution.

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AWS X-Ray mindshare

As of February 2025, the mindshare of AWS X-Ray in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category stands at 3.3%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

PeerAnalyst reports

Type	Title	Date
Category	Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability	Feb 20, 2025	Download
Product	Reviews, tips, and advice from real users	Feb 20, 2025	Download
Comparison	AWS X-Ray vs Datadog	Feb 20, 2025	Download
Comparison	AWS X-Ray vs Dynatrace	Feb 20, 2025	Download
Comparison	AWS X-Ray vs Splunk AppDynamics	Feb 20, 2025	Download

Title	Rating	Mindshare	Recommending
Dynatrace	4.4	11.0%	95%	345 interviews Add to research
Datadog	4.3	9.0%	97%	188 interviews Add to research

Valuable Features

AWS X-Ray excels in tracing problems and monitoring request timing, offering error detection through direct queries and logs. It supports various configurations and ensures compliance with regulatory standards. Its dashboard reveals performance intervals and latencies, aiding in performance analysis. Error reporting and troubleshooting are enhanced with a comprehensive service map and integration of logs and metrics. Users value its ease of setup, stability, and ability to provide crucial data like IP addresses and user locations.

"AWS X-Ray shows us exactly when there are delays, helping us understand the depth of issues and what is happening point-to-point."
"AWS X-Ray shows us exactly when there are delays, helping us understand the depth of issues and what is happening point-to-point."
"The error analysis capabilities of X-Ray are really good."

Room for Improvement

AWS X-Ray requires improvements in its user interface, which is not user-friendly, and configuration tasks that can be confusing. Log filtering needs enhancement with predefined filters, as analytics rely on effective data filtering. The SDKs should support more languages, and better integration with external services is desired. Custom annotations and anomaly detection capabilities would be advantageous, while current configuration challenges with collector agents need simplification. Cost remains a significant concern for some users.

"Compared to other open-source tools, AWS X-Ray needs improvement in providing discounts."
"Sometimes, the collector agents are confusing to configure initially."
"A significant downside is that it is very expensive."

ROI

AWS X-Ray has provided some users with significant returns on investment.

Pricing

Enterprise users find AWS X-Ray pricing based on usage. Some rate affordability around seven out of ten, suggesting it's relatively cheap, though others find it expensive compared to open-source tools. Pricing improves with increased usage, scaling, and relationships with Amazon, offering credits and better commercial rates. Small businesses often benefit from the free tier, but larger enterprises face higher costs per user. Users desire a pricing decline to facilitate technology adoption.

"The solution is a bit expensive."
"As you develop a relationship with Amazon, your pricing gets lower. You get credits for the amount of the system you use, and then if you're the government, you can get government pricing. For commercial users, there's a hump when you go from small to medium to big enterprise. Small businesses can live pretty easily off the free tier in a lot of cases, but when you go from a medium to a big enterprise, it becomes more expensive on a per-user basis. I'd like to see that curve going in a different way where pricing can be driven down while people are trying to adopt the technology."
"The pricing for AWS X-Ray is a six out of ten."

Popular Use Cases

Organizations primarily use AWS X-Ray for tracing microservices and HTTP requests, identifying exceptions and performance bottlenecks, monitoring application activity, and understanding system behaviors. They utilize it for API logging, analyzing telemetry data, and tracking request-response times. X-Ray is frequently implemented alongside frameworks like Fargate or platforms like WordPress to improve performance, resolve throughput issues, and gain insights into microservice interconnections and application latency, enhancing both stability and efficiency.

Service and Support

AWS X-Ray customer service and support receive positive feedback. Many have not directly contacted X-Ray support but praise AWS's overall support as knowledgeable and effective. Although some have not enabled or needed support, they found AWS helpful with other services. A rating of eight out of ten was given by a user. Overall, AWS support is deemed good, with users expressing satisfaction when dealing with technical inquiries across different services.

Deployment

AWS X-Ray's initial setup is generally straightforward, requiring some configuration in AWS CloudFormation and code modifications. For backend teams and DevOps, it is manageable with documentation. It takes minutes to deploy, but complexity arises with deeper integrations like Lambda levels or permissions management. Feedback indicates a two-day setup for some, while others experience a 15-20 day timeframe due to challenges like configuring sampling rules and collector agents. Difficulty ratings typically hover around seven out of ten.

Scalability

AWS X-Ray is highly scalable, suitable for both small and vast operations. Users successfully scale applications with no issues, supported company-wide. It supports an expansive user base, handling millions effectively. Companies commend it for its ease in scaling and numerous features enhancing varied use cases. A notable example includes federal government scenarios with extensive monitoring requirements. Users from various organizations consistently praise its scalability, rating it highly across different dimensions.

Stability

AWS X-Ray offers good stability, with no crashes, freezing, bugs, or glitches. Users express confidence in its reliability, rating it highly. One group mentioned an issue, but it seems related to an external Point of Presence rather than X-Ray itself. AWS X-Ray is described as stable by most, with minimal concerns about data loss or unresolved topics. It maintains consistent functionality without significant disruptions.

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

Download our AWS X-Ray Buyer's Guide for additional reliable information.

Review data by company size

By reviewers

By visitors reading reviews

Top industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Government

Insurance Company

University

Retailer

Media Company

Real Estate/Law Firm

Educational Organization

Healthcare Company

Wholesaler/Distributor

Transportation Company

Non Profit

Hospitality Company

Energy/Utilities Company

Recreational Facilities/Services Company

Construction Company

Outsourcing Company

Legal Firm

Performing Arts

Marketing Services Firm

Recruiting/Hr Firm

Consumer Goods Company

Compare AWS X-Ray with alternative products

Learn more about AWS X-Ray

With X-Ray, developers can visualize the entire request flow and pinpoint the exact location where errors occur. It provides detailed insights into the performance of individual components and helps optimize the overall application performance.

X-Ray integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, making it easy to trace requests across different services and identify dependencies. It also offers a comprehensive set of APIs and SDKs, enabling developers to instrument their applications and capture valuable data for analysis. With its user-friendly interface and powerful features, AWS X-Ray is a valuable tool for developers looking to improve the performance and reliability of their applications.