I think the most important thing is the end-to-end view that you get of all of your servers when you set it up. You can see where problems are without having to actually experience them or tell they're experiencing the problems. You can be preemptive.
Senior Software Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It gives an end-to-end view of all of your servers at setup.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
I think it allows you to go down and get real data about what's wrong, instead of having to email around screenshots. It let's you actually get the depth that you need, even the code level and code lines and that kind of thing.
What needs improvement?
I think a little more control over which transactions get that depth attached to them would be good. Right now, it seems like there's certain thresholds that you can set, but it would be nice if there was a more dynamic way to archive transactions, or keep around certain transaction types.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability and scalability look pretty good, from what I can tell; especially the cloud SaaS APM solution.
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How are customer service and support?
We have not needed technical support.
How was the initial setup?
I was not involved in the initial setup.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are currently moving from a monolithic application to a more service-oriented model where we're going to do micro-services. Spring Boot was the choice for that, because it has actuator support which provides some of the same features. We're looking at that, and weighing this because we already have it. We want to see if we can use of both, or maybe just use AppDynamics going forward.
What other advice do I have?
I think price and scalability are important when choosing an APM vendor. If it's a third party solution, is it going to be able to keep up with the solution you're using? How is the technical support, and how cutting edge is the solution. Are they keeping up with their competitors? So far, we have found all these things in AppDynamics.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Analyst Production Application Support at a leisure / travel company with 10,001+ employees
The single view into applications shows how they run, errors, and trends.
What is most valuable?
From a reporting and dashboarding perspective, their API, which is what I deal with the most, is unmatched by any company that I've come across.
How has it helped my organization?
We're able to get a single view into applications and their performance; the way they run, errors, and trends. We're able to turn that around back to the developers and help them tweak their code and applications.
What needs improvement?
Coordinating upgrades across systems would absolutely be a huge benefit. I don't deal with a lot of the upgrades. I just get the emails saying that there have been upgrades. We're on the SaaS platform, so I don't see the platform upgrades, either. Nonetheless, that would actually be a huge benefit.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I haven't seen any downtime myself.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I haven't seen a whole lot of limitations from an input perspective. It’s been pretty good so far. The performance actually blows the competition away, from what I've seen.
How is customer service and technical support?
When I open a ticket, it is resolved quickly. They are very responsive; very fast to get back to us and very thorough with their answers. I’m happy with the resolution.
How was the initial setup?
I was involved in the setup of the single sign-on integration for our company, as well as getting the users set up and trying to get permissions set up. That required a little finessing and conversations with AppDynamics, but for the most part, it was pretty simple.
What other advice do I have?
Reach out anytime you have questions, because they're very responsive to answer.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Consultant at Perform IT
Stable and reliable solution with great analytics features
Pros and Cons
- "AppDynamics' most valuable feature is Business iQ, which is based on analytics."
- "The Log Analytics feature is a bit complicated."
What is our primary use case?
I primarily use AppDynamics for application performance monitoring.
How has it helped my organization?
AppDynamics provides visibility on slowness or problems in production and processes in revenue-related products or software, as well as generating performance and availability metrics. This enables understanding of users' end-to-end experience and provides information on user behavior.
What is most valuable?
AppDynamics' most valuable feature is Business iQ, which is based on analytics.
What needs improvement?
The Log Analytics feature is a bit complicated. There are also some bugs in the solution that need to be fixed.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using AppDynamics for five to six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
AppDynamics is stable and reliable.
How are customer service and support?
AppDynamics's technical support is great.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I used Micro Focus OpsBridge but switched as it wasn't keeping up with the latest market trends in monitoring.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup for the SaaS solution requires little to no effort, but the on-prem version is more complex
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
AppDynamics is one of the most expensive solutions on the market. The typical licensing fee for a small customer would be $500k plus, with additional fees for professional services. The price also varies depending on whether the customer goes for the on-prem or SaaS solution, with the on-prem version potentially extremely expensive because of the hardware requirements.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Moogsoft and Dynatrace.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate AppDynamics nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
Manager- Projects at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Stable, scalable, and simple installation
Pros and Cons
- "AppDynamics has been stable."
- "The solution could be more user-friendly for diagnostic purposes. Anyone who is using the solution should be able to infer what that error is about, they should be able to troubleshoot it better."
What is our primary use case?
We use AppDynamics mainly for troubleshooting the database side. If there is any issue that is happening, we go through layer by layer from the start of the application, for example, the UI layer. We go all the way to the database layer to show where the exact problems are. Additionally, we use it for other monitoring and alerting purposes.
What needs improvement?
The solution could be more user-friendly for diagnostic purposes. Anyone who is using the solution should be able to infer what that error is about, they should be able to troubleshoot it better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using AppDynamics for a year and a half.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
AppDynamics has been stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have found AppDynamics to be scalable.
We have 25 users using this solution in my organization.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have previously used HP OpenView and Dynatrace. The client wanted to move from Dynatrace to AppDynamics and this is why we are using AppDynamics.
How was the initial setup?
AppDynamics is easier to install compared to other solutions.
What about the implementation team?
We have our own IT team that can support the installation. We have partners that can assist with the installation if needed.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is a license to use this solution. However, the clients pay for the licenses we are the service provider.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate AppDynamics an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
We set up alerts recently so we can fix any issues more quickly in production
Pros and Cons
- "We previously had an operations team continuously monitoring applications. Now, they just have set things up and our developers can monitor, view, and act on them, accordingly."
- "We set up alerts recently so we can fix any issues more quickly in production."
- "They are using Flash for their website, which is very slow. We had hoped the website would be much faster to use, and that is definitely what we want to see."
- "Their agents sometimes claim to be very lightweight, especially with databases, but they are very heavy. They can take up more compute than the actual work that we need to do."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for service level monitoring.
Currently, we use AWS. Recently, we started using Serverless AWS as we use communities for all our other services. For containers, we use Serverless AWS, and we use databases, like Cassandra Aurora. The product integrates well with all of them.
How has it helped my organization?
We previously had an operations team continuously monitoring applications. Now, they just have set things up and our developers can monitor, view, and act on them, accordingly. Also, we set up alerts recently so we can fix any issues more quickly in production.
What is most valuable?
It shows inter-service activities very easily. We were having issues with this primarily, so this was one of the most important areas for us.
We have been using Cassandra. So, it has agents specific for each middleware, helping us check this application.
What needs improvement?
They are using Flash for their website, which is very slow. We had hoped the website would be much faster to use, and that is definitely what we want to see.
Their agents sometimes claim to be very lightweight, especially with databases, but they are very heavy. They can take up more compute than the actual work that we need to do. I do hope that they can improve on this.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There is no issue with stability. However, most of the time, it is just slow.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Currently, scalability is not that great. We are a B2B company, so we have currently enabled it for about ten customers. We would like to proceed and have it more customer environments as well. However, we see with just ten customers that the dashboard is very slow. We would like them to improve on this.
How is customer service and technical support?
We have had many AppDynamics engineers come to our office and explain us how to use it and set it up. They have come onsite many times and explained to the developers different topics.
How was the initial setup?
The integration and configuration of this product in our AWS environment was not trivial. We needed experts to come onboard and explain it to us. With their help, it was easy.
What was our ROI?
We have partially seen ROI.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We checked out Datadog, but we just wanted a monitoring solution. We already had a logging solution and other relevant solutions, so we narrowed it down to AppDynamics.
It was easy to jump onto AppDynamics's limited licensing plan, so we easily could evaluate it. Later, we received good customer support and could interact with them easily. That is how we finally decided.
What other advice do I have?
Depending on your use case, this is only a monitoring solution. If you don't have an in-house logging solution, or if your primary use case is to debug, you should consider choosing other alternatives. If only you want monitoring, AppDynamics will do.
We are only using the AWS version.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IT Manager in web analysis and performace at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Error analysis in the troubleshooting sections go straight to the point.
Pros and Cons
- "Error analysis in the troubleshooting sections go straight to the point."
- "When you have high stress of visits I do not know if you are more stress because of the amount of visits or because you have to wait eternal 60 seconds to find out it things are going well or you already have mess."
How has it helped my organization?
Now, my team is not that close to the APM information. Using AppDynamics, it was possible to delegate how to read information on the client side because of how easy that is.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are:
- Error analysis in the troubleshooting sections go straight to the point.
- Autodiscovery of transactions.
What needs improvement?
If you are analyzing real time dashboard or metrics, AppDynamics will give you a refresh each minute, no matter what number you are watching.
This is a real situation when you are facing the screen during a load test or a the "hot" midnight of cybermonday for instance. When you have high stress of visits I do not know if you are more stress because of the amount of visits or because you have to wait eternal 60 seconds to find out it things are going well or you already have mess. And is even worse when you see suddenly a worse number but you do not know if this is a an spike or meanwhile your system is already "down", You just think in other tools with high "resolution" like CA (every 15 seconds.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Once you reach the limit of sizing in resources, the application becomes unstable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We did not really encounter any scalability issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
Customer service is 3/10.
Technical Support:
Technical support is 6/10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used Introscope, which was difficult to use and not intuitive at all
How was the initial setup?
Initial setup was easy going with a wizard.
What about the implementation team?
A local vendor with a very good level of expertise implemented it for us.
What was our ROI?
I have never calculated ROI, but I need to do that.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is not a cheap tool, but you also save in manpower to setup because it is easy and fast. At the end of the day, I think the revenue is much better.
BUT, they have an awful co-term mode of licensing.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Two years ago, we evaluated Dynatrace and New Relic.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Good automation but expensive and lacking support
Pros and Cons
- "AppDynamics' best feature is automation - for example, when I add a note, it can understand the data automatically."
- "AppDynamics' modules and hardware resources are very high."
What is our primary use case?
I primarily use AppDynamics for my servers.
What is most valuable?
AppDynamics' best feature is automation - for example, when I add a note, it can understand the data automatically.
What needs improvement?
AppDynamics' modules and hardware resources are very high.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using AppDynamics for a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
AppDynamics is stable and reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
AppDynamics' scalability is good.
How are customer service and support?
I didn't have a good experience with AppDynamics' technical support. Its knowledge base is locked up and unavailable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I also work with Zabbix, which has better education and hardware specification, though AppDynamics is more user-friendly.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was complex because we had to configure every agent and module, use a specific server for every module, and manage every visual and virtual machine.
What about the implementation team?
I used an outsourced company.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
AppDynamics is really pricey as it requires licenses for every feature.
What other advice do I have?
AppDynamics forces you to depend on the company to do what you want, which may be a negative if you prefer to work independently. I would rate AppDynamics as seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Extra knowledge needed, but scalable
Pros and Cons
- "AppDynamics is scalable."
- "AppDynamics is a solution that requires extra learning and could be more user-friendly. Additionally, automated reports would helpful similar to have they have in Google Analytics."
What is our primary use case?
We use AppDynamics to evaluate an application we were using. The name of the application was called Liferay and it is an open-source portal, and we wanted to evaluate the performance of our application.
What needs improvement?
AppDynamics is a solution that requires extra learning and could be more user-friendly. Additionally, automated reports would helpful similar to have they have in Google Analytics.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using AppDynamics for one week.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
AppDynamics is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
I have not contacted support from AppDynamics.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I was evaluating AppDynamics and applications inside Microsoft Azure.
What other advice do I have?
I rate AppDynamics a five out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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