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AWS X-Ray vs AlertSite comparison

SmartBear and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. SmartBear is ranked #37 with an average rating of 8.0, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #19 with an average rating of 7.3. SmartBear holds a 0.1% mindshare in APM, compared to Amazon Web Services (AWS)’s 3.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of SmartBear users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users who would recommend it.
AlertSite
Read 6 AlertSite reviews
  • 325 Views
  • 223 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
AWS X-Ray
Read 10 AWS X-Ray reviews
  • 5,836 Views
  • 5,272 Comparison Views
90% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

AlertSite and AWS X-Ray are both robust monitoring solutions. Users tend to prefer AlertSite for its better support, while AWS X-Ray is favored for its comprehensive features.

Features: AlertSite excels in end-user experience monitoring and synthetic monitoring. AWS X-Ray offers detailed tracing capabilities, integration with AWS services, and comprehensive application performance insights.

Room for Improvement: AlertSite can improve customization and reporting features. AWS X-Ray needs to address its steep learning curve and the complexity of advanced configurations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: AlertSite generally has a smoother deployment process, with excellent customer support easing setup and troubleshooting. AWS X-Ray can be more complex to deploy, and the support experience can vary.

Pricing and ROI: AlertSite users find the pricing structure to deliver good value. AWS X-Ray is potentially more expensive but is viewed as a worthwhile investment for extensive and detailed application performance data.

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To learn more, read our detailed AWS X-Ray vs. AlertSite Report (Updated: April 2025).
Buyer's Guide
AWS X-Ray vs. AlertSite
April 2025
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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

AlertSite
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
37th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
API Monitoring Software (4th)
AWS X-Ray
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
19th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of AlertSite is 0.1%, down from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS X-Ray is 3.3%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
 

Featured Reviews

SandeepTarwe - PeerSpot reviewer
Alerting capabilities have enabled timely escalation and resolution of issues
In AlertSite, I was monitoring the kiosks and servers for JetBlue Airlines. The servers would trigger alerts if there were any outages or issues with any of the kiosks, servers, or the ticketing tool. I monitored these alerts and escalated them to the concerned team to rectify them at the earliest…
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Willy Moura - PeerSpot reviewer
Identifying and resolving deployment issues while configuring can be challenging
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…
Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The alerting capabilities were really helpful."
"I found multiple features in AlertSite that I like. One is data monitoring history, for example, a history of the blackouts and the data. Sometimes, there's a glitch in the application that AlertSite can capture, and the tool notifies you about that glitch. It also identifies issues that could happen in the future. AlertSite is also a fast tool that you can use to monitor on-premise servers, internal applications, and even global applications. The data is available on a single UI in AlertSite, so there's no need to monitor and click on different applications or URLs. I also love that the tool is quite user-friendly, apart from being fast."
"The best feature of AlertSite is that it shows you a visual graph and also sends you notifications about errors, so you get immediate notifications about errors which means that your support team can start taking steps and more quickly make sure the site is up and that customer experience isn't interrupted in terms of using your system and your products. AlertSite is a very good tool. It's user-friendly, and you can see everything on the dashboard. Configuring it is also easy."
"The alerting capabilities of AlertSite were really helpful."
"This solution has numerous advantages. It's extremely simple to configure. Either digital monitors or single-URL monitors are simple to configure and build."
"There are custom reports available along with the inbuilt reports."
"If there are any issues, it triggers an alert within 30 seconds. When it triggers the alert, we go ahead and check it immediately. The alert is triggered on a real-time basis."
"I would give AWS X-Ray a nine out of ten overall."
"The most promising feature of AWS X-Ray is that you can debug the issues through the proper logs. You can also get an analysis out of the logs for some use cases, though I have yet to try all the features of AWS X-Ray."
"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 most important one is compliance. We're able to achieve our regulatory levels. We're able to achieve the security level that we need for the federal government."
"It is a very scalable solution."
"The most beneficial feature is that it shows a dashboard for performance intervals, which reveals latencies."
"The error analysis capabilities of X-Ray are really good."
More AWS X-Ray pros
 

Cons

"One area that needs improvement in AlertSite is the slow UI. I'm using the classic UI because it's quite user-friendly, or in human-readable format, but it's a little slow. It takes time to load all the monitors, so if that could be sped up, that would be helpful. The AlertSite support team also needs improvement in terms of availability. Most of the agents in the team aren't available 24 x 7, so if there's something you need to discuss, you need to tell the support team ahead of time to schedule it. Multiple times, when a case comes up during weekends or whenever my team is doing an update, support needs improvement, availability-wise. I use AlertSite for synthetic monitoring, so whatever is available right now is okay, but if I want to request a new feature on a website, currently, the UI refreshes automatically. I would like to have the option on AlertSite to configure that manually. The UI auto-updates every few minutes, so if I can control that manually, that would be helpful."
"I would like the ability to get more data points with regard to some of the unique requirements that we have."
"What needs improvement in AlertSite is the documentation, particularly the lack of documentation. If there's a specific activity you want to do, you can't even find information on how to do it, so you have to contact the AlertSite support team to assist you, and only then would the issue be resolved. At the moment, it's not easy to find or get full documentation on how to deal with different issues. You always have to go back to AlertSite support and get help. The documentation for AlertSite could be improved and it's what I'd like to see in the next release of the tool because at the moment, the documentation isn't complete, so you'll have to contact support, but contacting support isn't an issue because the team responds to you quickly."
"I could use a few changes to the user interface."
"It is not compatible with all of the product platforms that we use."
"AlertSite sometimes triggers false alerts or fake alerts, which needs to be rectified. When we see an alert and go ahead and run certain tests on it, the test always passes. However, on the main screen, it shows up as critical. Therefore, the false alert needs to be fixed."
"Like most Amazon products, the user interface, configuration, and tuning aren't the easiest. That's the biggest reason why people tend to go to products like TerraForm and Terragrunt. We use TerraForm and Terragrunt. So, for setting things up and interacting with X-Ray, it's definitely the user interface that can be better."
"A significant downside is that it is very expensive."
"What needs to be better in AWS X-Ray is the log filtering. Predefined filters could be helpful because the power of analytics comes from how you can filter the data. I also want to see more KPIs from AWS X-Ray."
"I do not have any notes in terms of improvements."
"If you have a small team, it's probably overkill."
"AWS X-Ray should improve its implementation process to make it easier for developers."
"The user interface is sometimes kind of confusing to understand. It's not very user-friendly."
"Sometimes, the collector agents are confusing to configure initially."
More AWS X-Ray cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"My company pays to use AlertSite, but I'm unsure of the exact costs because it depends on how many monitors you have."
"We purchased the license once and had the option of selecting the number of user licenses."
"The cost is high."
"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 solution is a bit expensive."
"The pricing for AWS X-Ray is a six out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
15%
Real Estate/Law Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AlertSite?
The pricing is reasonable.
See all answers
What needs improvement with AlertSite?
When I last worked with AlertSite, everything was okay. However, we could make some changes to the UI. While it was user-friendly, making it a bit easier for new users to work on would be beneficial.
See all answers
What is your primary use case for AlertSite?
In AlertSite, I was monitoring the kiosks and servers for JetBlue Airlines. The servers would trigger alerts if there were any outages or issues with any of the kiosks, servers, or the ticketing to...
See all answers
What do you like most about AWS X-Ray?
AWS X-Ray is a strong solution and has a smooth integration process.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS X-Ray?
Compared to other open-source tools, AWS X-Ray needs improvement in providing discounts. Customers often seek cheaper solutions. When using many AWS resources, pricing can be a mid-range cost, give...
See all answers
What needs improvement with AWS X-Ray?
Sometimes, the collector agents are confusing to configure initially. It requires research to understand the correct configurations, especially when deploying on-premises or on an EC2 instance. Usi...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

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Compared 17% of the time
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Compared 11% of the time
Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) vs AWS X-Ray Logo
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Compared 11% of the time
New Relic vs AWS X-Ray Logo
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Compared 10% of the time
More AWS X-Ray Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
AlertSite
April 2025
AlertSite reportDownload AlertSite product report
Buyer's Guide
AWS X-Ray
April 2025
AWS X-Ray reportDownload AWS X-Ray product report
 

Overview

SmartBear's AlertSite is an application performance management and system monitoring software. AlertSite is an early warning system that users can rely on to monitor their websites, web apps, and APIs from any physical location as well as from within their private networks. It offers real-time alerting with root-cause analytics and robust reporting. AlertSite allows you to proactively monitor from an independent network of over 350 monitoring nodes worldwide.

Here are AlertSite’s 6 use cases: 

  1. Monitor web: AlertSite monitors beyond availability to detect performance anomalies and notify the appropriate people when deviations occur, whether it's online apps or websites.

  2. Monitor APIs: Check to see that your internal, external, and third-party APIs are working properly, returning the correct content, and performing as expected.

  3. Monitor apps: With nearly any action, monitor your online sites and applications using actual browsers, just like a consumer. There is no need for scripting.

  4. Monitor mobile: Monitor your mobile-friendly websites, native mobile apps, carrier-based nodes, and network speeds with real devices (3G, 4G LTE).

  5. Monitor SLAs: Make sure you're meeting service-level agreements' requirements. SLA requirements are monitored and reported on by AlertSite.

  6. Monitor cloud: Monitor your cloud-based applications to improve mobility. AlertSite monitors your apps across public and private clouds, giving you complete visibility into their status.

AlertSite Features

AlertSite has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

  • Enables a comprehensive view of UI and API performance.

  • Monitoring coverage from 350+ worldwide nodes and private networks.
  • Integrates with DevOps and Ops tool stacks.

  • Displays availability and performance data that assist in determining the root cause of performance problems.

  • With AlertSite's Single Sign-On (SSO) support, you can assist your authentication procedures.

  • Free training and assistance. AlertSite’s responsive team is always there to assist you, from the initial rollout through day-to-day support.

  • Eliminates the stress of false alerts using these key features:

    • Tracks the performance of your apps, APIs, and websites.

    • Sets up monitor and alarm schedules, as well as blackout periods and retry choices.

    • Sets alert thresholds that are both static and dynamic.

    • Calculates the number of failures needed to set off an alarm.

    • After the first failure, retries logic.

    • Based on error code, sends an alert to recipients and group routing.

    • Tests from over 85 different locations across the world, with internal and external monitoring.

    • Defines assertions and validations.

    • Integrates with PagerDuty, Slack, Splunk, VictorOps, and more.
  • Easy configuration with help from these key features:

    • DejaClick is an intuitive, seamless plug-in for documenting web transactions and user journeys.

    • Use the point-and-click script creation for website, web, and mobile monitor scripts.

    • Benefit from using native API monitor creation.

    • Scripts for functional tests can be reused.

    • Automate monitor creation by using Swagger Specs or OpenAPI Specification files.
SmartBear

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. 

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.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
 

Sample Customers

JetBlue, Payless ShoeSource, Hilton Inc., StubHub, Symantec, Newegg, Sapient, AstraZeneca, Dell, Quest Diagnostics
COMCAST, ConnectWise, skyscanner, AirAsia, cookpad, cimpress, VTEX, zowdow
Buyer's Guide
AWS X-Ray vs. AlertSite
April 2025
Free Report: AWS X-Ray vs. AlertSite
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS X-Ray vs. AlertSite and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
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