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AlertSite vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications comparison

SmartBear and VMware are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. SmartBear is ranked #37 with an average rating of 8.0, while VMware is ranked #27 with an average rating of 9.0. SmartBear holds a 0.1% mindshare in APM, compared to VMware’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of SmartBear users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of VMware users who would recommend it.
AlertSite
Read 6 AlertSite reviews
  • 325 Views
  • 223 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
VMware Aria Operations for ...
Read 12 VMware Aria Operations for Applications reviews
  • 1,558 Views
  • 1,396 Comparison Views
92% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

AlertSite and VMware Aria Operations for Applications are two monitoring and performance management tools competing in the software monitoring category. While VMware Aria Operations for Applications stands out for its advanced features, AlertSite is preferred for its straightforward pricing and robust customer support.

Features: Users find AlertSite valuable for its simplicity, effective monitoring capabilities, and straightforward deployment. VMware Aria Operations for Applications is recognized for its comprehensive analytics, robust reporting tools, and deeper insights into complex environments.

Room for Improvement: Users suggest AlertSite could improve its integration capabilities, add advanced analytics features, and expand its reporting tools. VMware Aria Operations for Applications could benefit from a more intuitive interface, reduced learning curve for new users, and enhanced navigation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: AlertSite is easier to deploy and manage, with quicker setup times and highly responsive customer support. Although VMware Aria Operations for Applications is slightly more complex to deploy due to its advanced features, its customer service is reliable and helps mitigate deployment challenges.

Pricing and ROI: AlertSite's pricing model is more accessible, offering a good return on investment, especially for small to mid-sized businesses. VMware Aria Operations for Applications, despite higher initial costs, provides significant long-term benefits and ROI, particularly for larger enterprises with complex needs.

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To learn more, read our detailed AlertSite vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications Report (Updated: April 2025).
Buyer's Guide
AlertSite vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications
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)
VMware Aria Operations for ...
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
27th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
IT Infrastructure Monitoring (29th), Container Monitoring (7th), Cloud Monitoring Software (22nd)
 

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 VMware Aria Operations for Applications is 0.8%, down from 1.0% 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…
Read full review
ToniLindberg - PeerSpot reviewer
Troubleshooting capabilities have improved application monitoring and support engagement
I can see what happens end to end, which is pretty beneficial. The solution has troubleshooting capabilities, providing a direct connection to knowledge base articles from VMware Broadcom. When I encounter an error, I can search directly within the system to see what solutions have been employed by others. It has a familiar interface, which makes it easy to get started.
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

"There are custom reports available along with the inbuilt reports."
"This solution has numerous advantages. It's extremely simple to configure. Either digital monitors or single-URL monitors are simple to configure and build."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"For us, the ease of deployment in combination with TMZ was the most important part because we don't have to manually deploy a complex monitoring solution. We can more or less do that with the click of a button, and we are not dependent on the developers to provide us with all the necessary features and functions to make that work. We can just deploy it on a workload cluster and monitor at least a good part of the workload. If we want to go into detail, we clearly need to make changes, but for a good part of application monitoring, it gives us good insights."
"The solution is great for virtualization and preparing the infrastructure in Tanzu to test products. It's very fast and has good visibility."
"It has a familiar interface, which makes it easy to get started."
"The features I find most valuable is the querying and alerting capabilities."
"Tanzu itself, integrated with multiple solutions, bestows support and security upon a container platform, especially when it comes to managing open-source container platforms such as Kubernetes."
"It significantly improves application performance management by offering recommendations for resource allocation to avoid wastage or overcommitment."
"The most valuable aspects of the solution are its ease of use and its ease of implementation."
"VMware Aria Operations for Applications offers significant features such as real-time statistics, the ability to identify possible issues within the VM environment, and helpful heat maps."
More VMware Aria Operations for Applications pros
 

Cons

"I would like the ability to get more data points with regard to some of the unique requirements that we have."
"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 could use a few changes to the user interface."
"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."
"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."
"It is not compatible with all of the product platforms that we use."
"The documentation and integration with Kubernetes could be improved."
"I find that there could be improvements in the support service response time, as the urgency varies unless specified as Priority 2 or 1 cases."
"They could make it more easy to plug-in data so that a nontechnical person will be able to use it, like accountants or finance people. That way they don't have to ask us."
"I find that there could be improvements in the support service response time, as the urgency varies unless specified as Priority 2 or 1 cases."
"In the new version, I would love to see more prediction capabilities. It would be great if one could see the alerts get a little more enriched with information and become more human-friendly instead of the technical stuff that they put in there. I think those would be really awesome outcomes to get."
"The solution could be expensive, which might be a limiting factor."
"Its billing model is consumption-based. I understand the consumption-based model, but it is not necessarily easy to estimate and guess how many points or how much we are going to consume on a specific application up until we get to that point. So, for us, it would be helpful to have more insights or predictability into what we can expect from a cost perspective if we are starting to use specific features. This can potentially also drive our consumption a bit more."
"I would like to see integration with Kubernetes cluster and APIs so that you can manage the entire stack."
More VMware Aria Operations for Applications cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is high."
"We purchased the license once and had the option of selecting the number of user licenses."
"My company pays to use AlertSite, but I'm unsure of the exact costs because it depends on how many monitors you have."
"I don't have the details. In our case, there is a mixture in place. We have production usage, and we are also doing training for VMware. So, we also have a training instance. It is worth the money you would spend on it. That's because if you were to build all of this yourself by using some of the open source tools, then you would need a lot of time."
"Different locations require different setups. In your terms, around 300 to around 400K USD."
"The licensing costs are very high, particularly when you consider that we have to purchase a level 1 license for every integration, such as the load balancer, HAProxy, and the MSSP. And if you want to use vSAN, that's another license. Then, of course, Tanzu Observability has its own separate license."
"I would rate the pricing as three out of five."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
23%
Computer Software Company
16%
Real Estate/Law Firm
11%
Healthcare Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?
The cost of VMware Aria Operations for Applications is fair and reasonable compared to what we receive in support and packages from VMware.
See all answers
What needs improvement with VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?
I find that there could be improvements in the support service response time, as the urgency varies unless specified as Priority 2 or 1 cases.
See all answers
What is your primary use case for VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?
Our primary use case for VMware Aria Operations for Applications is to enhance application monitoring tasks, allowing us to set up alerts for different components and send them via SMTP to a team d...
See all answers
 

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
AlertSite
April 2025
AlertSite reportDownload AlertSite product report
Buyer's Guide
VMware Aria Operations for Applications
March 2025
VMware Aria Operations for Applications reportDownload VMware Aria Operations for Applications product report
 

Also Known As

No data available
Tanzu Observability, Wavefront, Wavefront by VMware, VMware Tanzu Observability
 

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

VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront is a powerful tool for monitoring and analyzing the performance and availability of applications and infrastructure in real-time. 

With its comprehensive monitoring capabilities, visualizing and analyzing data becomes effortless. The real-time alerting system ensures timely issue resolution, while scalability and a user-friendly interface provide a seamless experience for smooth operations.

VMware
 

Sample Customers

JetBlue, Payless ShoeSource, Hilton Inc., StubHub, Symantec, Newegg, Sapient, AstraZeneca, Dell, Quest Diagnostics
1. Atlassian 2. Cisco 3. Databricks 4. DigitalOcean 5. Equinix 6. Fidelity Investments 7. Google 8. Hewlett Packard Enterprise 9. Honeywell 10. IBM 11. Intel 12. JetBlue Airways 13. LinkedIn 14. Lyft 15. Mastercard 16. Microsoft 17. MongoDB 18. Netflix 19. Nvidia 20. Oracle 21. PayPal 22. Pinterest 23. Qualcomm 24. Red Hat 25. Salesforce 26. SAP 27. Spotify 28. Square 29. TMobile 30. Twitter 31. Uber 32. VMware
Buyer's Guide
AlertSite vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications
April 2025
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