Apica vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) comparison

Apica and Google are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Apica is ranked #17 with an average rating of 7.7, while Google is ranked #26 with an average rating of 8.0. Apica holds a 0.3% mindshare in APM, compared to Google’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 81% of Apica users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Google users who would recommend it.

Apica

Read 11 Apica reviews

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359 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

Google Cloud's operations s...

Read 10 Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) reviews

2,456 Views
2,209 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Apica

Google Cloud's operations s...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

Apica and Google Cloud's operations suite compete in the cloud monitoring market. Google Cloud’s operations suite seems to have the upper hand due to its robust feature set, despite higher pricing.

Features: Apica offers comprehensive synthetic monitoring capabilities, performance testing, and cost-effectiveness. Google Cloud's operations suite provides extensive integration with other Google Cloud services, detailed application monitoring, and infrastructure monitoring catering to complex use cases.

Room for Improvement: Apica can improve intuitive user experience, analytics, and user interface design. Google Cloud's operations suite needs enhanced documentation, more accessible support options, and simplified configuration processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Apica is easier to deploy and offers efficient customer service, making integration and troubleshooting quick. Google Cloud's operations suite, while more complex to deploy, benefits from a robust support system within the Google ecosystem.

Pricing and ROI: Apica is competitively priced, offering great value and faster ROI for small to mid-sized enterprises. Google Cloud’s operations suite, though more expensive, justifies its cost with extensive capabilities and integration benefits, providing high user satisfaction for large-scale operations.

To learn more, read our detailed Apica vs. Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Apica vs. Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)

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

Apica

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

17th

Ranking in Log Management

17th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Operations Analytics (5th), Observability Pipeline Software (2nd)

Google Cloud's operations s...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

26th

Ranking in Log Management

29th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Monitoring Software (23rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Apica is 0.3%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) is 1.1%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Noorul Mustafa Khan

Senior Associate Vice President at Wells Fargo

Validates content and perform login functionalities on front-end applications

First of all, it will depend on the type of application. If it's a web application, I would recommend implementing it in your lower environment first and checking for functionality. If you are satisfied, then push it to the higher environments. Apica has detected server-related issues and various web application-related issues promptly, alerting us in a timely manner. This allowed us to implement automation within our processes, ensuring comprehensive performance monitoring from failure detection to recovery. It was pretty easy to learn. I attended a couple of sessions with team members. They provided knowledge transfer, which took about a week. After that, I was able to onboard the company. However, for minor issues, I would still contact them. If you're a quick learner, it could take just a couple of weeks to get the hang of it. You can integrate Apica architect into your system because they provide APIs. With these APIs, you can utilize Apica where and when it's needed. For instance, you can create your own microservices to automate tasks or integrate it with tools like Postman. This flexibility allows you to embed Apica into various automation processes or any other functionalities you require. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

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Anand_Patel

Senior Technical Architect at T-Systems International GmbH

Offers reliable Ops Agent and logging transport feature with easy third-party integrations

As part of our company, we implemented several changes in our log analytics pattern, including the storage and procurement process. Earlier, before implementing the solution, our company was able to procure only one year of data, but later, we came to the three-year mark. Around 15-20% reduction has been witnessed in the total analytic consumption of our company. The aforementioned result was possible because the solution allowed the creation of a dashboard where factors like storage costs, proportion of logs, and logs presence in a storage bucket or BigQuery can all be checked. Earlier all logs were stored in a raw storage, but currently our company is able to move logs in table bucket that contributes towards cost savings.

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

"From our standpoint, there are a number of valuable features. The WebHooks are obviously really great. The alert framework is really good and then the reporting and visualizations that you get from the dashboards is good. Those three areas are primarily what my team's focused on in terms of usage from day to day."

"Apica allows me to record APIs easily and enhances scripts through options like auto-correlation, enabling me to access dynamic fields."

"The solution’s real-time monitoring features have had a huge impact on our service delivery."

"With the ZebraTester, the ability to have and store dynamic variables, when setting up the monitors, means you can extract that value and use it in a subsequent service call. This is something that has made our lives easier... This is one of the features that I like the most because it helps us in configuring these services, in a certain flow, without the need to re-record the whole thing."

"It is easy for beginners to learn and use Apica."

"APICa allows me to record APIs easily and enhances scripts through options like auto-correlation, enabling me to access dynamic fields."

"It uses a basic scripting language, which is easy to learn and customize as needed. Compared to LoadRunner, I found writing and customizing code much easier in Apica."

"The GUI is powerful and doesn't require scripting or regular expressions. It has a vast finder for correlation, which is easier than other tools like JMeter and LoadRunner. It's also easy to integrate with other tools with a separate execution environment. The tool is also easy to use."

More Apica pros

"I like the monitoring feature."

"The most valuable feature is the multi-cloud integration, where there is support for both GCP and AWS."

"We find the solution to be stable."

"Provides visibility into the performance uptime."

"It's easy to use."

"The cloud login enables us to get our logs from the different platforms that we currently use."

"The features that I have found most valuable are its graphs - if I need any statistics, in Kubernetes or Kong level or VPN level, I can quickly get the reports."

"Google's technical support is very good."

More Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) pros

Cons

"Learning the tool has always been a little difficult from a scripting perspective because the framework is proprietary and unique. Once we became used to what it does and how to perform it, then it became easier for my team and me. I would like to see some of the testing steps be part of a more well-known language, like Java or Python. That would be a big improvement."

"The accuracy of alerts can be improved a little bit. Right now, it's pretty good in terms of alerting pretty quickly about failures or changes in response times. However, what we have seen happen is the number of alerts that we are getting is very frequent, and we would like to tone down the number of alerts. That's the only trouble we have. Apica could tone down those settings because there is no option for us to tone it down to a level that would reduce the alerts to a minimum. As a platform, it does send us good alerts, but it could be improved a bit."

"We could use more detailed information in the request and response sections."

"The having to install an application on your desktop to utilize something like ZebraTester is a little cumbersome. It would be nice to see that become a web-based application. Having the documentation a little more accessible, and easier to digest by people who are just learning how to use the framework, especially when it comes to more complex or more edge-based cases would be really helpful to have."

"I have noticed that the tool isn't widely recognized outside our organization. Also, there aren't any tutorials or dedicated resources for this tool, making it challenging for newcomers to learn. It would be beneficial if someone experienced with it could provide guidance."

"The reporting part that we use for our executives needs a bit more customization capabilities. Right now, you can use only the three main templates for reporting. We would like to be able to customize them."

"Apica should add more features and integrations with different tools and certain ticketing systems, like ServiceNow."

"Apica was a relatively new tool when I started using it. Although Apica had good documentation, it still felt less developed or advanced than a tool like LoadRunner."

More Apica cons

"It could be more stable."

"The product provides minimal metrics that are insufficient."

"The logging functionality could be better."

"While we are satisfied with the overall performance, in certain cases we must add additional metrics and additional tools like Grafana and Dynatrace."

"The process of logging analytics can be improved"

"If I want to track any round-trip or breakdowns of my response times, I'm not able to get it. My request goes through various levels of the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and comes back to my client machine. Suppose that my request has taken 10 seconds overall, so if I want to break it down, to see where the delay is happening within my architecture, I am not able to find that out using Stackdriver."

"It could be even more automated."

"It is difficult to estimate in advance how much something is going to cost."

More Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is less expensive compared to LoadRunner."

"Another main difference between Apica and the other products was the cost. We really thought that the balance in Apica between the features and costs was the best among all the products on which we did a PoC."

"The tool is completely free and open source. I've been using it for about two and a half years and installed it on both my personal and client machines without needing a license. All features are available for use without any hidden fees."

"The solution's pricing is not cheap, but it is in the midrange."

"The level of alerting accuracy has saved us time and money in operational costs. Overall, it has automated a lot of the manual efforts which have been more complex with some of our other scripting tools or monitors. So, it brings things together by doing things faster and saves us money."

"I am sure that Apica's price will be lower than LoadRunner."

"I know Apica is an expensive solution, but it is worth the money for the service it provides."

"The pricing is fair. It is neither too cheap nor too expensive."

More Apica pricing and cost advice

"The cost of using Stackdriver depends on usage."

"We have a basic standard license without any additional costs."

"The cost could be lower."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

34%

Computer Software Company

11%

Media Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Apica Synthetic?

The GUI is powerful and doesn't require scripting or regular expressions. It has a vast finder for correlation, which is easier than other tools like JMeter and LoadRunner. It's also easy to integr...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apica Synthetic?

I know Apica is an expensive solution, but it is worth the money for the service it provides.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Apica Synthetic?

Apica cannot perform endurance or scale-up tests independently. It requires other tools like ALM. When editing scripts, only one can be accessed at a time, risking changes affecting other folders. ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Stackdriver?

If the errors are caught early in the interface, it would be easier for users to manage. The process of logging analytics can be improved.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Google Stackdriver?

I use the solution for logging, defining alerts, and monitoring. Our company's Java and Python logging teams mainly use it.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Google Stackdriver?

The Ops Agent and logging transport feature of the solution have had a major impact on improving application performance. The solution also allows the transport of logs into log buckets, which is h...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dynatrace vs Apica

Compared 27% of the time

Datadog vs Apica

Compared 23% of the time

Cribl vs Apica

Compared 19% of the time

Grafana vs Apica

Compared 16% of the time

AlertSite vs Apica

Compared 14% of the time

More Apica Competitors

AWS X-Ray vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)

Compared 30% of the time

Datadog vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)

Compared 22% of the time

New Relic vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)

Compared 7% of the time

Dynatrace vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)

Compared 5% of the time

Amazon CloudWatch vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)

Compared 5% of the time

More Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Apica

April 2025

Download Apica product report

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

April 2025

Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) report

Download Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) product report

Also Known As

Apica LoadTest, Apica Synthetic

Google Stackdriver, Stackdriver Monitoring, Stackdriver Logging, Google Cloud Monitoring

Overview

Apica offers a unified platform to remove complexity and cost associated with data management. You collect, control, store, and observe your data and can quickly identify and resolve performance issues before they impact the end-user. Apica Ascent swiftly analyzes telemetry data in real-time, enabling prompt issue resolution, while automated root cause analysis, powered by machine learning, streamlines troubleshooting in complex distributed systems. The platform simplifies data collection by automating and managing agents through the platform’s Fleet product. Its Flow product simplifies and optimizes pipeline control with AI and ML to help you easily understand complex workflows. Its Store component allows you to never run out of storage space while you index and store machine data centrally on one platform and reduce costs, and remediate faster. Observe offers modern observability data management, helping you with MELT data, effortless dashboarding, and seamless integration of synthetic and real data.

Experience the Apica Ascent Platform

Apica

Real-time log management and analysis

Cloud Logging is a fully managed service that performs at scale and can ingest application and platform log data, as well as custom log data from GKE environments, VMs, and other services inside and outside of Google Cloud. Get advanced performance, troubleshooting, security, and business insights with Log Analytics, integrating the power of BigQuery into Cloud Logging.

Built-in metrics observability at scale

Cloud Monitoring provides visibility into the performance, uptime, and overall health of cloud-powered applications. Collect metrics, events, and metadata from Google Cloud services, hosted uptime probes, application instrumentation, and a variety of common application components. Visualize this data on charts and dashboards and create alerts so you are notified when metrics are outside of expected ranges.

Stand-alone managed service for running and scaling Prometheus

Managed Service for Prometheus is a fully managed Prometheus-compatible monitoring solution, built on top of the same globally scalable data store as Cloud Monitoring. Keep your existing visualization, analysis, and alerting services, as this data can be queried with PromQL or Cloud Monitoring.

Monitor and improve your application's performance

Application Performance Management (APM) combines the monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities of Cloud Logging and Cloud Monitoring with Cloud Trace and Cloud Profiler to help you reduce latency and cost so you can run more efficient applications.

Google

Sample Customers

HBO, JPMC, Morgan Stanley, Xander, EA Sports, Volvo

Uber, Batterii, Q42, Dovetail Games

Buyer's Guide

Apica vs. Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)

April 2025

Free Report: Apica vs. Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)

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