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AppDynamics vs Datadog comparison

AppDynamics and Datadog are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. AppDynamics is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.2, while Datadog is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8. AppDynamics holds a 5.2% mindshare in APM, compared to Datadog’s 10.1% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of AppDynamics users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Datadog users who would recommend it.
AppDynamics
Read 156 AppDynamics reviews
  • 14,486 Views
  • 9,226 Comparison Views
89% willing to recommend
Datadog
Read 187 Datadog reviews
  • 30,103 Views
  • 18,351 Comparison Views
96% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 1, 2024

AppDynamics and Datadog are leading application performance management tools. User reviews indicate AppDynamics excels in customer support and pricing, while Datadog stands out in features and deployment, making it worth the investment.

Features: AppDynamics users value real-time monitoring, root cause analysis, and robust alerting capabilities. Datadog users appreciate its comprehensive metrics, dashboards, and advanced monitoring capabilities.

Room for Improvement: AppDynamics users mention the need for better integration with third-party services, improved alerting features, and enhanced user interface. Datadog users highlight the need for UI simplification, better cost management, and more intuitive user experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: AppDynamics is praised for its robust customer service and guided deployment options, making it easier for enterprises to get started. Datadog receives positive feedback for its quick setup but occasionally falls short on customer service.

Pricing and ROI: AppDynamics users find the pricing competitive and appreciate the high ROI from its detailed insights and support. Datadog users acknowledge higher costs but justify it with the tool's extensive capabilities and significant ROI.

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Buyer's Guide
AppDynamics vs. Datadog
November 2024
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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:
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.2
AppDynamics' customer support gets mixed reviews; some praise responsiveness and professionalism, others criticize slow responses and communication issues.
Sentiment score
7.6
Datadog's customer service is generally praised for responsiveness and expertise, though some users note delays and lack of phone support.
 

Room For Improvement

Sentiment score
3.7
Users want AppDynamics to improve features, integrations, support, costs, AI capabilities, ease of use, and cloud performance.
Sentiment score
5.6
Datadog users face challenges with billing, integration, interface complexity, and desire more flexibility, support, and improved features.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Users have mixed opinions on AppDynamics' scalability, praising its potential but noting challenges and performance issues at larger scales.
Sentiment score
7.9
Datadog offers scalable performance and customization but users should monitor rising costs and potential challenges with complex architectures.
 

Setup Cost

Sentiment score
4.4
AppDynamics' licensing costs range widely and can be expensive, leading some companies to consider cheaper alternatives like DataDog and Dynatrace.
Sentiment score
6.3
Datadog's pricing varies by organization size, requiring careful monitoring and planning due to complex usage-based billing and potential hidden costs.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.2
AppDynamics is highly rated for stability and reliability, with users appreciating its performance and planning to continue its use.
Sentiment score
8.0
Datadog is praised for its stability and reliable performance, effectively managing disruptions and supporting diverse operational needs.
 

Valuable Features

Sentiment score
8.5
AppDynamics offers robust monitoring, real-time alerts, detailed diagnostics, customizable dashboards, and extensive integration, enhancing operational efficiency and user experience.
Sentiment score
8.4
Datadog excels in real-time monitoring, intuitive interface, robust integrations, efficient alerts, and comprehensive performance tracking and system reliability.
 

Categories and Ranking

AppDynamics
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
5th
Ranking in Container Monitoring
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
156
Ranking in other categories
Mobile APM (3rd)
Datadog
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
1st
Ranking in Container Monitoring
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
187
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (3rd), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (2nd), Log Management (3rd), Cloud Monitoring Software (1st), AIOps (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of AppDynamics is 5.2%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Datadog is 10.1%, down from 11.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
 

Q&A Highlights

BH
Dec 10, 2020
Any advice about APM solutions?
The key is to have a holistic view over the complete infrastructure, the ones you have listed are great for APM if you need to monitor applications end to end. I have tested them all and have not found one capable to give me solutions they all report you have a problem but you need to figure out what the problems is. So we have decided to develop our own AI and it is not only monitoring OSI layer 1 -3 but layer 1-8 as well it give you a solution what has been wrong based on delays in transactions combined with security. We have deployed this now across healthcare in the USA as well Airports but it is working on every industry and working in a SaaS solution. But if I have a chose between the tools you mentioned, Dynatrace is the best choose it is easy to install and has a great interface. Also it has almost no configuration.
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Featured Reviews

Noorul Mustafa Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Widely used by most financial services sectors, such as banking and insurance sectors
Currently, the solution is on the cloud as well. You can have your cloud applications onboarded to AppDynamics without any issues. AppDynamics has its own SaaS environment and SaaS controller on which you can onboard your application. You will need to install some of the AppDynamics agents. I used to contact the tools team, and they used to answer our queries mostly. If not, they used to take it to the support and then come back with their solution. Users need to list all the servers related to their application on which they want the AppDynamics agents installed. Depending on whether your application is cloud-based or non-cloud, you need to list all your servers. Then, a further installation process would be recommended. To use AppDynamics, you need to understand the different flows. If an issue is currently ongoing, you need to check which GUI flow is being used. If you want previous data, it will be in the history, and that's a different flow. Working with the tool is tricky, but two to three weeks of continuous work on it should bring you up to date. Suppose you are working in a bank. For your application, you can configure everything regarding the business transaction. For balance transfers, you can have one business transaction that will monitor balance transfers. There can be another business transaction that can monitor credit cards. You can configure different flows and transactions within the flows in terms of business transactions. Wherever there is an issue, that exact business transaction will start developing. The integration of AppDynamics within our CI/CD pipeline has positively affected our deployment frequency and application quality. Whenever there is a deployment or release, we see some hiccups in AppDynamics. There will be some things going on on that server, which we can easily identify in AppDynamics. Only after we validate that do we give the next go. Overall, I rate the solution eight and a half out of ten.
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Kevin Palmer - PeerSpot reviewer
Useful log aggregation and management with helpful metrics aggregation
Datadog provides us value in three major ways: First, Datadog provides best-in-class functionality in many, if not all, of the products to which we subscribe (infrastructure, APM, log management, serverless, synthetics, real user monitoring, DB monitoring). In my experience with other tools that provide similar functionality, Datadog provides the largest feature set with the most flexibility and the best performance. Second, Datadog allows us to access all of those services in one place. Having to learn and manage only one tool for all of those purposes is a major benefit. Third, Datadog provides significant connectivity between those services so that we can view, summarize, organize, translate and correlate our data with maximum effect. Not needing to manually integrate them to draw lines between those pieces of information is a huge time savings for us.
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Answers from the Community

BH
Dec 8, 2020
Dec 8, 2020
Any advice about APM solutions?
There are many factors and we know little about your requirements (size of org, technology stack, management systems, the scope of implementation). Our goal was to consolidate APM and infra monitoring. We maintain critical processing on our mainframe so there was a desire to include this in our transaction trace. Due to a highly mature ELK implementation, we are not trying to incorporate log ...
2 out of 5 answers
reviewer802371 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 20, 2020
Could you please share your requirements ? There are a lot tools can be added to the list. I spent almost 6 months to test and check many tools then I select eG enterprise.
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reviewer1352679 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 20, 2020
There are many factors and we know little about your requirements (size of org, technology stack, management systems, the scope of implementation). Our goal was to consolidate APM and infra monitoring.  We maintain critical processing on our mainframe so there was a desire to include this in our transaction trace.  Due to a highly mature ELK implementation, we are not trying to incorporate log analytics into solution buy may consider in the future.  We had AppD, Dynatrace, New Relic, and CA Wily all in house at the time of our evaluation.  We eliminated Datadog due to a lack of real user monitoring and AppD based on experience and licensing.  Between Dynatrace and New Relic, Dynatrace won based on the automation, integrated AI, support for "old" techs, and confidence we could eliminate multiple APM and infra monitoring tools.   I would not include products like BigPanda, MoogSoft, in this analysis. They are not monitoring solutions but event correlation solutions.  You will need additional monitoring products to capture data and feed them.  Having said that if you cannot consolidate tools you will likely need to purchase an event solution to make sense of all the alarms. We did evaluate these products but with Dynatrace AI did not feel the business value was there for the investment. Here's a quick pro/con list on Dynatrace & New Relic from our analysis. New Relic Pros: Insights is an awesome product and capability. Lots of capabilities and plugins to extend data collection. The APM dashboard is aesthetically pleasing and intuitive. Good training and documentation are available to support the product. New Relic Cons: Requires lots of manual configurations to implement and support.  Insights product requires an investment of time to achieve value. Licensing is a nightmare as there is virtually no transparency in what you are being charged for. Lack of solution to consolidate alerts across implementation other than significant investment in insights to manually achieve this.   Dynatrace Pros: Very simple to implement and maintain with out of the box automation which supports modern (cloud/Kubernetes) and "old" (mainframe). In-app chat is helpful.  High integration of infra and APM data for full-stack observability and engineering.  Topology and trace discovery is more reliable than other products or our CMDB.  Synthetics are easy to set up for any user. AI-assisted problem analysis on the trace discovery streamlines troubleshooting.  AI includes "events" in an analysis like VMotion, deployment events. Have not done yet but looking to leverage monitoring as code for a fully integrated and automated delivery pipeline. See keptn.sh open source project. Dynatrace Cons: User SQL lacks some functions of NRQL for user analysis.  Host, process, and service data is not available to query within the product.  Alarm processing lacks some granular controls. The Plug-in library is less robust. Good luck with your decision!
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See all 5 answers
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
49%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Educational Organization
38%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Any advice about APM solutions?
There are many factors and we know little about your requirements (size of org, technology stack, management systems, the scope of implementation). Our goal was to consolidate APM and infra monitor...
See all answers
APM tools for a Managed Service Provider - Dynatrace vs. AppDynamics vs. Aternity vs. Ruxit
Hi Avi! It's great to see your thorough approach to selecting an APM package for your MSP company. Considering your focus on SMBs and enterprises in Israel, Dynatrace seems like a solid choice with...
See all answers
What do you like most about AppDynamics?
The solution saves time and cost.
See all answers
Datadog vs ELK: which one is good in terms of performance, cost and efficiency?
With Datadog, we have near-live visibility across our entire platform. We have seen APM metrics impacted several times lately using the dashboards we have created with Datadog; they are very good c...
See all answers
Which would you choose - Datadog or Dynatrace?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether the Datadog or Dynatrace network monitoring software was the better fit for us. We decided to go with Dynatrace. Dynatrace offers network ...
See all answers
What do you like most about Datadog?
Integrating Datadog with other platforms has made our monitoring processes a bit easier. It's not super simple, but it's manageable.
See all answers
 

Comparisons

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Dynatrace vs AppDynamics
Compared 19% of the time
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Splunk Enterprise Security vs AppDynamics
Compared 8% of the time
New Relic vs AppDynamics Logo
New Relic vs AppDynamics
Compared 7% of the time
Elastic Observability vs AppDynamics Logo
Elastic Observability vs AppDynamics
Compared 7% of the time
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs AppDynamics Logo
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs AppDynamics
Compared 5% of the time
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Dynatrace vs Datadog Logo
Dynatrace vs Datadog
Compared 14% of the time
Azure Monitor vs Datadog Logo
Azure Monitor vs Datadog
Compared 14% of the time
New Relic vs Datadog Logo
New Relic vs Datadog
Compared 6% of the time
AWS X-Ray vs Datadog Logo
AWS X-Ray vs Datadog
Compared 4% of the time
Wazuh vs Datadog Logo
Wazuh vs Datadog
Compared 3% of the time
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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
AppDynamics
December 2024
AppDynamics reportDownload AppDynamics product report
Buyer's Guide
Datadog
December 2024
Datadog reportDownload Datadog product report
 

Also Known As

AppD, AppDynamics APM
No data available
 

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AppDynamics
Datadog
 

Overview

AppDynamics is a comprehensive tool used for monitoring application performance, identifying user issues, analyzing traffic, managing infrastructure, and performance testing. It supports environments like Kubernetes, WebLogic, and Azure, and is crucial for industries such as banking, telecommunications, and financial services.

AppDynamics offers a robust solution for application performance monitoring, enabling deep diagnostics, transaction tracing, and root cause analysis. Users benefit from its real-time monitoring and comprehensive analytics capabilities. It's designed for ease of implementation and scalability, featuring intuitive dashboards that streamline infrastructure optimization and enhance user experience. AppDynamics supports extensive third-party extensions and provides proactive monitoring and alerting to ensure optimal system health. It assists in troubleshooting, database monitoring, and setting custom alerts to address Java applications and performance challenges efficiently.

What are the most important features of AppDynamics?

  • Application Performance Monitoring: Real-time insights into application health and performance
  • Business Transaction Capturing: Detailed tracking of business transactions across the application
  • Memory Monitoring: Monitoring memory usage to optimize application performance
  • Analytics: Advanced analytics to understand application and user behavior
  • Customizable Dashboards: Intuitive dashboards for better visualization and decision-making
  • Proactive Monitoring and Alerting: Immediate alerts and monitoring to prevent issues before they affect users
  • Integration Capabilities: Integration with third-party tools to extend functionality
  • Root Cause Analysis: Deep diagnostics to pinpoint and fix issues promptly
  • Transaction Mapping: Mapping transactions to understand and improve user journeys
  • Error Detection: Identifying and diagnosing errors to maintain application stability

What benefits or ROI should users look for in reviews?

  • Ease of Implementation: Simple deployment process
  • Scalability: Ability to grow with the organization's needs
  • Time Savings: Reducing time spent on troubleshooting and issue resolution
  • Enhanced User Experience: Improving application performance for better user satisfaction
  • Cost Efficiency: Balancing functionality with cost to deliver value

AppDynamics is widely adopted in banking, telecommunications, and financial services to ensure optimal user experience and system health. Its capabilities support these industries in maintaining robust, efficient, and reliable applications. The tool is instrumental in troubleshooting, performance optimization, and providing a seamless user experience.

Datadog is a comprehensive cloud monitoring platform designed to track performance, availability, and log aggregation for cloud resources like AWS, ECS, and Kubernetes. It offers robust tools for creating dashboards, observing user behavior, alerting, telemetry, security monitoring, and synthetic testing.

Datadog supports full observability across cloud providers and environments, enabling troubleshooting, error detection, and performance analysis to maintain system reliability. It offers detailed visualization of servers, integrates seamlessly with cloud providers like AWS, and provides powerful out-of-the-box dashboards and log analytics. Despite its strengths, users often note the need for better integration with other solutions and improved application-level insights. Common challenges include a complex pricing model, setup difficulties, and navigation issues. Users frequently mention the need for clearer documentation, faster loading times, enhanced error traceability, and better log management.

What are the key features of Datadog?

  • Graphs and Dashboards: Visualizes servers and infrastructure with customizable views.
  • Metrics: Offers deep insights into system performance and user behavior.
  • Log Management: Provides powerful analytics for logs and seamless log aggregation.
  • Unified Tagging: Facilitates organization and retrieval of metrics and logs.
  • APM and RUM: Enables application performance monitoring and real user monitoring for comprehensive insights.
  • Synthetic Testing: Allows the simulation of user interactions to test application performance.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?

  • System Reliability: Helps ensure uptime and performance across cloud environments.
  • Proactive Issue Resolution: Assists in identifying and resolving issues before they impact users.
  • Operational Efficiency: Streamlines monitoring and log management tasks.
  • Flexible Integrations: Adapts to various cloud services and infrastructure setups.
  • Real-Time Alerts: Provides timely notifications to address problems swiftly.

Datadog is implemented across different industries, from tech companies monitoring cloud applications to finance sectors ensuring transactional systems' performance. E-commerce platforms use Datadog to track and visualize user behavior and system health, while healthcare organizations utilize it for maintaining secure, compliant environments. Every implementation assists teams in customizing monitoring solutions specific to their industry's requirements.

 

Sample Customers

Cisco, Sony, Nasdaq, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Edmunds.com, Puma, Fox News, DirecTV, Pizza Hut, T-Systems, Cornell University, OpenTable, BITMARCK, Green Mountain Power, Care.com, Overstock, Paddy Power, eHarmony, Kraft, The Motley Fool, The Container Store, and more See more customers
Adobe, Samsung, facebook, HP Cloud Services, Electronic Arts, salesforce, Stanford University, CiTRIX, Chef, zendesk, Hearst Magazines, Spotify, mercardo libre, Slashdot, Ziff Davis, PBS, MLS, The Motley Fool, Politico, Barneby's
Buyer's Guide
AppDynamics vs. Datadog
November 2024
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We monitor all Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.