AWS X-Ray vs IBM Application Performance Management comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and IBM are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #17 with an average rating of 8.0, while IBM is ranked #56 with an average rating of 7.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 3.9% mindshare in APM, compared to IBM’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 62% of IBM users who would recommend it.

AWS X-Ray

Read 7 AWS X-Ray reviews

6,245 Views
5,648 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Application Performance...

Read 7 IBM Application Performance Management reviews

956 Views
632 Comparison Views

62% willing to recommend

AWS X-Ray

IBM Application Performance...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

IBM Application Performance Management and AWS X-Ray compete in the application performance monitoring and analysis category. AWS X-Ray has the upper hand due to its extensive feature set and better integration capabilities.

Features: IBM offers strong predictive analytics, comprehensive monitoring tools, and robust support. AWS X-Ray provides extensive tracing capabilities, seamless integration with AWS services, and enhanced tracing functionality.

Room for Improvement: IBM needs better customization options, faster update cycles, and simplified configuration. AWS X-Ray could improve its documentation, provide a more intuitive setup process, and enhance UI/UX design.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM is noted for straightforward deployment and responsive customer service. AWS X-Ray has a steeper learning curve but benefits from deep AWS ecosystem integration once set up.

Pricing and ROI: IBM is valued for transparent pricing and higher perceived ROI. AWS X-Ray, despite higher costs, is considered worthwhile due to its feature set. IBM is seen as more cost-effective with quicker ROI, while AWS offers a high-value, feature-rich option.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS X-Ray vs. IBM Application Performance Management Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

AWS X-Ray vs. IBM Application Performance Management

January 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 831,158 peers since 2012

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

AWS X-Ray

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

17th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

IBM Application Performance...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

56th

Average Rating

6.4

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of AWS X-Ray is 3.9%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Application Performance Management is 0.4%, down from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Parth Solanki

Founder & CEO at Quicklead.io

Saves time, is relatively cheap, and helps find errors

If we get any error, we can go to X-Ray and get all the requests for a certain error in one place. It makes it easy to find the issue in your own product. You can look at logs and error logs and find loopholes. You can do direct queries to get specific requests over the course of a day. It's very good at error reporting and quite fast. You also get a lot of information, including IP addresses, user locations, et cetera.

Read full review

Daniel Tamiru

Manager, Database & System Administration at Awash International Bank

A multi-functional solution but has poor stability and performance-related issues

We are using version 4 of IBM Application Performance Management, and it is deployed on-premises. We use it for internet banking and mainly for application performance on-site. For example, if we face performance-related issues in one of our software or managed services, we use this solution to…

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 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."

"The error analysis capabilities of X-Ray are really good."

"The most beneficial feature is that it shows a dashboard for performance intervals, which reveals latencies."

"AWS X-RAY identifies bottlenecks in terms of stability and performance and how long certain data lives in terms of response time and duration."

"AWS X-Ray is a strong solution and has a smooth integration process."

"It is a very scalable solution."

"The solution has made it easier for us to trace the problems that we have with our requests and to monitor the timing of each step in each request we do in our endpoints."

"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's easy to use."

"Because we have partnerships with other partners, I can share a bit about what I've noticed with IBM APM compared to other vendor solutions. Specifically, with IBM, the visibility into detailed process information is more tangible. On the OS level, APM displays all processes (or the top 10 processes) that are consuming CPU or resident memory. This is the most important thing that is not always available with other vendors."

"IBM Application Performance Management helped us increased our response time by 80% and cost 60% less."

"The most valuable feature is the breakdown that it provides, such as a description of the fields for a particular transaction."

"The transaction tracking feature from IBM is the most important feature for us. It is something that provides a terrific value for us and our clients. It has a lot of data sources and agents that are collectors. It is also stable."

"I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten."

"The initial setup was straightforward and took minimal effort."

Cons

"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."

"They can improve how traces are sent to other providers."

"A significant downside is that it is very expensive."

"The user interface is sometimes kind of confusing to understand. It's not very user-friendly."

"It should have X-Ray SDKs for different languages like Node.js, Python, or Java."

"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."

"If you have a small team, it's probably overkill."

"I do not have any notes in terms of improvements."

"Technical support can be slow and needs improvement."

"With APM, we noticed that the agent can cause a lot of issues for the application, making the agent very unreliable. Many issues are happening, and we've had to discuss it with support to try and get a fix. It affects application availability, and sometimes actions fail because of the agent, degrading the performance of the application."

"The demo that was provided to us is not working very well. At times, there are errors."

"It's still missing some platforms. For example, if you look to applications itself, it is missing the interface."

"The stability is not great and should be better."

"Its web user interface is a little bit old in comparison to other solutions, such as New Relic, and it should be improved. Its scalability and technical support should also be improved. Currently, it is scalable, but only in a vertical way. They provide good technical support, but the initial steps for a new case can be improved to fasten the resolution process."

"They should focus on potentially enhancing the dashboard to make it more contemporary and adding some customization options. Furthermore, there might be room for improvement in the pricing policy."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is a bit expensive."

"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 pricing for AWS X-Ray is a six out of ten."

"IBM APM is one of the cheaper products on the market, while everything necessary to get started is included in the license."

"As I previously indicated, I initiated the IBM and uncovered all its elements. Consequently, I'm not inclined towards a licensing approach."

"The licensing fees can be paid every six months or on a yearly basis."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

11%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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?

AWS X-Ray is very beneficial, however, it is expensive. It should be more cost-effective.

See all answers

What needs improvement with AWS X-Ray?

It should have X-Ray SDKs for different languages like Node.js, Python, or Java. It should also have custom annotations and better instruments for external API services. In addition to these, X-Ray...

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Application Performance Management?

I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Application Performance Management?

They should focus on potentially enhancing the dashboard to make it more contemporary and adding some customization options. Furthermore, there might be room for improvement in the pricing policy. ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Application Performance Management?

I monitor business applications for more than four end users.

See all answers

Comparisons

Datadog vs AWS X-Ray

Compared 18% of the time

Sentry vs AWS X-Ray

Compared 15% of the time

Azure Monitor vs AWS X-Ray

Compared 13% of the time

New Relic vs AWS X-Ray

Compared 12% of the time

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

Compared 12% of the time

More AWS X-Ray Competitors

Instana Dynamic APM vs IBM Application Performance Management

Compared 44% of the time

BMC Compuware Strobe vs IBM Application Performance Management

Compared 22% of the time

AppDynamics vs IBM Application Performance Management

Compared 13% of the time

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager vs IBM Application Performance Management

Compared 11% of the time

Datadog vs IBM Application Performance Management

Compared 10% of the time

More IBM Application Performance Management Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

AWS X-Ray

January 2025

Download AWS X-Ray product report

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

December 2024

IBM Application Performance Management report

Download IBM Application Performance Management product report

Also Known As

No data available

IBM APM

Learn More

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

IBM

Overview

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.

The IBM Application Performance Management portfolio provides visibility, control and automation of your mission-critical applications. It helps pinpoint the root cause of application's issue more quickly and resolve the problem. The integrated capabilities cover the five key areas: discovery, end-use experience, transaction tracking, enterprise diagnostics and analytics. It also easily monitors applications to ensure optimal performance to extend your hybrid management environment capabilities, to measure the customer experience from multiple locations and to further eliminate blind spots in your application environment.

Sample Customers

COMCAST, ConnectWise, skyscanner, AirAsia, cookpad, cimpress, VTEX, zowdow

Mibtree, EatDrinkDeals.com, IT Performance Advisor

Buyer's Guide

AWS X-Ray vs. IBM Application Performance Management

January 2025

Free Report: AWS X-Ray vs. IBM Application Performance Management

Find out what your peers are saying about AWS X-Ray vs. IBM Application Performance Management and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our AWS X-Ray vs. IBM Application Performance Management report.

See our list of best Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability vendors.

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.