IBM Instana Observability vs Splunk AppDynamics comparison

IBM and Splunk are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. IBM is ranked #45 with an average rating of 8.0, while Splunk is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.5. IBM holds a 0.4% mindshare in APM, compared to Splunk’s 4.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

IBM Instana Observability

Read 3 IBM Instana Observability reviews

457 Views
345 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Splunk AppDynamics

Read 244 Splunk AppDynamics reviews

14,326 Views
9,069 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

IBM Instana Observability

Splunk AppDynamics

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 6, 2025

Splunk AppDynamics and IBM Instana Observability compete in the IT operations observability solutions category. IBM Instana holds a slight advantage with its advanced capabilities, while Splunk AppDynamics is a strong contender in terms of cost and support.

Features: Splunk AppDynamics offers full-stack observability, AI-driven insights, and automated root cause analysis. IBM Instana provides continuous discovery of infrastructure and microservices, high granularity data collection, and real-time data visualization, making it effective in dynamic environments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Instana's agent-based deployment promotes faster implementation and easy configuration. Splunk AppDynamics requires a more complex setup with extensive configuration. IBM Instana is known for prompt support, while Splunk AppDynamics focuses on comprehensive guidance and resources.

Pricing and ROI: Splunk AppDynamics has a budget-friendly setup with scalable pricing models enhancing ROI, beneficial for large installations. IBM Instana, requiring higher investment, often justifies costs with superior features leading to better long-term ROI, appealing to businesses prioritizing advanced technology over initial cost.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Instana Observability vs. Splunk AppDynamics Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Instana Observability vs. Splunk AppDynamics

March 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

IBM Instana Observability

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

45th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Splunk AppDynamics

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

244

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (4th), IT Operations Analytics (2nd), Mobile APM (2nd), Container Monitoring (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of IBM Instana Observability is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk AppDynamics is 4.9%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Tomas Kim

Managing Director at BA Solutions

Not expensive and offers good performance

The most valuable feature of the solution is performance. A one-vendor solution serves as a good feature of the tool. In the IT industry, the IT support team has lots of vendors to contact. DB monitoring is done by one company, while WaaS monitoring is done by another and done by another company, which makes it really complicated for the IT team concerned about the security levels. The tool's main feature is that it is a one-vendor solution. The analysis done by the tool is a good feature. The tool is used as an open-source tool. The tool is growing, and new features are being added to the product.

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Muhammad Zeeshan Siddiqui

Head of Technology and Services at arwentech

Dynamic mapping enhances workflows that are user-friendly

One aspect that requires improvement is the agent. Without an agent, gathering sufficient information on applications is challenging. Additionally, the agent sometimes creates performance issues in production environments. If AppDynamics could develop a means to monitor without an agent, it could significantly improve application performance and reduce potential problems. Moving to an agentless solution, like what some competitors are doing, would be beneficial.

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 valuable feature of the solution is performance."

"The most valuable features of IBM Instana are its quick data collection and analytics after installing the agent."

"The solution has a one-second resolution, giving you the status of your application within one second."

"The most valuable feature is the detailed statistics, like the consumer count, for the ActiveMQ server."

"AppDynamics' most valuable feature is Business iQ, which is based on analytics."

"It has improved my organization because we are able to proactively and reactively look at performance issues."

"AppDynamics provides us with detailed information about the performance of the underlying infrastructure, including servers, databases, and external services."

"The good thing with AppDynamics Databases is that it will give you a pretty good overview of the data, all the database-like tables, long-running queries, jobs running on the databases, and the queries that are taking more time. So, it's at a deeper level with all the database functionalities, and you will get that information. So, it's a pretty good tool in that sense."

"Transition tracing is the most valuable is pretty easy and useful, but the user experience piece is also good."

"The auto-discovery of the logs is the most valuable feature. It requires minimal configuration, we just need to set up on once and it automatically detects through the code."

"The ability to identify the top running queries has been extremely valuable for us."

More Splunk AppDynamics pros

Cons

"The product's initial setup phase is not very easy."

"The solution should include log management and improve reporting and integration with Cognos."

"One area that requires improvement is related to the automation part, specifically automated actions like sending SMS."

"AppDynamics Database Monitoring could improve the price of the solution, it is costly."

"The cloud licensing needs to be improved. It's quite pricey."

"AppD is really cool and a unified solution for both APM and APM centric Analytics side. We can show almost all business data within the APM context from the end-user perspetive. But this process is a little bit manual. If they catch and map business journeys based on customer interaction on the browser automatically, it should be really fine."

"There may be some older technologies that are still covered, however, it's not as plug-and-play. You can still do it, however, it takes slightly more effort for engineers to cover old technologies such as C++, Delphi, and so on. It still can be done. It's just not as easy as, for example, covering Java."

"Their support should be improved. Clusters and monitoring can also be improved."

"Installation and configuration can be very tough. An average user without specialized knowledge can't do this. You need to have DevOps and QA teams handle it. During installation, a lot of customers get stuck trying to track the database or the API part, and they have to contact customer support."

"The tool should provide information like the number of connections and processes utilized in real time."

"The integration with cloud services is still pending with AppDynamics. We would like the product to be serverless."

More Splunk AppDynamics cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing is reasonable compared to that of its competitors like Dynatrace."

"The tool's cost is normal as per the market. The tool is not expensive."

"In terms of pricing, I feel that when you compare the benefits that we get to the price that we paid, it is reasonable."

"The pricing needs to come down."

"There were no added costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"The tool is expensive."

"AppDynamics Server Monitoring is a very expensive product, but if you negotiate well, you get value for money...My company used to make early payments toward the licensing costs of the solution, but now my company has opted for a different licensing model."

"This solution is not the cheapest but it works well. You will end up doing more work with a cheaper solution than if you just spent the extra money on a better solution like this one."

"I rate AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring's pricing as seven out of ten. Mobile monitoring is paid based on the number of instances utilizing the mobile monitoring service, which increases as the scale grows. Consequently, your mobile user count can proportionally surpass all other applications."

"The license fee for Application Analytics is in the range of 2.5 million over three years, with extra fees for service contingencies."

More Splunk AppDynamics pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

19%

Construction Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

49%

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

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 IBM Instana Observability?

The tool's cost is normal as per the market. The tool is not expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Instana Observability?

The tool should offer more LDR AI models. The monitoring is just a status, but the next level of a monitoring solution is to prevent an accident or stop an accident status. The solution should be t...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Instana Observability?

Before IBM, I ordered our company's engineer to have a look at the tool and test it. I think it was two years ago, the transfer to IBM happened in our company. At the beginning, IBM Instana Observa...

See all answers

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

Comparisons

Elastic Observability vs IBM Instana Observability

Compared 43% of the time

Grafana vs IBM Instana Observability

Compared 12% of the time

Azure Monitor vs IBM Instana Observability

Compared 11% of the time

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager vs IBM Instana Observability

Compared 10% of the time

BMC TrueSight Operations Management vs IBM Instana Observability

Compared 9% of the time

More IBM Instana Observability Competitors

Dynatrace vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 16% of the time

Datadog vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 10% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 8% of the time

New Relic vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 7% of the time

Grafana vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 6% of the time

More Splunk AppDynamics Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

March 2025

Download IBM Instana Observability product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk AppDynamics

February 2025

Download Splunk AppDynamics product report

Overview

IBM Instana Observability is a versatile tool tailored for real-time monitoring and management of applications, especially in complex cloud environments. It excels in automated root cause analysis, improving system reliability, and dynamic graphing for visualizing system interconnections. With features like real-time alerting, it enhances operational efficiency and aids in prompt issue resolution, making it invaluable for maintaining robust IT operations.

IBM

Splunk AppDynamics enhances application performance monitoring with advanced diagnostics and real-time insights, offering seamless end-to-end transaction tracking and infrastructure visibility.

AppDynamics provides critical tools for businesses to analyze application behavior and performance. Through innovative features like transaction snapshot analysis and adaptable dashboards, users can quickly identify and address issues, ensuring high levels of system uptime and efficiency. It is designed to support complex environments including Kubernetes and AWS, enhancing user experience by detecting performance issues early. Despite needing improvements in network monitoring and integration, it remains a robust option for tracking application health.

What are the key features of AppDynamics?

Real-time Performance Monitoring: Offers immediate insights into application behavior.
Business Transaction Tracking: Tracks transactions from start to finish for bottleneck identification.
JVM Memory Monitoring: Provides detailed JVM metrics and memory use information.
Deep-dive Diagnostics: Enables in-depth analysis of code and stack traces.
Adaptable Dashboards: Customizable views for better data interpretation.

How does AppDynamics benefit users?

Improved Incident Resolution: Faster problem detection and solution implementation.
Enhanced Application Performance: Real-time monitoring optimizes system operations.
Comprehensive Visibility: Provides a full view of application infrastructure.
Informed Decision Making: Detailed analytics guide performance improvements.
Customer Satisfaction: Enhances user experience through faster issue resolutions.

In industries like financial services and e-commerce, AppDynamics facilitates performance tracking across distributed systems, optimizing infrastructure to meet consumer demands. It excels in environments needing precise transaction monitoring and is pivotal in delivering high value and satisfaction.

Splunk

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

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

Buyer's Guide

IBM Instana Observability vs. Splunk AppDynamics

March 2025

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