Instana Dynamic APM vs Prometheus comparison

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Instana Dynamic APM

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

Instana Dynamic APM and Prometheus are two leading tools in application performance management. Based on user feedback, Instana Dynamic APM stands out for its ease of deployment and customer service, while Prometheus is preferred for its powerful features and cost-effectiveness.

Features: Instana Dynamic APM provides automated root cause analysis, real-time dependency mapping, and extensive environment monitoring. Prometheus offers a robust time-series database, powerful querying capabilities, and integration flexibility.

Room for Improvement: Instana Dynamic APM needs better customization options and improved dashboard functionality. Prometheus requires a simpler learning curve and more comprehensive support documentation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Instana Dynamic APM is noted for straightforward setup and responsive customer service. Prometheus has a more complex deployment process but benefits from a strong community support system.

Pricing and ROI: Instana Dynamic APM is seen as a premium product with higher setup costs, offering high ROI through seamless integration and operational efficiency. Prometheus, being open-source, is cost-effective with lower initial costs but necessitates more expertise investment, providing better ROI in budget-constrained scenarios.

To learn more, read our detailed Instana Dynamic APM vs. Prometheus Report (Updated: December 2024).

Instana Dynamic APM vs. Prometheus

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Helped 824,067 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

Instana Dynamic APM

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

21st

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Prometheus

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

8th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Instana Dynamic APM is 1.3%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Prometheus is 3.3%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Muhammad Jawwad Hassan

IT Consultant at Arcana Info

A really good GUI that is easy for non-technical users to understand

Our company uses the solution for one of our bank clients. We use App Connect middleware to monitor services and applications such as Docker, Kubernetes, MongoDB, and MS SQL Server. We also monitor the bottleneck for all servers. We currently have 20 users at one of our branches. We plan to expand…

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Noam Blidstein

Head of Global IT Operations at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

A very flexible open box that can be used vastly to do anything you need

Make sure that you have dedicated manpower to configure and manage the solution. It requires handling, not necessarily on a daily basis, but it definitely requires someone who is focused and has expertise with the solution. Know in advance what you want to gain from the solution. Don't jump in to configuring or deploying before knowing what you expect from it. I like the solution very much. I think it is a major tool, especially in advanced environments. The open box provides a lot of flexibility and gives a very holistic view of the entire Kubernetes environment. Integrating with the Rancher management tool gives the solution even more abilities. There are several tools that we use behind the scenes to ease the process but the solution on its own is a very good tool. I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Its GUI is really good and it easy to understand for non-technical users."

"We can easily perform root cause analysis using the tool."

"The primary selling point of this product is its unparalleled transparency into the infrastructure."

"The detailing of our application behavior and user experience is most valuable. In case there is an issue, we typically use Instana to figure it out. We can drill down to the application and figure out what's going on and where the issue is."

"With auto-discovery, we didn't need to consider much. We just installed the agent on the host and it was able to detect everything from the host level up to the service level, for whatever stack was installed, and that includes containers and dockers."

"With Instana, the interface and the UI are very simple to use."

"It is user-friendly, but we encounter issues processing input and understanding the graphics, such as seeing a flatline without knowing the cause. When these problems occur, I have to contact my support team to address and fix them. Also, monitoring processing is good."

"It's great for monitoring services and applications."

More Instana Dynamic APM pros

"It is a stable solution...Based on the feedback I have received from my colleagues in our company's IT department, the setup phase of the solution is relatively easy."

"The scalability of Prometheus is very good."

"The most valuable features of Prometheus for metrics collection and monitoring are its stability, robustness, and rich set of features."

"The most valuable features of the solution are metrics scraping capabilities and the open source community and support."

"The solution is useful to collect huge metrics."

"The sky is the limit because the solution is a flexible open box that can be used vastly to do anything you need to monitor applications."

"It is a scalable solution."

"The most valuable feature of Prometheus is the ease of pulling the metrics."

More Prometheus pros

Cons

"The App Connect middleware does not integrate with or show corresponding sub nodes."

"We should be able to go back to scenarios during or before the issue. There should be something like a history playback. Such a feature or functionality would be good."

"Maybe log monitoring could be better."

"We'd always like to see additional functionalities."

"Its SLI and SLA features need improvement in setting up alerts."

"I think that Instana should improve the university and the certification process, so the users can find experts in Instana with their certification module process."

"The integration could be improved with more plugins or open API."

"The solution's monitoring is pretty weak and should be improved."

More Instana Dynamic APM cons

"There is a tool called Prometheus Exporter that doesn't work well."

"The solution's error handling part could be improved."

"The DSL could be improved."

"Setting up the rules in Prometheus can be confusing, making it an area where improvements are required."

"Prometheus' UI color can improve. Using the Prometheus UI for configuration or analyzing queries is a horrible experience."

"A slight alteration to the user interface should be made to increase efficiency and streamline the process. Currently, we are utilizing Prometheus to gather and compile metrics and then utilizing Grafana to display them in the form of a graph. However, I believe that Prometheus has the capability to handle both of these tasks on its own, with perhaps the addition of a supplementary plugin. By doing so, the need for utilizing two separate applications will be eliminated."

"If you want to collect details of metrics, you should be able to write a query for it directly. I want the product to offer better queries for the metrics."

"The setup process could be more straightforward."

More Prometheus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's reasonably priced and manageable, especially for individuals who grasp the significance of application monitoring."

"Pricing is quite competitive. Dynatrace, AppDynamics, and New Relic were all several times more expensive than Instana, both the on-prem and the SaaS versions. Price-wise they are a lot more competitive than anyone else out there."

"Its pricing isn't a big pain point. Its pricing seems to be better than some of the other competing products in the market, but they also have some of the features and functionalities that are better than Instana."

"The solution's pricing is comparable to other products."

"The solution is less expensive than one of its competitors."

"Instana Dynamic APM is more affordable for small and medium-sized companies compared to other vendors."

"The pricing is $1,200 per year which is a bit high compared to other vendors."

"The tool is open-sourced."

"We have the open-source version, so we don't pay for it."

"The solution is open source."

"The solution is free of cost."

"Prometheus is an open-source solution."

"The solution is not expensive."

"We use the solution's open-source version."

"It is an open-source tool."

More Prometheus pricing and cost advice

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.

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824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

28%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

26%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Instana Dynamic APM?

The platform’s most valuable feature is the ability to monitor the performance of containers for request and response analysis.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Instana Dynamic APM?

I rate the pricing a seven out of ten. There are no additional costs associated with the product.

What needs improvement with Instana Dynamic APM?

Sometimes, the issue arises from user changes, such as adjusting firewall settings without proper consideration, leading to compatibility issues within the network monitoring.

What do you like most about Prometheus?

The most valuable feature of Prometheus is its ability to collect metrics.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Prometheus?

Prometheus is an open-source tool.

What is your primary use case for Prometheus?

We use Prometheus for observability and analyzing data for business metrics and system metrics. It helps us with messaging services observability. It also helps a lot with the architecture and scal...

Dynatrace vs Instana Dynamic APM

Comparisons

Compared 43% of the time

AppDynamics vs Instana Dynamic APM

Compared 19% of the time

IBM Application Performance Management vs Instana Dynamic APM

Compared 11% of the time

Datadog vs Instana Dynamic APM

Compared 8% of the time

Azure Monitor vs Instana Dynamic APM

Compared 3% of the time

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Azure Monitor vs Prometheus

Compared 16% of the time

Zabbix vs Prometheus

Compared 11% of the time

Dynatrace vs Prometheus

Compared 9% of the time

New Relic vs Prometheus

Compared 9% of the time

Apache SkyWalking vs Prometheus

Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Instana Dynamic APM

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Instana

Overview

Instana’s Enterprise Observability Platform, powered by automated Application Performance Monitoring, discovers and maps all services, infrastructure, and their inter-dependencies automatically. Instana ingests all observability metrics, traces each request, profiles every process, and updates application dependency maps in real-time to deliver the context and actionable feedback needed by Dev+Ops to optimize application performance, enable innovation, and mitigate risk to help them add value and efficiency to the pipeline. Learn more at https://instana.com.

Prometheus specializes in gathering, monitoring, and analyzing logs and metrics. Utilized for data visualization in Grafana, cloud deployments, Kubernetes monitoring, and financial transactions, it provides a comprehensive view of application performance.

Prometheus is widely adopted for its robust metrics collection and scraping capabilities. It integrates seamlessly with Grafana for detailed visualizations and supports installations in cloud environments like Azure and Amazon. Prometheus is especially valued for monitoring Kubernetes deployments and ensuring efficient operation of servers, databases, and microservices. Its open-source nature provides reliability, flexibility, and scalability. Users appreciate its extensive integrations, APIs, and libraries, supporting multiple languages. Prometheus also offers remote writing, dynamic conflict resolution, high availability, and lightweight configuration with detailed documentation.

What are the key features of Prometheus?

Extensive Integrations: Supports APIs and libraries across multiple languages
Metrics Collection: Efficiently handles large amounts of metrics
Scraping Capabilities: Effective data gathering from applications
HTTP Monitoring: Reliable and detailed tracking
Grafana Integration: Seamless dashboards and visualizations
High Availability: Ensures system reliability
Lightweight Configuration: User-friendly setup process
Robust Querying: Advanced data querying and long-term storage integration

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Holistic Application Performance: Provides a comprehensive view
Scalability: Handles growing amounts of metrics
Flexibility: Adapts to various cloud and on-premises environments
Reliability: Ensures consistent performance
Detailed Documentation: Offers clear guidance for users

Prometheus is extensively used in industries requiring robust monitoring and alerting systems. Financial services leverage it for tracking transactions, while tech companies deploy it for Kubernetes and microservices monitoring. Its scalable and flexible nature makes it a preferred choice for cloud environments, supporting the efficient operation of infrastructure and applications.

Sample Customers

Daxko Lifts Fitness Studios Through COVID Regulations with Quick Engineering PivotsAltissia Meets SLAs to Support Student DeadlinesImmocloud Unlocks Observability to Modernize Real EstateEnento Group Boosts Service Reliability with Real-Time Visibility into Application Performance Instana’s Observability for Amazon EKS Helps Yara Deliver Digital Farming Solutions

Information Not Available

Instana Dynamic APM vs. Prometheus