Instana Dynamic APM vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

Instana and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Instana is ranked #21 with an average rating of 8.1, while SolarWinds is ranked #22 with an average rating of 7.3. Instana holds a 1.3% mindshare in APM, compared to SolarWinds’s 1.9% mindshare. Additionally, 84% of Instana users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

Instana Dynamic APM

Read 14 Instana Dynamic APM reviews

2,989 Views
2,469 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Read 40 SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor reviews

4,252 Views
2,822 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Instana Dynamic APM

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and Instana Dynamic APM are leading application performance monitoring tools. Instana Dynamic APM generally has the upper hand due to its advanced features and ease of use, despite its higher cost, compared to SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor's attractive pricing and robust customer support.

Features: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is valued for comprehensive monitoring capabilities, hardware health monitoring, and application availability. Instana Dynamic APM is praised for advanced AI-driven alerts, real-time data collection, and dynamic tracking of microservices.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor could improve in reporting capabilities, dashboard visualization, and enhanced analytics. Instana Dynamic APM users see room for improvement in documentation, cost of ownership, and user interface complexity.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is known for straightforward deployment and strong customer support. Instana Dynamic APM, while easy to deploy, has more complex initial configurations but offers excellent ongoing customer service.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is noted for its cost-effectiveness and solid ROI. Instana Dynamic APM is perceived as expensive but delivers significant returns due to its advanced features.

To learn more, read our detailed Instana Dynamic APM vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Instana Dynamic APM vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

December 2024

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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

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

22nd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (11th), Active Directory Management (14th)

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 SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.9%, up from 1.7% 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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Subhajit Nag

Senior Process Associate at Tata Consultancy Services

The component and cable monitoring features are good, but the interface is slow

SolarWinds' interface is slow, and this is a global concern. Every SolarWinds user complains about the sluggishness. The response is slow. If you browse from one page to another, you have to wait. Our company is a massive user with plenty of licenses, so the performance issues could be due to the load per license. Ten thousand components can be mapped under one license. So SolarWinds needs to take care of the speed problem. It cannot be this slow. That is a huge complaint. Otherwise, the tool is good. It should also be easier to upgrade SolarWinds. AppDynamics is harder to deploy but easier to upgrade. So AppDynamics takes a lot of time and effort to install, but you can upgrade it in minutes. SolarWinds is the opposite. It's easy to deploy, but upgrades take forever. To date, nobody can complete it on time, so the production environment is sitting idle. The upgrade time matters because you only install the solution once, but you'll need to upgrade the solution repeatedly over the life of the product. A complex installation isn't an issue, but I mind if the upgrade takes too long because it's already in production.

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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

"If a key monitored value has crossed a threshold, it sends out an alert. And the solution is able to intelligently find out if something is beyond the range that it normally resides in."

"It is a stable solution."

"The overall capabilities are the most valuable."

"Visually, it's very good. It provides everything needed for dynamic detection, which is very useful."

"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."

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

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

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

More Instana Dynamic APM pros

"Hardware health: It allows for proactive monitoring of the hardware health and is a game changer."

"The solution can be deployed quickly."

"SSL Certificate Monitoring and Expiry Alerting"

"Monitoring of processes and services is the most valuable feature. It is not necessarily just the server alone in terms of the CPU or the memory. We can go in-depth into services and processes."

"I am impressed with the tool's AppStack feature which mainly helps us in the identification process. This feature can give an overview of the fault and help us identify the issues for performance degradation. Instead of looking at multiple places, we can look at a single place to identify the issues."

"It's good at monitoring system-specific things like ports, services."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its interface, which is used for monitoring."

"The solution is end-to-end from the network and the application to the processes. Everything about the enterprise infrastructure is being covered by the solution. It's easy to use and easy to navigate and one of the leaders among monitoring solutions."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

Cons

"Maybe log monitoring could be better."

"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."

"New Relic has a better UI in terms of how it presents the data."

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

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

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

"They could improve the product’s dashboards and provide more dashboard options."

"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."

More Instana Dynamic APM cons

"It lacks a user experience for measuring things like the end-to-end time for which a user waits for a specific response in the system. In the application layer, it has some very basic stuff. You have to build your own with manuscripts and things like that."

"I believe that some of the trends, environmental maps, and items like those found in Orion would be very beneficial."

"One area that could benefit from improvement is its performance"

"Solarwinds should come up the same monitoring system for other certificate expiration alert apart from SSL."

"One product area that could benefit from improvement is the synchronization of licensing periods across different modules"

"Support for the IBM Mainframe is needed."

"The current script monitoring feature has limitations, especially when dealing with custom scripts."

"The templates could use improvement. Currently, they are quite complex. They should have drag-and-drop functionality instead. It would make it easier to use."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

"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."

"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."

"The price is too high."

"Pricing is inexpensive, starting at 2440 euros. For that, you get the ability to monitor a couple of nodes and one year of maintenance and support."

"The product is expensive."

"I think SolarWinds' pricing is very decent compared to other competitors in the market."

"Its licensing is on a yearly basis. It is just the standard price, but it can vary depending on the current rate of the dollar."

"The product might cost you $30,000 USD to buy, but scaling this solution requires the purchase of additional polling engines at $20,000 USD each."

"We are on an annual license to use the solution. The price of the solution is expensive. The price is based on a bunch of factors, such as the number of engines and elements."

"SAM is not per server so the pricing model can be deceiving. If you have an enterprise environment, you will quickly exceed your licensing quickly. You should know this before going in."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor 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

Educational Organization

45%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What do you like most about SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

Identifying the problem statement is easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

The product is expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

One product area that could benefit from improvement is the synchronization of licensing periods across different modules. The misalignment of licensing terms can present commercial challenges when...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dynatrace vs Instana Dynamic APM

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

New Relic vs Instana Dynamic APM

Compared 5% of the time

More Instana Dynamic APM Competitors

Azure Monitor vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 19% of the time

Dynatrace vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 18% of the time

AppDynamics vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 14% of the time

Prometheus vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 7% of the time

Nagios XI vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 5% of the time

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Instana Dynamic APM

December 2024

Download Instana Dynamic APM product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

November 2024

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report

Download SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor product report

Also Known As

No data available

SolarWinds SAM

Learn More

Instana

SolarWinds

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.

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) delivers powerful application and server monitoring capabilities for IT pros, enabling them to diagnose and troubleshoot performance issues faster. Do not let slow applications and downtime impact your end-users and business services. Pinpoint the root cause of application issues across various layers of the IT stack. SolarWinds SAM is affordable and easy to deploy, use, and customize. You can automatically discover your system's environment and start monitoring in about an hour. No professional services or consultation needed.

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

Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite

Buyer's Guide

Instana Dynamic APM vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

December 2024

Free Report: Instana Dynamic APM vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Find out what your peers are saying about Instana Dynamic APM vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.

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