Instana Dynamic APM vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications comparison

Instana and VMware are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Instana is ranked #21 with an average rating of 8.1, while VMware is ranked #48 with an average rating of 7.0. Instana holds a 1.3% mindshare in APM, compared to VMware’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 84% of Instana users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of VMware 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

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Read 9 VMware Aria Operations for Applications reviews

1,917 Views
1,723 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Instana Dynamic APM

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

VMware Aria Operations for Applications and Instana Dynamic APM are two competitive APM solutions. Based on user reviews, Instana Dynamic APM seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive features and ease of use.

Features: VMware Aria Operations for Applications offers robust monitoring and analytics tools, fast issue resolution, and valuable performance insights. Instana Dynamic APM provides automatic discovery, continuous monitoring, and real-time performance visualization, with users finding its features more comprehensive and user-friendly.

Room for Improvement: VMware Aria Operations for Applications needs better scalability, integration with third-party tools, and more intuitive configuration. Instana Dynamic APM could improve its documentation, troubleshooting guides, and provide more detailed control over monitoring settings.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VMware Aria Operations for Applications has a straightforward deployment process but faces initial configuration challenges, with responsive and helpful customer service. Instana Dynamic APM offers seamless deployment with minimal disruption and proactive, effective customer service.

Pricing and ROI: VMware Aria Operations for Applications is competitively priced, leading to a favorable ROI. Instana Dynamic APM has a higher cost, but users find its extensive features and effective performance monitoring justify the investment, resulting in satisfactory ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Instana Dynamic APM vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Instana Dynamic APM vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

December 2024

Download the complete report

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

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

48th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (45th), Container Monitoring (9th), Cloud Monitoring Software (33rd)

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 VMware Aria Operations for Applications is 0.8%, down from 1.1% 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…

Read full review

Yves Sandfort

CEO & Majority Shareholder at Comdivision Consulting GmbH

Easy to deploy, worth the money, and helpful for uptime monitoring and performance insights

Its billing model is consumption-based. I understand the consumption-based model, but it is not necessarily easy to estimate and guess how many points or how much we are going to consume on a specific application up until we get to that point. So, for us, it would be helpful to have more insights or predictability into what we can expect from a cost perspective if we are starting to use specific features. This can potentially also drive our consumption a bit more. The other thing for us is that while it is great that we have all these standard metrics, it would be good if we can also more easily define standard metrics to be consumed for our own application. At the moment, for a lot of applications, we have to reinvent the wheel every time. If there was something so that we can build our own packaging of metrics, it would be helpful. In the future, we might be deploying our software to other customers as well. So, they should make it easier to redeploy that. There should be more customizable dashboards. The Wavefront dashboards are very technical and a more business-oriented dashboard design would definitely help.

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

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

"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."

"Sometimes it's able to provide a proper RCA on its own. It's able to correlate different events that occurred and that becomes like an RCA in itself."

"The overall capabilities are the most valuable."

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

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

"It is a stable solution."

"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."

More Instana Dynamic APM pros

"Tanzu itself, integrated with multiple solutions, bestows support and security upon a container platform, especially when it comes to managing open-source container platforms such as Kubernetes."

"No issues with stability."

"VMware comes with a support team, and if you have trouble, you can easily create a ticket, and VMware will help you. Therefore, the best aspect is the support."

"The most valuable aspects of the solution are its ease of use and its ease of implementation."

"This solution allows me to have true visibility for any metrics when it comes to my cloud, and private."

"The features I find most valuable is the querying and alerting capabilities."

"For us, the ease of deployment in combination with TMZ was the most important part because we don't have to manually deploy a complex monitoring solution. We can more or less do that with the click of a button, and we are not dependent on the developers to provide us with all the necessary features and functions to make that work. We can just deploy it on a workload cluster and monitor at least a good part of the workload. If we want to go into detail, we clearly need to make changes, but for a good part of application monitoring, it gives us good insights."

"People are very pleased with the implementation."

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications pros

Cons

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

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

"Maybe log monitoring could be better."

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

"The configuration of Instana Dynamic APM needs improvement because it requires quite a bit of work."

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

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

More Instana Dynamic APM cons

"The main problem I have is that the license cost is very high."

"The documentation and integration with Kubernetes could be improved."

"Its billing model is consumption-based. I understand the consumption-based model, but it is not necessarily easy to estimate and guess how many points or how much we are going to consume on a specific application up until we get to that point. So, for us, it would be helpful to have more insights or predictability into what we can expect from a cost perspective if we are starting to use specific features. This can potentially also drive our consumption a bit more."

"It could use a URL document server. Everything in the market is moving towards automation and everybody's looking for the single click operations as well relational data locality."

"The implementation is a long process that should be improved."

"In the new version, I would love to see more prediction capabilities. It would be great if one could see the alerts get a little more enriched with information and become more human-friendly instead of the technical stuff that they put in there. I think those would be really awesome outcomes to get."

"The initial setup should be easier and more seamless."

"They could make it more easy to plug-in data so that a nontechnical person will be able to use it, like accountants or finance people. That way they don't have to ask us."

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

"I don't have the details. In our case, there is a mixture in place. We have production usage, and we are also doing training for VMware. So, we also have a training instance. It is worth the money you would spend on it. That's because if you were to build all of this yourself by using some of the open source tools, then you would need a lot of time."

"The licensing costs are very high, particularly when you consider that we have to purchase a level 1 license for every integration, such as the load balancer, HAProxy, and the MSSP. And if you want to use vSAN, that's another license. Then, of course, Tanzu Observability has its own separate license."

"Different locations require different setups. In your terms, around 300 to around 400K USD."

"I would rate the pricing as three out of five."

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

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

19%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

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 VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

VMware comes with a support team, and if you have trouble, you can easily create a ticket, and VMware will help you. Therefore, the best aspect is the support.

See all answers

What needs improvement with VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

It's hard to set up Tanzu clusters. It's hard to do a POC. Once you set up a customer's environment, you easily see the problems. The initial setup should be easier and more seamless.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

I primarily use the solution for consulting. I help company DevOps teams.

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

Grafana vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 13% of the time

Dynatrace vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 10% of the time

Zabbix vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 6% of the time

Prometheus vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 6% of the time

Datadog vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 6% of the time

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Instana Dynamic APM

December 2024

Download Instana Dynamic APM product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Operations for Applications

November 2024

VMware Aria Operations for Applications report

Download VMware Aria Operations for Applications product report

Also Known As

No data available

Tanzu Observability, Wavefront, Wavefront by VMware, VMware Tanzu Observability

Learn More

Instana

VMware

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.

VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront is a powerful tool for monitoring and analyzing the performance and availability of applications and infrastructure in real-time.

With its comprehensive monitoring capabilities, visualizing and analyzing data becomes effortless. The real-time alerting system ensures timely issue resolution, while scalability and a user-friendly interface provide a seamless experience for smooth operations.

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

1. Atlassian 2. Cisco 3. Databricks 4. DigitalOcean 5. Equinix 6. Fidelity Investments 7. Google 8. Hewlett Packard Enterprise 9. Honeywell 10. IBM 11. Intel 12. JetBlue Airways 13. LinkedIn 14. Lyft 15. Mastercard 16. Microsoft 17. MongoDB 18. Netflix 19. Nvidia 20. Oracle 21. PayPal 22. Pinterest 23. Qualcomm 24. Red Hat 25. Salesforce 26. SAP 27. Spotify 28. Square 29. TMobile 30. Twitter 31. Uber 32. VMware

Buyer's Guide

Instana Dynamic APM vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

December 2024

Free Report: Instana Dynamic APM vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Find out what your peers are saying about Instana Dynamic APM vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.

DOWNLOAD NOW

824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Instana Dynamic APM vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications 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.