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Alluvio Aternity vs Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Alluvio Aternity
Ranking in Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (33rd), Mobile APM (4th)
Zscaler Digital Experience ...
Ranking in Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)
9th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
4.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) category, the mindshare of Alluvio Aternity is 5.2%, down from 7.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) is 9.9%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Alluvio Aternity5.2%
Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX)9.9%
Other84.9%
Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)
 

Featured Reviews

Akhilesh Mishra - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead at M.TECH Solutions India Pvt. Ltd.
Monitoring end-user activity has improved visibility into device and application performance
In my opinion, Riverbed can make Alluvio Aternity better by having the same Aternity agent help in security, such as antivirus or EDR, which would be useful, allowing customers to avoid having multiple agents installed on their endpoint machines. Deploying multiple agents can use the processor and utilize memory, so it's better to go with one agent. If one agent can do end-user activity monitoring and act as an EDR, then it would be better for the end-user, allowing easy avoidance of installing multiple agents on their machines.
Chella  Chalapathi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Program Manager at Infosys
Offers steady access and reliable support but could benefit from better integration and user-friendly insights
Regarding future updates, I would like to see Zscaler prioritize pricing and integrate more with multiple products. Multiple integrations with various platforms would enable some sort of automation. Zscaler provides real-time insights, but it is not reaching the end users properly, which is something Zscaler should improve because it should be user-friendly for understanding what Zscaler is offering. When there is too much technology, people cannot understand it, so it should be very simplified, and there should be some ways for users to gain knowledge about the product themselves. Zscaler's ability to analyze millions of telemetry data points in real-time is still somewhat unclear to me; perhaps that level of knowledge has not been reached by me or the end users, indicating that Zscaler has to focus on that area.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"While it also provides desktop metrics, the main thing we use it for is monitoring our applications."
"The two most valuable features for us are its abilities to validate the customer experience and to measure performance before and after upgrades."
"It is useful for working out whether there are any issues in the network or between the endpoints. It is also useful for working out any performance issues. It has been useful for a lot of stuff around Teams. Our customers like to know what's happening with Teams when they call in. It is helpful for easily profiling users. It records all the applications that are being used for each user, and you can see what users are doing. It is very good in terms of performance. You don't have to wait forever to try and get reports or results. It is quite quick to get everything that you need out of the software."
"If you had to choose one tool, if your organization said, "We're going to stop spending money on IT tools altogether, and you're only allowed to have one thing," I would take Aternity every time, because you can do so much with it."
"The user experience it provides is the most valuable feature for us."
"All of it, but it depends on who the end user is. The folks that support the applications, like the signatures that we've developed, it gives them feedback on their application performance."
"The most valuable feature for us is trend analysis, particularly with device-help type of events and computer help events, such as blue screens, application errors, and application crashes."
"Desktop monitoring, and being able to understand the performance of applications that runs on the desktop."
"Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) positively impacted my organization by providing Zero Trust Network Access, which many organizations are moving towards."
"Regarding the benefits of Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX)'s traffic analysis for my IT operations, I believe it greatly supports our needs."
 

Cons

"The other place for improvement, as an on-prem, non-SaaS customer, is that the system administration and management in Aternity are very difficult. They've even told me that most of their support calls come in due to configuration and system administration on their on-prem. Their on-prem solution is not easy to use."
"The process of doing the application recording is a bit cumbersome."
"Its user interface and features should be improved. They don't support new versions of certain Linux editions. That is one of the reasons why we have to move to another solution."
"They have a lot of features built into the product, but it would be nice if they had some additional features that I think a lot of organizations would benefit from."
"The biggest improvement would be the ease with which you monitor applications. It's a little clunky right now; it takes a little bit of time."
"It all comes in pretty nice looking charts and things, but we have a hard time pulling out hard data, which is usually what you'll need if you're trying to be actionable."
"When it comes to a lot of the features that I would want, they will tell you they are in their SaaS version, which we don't use... They put all the new features on the SaaS solution and that's where you get the latest and greatest stuff... Why not have those features available for on-prem users?"
"When it comes to what is called creating signatures, it's not easy for a non-coding person for desktop applications. You need to run the recording and you need to have some exposure and knowledge. That is an area where they can improve. For web applications, they have the Web Activity Creator and that's an awesome and easy tool. Anybody can use it and capture the signatures. With the desktop applications it's a little more cumbersome and difficult."
"I have noticed drawbacks within Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX), as the sales team is too arrogant and too aggressive, playing politics, but the product itself is very good."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Regarding cost, compared to other solutions, Aternity is pretty low. It's definitely lower-cost than others that we looked at, like Nexthink."
"You have to purchase it for 12 months, which is an issue because a lot of our customers are on a per-user-per-month type billing. There are a few additional costs. A lot of customers only get the essential licenses, and then they get what they call the application add-ons on top. They have to pay depending on how many customers and applications they want to monitor."
"Its licensing cost is very low. That's one of the reasons why we have kept it for so long. We get more than a 70% discount on the maintenance licenses. Its cost is very low for us, but if you buy it new, it would be much more expensive at the retail price."
"The price for Alluvio Aternity is favorable."
"In my opinion they are asking a lot for their SaaS solution, but I also know that that's the direction they're going... The current, on-prem solution is probably a fair price."
"It’s a little on the costly side, but if you license intelligently, accounting for your various hosts connecting in through VDI or terminal servers, you can make it well worth your money."
"Our management squeezed Aternity pretty hard on the pricing, in my opinion a little too much. I advise negotiating for sure, but I do think it left kind of a sour taste in Aternity’s mouth that we were being so pushy despite the fact that we were only purchasing a small number of licenses."
"Pricing is a bit high. Don't take that as the "be all, end all"."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise32
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aternity?
Riverbed is costly in the Indian market; I would rate the pricing for Alluvio Aternity as a higher price.
What needs improvement with Aternity?
In my opinion, Riverbed can make Alluvio Aternity better by having the same Aternity agent help in security, such as antivirus or EDR, which would be useful, allowing customers to avoid having mult...
What is your primary use case for Aternity?
The main use case for Alluvio Aternity is end-user activity monitoring, which is the process I'm mainly using currently.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX)?
Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) is comparatively an expensive product. There will not be any cost reductions since it is a new and better secured product. The issue arises when any organization wa...
What needs improvement with Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX)?
I have noticed drawbacks within Zscaler, as the sales team is too aggressive bypassing partners, but the product itself is very good. The sales approach is quite aggressive globally, and it is not ...
What is your primary use case for Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX)?
I am still working with Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX), and I continue to search for good solutions in the market as an architect.
 

Also Known As

Aternity, Workforce APM, Aternity Frontline, Riverbed SteelCenter Aternity
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Maersk, SwissRe, Travis Perkins, Michelin, National Instruments, Simmons & Simmons, Lighthouse Guild
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Alluvio Aternity vs. Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.