Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Honeycomb Enterprise vs IBM Instana Observability comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 16, 2025

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

Honeycomb Enterprise
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
27th
Ranking in AI Observability
75th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
AI Code Assistants (11th)
IBM Instana Observability
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
25th
Ranking in AI Observability
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Honeycomb Enterprise is 1.3%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Instana Observability is 0.9%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Instana Observability0.9%
Honeycomb Enterprise1.3%
Other97.8%
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
 

Featured Reviews

meetharoon - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Its pattern-matching and code transformation capabilities can be adapted for mass identification and remediation of vulnerable libraries
I asked very specific questions to Mr. Pell about consideration of code security scenarios in pattern design and rules, specifically that tuned with OWASP Top 10. I believe addition of code security focus can be a value-add, though the way Grit architecture is designed and how it works, it is and may not become an alternative choice of code security solutions. Rather, it must be treated as a powerful supplementary tool that augments the existing code security solutions (such as Snyk or Checkmarx) in a DevSecOps or Secure DevOps environment. Anyone interested in learning more on this front or have queries, can get in touch with me for a consulting.
FranciscoGálvez - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Observability has improved collaboration and predicts failures across distributed services
From my perspective, IBM Instana Observability is quite technical. Compared to some competitors, it offers an abundance of information about system performance but lacks planning or capacity planning information. You do not receive reports with recommendations; instead, it provides only the technical layer. Other companies, like Compuware, give more functional information about your environment, while IBM Instana Observability provides only limited functional insights. This means you often must interpret the data independently. Unlike other tools that can offer recommendations to save resources or costs, IBM Instana Observability does not provide that functionality. On the bright side, it is much more affordable than some other options, but it isn't complete. If you want full functionality with IBM Instana Observability, you also need to acquire other products for additional insights in monitoring areas, such as networking monitoring tools or similar products. For instance, we often recommend Turbonomic, which provides complementary insights. One potential feature that could improve IBM Instana Observability is the ability to translate KPIs into monetary terms. It would be interesting to have a product that integrates IBM Instana Observability with Turbonomic, as Turbonomic can utilize data from IBM Instana Observability to inform you about unnecessary spending and suggest whether you can consolidate servers or optimize containers for quicker response times. Implementing some level of simulation or capacity planning would greatly enhance the current capabilities of IBM Instana Observability.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The approach offers significant benefits in terms of efficiency, consistency, and proactive security management, particularly valuable for organizations with large, distributed development teams."
"The solution's most valuable features are the queries for the OpenTelemetry events and all the tracing."
"The solution's initial setup process was straightforward since we were getting enough support from Honeycomb.io's team."
"IBM Instana Observability has positively impacted our organization by decreasing our 500 errors, our errors in general have decreased, our response time has decreased, and so on."
"IBM Instana Observability has positively impacted my organization by making it easy to observe the entire infrastructure under one platform, which was the biggest advantage of onboarding onto IBM Instana Observability."
"IBM Instana Observability has had a very positive impact on my organization because it shortens the time required to find the root cause when we have a problem."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is performance."
"The impact of IBM Instana Observability on collaboration between development and operations teams is essential because it allows operations to identify incidents before they occur."
"If we are using IBM Instana Observability, we can save money because first, the pricing is very affordable."
"IBM Instana Observability has positively impacted our organization because it has helped us solve many problems and sell some products."
"IBM Instana Observability has impacted my organization positively in that it has helped me find out what the issue is in real-time because of its one-second granularity and its ability to identify issues as quickly as possible."
 

Cons

"We can make alerts based on static numbers, which may block us from building alerts that could be generic enough or could be serviced."
"The way Grit architecture is designed and how it works, it is and may not become an alternative choice of code security solutions."
"The process of log scraping gets delayed on Honeycomb.io. At times, it gives false alerts to the application team."
"The product's initial setup phase is not very easy."
"The pricing for IBM Instana Observability is something I would address in terms of needed improvements because it is expensive."
"From my perspective, IBM Instana Observability is quite technical; compared to some competitors, it offers an abundance of information about system performance but lacks planning or capacity planning information."
"One area that requires improvement is related to the automation part, specifically automated actions like sending SMS."
"Customer support is good; sometimes it cannot go as deep as I expected, but overall it is good."
"One main issue I found with IBM Instana Observability was the customer support, which was very poor when we needed some features to be enabled or integrated into IBM Instana Observability sensors."
"IBM Instana Observability can be improved by providing access to the materials."
"The solution should include log management and improve reporting and integration with Cognos."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"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."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability solutions are best for your needs.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Honeycomb.io?
I asked very specific questions to Mr. Pell about consideration of code security scenarios in pattern design and rules, specifically that tuned with OWASP Top 10. I believe addition of code securit...
What is your primary use case for Honeycomb.io?
Although Grit is a tool code code migration and management of technical debt for large chunks of work, we reviewed Grit from the use case of assisting in faster remediation of vulnerable libraries....
What advice do you have for others considering Honeycomb.io?
We set up Honeycomb.io on all the services so that we can have all the set traces of the communication between all the services inside the company. This helps us understand where it could be failin...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Instana Observability?
I would evaluate the implementation process of IBM Instana Observability as not complex at all because you pay the license, and IBM takes care of everything. The only problem we occasionally face, ...
What needs improvement with IBM Instana Observability?
From my perspective, IBM Instana Observability is quite technical. Compared to some competitors, it offers an abundance of information about system performance but lacks planning or capacity planni...
What is your primary use case for IBM Instana Observability?
I usually recommend IBM Instana Observability for companies in the academic environment, as I have been working in a consultancy company for the last three years, where one of our customers built t...
 

Also Known As

Grit
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Clover Health, Eaze, Intercom, Fender
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Honeycomb Enterprise vs. IBM Instana Observability and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.