Honeycomb Enterprise vs Instana Dynamic APM comparison

Honeycomb.io and Instana are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Honeycomb.io is ranked #25 with an average rating of 8.0, while Instana is ranked #22 with an average rating of 7.8. Honeycomb.io holds a 1.4% mindshare in APM, compared to Instana’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Honeycomb.io users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 84% of Instana users who would recommend it.

Honeycomb Enterprise

Read 3 Honeycomb Enterprise reviews

2,551 Views
2,296 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Instana Dynamic APM

Read 14 Instana Dynamic APM reviews

1,912 Views
1,836 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

Honeycomb Enterprise

Instana Dynamic APM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

Instana Dynamic APM and Honeycomb Enterprise compete in the advanced monitoring and observability solutions category. Instana appears to have the upper hand in pricing and support, while Honeycomb's innovative data analytics features are highly valued.

Features: Instana provides real-time data collection, automatic root cause analysis, and seamless multi-cloud monitoring, making it suitable for complex environments. Honeycomb offers advanced data visualization, event-driven architecture, and deep system insights, which facilitate proactive debugging and performance tuning. This emphasis on high-resolution telemetry data gives Honeycomb a significant advantage in feature richness for data analytics.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Instana delivers a streamlined deployment experience with automated discovery and configuration, supported by a robust customer service structure for quick issue resolution. Honeycomb's setup is more intricate due to the depth of configuration required, though it offers detailed documentation and strong community support. Instana generally provides a more straightforward deployment and dependable customer support experience.

Pricing and ROI: Instana is recognized for a predictable pricing model with comprehensive value, delivering significant ROI through reduced downtime and efficient resource utilization. Honeycomb, while potentially requiring higher upfront costs for its advanced analytics, demonstrates substantial long-term ROI when fully leveraged for performance optimization. Instana's pricing model often suits budget-conscious organizations, while Honeycomb attracts those prioritizing advanced data insights.

To learn more, read our detailed Honeycomb Enterprise vs. Instana Dynamic APM Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Honeycomb Enterprise vs. Instana Dynamic APM

September 2025

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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

25th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

AI Code Assistants (11th)

Instana Dynamic APM

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

22nd

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Honeycomb Enterprise is 1.4%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Instana Dynamic APM is 1.0%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Instana Dynamic APM	1.0%
Honeycomb Enterprise	1.4%
Other	97.6%

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

meetharoon

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.

Read full review

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

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution's initial setup process was straightforward since we were getting enough support from Honeycomb.io's team."

"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 overall capabilities are the most valuable."

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

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

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

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

"Instana is very fast to implement and deploy because the dashboards are automated and don't need configuration."

"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."

"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."

More Instana Dynamic APM pros

Cons

"The process of log scraping gets delayed on Honeycomb.io. At times, it gives false alerts to the application team."

"The way Grit architecture is designed and how it works, it is and may not become an alternative choice of code security solutions."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"While it is already quite good, there is room for improvement in terms of providing better functionality"

More Instana Dynamic APM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

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

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

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

"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."

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

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

28%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	5

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Honeycomb.io?

We faced some OpenTelemetry metrics lost between the communication from the service and the Honeycomb.io. I can't say if this is a Honeycomb.io issue or if there are some limitations in OpenTelemet...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Honeycomb.io?

The solution is mainly used for stack observability. It observes service behavior or any kind of failure that may be happening. The tool is also related to research. My company is working more on t...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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

Comparisons

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Compared 19% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

Datadog vs Honeycomb Enterprise

Compared 7% of the time

Splunk Observability Cloud vs Honeycomb Enterprise

Compared 7% of the time

Zabbix vs Honeycomb Enterprise

Compared 5% of the time

More Honeycomb Enterprise Competitors

Dynatrace vs Instana Dynamic APM

Compared 52% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs Instana Dynamic APM

Compared 14% of the time

Datadog vs Instana Dynamic APM

Compared 8% of the time

New Relic vs Instana Dynamic APM

Compared 6% of the time

Broadcom DX Application Performance Management vs Instana Dynamic APM

Compared 6% of the time

More Instana Dynamic APM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

September 2025

Download Honeycomb Enterprise product report

Buyer's Guide

Instana Dynamic APM

September 2025

Download Instana Dynamic APM product report

Also Known As

Grit

No data available

Overview

Honeycomb Enterprise is designed to optimize performance visibility, offering a robust platform for distributed system observability. It provides insights for complex data and aids in faster issue resolution, making it a valuable tool for IT professionals.

This tool is tailored for real-time data tracking and improving system performance efficiency. Enterprises benefit from its capacity to handle large-scale data, ensuring seamless operations and continuity. Honeycomb Enterprise helps teams to tackle data challenges head-on by delivering comprehensive analytics that enhance infrastructure reliability and performance metrics.

What Features Make Honeycomb Enterprise Stand Out?

High-Resolution Visibility: Enables detailed system monitoring to identify issues quickly.
Trace Analysis: Offers powerful tracing of distributed systems for in-depth insights.
Data Scalability: Manages extensive data sets effortlessly for better decision-making.
Real-Time Alerts: Provides instant alerts to preempt potential disruptions.
Collaboration Tools: Facilitates teamwork with integrated tools enhancing productivity.

What Benefits and ROI Can Users Expect?

Reduced Downtime: Faster detection and resolution of issues minimizes operational interruptions.
Cost Efficiency: Optimizes resources leading to lower operational costs.
Improved Decision Making: Enhanced data analytics lead to smarter business strategies.
Enhanced Productivity: Streamlined processes improve team efficiency and output quality.

In industries like finance, e-commerce, and technology, Honeycomb Enterprise implementations demonstrate its utility in managing complex data flows and optimizing system reliability. Businesses in these sectors leverage its capabilities to maintain high service standards and operational efficiency.

Honeycomb.io

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.

Instana

Sample Customers

Clover Health, Eaze, Intercom, Fender

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

Buyer's Guide

Honeycomb Enterprise vs. Instana Dynamic APM

September 2025

Free Report: Honeycomb Enterprise vs. Instana Dynamic APM

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