Splunk AppDynamics Reviews

When compared to its major competitor, Dynatrace, AppDynamics stands out by providing dynamic learning capabilities for infrastructure and server metrics. Unlike Dynatrace, AppDynamics enables dynamic baselining for all server metrics, such as CPU and memory. This allows customers to establish patterns, like CPU trends every Wednesday from 9 to 11 AM, and set dynamic baselines accordingly. With this feature, alerts can be triggered based on deviations from the dynamic baseline rules. This capability is distinctive, as other APM solutions and monitoring tools lack dynamic baselining options for infrastructure visibility.    

If we consider the implementation of alternative solutions, such as Dynatrace, there is a notable difference in the approach to agent-based service monitoring. For instance, Dynatrace employs a single-agent solution, which can pose security concerns. When installing Dynatrace, granting the agent ld pro payload rights is a requirement. In contrast, our solution ensures a more secure approach by not requiring root and administration access. While we currently utilize an agent-based solution, there may be a shift in the next one or two years, possibly with the adoption of Open Telemetry. It's anticipated that many APM vendors, including Dynatrace, may alter their structure or strategy for implementation. However, as of now, the trend is towards an increasing number of implementations daily.

I have been using AppDynamics Server Monitoring recently.

It is very stable and I would rate it 9 out of 10. 

It is very scalable and I would rate it 10 out of 10.

It's very easy.It takes couple of minutes only.

It's true; it's not an inexpensive solution. Dynatrace and AppDynamics are consistently on the pricier side. However, when comparing with other solutions like Datadog or New Relic, it becomes apparent that they are significantly more affordable. The pricing may seem high at the list or discounted level, but what truly matters is the business value assessment. After completing this assessment, customers often recognize the value proposition and find the cost justified.

In all honesty, APM solutions, including AppDynamics, tend to be expensive, and they may have fewer features compared to other legacy monitoring solutions. I typically advise against using AppDynamics or similar APM solutions solely for server monitoring due to their cost and potential limitations. To maximize usefulness, it's crucial to complement these solutions with other monitoring tools and features.

I would rate it 9 out of 10.

We use AppDynamics mainly to monitor the application performance.

The most valuable feature of AppDynamics is its ability to track the transactions between different applications.

AppDynamics should improve its ability to track all the transactions.

We have been using AppDynamics for approximately three years.

AppDynamics is a stable product. We rarely had any issues with the solution.

I rate AppDynamics ten out of ten for scalability.

Getting a response from the solution's technical support team is harder and takes longer. Since the solution has a structural support model, it requires some layers of escalation to get the correct response.

Neutral

The solution's initial setup is easy. However, it is harder than Checkmk because it needs to install the agent.

The solution's initial deployment takes about three to four months. However, it's a work in progress because new applications are added every time.

AppDynamics is an expensive solution.

AppDynamics is deployed on-cloud in our organization.

Overall, I rate AppDynamics a nine out of ten.

The solution is used for observability, AIOps, monitoring microservices, SAP monitoring, and application performance monitoring.

AppDynamics is predominantly marketed and sold as an APM solution. Customers use it for both database and application monitoring. I have not seen a customer buying AppDynamics only for database monitoring. The product is good at database monitoring, availability and performance monitoring. I have always used it as a holistic product.

The product requires high maintenance. We need a dedicated resource to manage it because the solution manages a complex environment.

I’ve been using the solution as a system integrator for eight years.

The tool is stable, but our clients are not using its features to the fullest due to a lack of knowledge of APM. The customers are not very clear on what features an APM product offers. Customers have a limited understanding of APM and its use cases.

The tool’s scalability is good. Our customers are enterprise-level businesses such as large hospitals, manufacturers, and banks.

Technical support is good. Support must provide faster responses for production-related issues.

Positive

We have used ManageEngine before. AppDynamics is better than the other products we have used. The tool provides a pretty good user experience. The dashboards are very well-defined. Business-related data is very well projected on the dashboards. The technical team also gets good information on their dashboards.

AppDynamics monitors pretty much all the applications, though the applications are built on various technologies. ManageEngine has a limitation. It cannot monitor various technologies. The most important factor is security. Security is very well defined in AppDynamics, whereas ManageEngine's security is not up to the mark.

The initial setup is neither easy nor very difficult. It requires specific knowledge of the infrastructure. When installing the product, we must be aware of how it will be configured at the database, application, and infrastructure levels. Earlier, the tool was deployed on-premises. Nowadays, customers are willing to deploy it on the cloud.

Typically, to install the product, we take help from infrastructure experts. We need to be aware of the infrastructure before installing the product. The deployment takes seven to ten days. We need one architect and two engineers to deploy the product. The number of resources required to maintain the solution depends on the environment. We need two resources for medium-sized environments, but we may need four to five resources for larger environments.

One of the main downsides to the solution is its cost. We pay a yearly licensing fee for the product. AppDynamics and Dynatrace have almost the same pricing. Compared to ManageEngine, AppDynamics is relatively higher in cost. For cloud-based solutions, users only pay for licenses if they opt for a subscription. However, for on-premises solutions, they must buy support separately.

The application layer in AppDynamics performs fairly well. However, network monitoring is not at an advanced level. It is mediocre.

People wanting to use the solution must not use it only for database monitoring. It should be used for end-to-end application performance monitoring. If someone has requirements involving applications, observability, and AIOps, they must consider the product. If they need only database monitoring, several other tools are available in the market that are lower in cost and offer a lot of capabilities.

When it comes to end-to-end monitoring, network monitoring also plays a crucial role. It is an area of improvement for AppDynamics. Network monitoring could be better. AppDynamics has acquired a product called ThousandEyes. How well the product grows in the network monitoring space is yet to be seen.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

System monitoring and real user monitoring were the two domains in which the product was used in my company.

AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring was a tool directly used by my company's client. I have no answer if you ask me why my company's client decided to use the tool. My company's client used the tool to monitor servers in their entire business process, including some servers, databases, clusters, mobile users, and for different services.

The most valuable feature of the solution is its GUI. With the product's GUI, one doesn't have to check for details since one can see the entire business flow in one go. At a glance, you can understand where your business flow breaks since the tool's entire GUI is pretty good. Apart from that, the auto-remediation in the tool helps if the CPU or server is getting exhausted by indicating the files that should be deleted. Auto-remediation and GUI are two good features of the product.

Though I haven't explored AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring a lot, considering the way the setup of the product, I did not understand certain concepts. The way the agentless monitoring and agent monitoring get used is to be decided by the user, but there is no clarification on the setup phase or on how and why to use the aforementioned options. When it comes to complex environments, the best thing you would like is that the setup should be fairly easy. The product's setup phase is a bit tricky and needs improvement, especially depending on the server environment since the product has a specific file format and a specific configuration form.

I have been using AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring for six months. I am just an end-user of the solution.

It is a stable solution.

Adding users directly to the solution was okay, and I did not face any issues with it.

For one of my projects, less than 150 employees in the company were using AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring.

The solution's technical support was good. I rate the technical support a nine out of ten. I assume the solution's technical support was expensive. In my company, we were recommended not to reach out to support teams in a very quick or frequent manner.

Positive

The product's setup phase is a bit tricky.

The solution is deployed on-premises.

I believe there was probably an extra charge whenever I wanted to contact the support team.

I would say that if you have a good budget and want a good and interactive tool where you don't have to do a lot of integrations, then you can go ahead with AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring. If you are tight on budget, considering before buying it is important since the number of users who can use it depends on the licenses. It takes quite a lot to exchange the license and all regarding the tool.

I like the product's GUI since you don't have to put in much effort to see where exactly my process is broken, and you can easily see how many users are using it in real time. The product allows you to check the way it works. Providing alerts to users is really fast in the product, and you have multiple options to receive alerts, like email, mobile messages, or automated voice calls. I can't give the product a ten out of ten rating because if you are stuck somewhere, then getting support to assist you with configuration or with other situations can be a little tricky.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

All the features are useful. When it comes to application monitoring, AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring provides smooth connectivity to different applications. There is an EEM module that is highly visible and ensures a good user experience when customers access their applications on the cloud for a long time. In general, the features are a good fit for our operations.

In user monitoring, AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring should provide a better user experience. It needs to offer an end-to-end experience, including the internet layer and third-party elements that come into play on websites. Instead of focusing solely on the performance of the application web layer, it should have the inclusion of other domains like the internet, DNS, third parties, and caches that affect the user experience.

There should be more options for more options for customizations to third-party visibilities.

Another area of improvement is faster support. The response time could be faster. 

I've been using AppDynamics for five years. However, we do not use the very latest version.

Even in terms of stability, AppDynamics have fine-tuned features. They provide frequent updates, twice a year. So the product is pretty stable. 

I would say the stability of AppDynamics is an eight out of ten. 

You can easily scale it. So I would say the scalability of AppDynamics is an eight out of ten. 

AppDynamics is quite a mature product. You can even increase the scalability without affecting your environment.

Customer service and support are pretty good. The aligned support and customer support experience is quite good. If you raise an issue or a request, they will get back to you within the estimated time and resolve it for us. 

Neutral

I have explored other options. There are other solutions in the market, like CatchPoint. But the problem is we wanted an end-to-end solution that integrates well with our existing systems, and AppDynamics fits that requirement.

The initial setup depends on the environment. For example, if a customer wants a secure setup, I would say it's moderate, not overly complex. 

If a customer doesn't prioritize security policies based on the security architecture and they don't care much about it, then it's an efficient tool. 

I would rate the initial setup a five out of ten for the average user, where one being difficult and ten being easy. Five is the highest rating I would give. It's more towards excellent, I would say.

We have it on-premises because that's where we can slice and dice and offer to the customer. That's what I suggest. If it's ISPs or CSPs, it should be on-premises. If the customers want, they can go with SaaS.

The deployment time varies from company to company. If it's fast, it probably takes a week to get it up and running. But if it's on-premises, it takes around four weeks.

Just two people are required for the deployment. If it's not an existing timeline, then it may require more people. If it's an existing timeline, then it may require more people.

The implementation does matter based on how many applications you want to monitor and how complex those applications are. If it's an on-premises setup you want to pursue, or if it's a SaaS version you want to pursue. All these factors contribute to the overall resourcing. So, how do you want to add into it? If we take a simple scenario, like a single application with two tiers, I would say two resources are more than enough. But if it's on-premises and you have twenty-five applications and a timeline to achieve it within three months, then more resources are required. That's how it works.

AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring is costly. If I have to rate the pricing, I would say seven because it's really expensive, with one being low and ten being high.

The pricing needs to come down. Many customers find it expensive, so that's why I'm rating it a seven.

If you want to have end-to-end visibility into your applications, from users to endpoints, I would recommend using AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring. It's also a good choice if you want visibility into customer conversations.

Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten. 

We use AppDynamics Database Monitoring to identify high spikes in critical data, which helps us better understand when applications stop responding or are not responding well.

The solution can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud.

Data monitoring is the most valuable feature.

The price of the solution has room for improvement.

I would like the solution to be more customizable to meet our client's requirements.

I have been using AppDynamics Database Monitoring for two years.

I give the stability of AppDynamics Database Monitoring an eight out of ten.

I give the scalability of AppDynamics Database Monitoring a nine out of ten.

The technical support is excellent.

Positive

The initial setup is straightforward. The deployment takes two weeks and requires one architect and one developer.

We implement the solution for our clients.

The pricing is average. I give the price a five out of ten.

The license is paid on an annual basis.

I give AppDynamics Database Monitoring a ten out of ten.

We require five people to maintain the solution.

AppDynamics Database Monitoring only requires users to have a basic understanding of databases.

I use it to solve issues that my clients encounter, such as application slowness. It helps me identify whether the issue is related to the database, server, or CPU memory management.

Moreover, I use it to find solutions and provide recommendations to my colleagues.

This solution not only provides answers but also provides sensor data. This allows us to quickly resolve issues that developers may take a long time to solve. In essence, it helps us address problems at an early stage. Moreover, it is especially useful in production servers where real users encounter numerous issues.

There are numerous issues that arise during peak times, and AppDynamics makes it easy for us to identify the problem areas and determine the appropriate resolutions. This is how it helps us find solutions effectively.

Regarding improvements, I believe the dashboard could be more optimized. Although it claims to be optimized, I think it should be even more convenient, especially for advanced users. 

Additionally, the documentation can be a bit challenging. It would be beneficial if the documentation provided clear solutions for every problem. In my opinion, the documentation could be improved.

I worked with AppDynamics for around three to four months. I have been working directly with it for the past year.

I use the latest version. 

It is stable, but the only downside is the licensing part. Other than that, it's a reliable product with no major issues.

It is highly scalable. There are no additional limitations in terms of scalability.

In my company, we have around 50 to 100 clients using this tool. Although it can be a bit expensive, it is still being used extensively to solve various problems.

It's straightforward, not too complex. However, it requires proper learning to effectively use it.

The deployment process typically takes around one to two hours, depending on the system. Once the setup is complete, we can proceed with the implementation process.

First, there's a need for basic knowledge of OS, especially for Windows and .NET. Additionally, understanding concepts like Dynatrace and AppDynamics, their functioning, and architecture is crucial. These are the key methods involved in the deployment process. If it's a cloud solution, then AWS or Azure are the recommended options. If it's on-premises, then using either Linux or Windows is ideal.

For deployment, we need to focus on event configuration, which involves learning about network events and configuration. Once we understand this, we can proceed with the deployment setup. There is no frequent deployment. In case the deployment is not satisfactory, we may need to learn about Linux and Windows concepts.

I have seen some ROI. 

It is an expensive solution. It's on a yearly basis. We need to pay for it annually.

I have used Dynatrace. The main difference between the two is that AppDynamics utilizes different data mechanisms, while Dynatrace uses a unified agent approach. This simplifies the complexity of Dynatrace, providing more visibility and root cause analysis. In terms of benefits, AppDynamics is more scalable than analytics.

Overall, I would rate it a nine out of ten. 

AppDynamics is an APM tool. We use it for application performance monitoring for a financial company. It is an end-to-end monitoring solution for any application and works with different technologies, such as Java and .NET.

The company was able to monitor their transactions with the financial institution to determine where the problems were in a particular brand. The company was satisfied with the performance of the solution.

This solution has reduced our customer's time to resolve issues.

The most valuable features of AppDynamics is the scalability and monitoring.

AppDynamics is new to the cloud and could improve its cloud services, they are following a monolithic monitoring approach.

It's an agent-based software that must be deployed multiple times whereas competitors have one agent that can deploy everywhere.

I have been using AppDynamics for approximately six years.

AppDynamics is a stable solution, but sometimes the analytics goes down and does not work or customers' addresses do not get collected. However, overall it is stable.

All of the IT and business staff are using the solution.

The scalability of the solution is good.

The support could improve.

I used Dynatrace prior to AppDynamics. The switch was a business decision.

The process of implementing AppDynamics is straightforward, but it ultimately depends on your specific use case. You can easily implement an agent if you have a simple use case.

There is an agent that needs to be copied into the project and actioned to start.

Using it can be somewhat complex as it requires manual configuration, such as when creating a dashboard. If you have a more complex use case, the manual configuration can take a considerable amount of time. Additionally, there is a learning curve associated with this tool, and it takes time to gain expertise. It is not something that anyone can easily configure without investing the necessary time and effort.

It takes three to four months to become an expert in the tool to be able to use it effectively.

To complete the implementation of the solution the staff that have access to production are involved. There are a few people that are needed.

There is a license needed to use the solution and it is expensive. The licensing model needs to improve.

There are other solutions that are better at APM than AppDynamics.

AppDynamics is primarily an APM tool, and if you're looking for end-to-end monitoring and AI ops capabilities, it may not be the best fit. For instance, if you want to analyze transitions, pinpoint failures, and view logs all in the same tool, AppDynamics may not provide a complete solution.

I rate AppDynamics an eight out of ten.

We use AppDynamics for monitoring purposes to check up on CPU health and application health status.

AppDynamics is used to monitor the health of our applications. If any application is down and linked up with AppDynamics, we can see it on the AppDynamics console. We can identify when a specific process went slow and the exact issue. Additionally, if there is any high CPU utilization or other issues, we can figure it out using AppDynamics.

It is very helpful as we can also make custom alerts in our system for specific issues like high CPU utilization or application downtime. We can even customize the alerts to be sent to a particular email domain for automatic notification, so there's no need to monitor it 24/7.

The monitoring feature is very useful. If you have multiple applications and systems with high CPU utilization or other issues, you don't need to monitor them individually. With AppDynamics, you can get all the information from the dashboard. It's very convenient.

There is room for improvement in the customer support team because finding a solution consumes a lot of time. When there's any issue, we need to reach out to the AppDynamic support team to get some idea of what the issue is. If anything is out of scope, we need to escalate the availability. It can be more dynamic because we need to go to the support portal to raise an incident, and it's time-consuming. Also, the resolution time takes longer than expected. If there were live support from AppDynamic's point of view, it would be really helpful.

I have been using this solution for the last three months. I am using the latest version.

AppDynamics is a stable solution.

It is a scalable solution. We have some support guys, admin guys, and other people using AppDynamics. In our organization, we have around 15 members using it.

The initial setup is not that complex. It is easy. I would give it a four out of ten. The deployment took two to three days.

An in-house team did the deployment.

I used some other tools, like Sterling Integrator, for EDI solutions.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.

My clients use AppDynamics for monitoring the performance and behavior of applications, as well as detecting any signs of potential overload. It also allows them to identify when certain applications are not functioning as expected. Essentially, its primary purpose is to monitor and evaluate the behavior and performance of applications.

AppDynamics is aiding us with achieving full stack availability, which entails obtaining a comprehensive or holistic overview of the application's performance, sales, and behavior. In essence, the purpose of full stack availability is to provide a complete picture of what is happening with the application.

The most valuable feature of AppDynamics is Proactive Monitoring and Alerting.

The price of the solution could improve.

I have been using AppDynamics for approximately six years.

The solution is stable.

I rate the stability of AppDynamics a nine out of ten.

The scalability of AppDynamics is good.

I rate the scalability of AppDynamics an eight out of ten.

The support from the vendor is good.

I rate the support of AppDynamics a nine out of ten.

Positive

AppDynamics is what I would consider an enterprise-level solution. This means that it's a solution that is intended for use by larger organizations, while small or medium-sized businesses may find it difficult to afford. The number of agents required will also impact the pricing, and smaller companies may only be able to afford a limited number of agents. Essentially, the cost of the solution is not within the reach of every organization, and only some may be able to afford it.

My advice to others is this solution is fantastic if your business can afford it. It will help boost your business and IT.

I rate AppDynamics an eight out of ten.

From the perspective of the customer experience, the solution has been quite helpful for our company. Positive comments have been given, and no clients have opted out of our services for any reason. This has given us the option to think about including more agents in the remedy. Also, the capability that alerts users in advance of potential problems has improved the effectiveness of our IT employees. Despite hiring more employees, we haven't had any client abandonment, which proves that the solution is of the highest caliber and performing remarkably well. Also, it has helped us monitor apps more efficiently and fix any problems before they have an impact on end users.