Akamai mPulse vs New Relic vs Splunk AppDynamics comparison

Read 160 New Relic reviews

13,943 Views
11,573 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Splunk AppDynamics

Read 252 Splunk AppDynamics reviews

12,248 Views
9,676 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Akamai mPulse

Splunk AppDynamics

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Akamai mPulse, New Relic, and Splunk AppDynamics based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Datadog, Dynatrace, Splunk and others in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability.

To learn more, read our detailed Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Report (Updated: September 2025).

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

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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:

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Akamai mPulse is 0.5%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of New Relic is 5.1%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk AppDynamics is 4.0%, down from 5.6% 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 (%)
Splunk AppDynamics	4.0%
New Relic	5.1%
Akamai mPulse	0.5%
Other	90.4%

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Arivu Arumugam

Staff Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Lacking in regard to observation of the entire platform but does dynamic injections from within

There is little that's unique about mPulse but since the solution is part of Akamai, you can do dynamic injections from within the product which is a great feature. the UI is quite good. It offers a basic set of features but nothing unique other than that as part of Akamai, you can do dynamic injections.

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Rahul -Jain

SDET ANALYST SENIOR at TSYS

Good for application Performance Monitoring but not stable

There are two types of teams we have in every organization. One is for DevOps, and the second one is for performance testing. Those who are using these tools, like AppDynamics, Dynatrace, or whatever tool we have on the APM side. These tools are used by two teams: one is the performance team, and another one is the DevOps team. So, the setup and the alert system belong to the DevOps team, not for performance. So, I don't use any alerts in AppDynamics, Dynatrace, or any of the tools.

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Gyanesh Rahatekar

Back office at Reliance Industries Ltd

Application performance management and error resolution improved with data-driven insights

Dynatrace has multiple functions compared to Splunk AppDynamics, so Splunk AppDynamics should add those functions, which are not available as of now. Dynatrace has a universal agent that collects all information related to their CI, and if one CI has multiple languages, then there is no need to instrument multiple agents. However, Splunk AppDynamics requires multiple agents; if I have one server with multiple applications in different languages, then I need to instrument different agents for each application. Splunk AppDynamics should work with Dynatrace with one single universal agent that works with all application languages, eliminating the need for multiple implementations.

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 most valuable feature is the solutions overall performance. It is very efficient and accurate for our usage."

"Enables dynamic injections from within the product which is great."

"New features are added often."

"The product's initial setup phase was very easy."

"It does everything we wanted it to do."

"They instrument up from the bottom to the top – every piece of code - they have a very perfect read of what’s being done, and how long it’s taking."

"Using New Relic speeds up troubleshooting and resolution, giving us a clearer picture of where issues are, thus saving time and effort."

"We have done the New Relic integration with Serverless AWS, which has helped us with monitoring, and keeping our monitoring from our on-premise part with the cloud part."

"The monitoring so far has been good and we are happy with it."

"The solution is quite stable."

More New Relic pros

"AppDynamics makes it much easier for us to detect problems or issues before they become problems. We have alerting on all of our business transactions."

"The feature that I appreciate in AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring is the intuitive and user-friendly dynamic mapping it creates for workflows."

"The product's initial setup phase is easy since a separate machine is required, and it is not directly installed on a database as it is a type of proxy."

"After we implemented this solution, we can easily determine the root cause of issues."

"End-user monitoring (web and mobile)"

"It provides a lot of data, so it helps businesses identify their user base."

"Provides monitoring more around business processes versus just servers, applications, etc. E.g., with complex systems, where a business process passes across multiple applications, the business needs us to monitor the heath of the process, not just a segment of the application."

"The most valuable feature is the one that enables you to have visibility into the end-users journey."

More Splunk AppDynamics pros

Cons

"The end-to-end distributor tracing connectivity isn't there."

"In the next release, I would like to see the possibility of sharing the metric from this solution with other solutions."

"It would be nice if there were pre-made dashboards."

"One thing I'd like to see in any APM, especially New Relic, is the ability to use distributed transactions. When one microservice calls another, it calls another database and microservice. The entire data visualization layer will not be able to correlate from one microservice from end to end and return on that path. Distributed transactions would be a great addition that would make life simpler. Unfortunately, no APM has that end-to-end capability."

"The solution does not provide input on how the page performs in a big group. It just says that the page performance is bad, but it does not say what can be done to improve it. If they could provide some insight or guidance on how to make improvements, that would be a big help."

"One thing that we noticed was that historical information was only for a limited period, which was not helpful in certain scenarios. For example, if I want to size my system for an event for New Year or Christmas season based on the historical data, I won't be able to find the historical data. Currently, the data is limited to three months. It would be helpful if they can provide historical data for a longer duration so that we can plan our system accordingly."

"There were some settings we had issues with."

"I would like to be able to invest less time in IT and ad hocs. We should be concentrating on other issues."

"New Relic does enable frontend performance monitoring by default. However, when we are troubleshooting the issue, New Relic is not able to trace back to the service where the issue is. Other solutions, such as Dynatrace are better."

"The solution only supports the cloud platform and not on-premises."

More New Relic cons

"We would like to be able to easily use this solution to monitor our Java script based browsers, which are currently blocked by the security settings."

"The solution's pricing could be improved and made more competitive."

"I would like to see some cosmetic enhancements."

"The integration ability of AppDynamics with other performance testing tools is an area with shortcomings where improvements are required."

"In terms of improvements we would like to see, we want to understand what the battery consumption metrics are whenever a user is viewing. It would be really helpful for us if we could get those details levels."

"One aspect that requires improvement is the agent. Without an agent, gathering sufficient information on applications is challenging. Additionally, the agent sometimes creates performance issues in production environments."

"The main concern is the extensions and their documentation, particularly for the installation of Azure app services. It is lacking some documentation, which is why we are always with the AppDynamics team for support to get the details."

"One aspect that requires improvement is the agent. Without an agent, gathering sufficient information on applications is challenging."

More Splunk AppDynamics cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The product is neither cheap nor expensive, and I believe that it is a competitively-priced tool."

"Pricing is better with New Relic APM than Dynatrace."

"They gave us aggressive discounts when they were brought in for the first time, but they have also kept them for the year-on-year renewals, which has been absolutely fine."

"We spend somewhere around $5,000 to $6,000 per month with an annual recommitment of maybe $60,000. These are just ballpark figures."

"Because of budget, we are not using the mobile app part of this tool."

"The pricing model is a little confusing for beginners. They find it a little expensive, and if you are using it already, then that is not good."

"The pricing could be better. We did not purchase the full version. Maybe if we applied all the other features of the full version of New Relic, we could get all the features that we feel are missing."

"The solution is cheap, but prices can go up when users grow."

More New Relic pricing and cost advice

"It's a very expensive product. Each of the licenses after this month for one server is around $9,000 or $10,000."

"AppDynamics does not usually do monthly payments. They do it on an annual basis, at the very least."

"I would say the solution is affordable because it is widely used across financial service sectors."

"The pricing model for AppDynamics could be better. You have to subscribe to a yearly or a three-year licensing, which isn't very handy. The solution is one of the most expensive in the market today."

"I rate AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring's pricing as seven out of ten. Mobile monitoring is paid based on the number of instances utilizing the mobile monitoring service, which increases as the scale grows. Consequently, your mobile user count can proportionally surpass all other applications."

"The pricing needs to come down."

"Our purchasing experience through the AWS Marketplace has been pretty painless."

"It is not a cheap tool, but you also save in manpower to setup because it is easy and fast. At the end of the day, I think the revenue is much better. BUT, they have an awful co-term mode of licensing."

More Splunk AppDynamics pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

28%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	65
Midsize Enterprise	50
Large Enterprise	61

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	54
Midsize Enterprise	36
Large Enterprise	188

Questions from the Community

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Earn 20 points

Any advice about APM solutions?

There are many factors and we know little about your requirements (size of org, technology stack, management systems,...

What do you like most about New Relic Insights?

The product's initial setup phase was very easy.

What needs improvement with New Relic Insights?

I reviewed another observability tool, DataDog, and we moved away from New Relic because the pricing was not convenie...

APM tools for a Managed Service Provider - Dynatrace vs. AppDynamics vs. Aternity vs. Ruxit

Hi Avi! It's great to see your thorough approach to selecting an APM package for your MSP company. Considering your f...

What do you like most about AppDynamics?

The solution saves time and cost.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AppDynamics?

I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten. The solution is highly expensive. Our company pays for the solution on ...

Dynatrace vs Akamai mPulse

Comparisons

Compared 52% of the time

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Compared 10% of the time

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Dynatrace vs New Relic

Compared 11% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

Elastic Observability vs New Relic

Compared 8% of the time

Azure Monitor vs New Relic

Compared 5% of the time

Sentry vs New Relic

Compared 4% of the time

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Dynatrace vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 14% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 8% of the time

Grafana vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 4% of the time

ITRS Geneos vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Download Akamai mPulse product report

Download New Relic product report

Splunk AppDynamics

Download Splunk AppDynamics product report

Also Known As

SOASTA mPulse

New Relic Browser, New Relic Applied Intelligence, New Relic Insights, New Relic Synthetics, New Relic Servers, New Relic APM

No data available

Overview

Akamai mPulse is a real user monitoring (RUM) solution that gives performance engineers, administrators, and developers the ability to effortlessly visualize website functionality issues and identify ways to improve processes that conventional testing protocols do not find. mPulse gives users usable scenarios to better understand how processes such as user interactions, visual progress, and third-party resources may be disrupting the overall user experience and application delivery.

mPulse enables users to take a deep dive into the specific performance issues and complete comprehensive error analyses, to thoroughly understand the effect on critical user interactions such as conversions, page views, and more.

mPulse gathers and delivers data on an organization's website’s performance and metrics on user web browsing experiences. The mPulse feature “Boomerang” is a JavaScript Library that monitors the website page load time. Boomerang has a unique plugin architecture and works with all websites. The Boomerang feature is embedded on each page of an organization's website.

mPulse works seamlessly with Akamai solution Ion, so the RUM data can be instantly gathered once the Luna Control Center has been activated. Ion instantly attaches Boomerang to the organization’s web properties; there is no need to change the website code.

Akamai mPulse Benefits

Third-party monitoring: mPulse enables users to effortlessly monitor and visualize the effect that third-party vendors, resources, and scripts may have on the organization’s web properties.
Real-time intuitions: RUM data is continually being gathered, so users are able to instantly experience changes in user performance during every critical event. Users are able to respond immediately and make corrections or amendments as needed. Additionally, mPulse integrates effectively with other third-party notification solutions, such as Slack, PagerDuty, and webhook API support.
Framework integrations: mPulse integrates with many of today’s popular single-page application (SPA) frameworks, such as React.js, Backbone.js, Angular.js, Ember.js, and even some custom frameworks. mPulse has the ability to also be seamlessly integrated in Non-SPA websites.
Intuitive feedback: mPulse gathers data and creates workable solutions so users have a better understanding of how objects, images, or even entire pages are affecting user behavior. Users can gather numerous metrics (custom or advanced) to achieve a better, more complete understanding of ways to improve the user experience with the application or website.
Custom metrics and timers: With mPulse, users can effortlessly create custom timers to discover important performance sessions unique to the application. The mPulse dashboard allows users to set up trackers for numerous metrics, such as:
- First image load time
- Sidebar load time
- Page load times
- Third-party resource content load time
mPulse Beacon API: This valuable benefit allows users to send custom metrics from mobile and web applications to mPulse. This gives mPulse greater flexibility and usability to frameworks and platforms that can make HTTP calls. Representational State Transfer (REST) interface is included and is able to be used by any web application using any language running on the platform. There is also a Beacon API library for JavaScript. This option is available from the dashboard by creating a new application and an API key.

Akamai

New Relic offers real-time application monitoring and insight into performance bottlenecks. Its customizable dashboards and APM integration provide efficient operational support, while server performance alerts ensure quick issue detection.

New Relic provides comprehensive monitoring of application performance, tracking bottlenecks across databases and front-end components. Users employ it for server and infrastructure monitoring, as well as analyzing key metrics such as CPU and memory usage. The solution's ability to integrate with tools like PagerDuty enhances incident management capabilities. However, users have expressed a need for improvements in query language simplicity, more detailed historical insights, and better mobile app monitoring support.

What are New Relic's most important features?

Real-Time Monitoring: Provides instant visibility into application performance.
Detailed Transaction Tracing: Identifies specific transaction issues quickly.
Error Rate Tracking: Monitors and reports on error occurrences efficiently.
Customizable Dashboards: Tailors dashboard views for specific needs.
APM Integration: Seamlessly integrates with application performance management tools.

What benefits and ROI should be considered?

Operational Efficiency: Quick issue detection reduces downtime.
Improved Debugging: Enhanced error analysis supports rapid problem resolution.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Offers a holistic view of application performance and user behavior.
Incident Management: Integration with incident tools helps streamline responses.
Efficient Alerts: Rapid alert systems ensure timely notifications of issues.

In industries like e-commerce and financial services, New Relic supports application performance monitoring to enhance user experience and system reliability. Organizations leverage its insights for optimizing performance, particularly in server operations and infrastructure management. Its ability to monitor API failures through synthetic monitoring is crucial for maintaining high service levels.

Splunk AppDynamics enhances application performance monitoring with advanced diagnostics and real-time insights, offering seamless end-to-end transaction tracking and infrastructure visibility.

AppDynamics provides critical tools for businesses to analyze application behavior and performance. Through innovative features like transaction snapshot analysis and adaptable dashboards, users can quickly identify and address issues, ensuring high levels of system uptime and efficiency. It is designed to support complex environments including Kubernetes and AWS, enhancing user experience by detecting performance issues early. Despite needing improvements in network monitoring and integration, it remains a robust option for tracking application health.

What are the key features of AppDynamics?

Real-time Performance Monitoring: Offers immediate insights into application behavior.
Business Transaction Tracking: Tracks transactions from start to finish for bottleneck identification.
JVM Memory Monitoring: Provides detailed JVM metrics and memory use information.
Deep-dive Diagnostics: Enables in-depth analysis of code and stack traces.
Adaptable Dashboards: Customizable views for better data interpretation.

How does AppDynamics benefit users?

Improved Incident Resolution: Faster problem detection and solution implementation.
Enhanced Application Performance: Real-time monitoring optimizes system operations.
Comprehensive Visibility: Provides a full view of application infrastructure.
Informed Decision Making: Detailed analytics guide performance improvements.
Customer Satisfaction: Enhances user experience through faster issue resolutions.

In industries like financial services and e-commerce, AppDynamics facilitates performance tracking across distributed systems, optimizing infrastructure to meet consumer demands. It excels in environments needing precise transaction monitoring and is pivotal in delivering high value and satisfaction.

Splunk

Sample Customers

Nordstrom, Gatwick, DirecTV, MSN, SquareSpace, SAP, Lenovo, Hallmark, myspace, Intuit, Kentucky Derby, Toys "R" Us, Netflix, Newsweek, The Washington Post, Lowe's, Nike, REI, Apple, Sears, Verizon, Wendy's, Huawei

World Fuel Services, Verizon, FootLocker, McDonald's, Trainline, Mondia Media, Confused, Costa Coffee, Ryanair, Marks & Spencer, William Hill, Delivery Hero, Skyscanner, BASF, DAZN, Veygo, Virtuo, movingimage, talabat, Australia Post, Tokopedia, Seven Network, Virgin Australia, Zomato, BigBasket, Mercado Libre, Lending Club

Cisco, Sony, Nasdaq, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Edmunds.com, Puma, Fox News, DirecTV, Pizza Hut, T-Systems, Cornell University, OpenTable, BITMARCK, Green Mountain Power, Care.com, Overstock, Paddy Power, eHarmony, Kraft, The Motley Fool, The Container Store, and more See more customers

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability