Amazon CloudWatch vs IBM Application Performance Management comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and IBM are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.9, while IBM is ranked #52 with an average rating of 7.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 1.7% mindshare in APM, compared to IBM’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 62% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Amazon CloudWatch

Read 47 Amazon CloudWatch reviews

4,127 Views
2,311 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

IBM Application Performance...

Read 7 IBM Application Performance Management reviews

833 Views
808 Comparison Views

62% willing to recommend

Amazon CloudWatch

IBM Application Performance...

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Amazon CloudWatch and IBM Application Performance Management based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon CloudWatch vs. IBM Application Performance Management Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudWatch vs. IBM Application Performance Management

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

Amazon CloudWatch

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Log Management (16th), Cloud Monitoring Software (11th)

IBM Application Performance...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

52nd

Average Rating

6.4

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

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 Amazon CloudWatch is 1.7%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Application Performance Management is 0.5%, up from 0.4% 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 (%)
Amazon CloudWatch	1.7%
IBM Application Performance Management	0.5%
Other	97.8%

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Rahul Kundu

AWS Engineer at Abbott

Proactively address issues with seamless monitoring while enhancing custom metrics functionality

We use CloudWatch for monitoring and logging. It helps us monitor our applications' performance, particularly in ensuring that every API hit returns a response within four seconds, which is our SLA. We also monitor invocation errors in Lambda and use CloudWatch alerts to notify us of any issues…

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Daniel Tamiru

Manager, Database & System Administration at Awash International Bank

A multi-functional solution but has poor stability and performance-related issues

We are using version 4 of IBM Application Performance Management, and it is deployed on-premises. We use it for internet banking and mainly for application performance on-site. For example, if we face performance-related issues in one of our software or managed services, we use this solution to…

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

"We can create events and alerts. We use the information to dive down into the infrastructure performance."

"Every time we get an alarm or have an incident, CloudWatch is always there. We use it not only for resources we've spun up in the cloud, but also for some of our on-premises resources."

"You can automate actions or use AWS functionalities like auto-scaling, where you can configure the metrics to add more nodes if the threshold is exceeded."

"The detection is the most valuable feature."

"It is a stable solution...I rate the technical support a ten out of ten."

"What I found most valuable in Amazon CloudWatch is that it gives you detailed information, which I found helpful because it can even provide you with data for the past one minute, which is quite granular. That was what helped me most in terms of finding the root causes. Task automation is another valuable feature of Amazon CloudWatch."

"Our team finds it overall quite useful."

"The initial setup is easy."

More Amazon CloudWatch pros

"The most valuable feature is the breakdown that it provides, such as a description of the fields for a particular transaction."

"The transaction tracking feature from IBM is the most important feature for us. It is something that provides a terrific value for us and our clients. It has a lot of data sources and agents that are collectors. It is also stable."

"The initial setup was straightforward and took minimal effort."

"It's easy to use."

"Because we have partnerships with other partners, I can share a bit about what I've noticed with IBM APM compared to other vendor solutions. Specifically, with IBM, the visibility into detailed process information is more tangible. On the OS level, APM displays all processes (or the top 10 processes) that are consuming CPU or resident memory. This is the most important thing that is not always available with other vendors."

"I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten."

"IBM Application Performance Management helped us increased our response time by 80% and cost 60% less."

Cons

"Amazon CloudWatch's pricing needs improvement."

"I think something that can be improved are the alerts and alerting mechanism based on no rejects. We want to have it more flexible and that is one of the key things that is required."

"CloudWatch doesn’t monitor disk throughput by default."

"The configuration capabilities could be better."

"The technical support must be improved."

"The monitoring part and GUI are areas in Amazon CloudWatch that have shortcomings currently and can be considered for improvements in the future."

"The solution should provide human-readable metrics."

"I found several areas for improvement in Amazon CloudWatch. First is that it's tough to track issues and find out where it's going wrong. The process takes longer. For example, if I get an exception error, I read the logs, search, go to AWS Cloud, then to the groups to find the keyword to determine what's wrong. Another area for improvement in Amazon CloudWatch is that it's slow in terms of log streaming. It requires an entire twenty-four hours for scanning, rather than just one hour. This issue can be solved with Elasticsearch streaming with Kibana, but it requires a lot of development effort and integration with Kibana or Splunk, and this also means I need a separate developer and software technical stack to do the indexing and streaming to Kibana. It's a manual effort that you need to do properly, so log streaming should be improved in Amazon CloudWatch. The AWS support person should also have a better understanding of the logs in Amazon CloudWatch. What I'd like added to the solution is a more advanced search function, particularly one that can tell you more information or special information. Right now, the search function is difficult to use because it only gives you limited data. For example, I got an error message saying that the policy wasn't created. I only know the amount the customer paid for the policy, the mobile number, and the customer name, but if I use those details, the information won't show up on the logs. I need to enter more details, so that's the type of fuzzy matching Amazon CloudWatch won't provide. If this type of search functionality is provided, it will be very helpful for businesses and companies that provide professional services to customers, like ours."

More Amazon CloudWatch cons

"It's still missing some platforms. For example, if you look to applications itself, it is missing the interface."

"Its web user interface is a little bit old in comparison to other solutions, such as New Relic, and it should be improved. Its scalability and technical support should also be improved. Currently, it is scalable, but only in a vertical way. They provide good technical support, but the initial steps for a new case can be improved to fasten the resolution process."

"The demo that was provided to us is not working very well. At times, there are errors."

"With APM, we noticed that the agent can cause a lot of issues for the application, making the agent very unreliable. Many issues are happening, and we've had to discuss it with support to try and get a fix. It affects application availability, and sometimes actions fail because of the agent, degrading the performance of the application."

"The stability is not great and should be better."

"Technical support can be slow and needs improvement."

"They should focus on potentially enhancing the dashboard to make it more contemporary and adding some customization options. Furthermore, there might be room for improvement in the pricing policy."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I consider it as a medium-priced solution."

"It’s an open-source solution."

"We have monthly licensing costs. The licenses are probably in the vicinity of about $300 - $350/month."

"Amazon CloudWatch has very cheap pricing, and it hardly costs my company $25-$30 a month for fifty systems, so it's pretty affordable."

"The price of Amazon CloudWatch is reasonable. When the rate of data collection is done the price will increase. The price is less than other solutions."

"Its pricing is reasonable. It is sometimes tricky, but it is reasonable as compared to others."

"The pricing is average."

"The price is okay for me."

More Amazon CloudWatch pricing and cost advice

"The licensing fees can be paid every six months or on a yearly basis."

"As I previously indicated, I initiated the IBM and uncovered all its elements. Consequently, I'm not inclined towards a licensing approach."

"IBM APM is one of the cheaper products on the market, while everything necessary to get started is included in the license."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Financial Services Firm

25%

Retailer

14%

University

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	24

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon CloudWatch?

The monitoring features are valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon CloudWatch?

Overall, the pricing of Amazon CloudWatch is very expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon CloudWatch?

Apart from traceability of network resources, Amazon CloudWatch needs to be more interoperable with other tools because many companies are starting to use AI-based dashboards. When using third-part...

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Application Performance Management?

I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Application Performance Management?

They should focus on potentially enhancing the dashboard to make it more contemporary and adding some customization options. Furthermore, there might be room for improvement in the pricing policy. ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Application Performance Management?

I monitor business applications for more than four end users.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 23% of the time

Amazon OpenSearch Service vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 12% of the time

Zabbix vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 9% of the time

Dynatrace vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 6% of the time

Datadog vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 5% of the time

More Amazon CloudWatch Competitors

BMC AMI Strobe vs IBM Application Performance Management

Compared 24% of the time

Instana Dynamic APM vs IBM Application Performance Management

Compared 17% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs IBM Application Performance Management

Compared 16% of the time

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager vs IBM Application Performance Management

Compared 13% of the time

Datadog vs IBM Application Performance Management

Compared 11% of the time

More IBM Application Performance Management Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudWatch

October 2025

Download Amazon CloudWatch product report

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

September 2025

IBM Application Performance Management report

Download IBM Application Performance Management product report

Also Known As

No data available

IBM APM

Overview

Amazon CloudWatch integrates seamlessly with AWS, providing real-time monitoring and alerting features. Its interface supports task automation, enhancing troubleshooting and analytics capabilities, while offering strong security and scalability at a cost-effective rate.

Amazon CloudWatch is an impactful platform for monitoring AWS resources and managing application performance. It simplifies infrastructure performance monitoring by providing comprehensive analytics capabilities, including application insights and event scheduling. Users appreciate CloudWatch for its detailed metrics, dashboards, and support in issuing alerts to detect anomalies. It efficiently tracks performance, optimizes resource utilization, and ensures service availability. CloudWatch is recognized for its robust alerting features and integration with other AWS services, further supporting its resource monitoring capabilities. However, there is room for improvement in dashboard customization, log streaming speed, and integration with non-AWS services. Enhancements in API integration, machine learning features, and support for third-party tools are also desired.

What features does Amazon CloudWatch offer?

Seamless Integration: Works effortlessly with AWS for cohesive service management.
Advanced Metrics: Provides detailed monitoring of CPU, memory, and more.
Real-time Monitoring: Offers up-to-the-minute alerts on infrastructure status.
Dashboards: User-friendly and informative for quick insights.
Automation: Supports task automation for efficient troubleshooting.

What benefits does Amazon CloudWatch provide?

Cost-effectiveness: Efficient resource monitoring without high costs.
Scalability: Easily adapts to growing infrastructure needs.
Security: Strong protocols for safe monitoring activities.
Improved Performance: Enhances application insights and operational efficiency.
Operational Insights: Provides comprehensive logging and performance analysis.

Industries implementing Amazon CloudWatch often focus on optimizing IT infrastructure. Companies in sectors like finance and e-commerce rely on its monitoring and alerting capabilities to ensure service uptime and performance. The platform's automation and analytics features empower teams to proactively manage performance and detect potential issues promptly.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

The IBM Application Performance Management portfolio provides visibility, control and automation of your mission-critical applications. It helps pinpoint the root cause of application's issue more quickly and resolve the problem. The integrated capabilities cover the five key areas: discovery, end-use experience, transaction tracking, enterprise diagnostics and analytics. It also easily monitors applications to ensure optimal performance to extend your hybrid management environment capabilities, to measure the customer experience from multiple locations and to further eliminate blind spots in your application environment.

IBM

Sample Customers

AirAsia, Airbnb, Aircel, APUS, Avazu, Casa & Video, Futbol Club Barcelona (FCBarcelona), National Taiwan University, redBus

Mibtree, EatDrinkDeals.com, IT Performance Advisor

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudWatch vs. IBM Application Performance Management

September 2025

Free Report: Amazon CloudWatch vs. IBM Application Performance Management

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