AWS X-Ray vs Elastic Observability comparison

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Amazon Web Services (AWS) Logo
7,074 views|6,293 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
Elastic Logo
12,577 views|10,415 comparisons
90% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Jun 28, 2023

We performed a comparison between Elastic Observability and AWS X-Ray based on real PeerSpot user reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Elastic Observability's initial setup can be complex and varies in difficulty depending on the environment, while AWS X-Ray is generally considered fast and manageable. Elastic Observability's distributed nature and multiple cluster configuration can contribute to its complexity, while AWS X-Ray can be completed quickly with some AWS CloudFormation configuration. 
  • Features: Elastic Observability stands out for its machine learning capabilities, custom development options, and comprehensive set of features. AWS X-Ray, on the other hand, is highly valued for its ability to identify errors, provide detailed information, and maintain security levels. Ultimately, both tools have their own strengths and it comes down to the specific needs and preferences of the user when choosing between them.
  • Pricing: Elastic Observability's cost depends on the license and usage. Some components are included in the license or are open source. AWS X-Ray's pricing is based on usage and is relatively affordable, with a rating of seven or eight out of ten. However, it can become more expensive for medium to big enterprises on a per-user basis.
  • Service and Support: Elastic Observability's customer service is highly regarded, with excellent technical support and an active online community. On the other hand, AWS X-Ray's customer service has received limited feedback, with some customers never requiring assistance.
  • ROI: Elastic Observability has proven to be financially beneficial, with reduced incidents and overheads, full visibility, and fast root cause identification. AWS X-Ray's financial benefits are uncertain, but some users have seen significant ROI.

Comparison Results: Elastic Observability is the preferred choice over AWS X-Ray due to its more comprehensive features, including machine learning and custom development using the Elastic User Interface framework. Though it has a steep learning curve, the pricing is reasonable and has helped reduce incidents and overheads. AWS X-Ray is valued for its ability to quickly identify errors and maintain security, but log filtering and user interface could be improved. There is also limited information on AWS X-Ray's customer service and support.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS X-Ray vs. Elastic Observability Report (Updated: March 2024).
768,578 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured 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 promising feature of AWS X-Ray is that you can debug the issues through the proper logs. You can also get an analysis out of the logs for some use cases, though I have yet to try all the features of AWS X-Ray.""The solution has made it easier for us to trace the problems that we have with our requests and to monitor the timing of each step in each request we do in our endpoints.""The most important one is compliance. We're able to achieve our regulatory levels. We're able to achieve the security level that we need for the federal government.""AWS X-Ray is a strong solution and has a smooth integration process.""AWS X-RAY identifies bottlenecks in terms of stability and performance and how long certain data lives in terms of response time and duration.""It is a very scalable solution."

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"The solution is open-source and helps with back-end logging. It is also easy to handle.""The product has connectors to many services.""Its diverse set of features available on the cloud is of significant importance.""The solution allows us to dig deep into data.""The price is very less expensive compared to the other solutions.""The solution has been stable in our usage.""We use AppDynamics and Elastic. The reason why we're using Elastic APM is because of the license count. It's very favorable compared to AppDynamics. It's inexpensive; it's economical.""Elastic APM has plenty of features, such as the Elastic server for Kibana and many additional plugins. It's a comprehensive tool when used as a logging platform."

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Cons
"They can improve how traces are sent to other providers.""I do not have any notes in terms of improvements.""If you have a small team, it's probably overkill.""What needs to be better in AWS X-Ray is the log filtering. Predefined filters could be helpful because the power of analytics comes from how you can filter the data. I also want to see more KPIs from AWS X-Ray.""Like most Amazon products, the user interface, configuration, and tuning aren't the easiest. That's the biggest reason why people tend to go to products like TerraForm and Terragrunt. We use TerraForm and Terragrunt. So, for setting things up and interacting with X-Ray, it's definitely the user interface that can be better.""The user interface is sometimes kind of confusing to understand. It's not very user-friendly."

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"The cost must be made more transparent.""There's a steep learning curve if you've never used this solution before.""Elastic Observability is difficult to use. There are only three options for customization but this can be difficult for our use case. We do not have other options to choose the metrics shown, such as CPU or memory usage.""If we had some pre-defined templates for observability that we could start using right away after deploying it – instead of having to build or to change some of the dashboards – that would be helpful.""Elastic Observability is an excellent product for monitoring and visibility, but it lacks predictive analytics. Most solutions are aligned with the AIOps requirements, but this piece is missing in Elastic and should be included.""Improving code insight related to infrastructure and network, particularly focusing on aspects such as firewalls, switches, routers, and testing would be beneficial.""The auto-discovery isn't nearly as good. That's a big portion of it. When you drop the agent onto the JVM and you're trying to figure things out, having to go through and manually do all that is cumbersome.""The interface could be improved."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The pricing for AWS X-Ray is a six out of ten."
  • "As you develop a relationship with Amazon, your pricing gets lower. You get credits for the amount of the system you use, and then if you're the government, you can get government pricing. For commercial users, there's a hump when you go from small to medium to big enterprise. Small businesses can live pretty easily off the free tier in a lot of cases, but when you go from a medium to a big enterprise, it becomes more expensive on a per-user basis. I'd like to see that curve going in a different way where pricing can be driven down while people are trying to adopt the technology."
  • "The solution is a bit expensive."
  • More AWS X-Ray Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "So far, there are just the standard licensing fees. Several of the components are embedded in the license or are even open source. They're even free depending on what you use, which makes it even more appealing to someone that is discussing pricing of the solution."
  • "There are two types: cloud and SaaS. They charge based on data ingestion, ingest rate, hard retention, and warm retention. I believe it costs around $25,000 annually to ingest 30GB of data daily. That is the SaaS version. There is also a self-managed license where the customer manages their own infrastructure on-prem. In such cases, there are three license tiers that respectively cost $5,000 annually per node, $7,000 per node, and $12,500 per node."
  • "Pricing is one of those situations where the more you use it, the more you pay."
  • "The price of Elastic Observability is expensive."
  • "Users have to pay for some features, like the alerts on different channels, because they are unavailable in different source versions."
  • "One needs to pay for the licenses, and it is an annual subscription model right now."
  • "Since we are a huge company, Elastic Observability is an affordable solution for us."
  • "We will buy a premium license after POC."
  • More Elastic Observability Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:AWS X-Ray is a strong solution and has a smooth integration process.
    Top Answer:They can improve how traces are sent to other providers.
    Top Answer:Elastic Observability significantly improves incident response time by providing quick access to logs and data across various sources. For instance, searching for specific keywords in logs spanning… more »
    Top Answer:I rate the pricing a five out of ten. The product is not that cheap.
    Top Answer:The tool's scalability involves a more complex implementation process. It requires careful calculations to determine the number of nodes needed, the specifications of each node, and the configuration… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    7,074
    Comparisons
    6,293
    Reviews
    5
    Average Words per Review
    547
    Rating
    8.2
    Views
    12,577
    Comparisons
    10,415
    Reviews
    16
    Average Words per Review
    445
    Rating
    7.9
    Comparisons
    Learn More
    Overview

    AWS X-Ray is a powerful debugging and performance analysis tool offered by Amazon Web Services. It allows developers to trace requests made to their applications and identify bottlenecks and issues. 

    With X-Ray, developers can visualize the entire request flow and pinpoint the exact location where errors occur. It provides detailed insights into the performance of individual components and helps optimize the overall application performance. 

    X-Ray integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, making it easy to trace requests across different services and identify dependencies. It also offers a comprehensive set of APIs and SDKs, enabling developers to instrument their applications and capture valuable data for analysis. With its user-friendly interface and powerful features, AWS X-Ray is a valuable tool for developers looking to improve the performance and reliability of their applications.

    To effectively monitor and gain insights across your distributed systems, you need to have all your observability data in one stack. Break down silos by bringing together application, infrastructure, and user data into a unified solution for end-to-end observability and alerting.
    Rely on the most widely deployed observability platform available, built on the proven Elastic Stack (also known as the ELK Stack) to converge silos, delivering unified visibility and actionable insights.
    Sample Customers
    COMCAST, ConnectWise, skyscanner, AirAsia, cookpad, cimpress, VTEX, zowdow
    PSCU, Entel, VITAS, Mimecast, Barrett Steel, Butterfield Bank
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm19%
    Computer Software Company16%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Comms Service Provider6%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company27%
    Manufacturing Company18%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Healthcare Company9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm21%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Healthcare Company6%
    Company Size
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise69%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise55%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise67%
    Buyer's Guide
    AWS X-Ray vs. Elastic Observability
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about AWS X-Ray vs. Elastic Observability and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    768,578 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    AWS X-Ray is ranked 13th in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability with 6 reviews while Elastic Observability is ranked 7th in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability with 22 reviews. AWS X-Ray is rated 8.0, while Elastic Observability is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of AWS X-Ray writes "Saves time, is relatively cheap, and helps find errors". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Elastic Observability writes "The user interface framework lets us do custom development when needed. ". AWS X-Ray is most compared with Datadog, Azure Monitor, New Relic, Sentry and Splunk Enterprise Security, whereas Elastic Observability is most compared with Dynatrace, New Relic, AppDynamics, Sentry and Instana Dynamic APM. See our AWS X-Ray vs. Elastic Observability report.

    See our list of best Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability vendors.

    We monitor all Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.