Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance vs Dynatrace vs Splunk AppDynamics comparison

Cisco Provider Connectivity...

Read 359 Dynatrace reviews

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17,166 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Splunk AppDynamics

Read 267 Splunk AppDynamics reviews

16,401 Views
12,301 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Splunk AppDynamics

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance, Dynatrace, 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: March 2026).

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 April 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance is 0.7%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dynatrace is 6.0%, down from 11.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk AppDynamics is 3.8%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Dynatrace	6.0%
Splunk AppDynamics	3.8%
Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance	0.7%
Other	89.5%

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Pifu Lin

Senior System Engineer at DYNASAFE TECHNOLOGIES PTE. LTD.

Addresses connectivity issues with real-time monitoring while offering good local support

I had prepared for COC and the client. I work as a vendor for a client using Flow Mount for network performance monitoring. I focus on resolving client-side issues related to Packy Performance and quality use. This involves addressing network device issues, specifically Cisco network devices One…

AI-driven insights have reduced downtime and improved cross-team collaboration

Manish Indupuri

senior DevOps engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

We encountered some challenges while using Dynatrace. Although the initial setup was smooth, fine-tuning alert thresholds and custom metrics took some time. Another challenge was that Dynatrace charges based on host units, so we had to carefully plan our agent deployments. The licensing model is expensive. Additionally, the complexity of setup is an issue. While OneAgent and auto-discover services are powerful, the setup is more complex compared to other tools such as Prometheus and Grafana. These integrations are simple and basic, but Dynatrace setup requires more complexity based on the environment. For new users wanting to use Dynatrace, it is difficult. However, the AI-related solutions and metrics took us to the next level for identifying and fixing things. Dynatrace requires an agent for operation. OneAgent is powerful, but it is also resource-heavy. On lightweight nodes or older systems, the agent can slightly impact performance. If Dynatrace could implement a lightweight agent behavior, we could make things faster. Additionally, if Dynatrace could add a long-term retention policy so that we could store more data and find fine-grained details, that would help us. While Dynatrace managed edition supports on-premises deployment, the SaaS version depends on cloud connectivity. For highly regulated or air-gapped environments, setup and updates can be challenging. Although the initial setup is smooth, if someone wants to fine-tune it and fully understand the tool end-to-end, it could be tricky.

Real-time monitoring has improved our banking API performance and supports detailed business transaction analysis

Shamim Alsharif

Performance Test Engineer at TANIM CONSULTING, LLC

The real-time monitoring is what we can see for anything that is needed in terms of CPU, memory, or the connections or the sessions related. It's real-time monitoring of performance of each of the components, which is what we need and use all the time. It's highly effective, I would say. Infrastructure visibility, transaction monitoring, to check the actual user experience in terms of the response time, MRT and all those things. We do the component monitoring like the API performance and the connections and all those things, but we also do the business process monitoring and business transaction monitoring.

More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance pros

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One valuable feature we have is real-time monitoring for connection issues."

"My customer also likes the interface, the GUI, because it's easy to operate."

"If [the problem] is something related to HTTP or VoIP, then I can have a quick look into the protocols, a process which gives me some good ideas..."

"We heavily use the "network analysis" section to dissect and analyze flows."

"I think the analytics features are okay. My customer also likes the interface, the GUI, because it's easy to operate."

"Skylight is not used on a daily basis, but when it's used it usually helps to fix a problem pretty fast."

"Capturing traffic [is very interesting]. Currently, with our configuration, we don't capture the payload of the packets, just the header. But when we want the body, the payload of the packets, we can do a PCAP, and then analyze it within Wireshark."

"It has clearly saved us money."

"Google says is that you have a number of things on which you should measure your performance. One is if there's an error or not. Dynatrace tells you whether is an error or not. Second is saturation, whether something is getting saturated. You should be aware of what is getting saturated. Dynatrace even tells you that. The third is if there is a latency. Network latency is also told to me by Dynatrace."

"UEM helps to identify user experience and detailed steps performed by the user."

"Dynatrace AppMon has served us very well."

"The most valuable features are the Smartscape, Resolution Path, synthetic and availability reports."

"It has been doing a good job of alerting us to issues. It has been very helpful and effective at identifying how we can do things to make our infrastructure and application a little better."

"Dynatrace has the most features compared to other products we looked at."

"The way it shows a problem on the dashboard is pretty good."

"From my clients' perspective, Dynatrace below the dashboard is very good compared to other monitoring tools."

More Dynatrace pros

"I like Business iQ the most, so far; it has great analytics configurations and I can get real-time updates."

"The monitoring is similar to Dynatrace."

"This product has improved the performance management of our applications before deploying them to the end user."

"AppDynamics' most valuable features are the response time of the business transaction modules, the ability to monitor multiple services, and testing and developing environments."

"It's very easy."

"It is used to test customer behavior on a website."

"The most valuable features of Splunk AppDynamics that I have found so far include it being a deep-in monitoring solution for applications such as Java and databases, where you can dig into the log information and performance information that is within the application, and for a very easy setup, you have all the information that you need."

"In AppDynamics, everywhere I go, there's some sort of grouping and aggregation function, or there's some sort of timeline that lets me zero in more quickly on the traces that I need. They go to more pains to aggregate and bubble the important ones to the top. That removes a lot of manual work."

More Splunk AppDynamics pros

Cons

"So scalability, at the moment, is pretty bad for us now, because our modus operandi have totally shifted."

"If you want a new version, you go to the website. The hardest part is finding the link, where is that .bin file? Sometimes it's pretty hidden in a document... it's hidden in the release notes or in another file somewhere. And it's usually not on the first page either."

"This solution is expensive compared to some others."

"There should be an option to update and upgrade the solution to the new version without having to re-buy it. I have clients switching to other solutions. The old solution is great, but if you change your license to a new one, you have to almost re-buy it completely."

"Because of the policies in Vietnam, we cannot connect the system to the Accedian cloud. It would be good if Accedian could provide a local cloud."

"For the PVX, they are in the process of getting the results to export to cloud and SaaS for analytics. They told me that this will happen later this year. Right now, for the most part, I create that data myself."

"I would like to see some improvements in parts of their synthetic transactions, which includes all the latency, jitter, and throughput."

"It needs the possibility to export data because it is not easy to see larger data sets, e.g., for one month."

More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance cons

"With Dynatrace in our environment, the managed server required root access to run. As a government agency with tight security, this has been an audit concern for us."

"The user interface for the management functions is not particularly intuitive for even the most common features."

"Needs support for more technologies."

"Right now, for AppMon, the maximum handling load, the transaction per minute, is around 6,500. We had an issue on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, some kind of stability issue for users who could not log in. I want to see an increase in the load, at least to 7,000 or 8,000 transactions per second"

"On the side of the end user experience, I would suggest adding a new service for analyzing the backtrace of users."

"The thread traceability is something that needs improvement."

"Provide much better alignment between AppMon and Dynatrace."

"Its pricing could be better. Dynatrace has an option to monitor the end users to see what they are doing, but it required a separate license and had an additional cost. It was coming out to be expensive, because of which we didn't use the feature."

More Dynatrace cons

"Scalability-wise, I think it's a little limited on an enterprise-wide scale."

"The monitoring capability could be improved; it does have a monitoring capability, but it's very, very basic."

"We want a single monitoring tool; we don't want thousands in there because right now I am discarding analytics monitoring tools."

"The way we execute it, it takes a bit of time, like every tool."

"At first, I thought it had a high learning curve. However, it's not so much. It's just different. It's different from all the other tools and it's just not as intuitive as it could be."

"There are many KPIs that are not available in AppDynamics."

"The dashboard can be better. Also, the automated reports could be improved."

"The solution could be more mobile friendly."

More Splunk AppDynamics cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is competitive overall, depending on the type of customer."

"It's not for free, clearly. But on the other hand, it offers very interesting functionality. We pay around €100,000."

"The pricing is cheaper than other competing products, which is better for our budgets."

"It provides value and the cost is not huge."

"The pricing of Accedian Skylight is really good. The sensors are low cost. Their model to analytics for sensors is by license, endpoint, or session. With the probes for their analytics, if they get deployed virtually, they are free. The licensing is only based on flows. So, you can effectively deploy probes everywhere in your network. Then, if you want to look at a specific type of traffic, you can enter into it with a very low cost license. You can just use things like spam ports, mirrors, TAPs, and aggregators to optimize what sort of traffic you send to these analysis tools. Then, if you want to start looking at more, you can up your licensed as you go. You are not getting forced into expensive appliances or subscription models."

"The solution was previously well-regarded, but after being acquired by Accedian, the prices have significantly increased. This has made it challenging to sell the product due to its high cost. It is an expensive solution."

"If you look into Riverbed, it's a licensing nightmare. You need to pay for every type of analysis... If you don't look into licensing, Riverbed and SolarWinds are pretty comparable. But if you look into licensing it would not be smart to go for either of them. On the pure, bare-metal basis, it's the same. But when you get the bare metal and a few basic licenses, then you need all those other licenses just to be sure that there's no issue... One of the great things about Skylight is you have them all, and you actually need them all."

"Pricing is a little bit expensive."

More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance pricing and cost advice

"The setup costs for Dynatrace are low, however licensing costs are high."

"Do a PoC and see if you like it."

"Dynatrace is an expensive solution."

"Time to value was surprisingly fast."

"The licensing model is confusing in solutioning clients for the number of hosts needed to deploy."

"It is quite costly. Dynatrace was the most expensive, compared to the other products we looked at. But it was also a lot better. If you want value for your money, Dynatrace is the way to go."

"We found an issue within the first week of ownership that has been costing us more than the entire license cost."

"There is time savings. People's times have been cut in half using this solution because we were previously doing a lot of that manual work. Now, it's a lot more automated, and the data is just there."

More Dynatrace pricing and cost advice

"We are looking forward to purchasing the solution on the AWS Marketplace."

"For those who appreciate the value and had issues with the visibility of the performance of their applications, then the pricing is good. For somebody who does not need it, it can be pricey, but overall, it is worth the money which it costs."

"The product is a bit expensive compared to other tools."

"The licensing cost is fairly high"

"We have purchased a few licenses for AppDynamics Database Monitoring and the price is high."

"The cost is prohibitive."

"Yearly payments have to be made toward the licensing costs of the solution. The solution has no additional costs apart from the licensing costs."

"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."

More Splunk AppDynamics pricing and cost advice

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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability solutions are best for your needs.

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Comparison Review

ITspe9886

IT Specialist at a government with 10,001+ employees

Feb 24, 2019

Compared to AppDynamics where we are still trying to get it into production, we had the latest version of Dynatrace in production within three days

Our primary use case for both Dynatrace and AppDynamics is for application performance monitoring (APM). The main reason for having application performance monitoring is, when we see something is running slowly, we can immediately look to see where the issue is at before our systems crash on us…

What needs improvement with Accedian Skylight?

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

20%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

24%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	9

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	78
Midsize Enterprise	50
Large Enterprise	299

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	57
Midsize Enterprise	37
Large Enterprise	200

Questions from the Community

Human resource costs can be high when dealing with connection issues. I require more tools to file and resolve these ...

What is your primary use case for Accedian Skylight?

I had prepared for COC and the client. I work as a vendor for a client using Flow Mount for network performance monit...

What advice do you have for others considering Accedian Skylight?

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

Any advice about APM solutions?

The key is to have a holistic view over the complete infrastructure, the ones you have listed are great for APM if yo...

What cloud monitoring software did you choose and why?

While the environment does matter in the selection of an APM tool, I prefer to use Dynatrace to manage the entire sta...

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 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 ...

What needs improvement with AppDynamics?

The solution is available at an inflated cost.

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance

Download Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance product report

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance report

Download Dynatrace product report

Splunk AppDynamics

Download Splunk AppDynamics product report

Also Known As

Accedian Skylight, Accedian SkyLIGHT PVX, SkyLIGHT PVX, SecurActive, Performance Vision

No data available

Overview

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance is known for its user-friendly approach to network analysis and performance monitoring. It excels in real-time diagnostics, helping organizations quickly resolve network issues and optimize performance effortlessly.

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance focuses on comprehensive network troubleshooting and performance monitoring, assisting in identifying bottlenecks and analyzing applications. Real-time data collection and evaluation ensure IT infrastructure efficiency. With active monitoring of latency, jitter, and throughput, users maintain smooth operations across multiple sites and applications. While highly effective, improvements in data handling, protocol support, and dashboard aesthetics are suggested to enhance user experience.

What are the key features of Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance?

Flow Matrices: Advanced analysis of network paths and traffic distribution.
SQL and DNS Analysis: In-depth insights into database and domain queries for troubleshooting.
Bandwidth Assessment: Evaluation of network capacity and utilization for performance optimization.
Real-time TWAMP Monitoring: Tracks network performance using Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol.
Application Performance Modules: Monitors the performance of various applications and services.
Customizable Dashboards: Personalized views for tracking critical network metrics and trends.
PCAP Capturing: Detailed packet analysis using tools like Wireshark for deeper insights.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?

Ease of Use: Intuitive design allowing users to swiftly diagnose network issues.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Enhanced visibility of network activity for better control.
Performance Efficiency: Optimization of throughput, reducing downtimes and improving service delivery.
Cost-Effectiveness: Balances features and functionality with competitive pricing for better ROI.

In industries such as telecommunications and finance, where network reliability is crucial, Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance offers critical network performance insights. It supports high-demand environments by providing data-driven decisions, ensuring infrastructures handle increased loads efficiently.

Cisco

Dynatrace is an AI-powered software intelligence monitoring platform that accelerates digital transformation and simplifies cloud complexities. Dynatrace is an entirely automated full-stack solution that provides data and answers about the performance of your applications and deep insight into every transaction throughout every application, including the end-user experience. By modernizing and automating enterprise cloud operations, users can deliver an optimal digital experience with higher quality software to customers faster.

Dynatrace offers an all-in-one automated artificial intelligence solution that brings together application performance, cloud and infrastructure, and digital experience monitoring. Dynatrace accelerates performance-driven results through operations, development, and business teams with a shared metrics platform. In addition, users are provided a full-stack monitoring experience with three patented technologies:

Smartscape - visualization mechanism that maps the totality of everything working in your environment and detects any casual dependencies between your applications, processes, websites, services, hosts, cloud infrastructure, and networks.
OneAgent - a technology that analyzes, gathers ,and unifies all business performance metrics throughout every layer of your technology stack.
PurePath Technology - code-level context and timings are captured from the mainframe to the cloud for all end-to-end transactions.

What does Dynatrace offer?

Dynatrace redefines how organizations monitor their digital ecosystems. The solution offers:

Cloud Automation: With AI engine Davis®, users can see the exact reason for problems and facilitate quick auto-remediation and intelligent cloud orchestration.
Application Security: With automated application vulnerability management, users can deliver applications faster and more securely.
Infrastructure Monitoring: Convenient broad visibility across your environments is provided with streamlined, automated infrastructure monitoring.
Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM): Optimize your applications, provide better support, and improve user experience with a combination of Real User Monitoring (RUM), Session Replay, and synthetic monitoring throughout your environment.
Applications and Microservices: For complex cloud environments, Dynatrace can automatically provide visibility and root-cause answers. It can also monitor microservices.
Digital Business Analytics: Get AI-powered, real-time answers to analytical business queries with KPIs and metrics that are already flowing through applications.

Reviews from Real Users

Dynatrace is the only solution that provides answers to organizations based on deep insight into each user, transaction, and organization's environment.

Barry P., a managing performance engineer at Medica Health Plans, writes, "With Dynatrace, we have synthetic checks and real-user monitoring of all of our websites, places where members and providers can interact with us over the web. We monitor the response times of those with Dynatrace, and it's all integrated into one place."

A consultant at a tech service company notes, "A feature that's one of the highlights of Dynatrace is the AI. The second most valuable feature is OneAgent. Between infrastructures, applications, operating systems, you can deploy with just a single agent and can practically install and forget about it."

Splunk AppDynamics is a comprehensive performance monitoring tool providing end-to-end transaction tracking, real-time monitoring, and a user-friendly interface. With AI-powered features, it enhances operational efficiency and resilience by offering insights into user interactions and infrastructure issues.

Splunk AppDynamics excels in monitoring applications and infrastructure performance, offering extensive support across environments like AWS and cloud. It aids in application performance monitoring, end-user experience, database analysis, and proactive incident detection. Supporting Java, .NET, and other technologies, it provides real-time insights into application health, resource utilization, and transaction tracking, ensuring reliable user experiences. Challenges remain in UI complexity, agent-based architecture, integration with diverse environments, and documentation clarity. Its licensing model is costly, and customer support may be slow. Performance concerns exist in historical data granularity and network visibility.

What features make Splunk AppDynamics stand out?

End-to-End Transaction Tracking: Monitors entire user transactions for comprehensive visibility.
Real-Time Monitoring: Provides instant insights into system performance.
AI-Powered Anomaly Detection: Identifies anomalies with advanced machine learning techniques.
Code-Level Troubleshooting: Diagnoses issues at the code level for precise fixes.
Business Transaction Visibility: Offers detailed views into transaction flow across all system layers.

What benefits and ROI can users expect from Splunk AppDynamics?

Improved Application Performance: Enhances system efficiency and reliability.
Operational Efficiency: Streamlines monitoring and issue resolution processes.
Enhanced Business Resilience: Strengthens the ability to adapt to performance challenges.
Seamless User Experiences: Ensures uninterrupted service and user satisfaction.

Organizations in industries like finance and healthcare implement Splunk AppDynamics to monitor critical applications and infrastructure. Its capabilities in transaction tracking and AI-driven insights are crucial for maintaining system reliability, supporting technologies such as Java and .NET, and ensuring optimal resource utilization.

Splunk

Sample Customers

T-Systems, Thomson Reuters, Bordeaux Metropole, CGI, Citadelle Regional Hospital Center, Lorraine Institute of Oncology, Luxembourg Institute of Health, Groupe BPCE, Group S, Splitpoint, Horus-Net, Audatex, Indexis, Province de Liège, EASI, Spie Batignolles, Faymonville

Audi, Best Buy, LinkedIn, CISCO, Intuit, KRONOS, Scottrade, Wells Fargo, ULTA Beauty, Lenovo, Swarovsk, Nike, Whirlpool, American Express

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