Cribl vs Instana Dynamic APM comparison

Cribl and Instana are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Cribl is ranked #14 with an average rating of 8.3, while Instana is ranked #21 with an average rating of 7.8. Cribl holds a 0.9% mindshare in APM, compared to Instana’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Cribl users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 84% of Instana users who would recommend it.

Cribl

Read 15 Cribl reviews

3,951 Views
988 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Instana Dynamic APM

Read 14 Instana Dynamic APM reviews

2,060 Views
2,039 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

Cribl

Instana Dynamic APM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

Instana Dynamic APM and Cribl compete in optimizing application performance management. Instana is noted for better ease of use, while Cribl stands out in data handling and integration capabilities.

Features: Instana Dynamic APM offers automated infrastructure discovery, end-to-end transaction visibility, and real-time monitoring for insightful system performance analysis. Cribl's key features include log aggregation, flexible data routing, and advanced transformation capabilities. Instana provides comprehensive real-time insights, whereas Cribl offers powerful data manipulation and integration flexibility.

Room for Improvement: Instana could enhance its graphics processing and input handling. Offering more intuitive explanations for data flatlines would decrease reliance on support. Cribl requires simpler initial setup and could benefit from more intuitive customization processes. Better documentation for its advanced features would be valuable, as would improved initial user guidance.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Instana simplifies deployment with automated agents and substantial documentation, ensuring smooth system integration. Its customer service boasts rapid response times. Cribl, while offering extensive customization, demands more setup effort. It is commended for robust support resources and an active community.

Pricing and ROI: Instana offers a straightforward pricing model with transparent costs, providing a solid ROI with broad monitoring capabilities. Cribl may require a higher initial investment due to advanced customization but offers substantial long-term ROI through efficient data management and cost-saving infrastructure solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Cribl vs. Instana Dynamic APM Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cribl vs. Instana Dynamic APM

July 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

Cribl

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

14th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Log Management (8th), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (12th), Observability Pipeline Software (1st)

Instana Dynamic APM

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

21st

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Cribl is 0.9%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Instana Dynamic APM is 1.0%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Joe Cicero

Director of Strategic Alliances at security risk advisors

Facilitates seamless log integration and reduces data costs with efficient compression

My favorite feature is Cribl Stream. That's probably the only Cribl product I have a lot of experience with, and Cribl Stream makes it very easy to identify where all the customer's log sources are and to quickly connect them to a destination source such as Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Azure Data Storage. Cribl Stream does two things: not only does it make it easy to connect one log source or one dataset to multiple storage locations, but it also has compression features, which greatly reduce the storage cost for that data. It strips out and compresses data so that only the absolute information remains and not any duplicates. Dual destination and compression are the two top features.

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Muhammad Jawwad Hassan

IT Consultant at Arcana Info

A really good GUI that is easy for non-technical users to understand

Our company uses the solution for one of our bank clients. We use App Connect middleware to monitor services and applications such as Docker, Kubernetes, MongoDB, and MS SQL Server. We also monitor the bottleneck for all servers. We currently have 20 users at one of our branches. We plan to expand…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Features such as Cribl Stream, Cribl LogStream, and Cribl Edge have been the most beneficial. The Cribl LogStream, in particular, is valuable for routing data, creating firewalls on pipelines, and putting security measures in place to ensure data reaches its destination without issues."

"The platform's most valuable feature is the ability to transform data in real-time within the pipeline without sending it to a destination."

"The product's most valuable features include the internal management of events, coding perspective, data processing, and serialization."

"The support team was very helpful and managed to get everything production-ready."

"Cribl definitely helps with the complexity because you don't have to push for deployment—they provide the interface where you can mimic what the output will look like, and you can see that in real time when setting up the Cribl configuration, which definitely helps considerably."

"I'd rate the solution ten out of ten."

"The capability to reduce logs in a user-friendly manner is a standout feature. Cribl allows us to view logs live as they are being processed, giving us quick feedback on the changes made."

"Cribl offers other valuable features. For instance, you can replay data from an edge device, store your daily data in a stream, and replay specific event data into Splunk if a security incident occurs"

More Cribl pros

"Instana is very fast to implement and deploy because the dashboards are automated and don't need configuration."

"It's great for monitoring services and applications."

"The overall capabilities are the most valuable."

"Its GUI is really good and it easy to understand for non-technical users."

"It is user-friendly, but we encounter issues processing input and understanding the graphics, such as seeing a flatline without knowing the cause. When these problems occur, I have to contact my support team to address and fix them. Also, monitoring processing is good."

"With auto-discovery, we didn't need to consider much. We just installed the agent on the host and it was able to detect everything from the host level up to the service level, for whatever stack was installed, and that includes containers and dockers."

"Visually, it's very good. It provides everything needed for dynamic detection, which is very useful."

"It is a stable solution."

More Instana Dynamic APM pros

Cons

"The sys logging could be enhanced to make it easier to identify errors, especially when dealing with multiple functions."

"There is no alerting mechanism for the leader/worker nodes status."

"Cribl could improve by offering easier integrations with enterprise products, similar to what Splunk provides."

"Cribl should consider adding more features that are applicable to smaller firms, allowing broader access to their data migration through Cribl."

"There have been several administrative issues. Another point is that the browsing functions aren't very intuitive."

"Perhaps more flexibility in terms of metrics would be helpful."

"There is room for improvement in the documentation and knowledge base, particularly regarding configurations like sources where logs are being ingested"

"Cribl doesn't have as many packs available"

More Cribl cons

"New Relic has a better UI in terms of how it presents the data."

"Its SLI and SLA features need improvement in setting up alerts."

"The App Connect middleware does not integrate with or show corresponding sub nodes."

"We should be able to go back to scenarios during or before the issue. There should be something like a history playback. Such a feature or functionality would be good."

"Many managers, as well as our customers, used to ask for reports, such as "top X number of queries that are slow," or "top pages that have the highest number of issues." This is something that can be improved by Instana. Currently, they don't have that kind of reporting available out-of-the-box."

"The integration could be improved with more plugins or open API."

"Maybe log monitoring could be better."

"The auto-remediation features must be improved."

More Instana Dynamic APM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would not say it is a cheaply priced tool as it has been doing wonders in the market. The tool has been budget-friendly for organizations."

"The product pricing is reasonable compared to other solutions."

"Instana Dynamic APM is more affordable for small and medium-sized companies compared to other vendors."

"Pricing is quite competitive. Dynatrace, AppDynamics, and New Relic were all several times more expensive than Instana, both the on-prem and the SaaS versions. Price-wise they are a lot more competitive than anyone else out there."

"Its pricing isn't a big pain point. Its pricing seems to be better than some of the other competing products in the market, but they also have some of the features and functionalities that are better than Instana."

"It's reasonably priced and manageable, especially for individuals who grasp the significance of application monitoring."

"The solution is less expensive than one of its competitors."

"The solution's pricing is comparable to other products."

"The pricing is $1,200 per year which is a bit high compared to other vendors."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

28%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cribl?

The current pricing is a little bit above average.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cribl?

Something that Cribl could do better is processing time. There is not enough customization to improve performance. An example would be with AWS Lambda functions, the way we were doing it before. Th...

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What is your primary use case for Cribl?

Our use cases that we are exploring Cribl for right now are for data parsing and data manipulation.

See all answers

What do you like most about Instana Dynamic APM?

The platform’s most valuable feature is the ability to monitor the performance of containers for request and response analysis.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Instana Dynamic APM?

I rate the pricing a seven out of ten. There are no additional costs associated with the product.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Instana Dynamic APM?

Sometimes, the issue arises from user changes, such as adjusting firewall settings without proper consideration, leading to compatibility issues within the network monitoring.

See all answers

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Compared 7% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Cribl

Compared 6% of the time

Logstash vs Cribl

Compared 6% of the time

More Cribl Competitors

Dynatrace vs Instana Dynamic APM

Compared 52% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs Instana Dynamic APM

Compared 16% of the time

Datadog vs Instana Dynamic APM

Compared 8% of the time

IBM Application Performance Management vs Instana Dynamic APM

Compared 7% of the time

New Relic vs Instana Dynamic APM

Compared 6% of the time

More Instana Dynamic APM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cribl

August 2025

Download Cribl product report

Buyer's Guide

Instana Dynamic APM

August 2025

Download Instana Dynamic APM product report

Overview

Cribl optimizes log collection, data processing, and migration to Splunk Cloud, ensuring efficient data ingestion and management for improved operational efficiency.

Cribl offers seamless log collection directly from cloud sources, allowing users to visually extract necessary data and replay specific events for in-depth analysis. It provides robust management of events, parsing, and enrichment of data, along with effective log size reduction. Cribl is particularly beneficial for migrating enterprise logs, optimizing usage, and reducing costs while streamlining the transition between different log management tools.

What are Cribl's most important features?

Real-Time Data Transformation: Enables immediate data processing for accurate insights.
Simplified Log Collection: Gathers data from diverse sources effortlessly.
Powerful Data Reduction: Reduces log size without losing critical information.
Inbuilt Packs: Ready-to-use functions simplify complex tasks.
Live Testing: Allows testing before production deployment for reliability.
Master Node Updates: Manages worker groups efficiently for consistent performance.
Advanced Data Processing: Offers robust data serialization and coding perspectives.
Easy Plugin Configurations: Facilitates direct integration with reduced setup time.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Optimized Usage: Ensures effective resource management and cost reduction.
Streamlined Migration: Simplifies the transition between log management tools.
Enhanced Data Management: Improves data quality and processing efficiency.
Reduced Time and Effort: Direct-to-production capabilities save operational time.

Cribl is widely implemented in industries requiring extensive data management, such as technology and finance. Users leverage Cribl to handle log collection, processing, and migration efficiently, ensuring smooth operation and effective data analysis. It aids in managing temporary data storage during downtimes and better handling historical data, preventing data loss and allowing extended periods for viewing statistics and monitoring trends.

Cribl

Instana’s Enterprise Observability Platform, powered by automated Application Performance Monitoring, discovers and maps all services, infrastructure, and their inter-dependencies automatically. Instana ingests all observability metrics, traces each request, profiles every process, and updates application dependency maps in real-time to deliver the context and actionable feedback needed by Dev+Ops to optimize application performance, enable innovation, and mitigate risk to help them add value and efficiency to the pipeline. Learn more at https://instana.com.

Instana

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

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Buyer's Guide

Cribl vs. Instana Dynamic APM

July 2025

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