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Cribl vs ManageEngine Applications Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

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
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (3rd), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (7th), Observability Pipeline Software (1st)
ManageEngine Applications M...
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
43rd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Monitoring Software (34th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Cribl is 1.2%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ManageEngine Applications Manager is 0.8%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cribl1.2%
ManageEngine Applications Manager0.8%
Other98.0%
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
 

Featured Reviews

Aman Verma - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Has helped reduce daily log volume significantly and streamline data routing across multiple destinations
Regarding complexity, as I mentioned before, Cribl is very simple to use. When I started 2.5 years ago, it was very easy to learn. I learned Cribl within a week, and even though I was a fresher at the time, it was easy to understand and not complex enough that someone would need to spend money on labs. It's not that complex to learn. Regarding cost efficiency, it's very good because nowadays the SIEM tools we use are too expensive on license, and SIEM tools base their license on how many logs get ingested. The unwanted logs, particularly firewall logs, represent a significant portion of unnecessary ingestion. Cribl saves our license by filtering out half of the firewall logs that are unwanted. Our main purpose for using Cribl is to save our license and save money. Currently, everyone is moving toward AI agents. We currently use regex, and AI agents could help us create those regex patterns to drop events or add raw data to events. Currently, we sit down, review the logs, and create regex patterns manually, which can be time-consuming. An AI agent could reduce this time. I read some articles indicating that Cribl Cloud has started using AI and considering MCPs and model context, but I'm not certain how far along they are. If Cribl asked me what they could improve, that would be my suggestion. The support is very good, and I had a few issues with Cribl where I raised support cases and received good responses, which is better than the quick response I didn't get from other SIEM tools and vendor tools I use. Compared to other SIEM tools, Cribl is cheaper than Splunk and DataDogs. However, it's still a bit expensive from my point of view, though I won't call it expensive. Overall, I think 99% of companies use Cribl before their SIEM tools, and compared to SIEM tools, Cribl is cheaper. Companies can use any SIEM tool such as Google, Splunk, or Cisco, and Cribl is cheaper than those SIEM tools. They might have a slight chance to reduce costs further, but I'm not the correct person to evaluate that since I'm more focused on the operational side. Regarding training, it was quite easy to grasp. It took me almost a week to understand the basic functionalities and what Cribl does. Getting more expertise took additional time, but basic functionalities and understanding what Cribl does took around four to five days. One point I want to mention is that Cribl could improve their labs or training materials in their Cribl Cloud or whatever portal they have.
SN
Senior System Engineer at Qatar Petroleum
Managing application health has become simpler but new monitoring features still need faster delivery
I use application discovery and dependency mapping. It helps with managing application health What I like about ManageEngine Applications Manager is the ease of use and ease of deployment. I cannot remember anything specific for future updates of the product. The new features take a lot of time…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cribl feels a lot easier to use and more intuitive, gives you more capability, and you don't have to work as hard to set things up."
"Enhancing those events to optimize, to add new fields or to remove the extra fields that are of no use helps us in log reduction by dumping the raw logs and only ingesting the interested fields, which helps us in 50 to 60% volume reduction."
"Cribl offers easy plugin configurations and source collection settings, allowing us to collect logs from any source."
"The features of Cribl that I appreciate the most are the vendor agnosticism and the ability to send data almost anywhere you want, regardless of the data type, the format, or the destination; it's very flexible, and we've been able to integrate it with the tools that we have used in the past and are planning to use in the future."
"What I appreciate most about Cribl is that it addresses a major gap in the market compared to the competition."
"The platform's most valuable feature is the ability to transform data in real-time within the pipeline without sending it to a destination."
"Cribl is a Ferrari for data analytics and monitoring, but you don't hand over the power or weaponize that tool for someone who doesn't know how to use it."
"The features of Cribl that I appreciate the most are the ability for in-place searching for our logs, so we don't have to move our logs outside of our cloud, which gives us privacy and compliance requirements."
"I am impressed with the tool's reporting feature which is simple."
"Its price and the flexibility to deploy are the most valuable. Flexibility is very important, and you can scale from very basic to more complex. This solution is a part of a complete suite of management tools. So, it can be integrated with other solutions for monitoring networks, which is very important. You can expand it or interconnect it with many other tools, which is a powerful feature. We have a very good and long relationship with ManageEngine support guys. They provide very good support for us."
"Depending on the size of the environment, this is a solution that I recommend."
"What I like about ManageEngine Applications Manager is the ease of use and ease of deployment."
"ManageEngine Applications Manager's installation is pretty easy."
"For a small organization, I think ManageEngine is pretty nice, I think it's enough."
"We do not have pricing constraints as an organization, because we do have reservations about ManageEngine being functionally scalable."
"The Service Level Management (SLM) rules engine stands out due to its flexibility and customization capabilities, making it an invaluable tool for tailoring processes to our specific needs."
 

Cons

"Improvement could be made in the logging area, as sometimes we encounter issues in a pipeline or something, and it's not immediately obvious when you look at the logs that the pipeline is failing."
"However, the endpoint plug-in tool can use some refinement, as it tends to hit system resources and can sometimes be detrimental to systems to the point where it must be turned off and a scan restarted when a user is offline."
"Cribl is a very capable platform, but one area where it could improve is the learning curve for new users."
"There is room for improvement in the documentation and knowledge base, particularly regarding configurations like sources where logs are being ingested"
"Cribl should consider adding more features that are applicable to smaller firms, allowing broader access to their data migration through Cribl."
"Currently, we sit down, review the logs, and create regex patterns manually, which can be time-consuming."
"There is no alerting mechanism for the leader/worker nodes status."
"Just sometimes, when I actually started using Cribl, I faced the issue where I was not able to connect the nodes."
"They can improve the post-processing of the data."
"The dashboards in the interface need a lot of work."
"I would like the solution to improve the ability to track services."
"They can improve the post-processing of the data. AppDynamics has more powerful tools for post-processing or analytics. It has some limitations in more complex environments, but because we are free to use different solutions, we try to find what is best for the customers or the problem we are trying to solve."
"They could probably rearrange the UI so that it would be easy for people who are new to the Application Manager to configure things."
"The problem is that implementation requires a significant amount of mapping effort."
"One area of improvement is the dashboard should be more readable and available."
"An area for improvement in ManageEngine Applications Manager is artificial intelligence. If AI is integrated into the solution, it'll be a piece of cake. Currently, it's all configured manually."
 

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."
"The solution's licensing costs are yearly."
"The cost of this solution is not too bad, although it could be cheaper considering what you're getting for the price."
"The solution is noted for its cost-effectiveness, a crucial consideration for potential users."
"Price-wise, it is a cheap tool...The solution's licensing model is subscription-based, in which yearly payments are to be made."
"Its price is good."
"ManageEngine Applications Manager has reasonable pricing. It's more affordable than other solutions in the market. My company has an instance-based license for ManageEngine Applications Manager. You can purchase a yearly subscription or a perpetual license. The standard license covers most features, but you can still have some paid add-ons."
"The annual licensing depends on the number of monitors you have connected. Once you get to two hundred monitors you can see the price reflect."
"It is a cost-effective solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
7%
Computer Software Company
5%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise34
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cribl?
Regarding current pricing, it was based on an ingress-based model that we used, and it was favorable. It was cheaper than the Splunk license. We didn't have a problem with the purchase.
What needs improvement with Cribl?
Some downsides of Cribl include that it was quite a long sales cycle for us, but that was probably partly my fault as well. There weren't really any negatives on the product itself. Cribl can do be...
What is your primary use case for Cribl?
My use cases for Cribl basically involve being part of a Splunk theme organization where I was brought in to do a soft confirmation program, and I was onboarding more and more logs into Cribl as my...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ManageEngine Applications Manager?
I am satisfied with the licensing cost for ManageEngine Applications Manager.
What needs improvement with ManageEngine Applications Manager?
The new features take a lot of time to be implemented, and that could be improved about ManageEngine Applications Manager. If I were requesting a new feature that is not existing, making it availab...
What is your primary use case for ManageEngine Applications Manager?
I use application discovery and dependency mapping. It helps with managing application health.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Applications Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Certis Europe, Financial Domain, SaaS Office Suite, On Demand TV, Parliament's IT Systems, Sastra Technologies, UniServity
Find out what your peers are saying about Cribl vs. ManageEngine Applications Manager and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,376 professionals have used our research since 2012.