Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) vs Instana Dynamic APM comparison

Google and Instana are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Google is ranked #26 with an average rating of 8.0, while Instana is ranked #19 with an average rating of 7.7. Google holds a 1.1% mindshare in APM, compared to Instana’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 84% of Instana users who would recommend it.
Google Cloud's operations s...
Read 10 Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) reviews
  • 2,327 Views
  • 1,462 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
Instana Dynamic APM
Read 14 Instana Dynamic APM reviews
  • 2,329 Views
  • 1,770 Comparison Views
84% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report
Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

Instana Dynamic APM and Google Cloud's operations suite compete in the APM solutions category. Instana Dynamic APM seems to have the upper hand due to higher user satisfaction with deployment and support, whereas Google Cloud's operations suite is preferred for its comprehensive features.

Features: Instana Dynamic APM is praised for its AI-powered automation, real-time data monitoring, and straightforward deployment. Google Cloud's operations suite stands out for its integration with other Google Cloud services, extensive logging, monitoring, and debugging capabilities. Differences lie in the depth of integration and AI features provided.

Room for Improvement: Users suggest that Instana Dynamic APM could benefit from enhanced documentation, improved alerting capabilities, and finer-grained control over deployment settings. For Google Cloud's operations suite, user reviews point to a need for a more intuitive setup process, better resource management, and simplified configuration options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Instana Dynamic APM is noted for its straightforward deployment and responsive customer support. Google Cloud's operations suite, while robust, has a more complex setup and varied support experiences. Differences are marked by the simplicity of deployment and consistency in support services.

Pricing and ROI: Instana Dynamic APM offers competitive pricing with quicker ROI due to efficient performance issue resolution. Google Cloud's operations suite, while potentially costing more, delivers value through extensive features that justify the investment. Differences are seen in cost-effectiveness and the perceived value derived from each solution.

DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE REPORT
To learn more, read our detailed Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) vs. Instana Dynamic APM Report (Updated: June 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) vs. Instana Dynamic APM
June 2025
Download the complete report
Helped 857,585 peers since 2012

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

Google Cloud's operations s...
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
26th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (31st), Cloud Monitoring Software (21st)
Instana Dynamic APM
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
19th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) is 1.1%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Instana Dynamic APM is 1.0%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
 

Featured Reviews

Anand_Patel - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers reliable Ops Agent and logging transport feature with easy third-party integrations
As part of our company, we implemented several changes in our log analytics pattern, including the storage and procurement process. Earlier, before implementing the solution, our company was able to procure only one year of data, but later, we came to the three-year mark. Around 15-20% reduction has been witnessed in the total analytic consumption of our company. The aforementioned result was possible because the solution allowed the creation of a dashboard where factors like storage costs, proportion of logs, and logs presence in a storage bucket or BigQuery can all be checked. Earlier all logs were stored in a raw storage, but currently our company is able to move logs in table bucket that contributes towards cost savings.
Read full review
Muhammad Jawwad Hassan - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
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

"I like the monitoring feature."
"The most valuable feature is the multi-cloud integration, where there is support for both GCP and AWS."
"It's easy to use."
"Provides visibility into the performance uptime."
"We find the solution to be stable."
"Offers a valuable logging transport feature"
"The cloud login enables us to get our logs from the different platforms that we currently use."
"Our company has a corporate account for Google Cloud and so our systems and clusters integrate really well."
More Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) pros
"The primary selling point of this product is its unparalleled transparency into the infrastructure."
"With Instana, the interface and the UI are very simple to use."
"Instana is very fast to implement and deploy because the dashboards are automated and don't need configuration."
"The platform’s most valuable feature is the ability to monitor the performance of containers for request and response analysis."
"It's great for monitoring services and applications."
"Its GUI is really good and it easy to understand for non-technical users."
"We can easily perform root cause analysis using the tool."
"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."
More Instana Dynamic APM pros
 

Cons

"The logging functionality could be better."
"It could be even more automated."
"The process of logging analytics can be improved"
"If I want to track any round-trip or breakdowns of my response times, I'm not able to get it. My request goes through various levels of the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and comes back to my client machine. Suppose that my request has taken 10 seconds overall, so if I want to break it down, to see where the delay is happening within my architecture, I am not able to find that out using Stackdriver."
"It could be more stable."
"The product provides minimal metrics that are insufficient."
"This solution could be improved if it offered the ability to analyze charts, such as a solution like Kibana."
"It is difficult to estimate in advance how much something is going to cost."
More Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) cons
"The configuration of Instana Dynamic APM needs improvement because it requires quite a bit of work."
"New Relic has a better UI in terms of how it presents the data."
"Sometimes, the issue arises from user changes, such as adjusting firewall settings without proper consideration, leading to compatibility issues within the network monitoring."
"Its SLI and SLA features need improvement in setting up alerts."
"The auto-remediation features must be improved."
"Maybe log monitoring could be better."
"We'd always like to see additional functionalities."
"The App Connect middleware does not integrate with or show corresponding sub nodes."
More Instana Dynamic APM cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a basic standard license without any additional costs."
"The cost could be lower."
"The cost of using Stackdriver depends on usage."
"The pricing is $1,200 per year which is a bit high compared to other vendors."
"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."
"The solution's pricing is comparable to other products."
"The solution is less expensive than one of its competitors."
"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."
report
See which vendors are best for you
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability solutions are best for your needs.
See recommendations
857,585 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Real Estate/Law Firm
6%
Financial Services Firm
29%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Google Stackdriver?
If the errors are caught early in the interface, it would be easier for users to manage. The process of logging analytics can be improved.
See all answers
What is your primary use case for Google Stackdriver?
I use the solution for logging, defining alerts, and monitoring. Our company's Java and Python logging teams mainly use it.
See all answers
What advice do you have for others considering Google Stackdriver?
The Ops Agent and logging transport feature of the solution have had a major impact on improving application performance. The solution also allows the transport of logs into log buckets, which is h...
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
 

Comparisons

AWS X-Ray vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) Logo
AWS X-Ray vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)
Compared 29% of the time
Datadog vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) Logo
Datadog vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)
Compared 20% of the time
New Relic vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) Logo
New Relic vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)
Compared 6% of the time
Prometheus Group vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) Logo
Prometheus Group vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)
Compared 5% of the time
Dynatrace vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) Logo
Dynatrace vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)
Compared 5% of the time
More Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) Competitors
Dynatrace vs Instana Dynamic APM Logo
Dynatrace vs Instana Dynamic APM
Compared 48% of the time
Splunk AppDynamics vs Instana Dynamic APM Logo
Splunk AppDynamics vs Instana Dynamic APM
Compared 17% of the time
Datadog vs Instana Dynamic APM Logo
Datadog vs Instana Dynamic APM
Compared 9% of the time
IBM Application Performance Management vs Instana Dynamic APM Logo
IBM Application Performance Management vs Instana Dynamic APM
Compared 8% of the time
Broadcom DX Application Performance Management vs Instana Dynamic APM Logo
Broadcom DX Application Performance Management vs Instana Dynamic APM
Compared 4% of the time
More Instana Dynamic APM Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
June 2025
Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) reportDownload Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) product report
Buyer's Guide
Instana Dynamic APM
June 2025
Instana Dynamic APM reportDownload Instana Dynamic APM product report
 

Also Known As

Google Stackdriver, Stackdriver Monitoring, Stackdriver Logging, Google Cloud Monitoring
No data available
 

Overview

Real-time log management and analysis

Cloud Logging is a fully managed service that performs at scale and can ingest application and platform log data, as well as custom log data from GKE environments, VMs, and other services inside and outside of Google Cloud. Get advanced performance, troubleshooting, security, and business insights with Log Analytics, integrating the power of BigQuery into Cloud Logging.

Built-in metrics observability at scale

Cloud Monitoring provides visibility into the performance, uptime, and overall health of cloud-powered applications. Collect metrics, events, and metadata from Google Cloud services, hosted uptime probes, application instrumentation, and a variety of common application components. Visualize this data on charts and dashboards and create alerts so you are notified when metrics are outside of expected ranges.

Stand-alone managed service for running and scaling Prometheus

Managed Service for Prometheus is a fully managed Prometheus-compatible monitoring solution, built on top of the same globally scalable data store as Cloud Monitoring. Keep your existing visualization, analysis, and alerting services, as this data can be queried with PromQL or Cloud Monitoring.

Monitor and improve your application's performance

Application Performance Management (APM) combines the monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities of Cloud Logging and Cloud Monitoring with Cloud Trace and Cloud Profiler to help you reduce latency and cost so you can run more efficient applications.

Google

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

Uber, Batterii, Q42, Dovetail Games
Daxko Lifts Fitness Studios Through COVID Regulations with Quick Engineering PivotsAltissia Meets SLAs to Support Student DeadlinesImmocloud Unlocks Observability to Modernize Real EstateEnento Group Boosts Service Reliability with Real-Time Visibility into Application Performance Instana’s Observability for Amazon EKS Helps Yara Deliver Digital Farming Solutions
Buyer's Guide
Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) vs. Instana Dynamic APM
June 2025
Free Report: Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) vs. Instana Dynamic APM
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) vs. Instana Dynamic APM and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
DOWNLOAD NOW
857,585 professionals have used our research since 2012.
See our Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) vs. Instana Dynamic APM report.

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.