IBM Application Performance Management vs Prometheus Group comparison

IBM Application Performance...

Read 34 Prometheus Group reviews

5,686 Views
5,629 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 8, 2025

IBM Application Performance Management and Prometheus Group compete in performance monitoring and optimization. IBM holds an advantage in pricing and support, being cost-effective, while Prometheus stands out in features, valued by buyers for its robust capabilities.

Features: IBM Application Performance Management is known for real-time monitoring, integration with IBM products, and cognitive analytics. Prometheus Group offers advanced analytics, powerful visualization, and integration with Grafana for enhanced UI.

Room for Improvement: IBM could improve by expanding its analytics capabilities, providing more visualization options, and enhancing third-party integrations. Prometheus can work on simplifying its setup process, expanding customer support channels, and offering more straightforward pricing options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM offers streamlined deployment and responsive support within IBM ecosystems. Prometheus has a complex setup but provides flexible and comprehensive service options, appealing to those seeking customization.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Application Performance Management is competitively priced with quick ROI, attracting budget-conscious buyers. Prometheus requires a higher initial investment, but its robust features may offer substantial long-term ROI for businesses needing in-depth insights.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Application Performance Management vs. Prometheus Group Report (Updated: July 2025).

IBM Application Performance Management vs. Prometheus Group

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 861,524 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

IBM Application Performance...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

50th

Average Rating

6.4

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Prometheus Group

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of IBM Application Performance Management is 0.3%, down from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Prometheus Group is 3.0%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Daniel Tamiru

Manager, Database & System Administration at Awash International Bank

A multi-functional solution but has poor stability and performance-related issues

We are using version 4 of IBM Application Performance Management, and it is deployed on-premises. We use it for internet banking and mainly for application performance on-site. For example, if we face performance-related issues in one of our software or managed services, we use this solution to…

Read full review

MuhammadAzhar Khan

Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group

Free to use and provides valuable monitoring capabilities

Prometheus is a scalable and flexible tool that I can deploy on any cloud platform. It is free to use and provides valuable monitoring capabilities. It allows me to save money by avoiding costs associated with AWS native services like CloudWatch or Amazon Prometheus. The ability to deploy on any cloud platform or environment, including Kubernetes, is a major advantage.

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

"The transaction tracking feature from IBM is the most important feature for us. It is something that provides a terrific value for us and our clients. It has a lot of data sources and agents that are collectors. It is also stable."

"I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten."

"It's easy to use."

"IBM Application Performance Management helped us increased our response time by 80% and cost 60% less."

"Because we have partnerships with other partners, I can share a bit about what I've noticed with IBM APM compared to other vendor solutions. Specifically, with IBM, the visibility into detailed process information is more tangible. On the OS level, APM displays all processes (or the top 10 processes) that are consuming CPU or resident memory. This is the most important thing that is not always available with other vendors."

"The most valuable feature is the breakdown that it provides, such as a description of the fields for a particular transaction."

"The initial setup was straightforward and took minimal effort."

"The feature I found most valuable is the number of integrations. It is the industry standard for metrics."

"I like its lightweight configuration functions."

"Prometheus gives us high availability automatically."

"The product has an easy-to-understand interface."

"It is an efficient solution."

"The solution can be deployed in thirty minutes."

"Prometheus is an open-source product that helps mold and improve it per our requirements. It is a lightweight solution that gives you many different metrics you can use in your application. The product offers complete granularity of your infrastructure. It integrates seamlessly with other tools like Grafana, which offers dashboard visibility. Prometheus is an extensively used product. I haven't seen any organization that is not using it."

"The most valuable feature of Prometheus is the ease of pulling the metrics."

More Prometheus Group pros

Cons

"The stability is not great and should be better."

"With APM, we noticed that the agent can cause a lot of issues for the application, making the agent very unreliable. Many issues are happening, and we've had to discuss it with support to try and get a fix. It affects application availability, and sometimes actions fail because of the agent, degrading the performance of the application."

"It's still missing some platforms. For example, if you look to applications itself, it is missing the interface."

"They should focus on potentially enhancing the dashboard to make it more contemporary and adding some customization options. Furthermore, there might be room for improvement in the pricing policy."

"Technical support can be slow and needs improvement."

"The demo that was provided to us is not working very well. At times, there are errors."

"Its web user interface is a little bit old in comparison to other solutions, such as New Relic, and it should be improved. Its scalability and technical support should also be improved. Currently, it is scalable, but only in a vertical way. They provide good technical support, but the initial steps for a new case can be improved to fasten the resolution process."

"Prometheus can be initially difficult for users since it has its query language, PromQL. The minimalistic interface is complicated to understand. They need to improve their interface so that users who don't know PromQL can also use it. You can only leverage the tool when you know PromQL."

"Setting up the rules in Prometheus can be confusing, making it an area where improvements are required."

"I would like to see improvement in the analysis tools and customization features."

"There is a need for a more comprehensive overview of exporters, especially when dealing with many of them."

"The alert functionality is kind of lackluster."

"The DSL could be improved."

"The solution has shortcomings regarding security monitoring-oriented features to support custom use cases, like out-of-the-box test scenarios and threat-related use cases of its users."

"If you are not quite technical, it can be pretty hard to understand the way it works and how to query data in Prometheus."

More Prometheus Group cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing fees can be paid every six months or on a yearly basis."

"As I previously indicated, I initiated the IBM and uncovered all its elements. Consequently, I'm not inclined towards a licensing approach."

"IBM APM is one of the cheaper products on the market, while everything necessary to get started is included in the license."

"The solution is not expensive."

"The product is expensive compared to Datadog."

"Prometheus is available as an open-source product."

"We have the open-source version, so we don't pay for it."

"The price of Prometheus is good, it is affordable because it is open source and there is no cost to it. You put it on your own server and the costs incurred completely depend on how you set it up."

"This is an open-source solution."

"The solution is free of cost."

"My company uses the open-source version of the product."

More Prometheus Group pricing and cost advice

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

861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

26%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Financial Services Firm

24%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Application Performance Management?

I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

What needs improvement with IBM Application Performance Management?

They should focus on potentially enhancing the dashboard to make it more contemporary and adding some customization options. Furthermore, there might be room for improvement in the pricing policy. ...

What is your primary use case for IBM Application Performance Management?

I monitor business applications for more than four end users.

What do you like most about Prometheus?

The most valuable feature of Prometheus is its ability to collect metrics.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Prometheus?

Prometheus is cost-effective for me as it is free. Using cloud-native alternatives like Amazon Prometheus would incur charges.

What is your primary use case for Prometheus?

I use Prometheus for monitoring purposes in IT infrastructure. It is particularly useful for environments using Kubernetes, as it monitors ports, containers, instances, and applications effectively.

Instana Dynamic APM vs IBM Application Performance Management

Comparisons

Compared 25% of the time

BMC Compuware Strobe vs IBM Application Performance Management

Compared 24% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs IBM Application Performance Management

Compared 16% of the time

Datadog vs IBM Application Performance Management

Compared 12% of the time

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager vs IBM Application Performance Management

Compared 8% of the time

More IBM Application Performance Management Competitors

Zabbix vs Prometheus Group

Compared 13% of the time

Azure Monitor vs Prometheus Group

Compared 10% of the time

Dynatrace vs Prometheus Group

Compared 8% of the time

Sentry vs Prometheus Group

Compared 8% of the time

Apache SkyWalking vs Prometheus Group

Compared 7% of the time

More Prometheus Group Competitors

Product Reports

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

July 2025

IBM Application Performance Management report

Download IBM Application Performance Management product report

Download Prometheus Group product report

June 2025

Also Known As

IBM APM

No data available

Overview

The IBM Application Performance Management portfolio provides visibility, control and automation of your mission-critical applications. It helps pinpoint the root cause of application's issue more quickly and resolve the problem. The integrated capabilities cover the five key areas: discovery, end-use experience, transaction tracking, enterprise diagnostics and analytics. It also easily monitors applications to ensure optimal performance to extend your hybrid management environment capabilities, to measure the customer experience from multiple locations and to further eliminate blind spots in your application environment.

IBM

Prometheus Group specializes in robust monitoring and observability, offering comprehensive data collection, analysis, and visualization across cloud and on-premise environments. Its integration with tools like Python, Java, and Kubernetes enables users to track metrics efficiently.

Prometheus Group provides an open-source, customizable platform focused on flexibility and reliability. Its integration with Grafana enhances data visualization while supporting complex infrastructures for improved productivity. Users rely on its scalable architecture for effective monitoring and observability, aiding performance analytics and alerting. Despite its strengths, challenges with its query language and interface usability persist, along with a need for simpler setup. Enhancing documentation and reporting capabilities remains essential for broader adoption, especially among less technical users.

What are the standout features of Prometheus Group?

Integration with Python, Java, and Kubernetes: Provides seamless metric collection and analysis.
Log Comparison Dashboard: Enables efficient comparison for better insights.
Flexible Exporters: Gathers diverse data for comprehensive monitoring.
Lightweight Configuration: Ensures easy deployment and management.
Grafana Integration: Facilitates advanced data visualization.

What benefits or ROI should users expect?

Scalability: Adapts to rapidly changing environments and infrastructure demands.
Community Support: Benefits from continuous open-source community improvements.
Enhanced Productivity: Improves system performance analytics and alerting efficiency.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Provides detailed insights into server health and resource usage.

Prometheus Group is widely implemented across industries like cloud services and IT infrastructure. Organizations monitor infrastructure, applications, and databases, utilizing its capabilities for system scalability and health checks within Azure and Amazon ecosystems. Its integration with Kubernetes supports performance monitoring and ensures reliable data analytics, fostering comprehensive metric tracking.

Sample Customers

Mibtree, EatDrinkDeals.com, IT Performance Advisor

Information Not Available