IBM Application Performance Management vs Zabbix comparison

IBM Application Performance...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

Zabbix and IBM Application Performance Management compete in the APM market. IBM appears to have the upper hand due to its advanced features and professional support, which justify its higher cost.

Features: Zabbix offers extensive monitoring capabilities, open-source flexibility, and affordability. IBM stands out with advanced AI-driven analytics, scalability, and comprehensive monitoring options.

Room for Improvement: Zabbix could improve its modern interface, training resources, and user interface intuitiveness. IBM could lower its learning curve, simplify configurations, and reduce deployment complexity.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zabbix is favored for straightforward deployment and robust community support, though it lacks comprehensive customer service. IBM, while more complex to deploy, provides extensive customer service and professional support, giving it an advantage in professional environments.

Pricing and ROI: Zabbix is praised for low cost and solid ROI for small to medium businesses. IBM's higher initial setup cost is justified by substantial long-term ROI from its enhanced functionalities and service, making it worthwhile for enterprises needing advanced performance management capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Application Performance Management vs. Zabbix Report (Updated: September 2025).

IBM Application Performance Management vs. Zabbix

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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

IBM Application Performance...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

52nd

Average Rating

6.4

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zabbix

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

9th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

107

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (1st), Server Monitoring (1st), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (1st), Cloud Monitoring Software (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of IBM Application Performance Management is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zabbix is 3.2%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Zabbix	3.2%
IBM Application Performance Management	0.5%
Other	96.3%

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…

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B Ahmed

Manager, Information Technology Zara & Inditex at Cenomi

Enables seamless global client monitoring with reliable remote connectivity

I use the solution to provide a perfect environment for remote connectivity with my clients. Many tools that I require for system maintenance are included. I can easily monitor all of my clients throughout the world I did not give much thought to it, however, improvements could be made to Zabbix.…

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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

"It's easy to use."

"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."

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

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

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

"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 initial setup was straightforward and took minimal effort."

"Zabbix is both stable and scalable."

"There is less computing power needed for scaling."

"It has an intuitive UI with beautiful graphs and customizable maps."

"Zabbix is very easy to implement."

"The features I found most valuable are the user interface and a wide range of network devices that are easy to configure."

"Zabbix is an excellent performance monitoring tool."

"It's one of the best products available."

"The most valuable feature is service assurance."

More Zabbix pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

"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."

"Technical support can be slow and needs improvement."

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

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

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

"Correlation of events would be a wonderful addition."

"We had some scalability issues with a large number of nodes."

"The APM monitoring has room for improvement, although I hear that the new 5.2 version has some improvements in that area, and I'd like to give that a go. I would like to see a few more templates out there for different styles of monitoring. I use the Grafana interface for reporting. I would also like it to have an out-of-the-box ability to email reports. You can create reports, but to be able to email those reports would be really helpful. I've got users who are not interested in logging in and generating a report. They want it all pre-canned and sent to an email address. It would also be really handy if we could pin certain reports up onto platforms such as Teams or SharePoint. A GUI for the proxy server would be cool to have for debugging purposes and for the support teams to have a look at, but I don't know whether that's really feasible to do. I get enough from the log files themselves."

"I would like to remotely connect to the computer, and Zabbix doesn't have this capability."

"For us, the initial setup was complex"

"The server monitoring could be better."

"The only improvement I would suggest, revolves around its AI and ML capabilities."

"There are a lot of areas for improvement, specifically in the dashboards and reports functionalities."

More Zabbix cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

"It is a true open-source solution, so there are no licensing costs."

"If you have 20,000 hosts, the support costs around €95,000 for a year."

"Its licensing is fair. It seems to be much cheaper than others."

"My manager is very happy because it doesn't cost anything."

"The solution is free. However, many open-sourced tools start out free but eventually start charging."

"It is open source. If you want to have a subscription or official support, you can pay for it. They have different plans, which are not that expensive. The plans are based on per monitoring server, not per monitored equipment. So, it is not at all expensive, and you can also live without the support if you want a cheaper option."

"It is free, which allows us to reduce costs."

"Zabbix is a free solution but the support contact costs money."

More Zabbix 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.

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Comparison Review

it_user174738

IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

May 31, 2015

Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor

I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

25%

Retailer

14%

University

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	2

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	53
Midsize Enterprise	23
Large Enterprise	34

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 Zabbix?

The template system in Zabbix is very beneficial as it saves time in configuration.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zabbix?

If you want to save costs, you can use Zabbix.

What needs improvement with Zabbix?

The reporting is lacking because this is an open-source tool, and nowadays, management's expectation is that the reports should be of high quality and every information should be presented in a con...

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Product Reports

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Download IBM Application Performance Management product report

IBM Application Performance Management report

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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

Zabbix is an open-source monitoring software that provides real-time monitoring and alerting for servers, networks, applications, and services.

It offers a wide range of features including data collection, visualization, and reporting.

With its user-friendly interface and customizable dashboards, Zabbix helps organizations ensure the availability and performance of their IT infrastructure.

Sample Customers

Mibtree, EatDrinkDeals.com, IT Performance Advisor

1. IBM 2. Dell 3. Cisco 4. HP 5. Oracle 6. Microsoft 7. Amazon 8. Google 9. Facebook 10. Twitter 11. LinkedIn 12. Netflix 13. Adobe 14. VMware 15. Salesforce 16. SAP 17. Intel 18. AT&T 19. Verizon 20. T-Mobile 21. Vodafone 22. Ericsson 23. Nokia 24. Siemens 25. General Electric 26. Honeywell 27. Philips 28. Sony 29. Samsung 30. LG 31. Panasonic 32. Toshiba

IBM Application Performance Management vs. Zabbix