IBM Instana Observability vs Instana Dynamic APM comparison

IBM and Instana are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. IBM is ranked #41 with an average rating of 8.0, while Instana is ranked #21 with an average rating of 7.8. IBM holds a 0.6% mindshare in APM, compared to Instana’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 84% of Instana users who would recommend it.

IBM Instana Observability

Read 3 IBM Instana Observability reviews

750 Views
750 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Instana Dynamic APM

Read 14 Instana Dynamic APM reviews

2,060 Views
2,039 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

IBM Instana Observability

Instana Dynamic APM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 10, 2025

Instana Dynamic APM and IBM Instana Observability compete in application performance management and observability. Instana Dynamic APM offers better pricing and client support, while IBM Instana Observability provides enhanced features.

Features: Instana Dynamic APM is known for automated root cause analysis, seamless integration capabilities, and efficient performance monitoring. IBM Instana Observability offers comprehensive data visualization tools, advanced analytics, and deep insights into system behavior.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Instana Dynamic APM is noted for straightforward deployment and prompt customer support. IBM Instana Observability, though having a more complex deployment, provides a strong support system addressing client concerns.

Pricing and ROI: Instana Dynamic APM is recognized for low initial setup costs with satisfactory ROI. IBM Instana Observability requires a higher setup investment but its feature set justifies the cost, leading to considerable ROI.

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

Buyer's Guide

IBM Instana Observability 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

IBM Instana Observability

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

41st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

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 IBM Instana Observability is 0.6%, 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

Tomas Kim

Managing Director at BA Solutions

Not expensive and offers good performance

The most valuable feature of the solution is performance. A one-vendor solution serves as a good feature of the tool. In the IT industry, the IT support team has lots of vendors to contact. DB monitoring is done by one company, while WaaS monitoring is done by another and done by another company, which makes it really complicated for the IT team concerned about the security levels. The tool's main feature is that it is a one-vendor solution. The analysis done by the tool is a good feature. The tool is used as an open-source tool. The tool is growing, and new features are being added to the product.

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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

"The solution has a one-second resolution, giving you the status of your application within one second."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is performance."

"The most valuable features of IBM Instana are its quick data collection and analytics after installing the agent."

"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 detailing of our application behavior and user experience is most valuable. In case there is an issue, we typically use Instana to figure it out. We can drill down to the application and figure out what's going on and where the issue is."

"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."

"If a key monitored value has crossed a threshold, it sends out an alert. And the solution is able to intelligently find out if something is beyond the range that it normally resides in."

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

"The primary selling point of this product is its unparalleled transparency into the infrastructure."

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

More Instana Dynamic APM pros

Cons

"The solution should include log management and improve reporting and integration with Cognos."

"One area that requires improvement is related to the automation part, specifically automated actions like sending SMS."

"The product's initial setup phase is not very easy."

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

"I think that Instana should improve the university and the certification process, so the users can find experts in Instana with their certification module process."

"The configuration of Instana Dynamic APM needs improvement because it requires quite a bit of work."

"The solution's monitoring is pretty weak and should be improved."

"We'd always like to see additional functionalities."

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

"Maybe log monitoring could be better."

"They could improve the product’s dashboards and provide more dashboard options."

More Instana Dynamic APM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing is reasonable compared to that of its competitors like Dynatrace."

"The tool's cost is normal as per the market. The tool is not expensive."

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

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Hospitality Company

Financial Services Firm

28%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Instana Observability?

The tool's cost is normal as per the market. The tool is not expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Instana Observability?

The tool should offer more LDR AI models. The monitoring is just a status, but the next level of a monitoring solution is to prevent an accident or stop an accident status. The solution should be t...

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What is your primary use case for IBM Instana Observability?

Before IBM, I ordered our company's engineer to have a look at the tool and test it. I think it was two years ago, the transfer to IBM happened in our company. At the beginning, IBM Instana Observa...

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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

Elastic Observability vs IBM Instana Observability

Compared 27% of the time

Grafana vs IBM Instana Observability

Compared 14% of the time

Splunk Observability Cloud vs IBM Instana Observability

Compared 10% of the time

Azure Monitor vs IBM Instana Observability

Compared 10% of the time

Dynatrace vs IBM Instana Observability

Compared 9% of the time

More IBM Instana Observability 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

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

August 2025

Download IBM Instana Observability product report

Buyer's Guide

Instana Dynamic APM

August 2025

Download Instana Dynamic APM product report

Overview

IBM Instana Observability offers real-time application monitoring and management, designed for automation and intelligence on modern cloud-based environments.

IBM Instana Observability provides deep visibility into application performance, empowering businesses with automated root cause analysis and intelligent alerts to optimize cloud-native applications. It captures and visualizes comprehensive health metrics to enhance operational efficiency across distributed systems, making it an invaluable tool for IT and DevOps teams seeking to improve application reliability and performance.

What are the key features of IBM Instana Observability?

Automatic Discovery: Identifies application components and dependencies without manual configuration.
Real-Time Monitoring: Delivers live data for instant visibility across application metrics.
AI-Powered Root Cause Analysis: Quickly pinpoints issues to reduce downtime and enhance user experience.
Intelligent Alerts: Provides actionable insights, minimizing false alarms.
Seamless Integration: Easily integrates with popular DevOps tools.

What benefits should users look for when evaluating IBM Instana Observability?

Increased Productivity: Reduces manual monitoring efforts, enhancing team efficiency.
Enhanced Performance: Improves application responsiveness and user satisfaction.
Cost Efficiency: Optimizes resource allocation, leading to reduced operational costs.
Scalable Solutions: Adapts to growing business needs, ensuring long-term value.
Detailed Insights: Offers granularity in monitoring, aiding in swift decision-making.

IBM Instana Observability is widely adopted across industries like finance, healthcare, and retail, addressing specific challenges in each sector. In finance, it helps manage high-volume transactions with minimal latency. Healthcare benefits from its compliance support and reliable data monitoring. Retail industries utilize it for maintaining seamless customer interactions and operational uptime, ensuring business continuity and customer satisfaction.

IBM

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

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

IBM Instana Observability vs. Instana Dynamic APM

July 2025

Free Report: IBM Instana Observability vs. Instana Dynamic APM

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