Quest Foglight for APM [EOL] vs Splunk AppDynamics comparison

Quest Software and Splunk are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Additionally, 86% of Quest Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

Quest Foglight for APM [EOL]

Read 22 Quest Foglight for APM [EOL] reviews

86% willing to recommend

Splunk AppDynamics

Read 254 Splunk AppDynamics reviews

12,143 Views
9,472 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Quest Foglight for APM [EOL]

Splunk AppDynamics

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 17, 2025

Quest Foglight for APM and Splunk AppDynamics are competing in the application performance management sector. Splunk AppDynamics holds an advantage due to its comprehensive features and future-readiness, while Quest Foglight's pricing and customer support appeal to budget-conscious buyers.

Features: Quest Foglight for APM provides real-time monitoring, essential for small to medium enterprises, with tools like the Foglight Transaction Recorder and real-time alerting capabilities. Splunk AppDynamics offers features like robust analytics, scalability, and deep integration capabilities that serve larger enterprises needing complex data analyses, operational dashboards, and end-user experience monitoring.

Room for Improvement: Quest Foglight needs to enhance integration with newer technologies and offer more comprehensive analytics. Its history logging and alert systems also require updates to support expanding businesses. Splunk AppDynamics could improve by simplifying its setup process, refining its customer support model for quicker issue resolution, and optimizing alerting mechanisms to avoid information overload.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Quest Foglight for APM is known for its straightforward deployment and reliable customer support, making it suitable for smaller businesses. Splunk AppDynamics, though more complex to set up, provides extensive deployment guidance and premium customer service, supporting companies through detailed implementation phases.

Pricing and ROI: Quest Foglight's pricing model is attractive for small and medium businesses, offering quick ROI with lower setup costs. Splunk AppDynamics requires a substantial upfront investment but promises higher long-term ROI due to its robust feature set and adaptability, making it ideal for growth-focused enterprises.

To learn more, read our detailed Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

September 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

Quest Foglight for APM [EOL]

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Splunk AppDynamics

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

254

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (3rd), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (6th), IT Operations Analytics (2nd), Mobile APM (1st), Container Monitoring (3rd)

Featured Reviews

Anton Kasimov

Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Drill-down monitoring shows us the entire transaction chain, from the front end to back end. It needs HTML5 interface.

I want to see a new interface that contains HTML5 features. The current version of Foglight (on-premise edition) is so fusty in comparison with leaders of Gartner APM Quadrant - i.e. Appdynamics, NewRelic, Dynatrace. If you try to compare SaaS and on-premise Foglight versions you can see differences in UI-design. It's my subjective experiences, but SaaS version looks more modern. Hope this helps

Read full review

Gyanesh Rahatekar

Back office at Reliance Industries Ltd

Application performance management and error resolution improved with data-driven insights

Dynatrace has multiple functions compared to Splunk AppDynamics, so Splunk AppDynamics should add those functions, which are not available as of now. Dynatrace has a universal agent that collects all information related to their CI, and if one CI has multiple languages, then there is no need to instrument multiple agents. However, Splunk AppDynamics requires multiple agents; if I have one server with multiple applications in different languages, then I need to instrument different agents for each application. Splunk AppDynamics should work with Dynatrace with one single universal agent that works with all application languages, eliminating the need for multiple implementations.

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

"Real time database monitoring and alerting are valuable."

"Capacity on database and file servers. I found the algorithms to forecast growth and concerns particularly intuitive."

"Dell Foglight does analyze and optimize your virtual infrastructure. It definitely reduces operational cost."

"The most valuable feature is drill-down monitoring, which shows us from one interface the transaction chain from the front end to back end."

"Sometimes we can solve problems before they occur."

"At a glance I can easily see what is going on with all of my VMware environments, including top consumers of resources."

"Having standard monitoring features and a central repository saves us a lot of time and reduces risk of incidents."

"The ability to track performance of an application or application suite over time is extremely valuable to our business partners and for our application development team with near real time results."

More Quest Foglight for APM [EOL] pros

"It's pretty stable."

"The product is stable and the technical support is good."

"The best features of AppDynamics would be the code application monitoring capabilities."

"AppDynamics Database Monitoring provides a single view of the problem and helps identify the guilty database query, which is unique compared to other solutions."

"This solution is easy to use and very powerful, it is a complete tool for us."

"This solution not only provides answers but also provides sensor data. This allows us to quickly resolve issues that developers may take a long time to solve."

"The best feature of AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring is that it lets you find errors in synthetic jobs ahead of the users. The solution shows you all front-end metrics. You can also see JavaScript errors and jQuery errors through AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring. You can also do a correlation between the front end and the backend, or from the user to the navigator, to the backend through the solution."

"Once you get past installation, AppDynamics is highly stable and we get good results."

More Splunk AppDynamics pros

Cons

"The “cartridge” concept for every little thing is a bit of a bother to implement."

"My only complaint from Foglight for monitoring is that you only get a plot for five minute average for metrics like CPU and Memory, on the application side I can see metrics more quickly at 15 seconds for metrics like active sessions, heap. I would like to see the same for CPU and memory."

"SQL agents often failed but again this may have been addressed in future versions."

"There are some metrics I'd like to track that are difficult to find or implement into a tracking solution without a lot of manual work."

"I think installation and setup needs little more improvement especially when you are installing with external database."

"I want to see mobile access application in the next release."

"It needs a more intuitive way to create and implement custom "Cartridges" to be deployed through out a Federated environment."

"I want to see a new interface that contains HTML5 features. The current version of Foglight (on-premise edition) is so fusty in comparison with leaders of Gartner APM Quadrant - i.e. Appdynamics, NewRelic, Dynatrace."

More Quest Foglight for APM [EOL] cons

"The resolution time takes longer than expected."

"Splunk AppDynamics does not support the complete MELT framework, which includes metrics, events, logging, and tracing for the entire stack. It lacks maturity in correlation within the observability spectrum."

"Additional support for NextGen mobile platforms also needs to be high in the roadmap prioritizations"

"If you have a single URL and all the operations are coming in as part of the header, you will not be able to segregate them for different actions."

"The user experience is quite confusing. There are too many different development stages. The UI is not very intuitive."

"It needs strengthening in the database tiers."

"AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring needs to offer an end-to-end experience, including the internet layer and third-party elements that come into play on websites."

"The cloud licensing needs to be improved. It's quite pricey."

More Splunk AppDynamics cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is expensive for us."

"Foglight can be expensive I would go with the pricing at a three year deal."

"Since the product split – the licensing is a bit more complex."

"I recall it being a very expensive solution relative to function and stability."

"The way it is structured in terms of price could be better. You pay for individual modules and that adds on to the cost, which detracts you from implementing those modules and slows you down."

"This price of this product is expensive."

"There is a license for the solution and we paid approximately $2,000. There is also an additional cost above the standard license which cost us approximately $3,000."

"I give the price a five out of ten."

"AppDynamics is priced on the higher side."

"It would be better if there were more solutions incorporated into the base price. "

"The cost is prohibitive."

"We are looking forward to purchasing the solution on the AWS Marketplace."

More Splunk AppDynamics pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

28%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	13

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	55
Midsize Enterprise	36
Large Enterprise	189

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Any advice about APM solutions?

There are many factors and we know little about your requirements (size of org, technology stack, management systems, the scope of implementation). Our goal was to consolidate APM and infra monitor...

See all answers

What do you like most about AppDynamics?

The solution saves time and cost.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AppDynamics?

I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten. The solution is highly expensive. Our company pays for the solution on a yearly basis, if we don't add new modules or features to the license, we need ...

See all answers

Comparisons

SolarWinds AppOptics vs Quest Foglight for APM [EOL]

Compared 100% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 8% of the time

Datadog vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 8% of the time

New Relic vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 8% of the time

Grafana vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 4% of the time

More Splunk AppDynamics Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

September 2025

Download Quest Foglight for APM [EOL] product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk AppDynamics

September 2025

Download Splunk AppDynamics product report

Also Known As

Foglight, Dell Foglight

No data available

Overview

Manage your application infrastructure by monitoring the IT components that affect application performance.

Quest Software

Splunk AppDynamics enhances application performance monitoring with advanced diagnostics and real-time insights, offering seamless end-to-end transaction tracking and infrastructure visibility.

AppDynamics provides critical tools for businesses to analyze application behavior and performance. Through innovative features like transaction snapshot analysis and adaptable dashboards, users can quickly identify and address issues, ensuring high levels of system uptime and efficiency. It is designed to support complex environments including Kubernetes and AWS, enhancing user experience by detecting performance issues early. Despite needing improvements in network monitoring and integration, it remains a robust option for tracking application health.

What are the key features of AppDynamics?

Real-time Performance Monitoring: Offers immediate insights into application behavior.
Business Transaction Tracking: Tracks transactions from start to finish for bottleneck identification.
JVM Memory Monitoring: Provides detailed JVM metrics and memory use information.
Deep-dive Diagnostics: Enables in-depth analysis of code and stack traces.
Adaptable Dashboards: Customizable views for better data interpretation.

How does AppDynamics benefit users?

Improved Incident Resolution: Faster problem detection and solution implementation.
Enhanced Application Performance: Real-time monitoring optimizes system operations.
Comprehensive Visibility: Provides a full view of application infrastructure.
Informed Decision Making: Detailed analytics guide performance improvements.
Customer Satisfaction: Enhances user experience through faster issue resolutions.

In industries like financial services and e-commerce, AppDynamics facilitates performance tracking across distributed systems, optimizing infrastructure to meet consumer demands. It excels in environments needing precise transaction monitoring and is pivotal in delivering high value and satisfaction.

Splunk

Sample Customers

Anji Automotive Logistics, Unimat, Priceline.com

Cisco, Sony, Nasdaq, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Edmunds.com, Puma, Fox News, DirecTV, Pizza Hut, T-Systems, Cornell University, OpenTable, BITMARCK, Green Mountain Power, Care.com, Overstock, Paddy Power, eHarmony, Kraft, The Motley Fool, The Container Store, and more See more customers

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

September 2025

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