Splunk AppDynamics Reviews

AppDynamics is primarily used in our enterprise system management for application monitoring. We extensively use it to monitor end-user experience, including mobile applications. We want to ensure that our users have a seamless experience on our website and mobile app. We use AppDynamics to monitor all applications end to end, and it has been a valuable tool in our environment for identifying and resolving issues quickly.

The best features of AppDynamics would be the code application monitoring capabilities. There are no limitations to any specific application, and their support extends to all levels, including mainframe and custom applications. AppDynamics can also be used as a SaaS model, which is a key advantage.

One area for improvement is the MST model. It would be more helpful if it could be offered as a managed service provider model with more multi-tenancy and features.

The focus is still limited to application monitoring. However, in the next release, I want to see if it could be integrated with any other infrastructure monitoring tool or provide better deliverables in terms of absorbency layers; that would be a great option. I'm not sure how AppDynamics delivers that, and it's an approval delay. That use case will integrate with any monitoring tool to provide the absorbent layer; that is the better option, which I look forward to.

I have been using this solution for seven years.

I would rate stability a nine out of ten.

I would rate scalability an eight out of ten.

We used Dynatrace, which is also a performance monitoring solution. Dynatrace is similar to AppDynamics in terms of its capabilities. But Dynatrace is an expensive affair as compared to AppDynamics.

The initial setup is not complex. I would rate it a nine out of ten. The deployment depends on the use case. For example, taking one application will take hardly a week to cover the end to end.

The pricing of AppDynamics is a nine, with one being low and ten being high. It is high.

I would recommend using AppDynamics integrated with an infrastructure monitoring tool, and it will provide a better benefit.

Overall, I would rate AppDynamics a nine out of ten. From an overall product standpoint, AppDynamics has better sustainability in the market with continued support. They also have a roadmap for upcoming releases that aligns with all the monthly activities.

We use AppDynamics to monitor application performance.

I like how the AppDynamics dashboard portrays the information flows. When a task is executed, various flows between different applications and databases happen in the background. The dashboard is intuitive and helps visualize the connections, the directions of the flow, and the information related to these specific sessions. 

AppDynamics is agent-based, so some customers are reluctant to install the agents in all their production environments. It would be helpful if they had an agentless version. It covers applications on the server, but the solution is weak on the network side. The agent is not deployed on the network components, so it cannot provide complete information about issues on the network layer.

I have used AppDynamics for about a year.

I rate AppDynamics six out of 10 for stability. The agent sometimes stops working when users perform upgrades on the application side. We have to restart it. 

I rate AppDynamics seven out of 10 for scalability. I haven't had any difficulty receiving information on the main controller and propagating it on the dashboard. It also has a high-availability option. 

I rate AppDynamics support nine out of 10. 

Positive

SolarWinds monitors the applications, but it only provides information within the system and does not tell you about information flows. 

We can roll it out in a week if everything goes smoothly. However, we sometimes have compatibility issues with the agent. If the agent is not working correctly and providing the information, we might need to develop a customized agent or get one from the user community. 

The customers are happy, and we hear positive feedback from the users. It helps the application team and the developers by providing an excellent tool for troubleshooting performance problems. 

I rate AppDynamics seven out of 10 for affordability. AppDynamics is an expensive solution. The price depends on the size of your environment. It's about $500,000 for a large enterprise. 

I rate AppDynamics eight out of 10. It's on the high end of the Gartner quadrant, but it's lacking some features. 

What I found valuable in AppDynamics Database Monitoring is good technical support. I also like that it's scalable and stable.

AppDynamics Database Monitoring would be a better product if it could support new technology, such as cloud technology. Even Dynatrace lacks support for newer technologies.

I've been working with AppDynamics Database Monitoring for four to five years for my customers.

AppDynamics Database Monitoring is a stable product.

AppDynamics Database Monitoring is a scalable product.

AppDynamics Database Monitoring has good technical support.

The initial setup for AppDynamics Database Monitoring is not that complex, though it has specific prerequisites you'd need to fulfill. You'd need to collect some database credentials, so setting up AppDynamics Database Monitoring isn't complex and isn't as straightforward.

AppDynamics Database Monitoring requires a license for database monitoring and other features, while Dynatrace provides monitoring and other features out of the box without additional costs. Sometimes this makes it more challenging to pitch AppDynamics Database Monitoring to customers, especially because you need to buy a separate license.

As an implementer, I have yet to learn about the pricing for AppDynamics Database Monitoring. Pricing is taken care of by the sales team.

I've evaluated Dynatrace and have been working with it for ten years. Compared to other APM solutions, Dynatrace is far better, even in database monitoring. The database monitoring functionality is an out-of-the-box offering of Dynatrace, while in AppDynamics Database Monitoring, you have to pay a licensing fee. Dynatrace also has plug-ins that help you monitor databases.

I'm working in an APM implementation company delivering APM solutions from Dynatrace, AppDynamics, New Relic, etc.

I'm mainly working with AppDynamics and Dynatrace tools, and my company has an APM tool still under development. I'm working with AppDynamics Database Monitoring.

My company has a mix of customers on AppDynamics Database Monitoring, small, medium, and large enterprises.

Compared to AppDynamics Database Monitoring, I'd go for Dynatrace because it has out-of-the-box features that don't require a separate license. Dynatrace also has a better interface and dashboard than AppDynamics Database Monitoring.

I'd advise anyone who wants to implement AppDynamics Database Monitoring to follow the documentation. It's a straightforward product to use.

My rating for AppDynamics Database Monitoring is seven out of ten.

My company is a partner of AppDynamics Database Monitoring.

My company uses AppDynamics Server Monitoring for server monitoring and end-to-end monitoring. The tool has an event alerting mechanism that lets people within the company know when any server is down so that you can raise a ticket, and the support team can work on that ticket.

The event alerting feature or the trigger system is what I like most about AppDynamics Server Monitoring. Whenever an issue occurs, the tool automatically generates an even trigger that tells engineers in the company to take action, so it's an essential feature of AppDynamics Server Monitoring.

Another valuable feature of the tool is end-to-end monitoring, which means if you need to debug, you can go transaction by transaction, where the issue lies, and how it's linked. For example, if it's a low-performance issue, you can look into it more through AppDynamics Server Monitoring in terms of which area takes too much time to execute. You can also see the SQL queries and the kind of query going on through the tool.

An area for improvement in AppDynamics Server Monitoring is integration; in particular, it needs a better way to integrate with custom applications such as Siebel CRM. Right now, it's challenging to integrate AppDynamics Server Monitoring with Siebel CRM because it sometimes gives an error and cannot integrate properly.

I'd like to see more details about each issue in the next release of AppDynamics Server Monitoring. For example, there's a server issue, and my team wants to identify the response time over SQL, but that detail is lacking. If AppDynamics could add slow query logs to AppDynamics Server Monitoring, that would be good.

Another feature I'd like the tool to have is the segregation of requests based on user sessions, for example, having a session ID, so it's easier to identify which session has an issue and needs solving and information on any transaction performed for that particular session. This feature would make integration in AppDynamics Server Monitoring easier.

I've been using AppDynamics Server Monitoring for almost eight years now.

AppDynamics Server Monitoring is a stable product.

AppDynamics Server Monitoring is a scalable product.

The technical support team for AppDynamics Server Monitoring is responsive and knowledgeable, so I like the support provided. Sometimes, it just takes time for the support team to solve custom application issues because that requires looking into the custom application details, the error behind the application, where's the plug to integrate, how to use the interface, etc.

My team contacts support every day. My team is happy with the support, but the only room for improvement is the time it takes for the AppDynamics Server Monitoring technical support team to resolve the issue. It could be faster because my team has set deadlines for integrating and making custom applications work.

I'd give AppDynamics Server Monitoring technical support a four out of five. The response time is good, but the resolution time needs improvement.

My team did a POC with Datadog. AppDynamics Server Monitoring is one of the best tools because it instantly gives you integration details, and you can integrate it more quickly than other solutions. For example, integrating Datadog took a lot longer because it required more steps and more levels to reach to complete the integration.

Initially, the setup process for AppDynamics Server Monitoring was straightforward. It was pretty easy, but when you go deeper into end-to-end monitoring, for example, it gets a little complicated because you need to integrate with your JDK and Java applications and pass on the logs. Setting up the RAM and the initial setup of AppDynamics Server Monitoring, it's easy, but as you go deeper, then it becomes complex.

I'm rating the initial setup for AppDynamics Server Monitoring as five on a scale of one to five because it was pretty easy.

We set up AppDynamics Server Monitoring in-house.

I cannot give information on the pricing for AppDynamics Server Monitoring because I'm not involved. I'm on the integration and technical side.

AppDynamics Server Monitoring has a lot of competitors in the market, but I evaluated Datadog.

I'm using a cloud product from AppDynamics for end-to-end monitoring called AppDynamics Server Monitoring.

Maintenance for AppDynamics Server Monitoring happens monthly. A team of five people does the patching for it.

A team of eight people works on AppDynamics Server Monitoring in terms of the initial integration, then another team will take charge, so I'm unable to give the exact number of users of the tool within the company.

My rating for AppDynamics Server Monitoring is nine out of ten because it's a good tool and only has minor areas for improvement.

Our use case depends on whether the client has revenue on their primary revenue-generating websites. For example, we previously implemented for Aviva Financial, and their primary revenue-generating website was their Aviva website. They primarily do home, medical, motor, and car insurance and use this solution to download insurance quotes. This solution is also used to monitor the end-user activity, website speed, product details and quotes.

We use the solution for end-user performance monitoring to monitor customers' browsers, like Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer. So we're able to get details, and each transaction gets monitored, and the information gets captured and presented to management.

The management observes the end-user activity, which helps get quotes signed and monitor the payment system gateways.

It has a lot of features, and it provides a lot of data, so it helps businesses identify their user base, business parameters and key business metrics.

The solution is very scalable, and you can get the performance data from the end users. So it provides a proper way to analyze data from different regions. Most of the users download the data, which helps them understand the business strengths and monitor traffic from each region and maximum users.

A problem with App Dynamics is that they do not have robust documentation, making it difficult for start-up organizations who may need guidance. In addition, their documentation is complex and not easy to understand.

Another problem with AppDynamics is the agents of division. There is no central distribution system to update all the endpoints, so we need patch mechanism updates to do those activities. It is cumbersome, and it's not easy, so they lag in that area.

We have been using this solution for the past six months. It's a SaaS product only, and AppDynamics is according to the agent version. It is on cloud.

The initial setup was very easy. Deployment depends on how many applications you need to monitor. Initial data collection can take up to two to three weeks. Then, like any end-user application, it will be implemented in a test environment. Once the test environment is a success, it moves to production, which takes one to two months.

The support and management team primarily have access to the data, and we collect the story at the back end. For example, we do this for Aviva, which has an approximately 300,000 user base. So the information on whoever visits Aviva's website is passed on to AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring.

They have licenses. Technically, AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring is a Cisco product. When using this application, we need to install the agents on each server, and there is a transaction cost. End-user monitoring requires purchasing millions of transaction licenses, but infrastructure monitoring costs are based on the agent. So everything is licensed, and it's a costly solution.

I rate this solution a seven out of ten. We decided to use this solution because they are market leaders. Appdynamics and Dynatrace are the main application performance monitoring solutions and have been for the last five to six years.

I would recommend this solution. First, you need to analyze multiple tools in the market based on your requirements. For example, if you need an enterprise monitoring system, go for AppDynamics or Dynatrace, but if you have fewer applications, you can choose other end-user monitoring solutions like Site24x7.

We use it for performance and transaction trace monitoring. We use it for .Net and the JVM-related work. We look at all the heat maps and the Garbage Collection to see if there are any failures. 

It gives me the ability to trace logs between transactions, for example, a DB transaction or JVM transaction from one hub to the other. I can easily find out where the problem is or where the bottleneck of the issues lies. 

The overall performance of this solution could be improved. The hot-hot infrastructure features could also be improved. If one goes down, the other should pick up automatically. When we patch one data center, the other primary or secondary center needs to be manually started. We need to do a manual sync between the database and the AppDynamics applications.

I have been using this solution for four years. 

This is a stable solution. The only drawback is that it is not a cluster environment and it doesn't have hot-hot features.

This is a scalable solution but we would like more options to hold more licenses. Right now we have 30,000 agents using this solution.

The technical support for this solution is good.

Positive

Before AppDynamics we used a product called BlueStripe that was acquired by Microsoft. 

The initial setup of this solution is straightforward. The deployment is also straightforward because we used some of the provisioning tools to package the software and distribute it. Creating dashboards and fine-tuning JVMs took some time. 

This solution has really helped us to improve some of the performance of the JVMs at an early point in coding.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. 

Because AppDynamics sells this as end-to-end visibility, there are no use cases in the databases. Use case applied to AppDynamics Brower Real-User Monitoring can be applied here as well. If the user experiences latency on its request, it's most likely because the database is effectively queuing the request. The same scenarios can apply.

The performance of AppDynamics Database Monitoring is good, I have not had any complaints.

AppDynamics Database Monitoring is straightforward, there is not a lot to it, it either monitors or it doesn't.

One of the key features that are missing is the ability to manage users centrally, which is a real pain when it does not happen. That is a feature that their main competitor has had for quite some time. I'm surprised they don't have it already.

I believe they need to increase their level of visibility in the infrastructure, particularly in the infrastructure monitoring section, which currently lacks visibility.

The license model is a bit complex. They should make it a little bit easier, which I believe they will do in the next quarter, or in the next two quarters. I also dislike it because it is based on CPU, which will increase the cost of deployment and licensing. They currently have a complex model and charge on a per-node basis. They plan to change this in the future to make it less complicated, but it will be more expensive because it will be done on a CPU basis rather than a node basis. And this is not good. I deducted one point for that.

We have been providing AppDynamics Database Monitoring for six years.

It is deployed both on the cloud, and on-premises.

The stability of AppDynamics Database Monitoring is fine.

The initial setup is straightforward.

The time it takes to deploy an agent varies depending on the customer and the application, but it can take up to 15 minutes.

The licensing scheme is very complex. They need to make it easier.

AppDynamics is a good tool that offers excellent out-of-the-box dashboards and application topology. Even for their competitors, their current technology is unrivaled in these two areas. 

I would rate AppDynamics Database Monitoring an eight out of ten.

We use this solution to monitor our core application's performance, to know what transaction is running an error on transactions in these applications. We are based in Egypt and are customers of AppDynamics. I'm the deputy general manager of the company. 

The solution provides good overall application performance and transaction errors which reflect backend health. It's a user-friendly product and very powerful. It offers good performance and features. 

AppDynamics is very expensive, if it were a little cheaper it would be more attractive to clients. The company has decided not to add any new features to the on-prem version which affects our monitoring work. Because of the nature of our business, we can only deploy the solution on-prem and so we're now at a disadvantage.

The solution is stable. 

The solution is scalable.

Customer support has a local presence in Egypt. They are very responsive and provide a good service. 

I prefer AppDynamics to the CA or Broadcom applications which I've previously used. AppDynamics is very easy to use whereas ABM was quite difficult. When it comes to technical data collection, they're both very good. Maybe CA ABM can collect more data, but when it comes to the presentation layer and ease of use, AppDynamics is much better. 

The initial setup is easy. 

Licensing is by subscription and AppDynamics is expensive but I believe its main competitors such as Dynatrace, are also expensive.

I recommend this product but am a little concerned for the future given that they are no longer adding new features to the on-prem version. For now, they're supporting the on-prem version and they're releasing security batches, but no new features. It might be worth waiting to see what they decide, it could be that they will move to a cloud-only version. 

I rate this solution nine out of 10.