What are the advantages of AppDynamics vs Dynatrace?

DT starts do a sampling of monitoring transactions when the application is under heavy load. It does this in order to keep performance overhead low. 

AppD monitors 100% of transactions 100% of the time for a max of 4% of overhead.

Hi there, 

we did an assessment between AppDynamics and Dynatrace last year (2020). The winner was Dynatrace.

Dynatrace is a one agent concept, AppDynamics is based on multi agent design. One agent is easy to manage and support. Less change requests, CAB approvals, etc. One agent save time.

Dynatrace license is based on Host Unit, DEM units. AppDynamics is based on agent / technology. It's possible to exchange the license from one license to another (for example 2 DB license for 1 Java agent license), but this must be part of your agreement.

During the PoC we got a fully functional license from Dynatrace for more than 6 months and limited license from AppDynamics. Most of AppDynamics functionality wasn't able to test.

During the PoC we got full support from Dynatrace (dedicated technical person) and basic support from AppDynamics (most of the recommendation was to read the user guide).

AppDynamics wasn't able to create synthetic monitor based on our scenarios.

Dynatrace was able to configure almost all synthetic monitors based on our scenarios.

At application level, they are quite similar in their features. What made the difference in our cases where we wanted to use an on-premises solution was the cost of the VMs, because the Dynatrace servers needed way more resource (CPU, RAM, Storage) than within the AppDynamics solution. 

However, it can all depend on your needs and environment. 

DT is unable to show transaction lock on DB. It does show "wait time" but you need to have a separate DB diagnostic tool to see a transaction lock. 

AppD will catch a DB transaction lock out of the box.

Appdynamics need more customization, Dynatrace has a one agent and customization is very simple. Personally I find Dynatrace better looking and the interface easier to understand but this is more a matter of taste. In problem resolution I find both equal to handle. If I look to customize Appdynamics is more open than Dynatrace.

AppDynamics provides a longer baseline period. 

It better helps us in decreasing false alerts and increasing the quality of health rules. 

DT's one agent is a "big guy" (disk space, etc), not every machine has the space for this big guy.