I’m no stranger to applications crashing, freezing, or throwing errors at the worst possible times. But when it comes to application monitoring itself, I wanted to take a closer look at what works.
Working at G2 means I get access to something even better than marketing claims: real feedback from IT operations teams, DevOps engineers, and SREs who use these tools every day.
So, I dug into hundreds of reviews to find the best application performance monitoring tools that users consistently trust to keep their systems running smoothly.
The result? This list of the top 7 APM software tools, all backed by real-world experiences (not just product promises).
*These application performance monitoring (APM) software are top-rated in their category, according to G2 Grid Reports. I've also included the monthly pricing for tools that had this information publicly available..
Spotting an issue is one thing. Solving it before it affects users is another. Real teams care about that difference, and I focused on it while evaluating these tools.
I wasn’t looking for platforms that just throw dashboards at the problem. I paid close attention to how fast users could trace issues across services, how clear the root causes became, and how much unnecessary noise got filtered out.
Some tools packed in endless metrics, but left teams guessing. Others helped users fix what mattered without adding new issues. The ones that made this list stood out because they didn’t just monitor apps; they helped people stay ahead of problems.
I started by digging into G2’s latest Grid Reports. I focused on platforms with consistently high ratings for feature richness, ease of use, and support quality.
From there, I ran an AI-based analysis across hundreds of verified G2 user reviews to uncover the patterns that mattered most. Instead of relying on feature lists or vendor promises, I paid close attention to the real-world experiences shared by IT ops teams, DevOps engineers, and site reliability engineers (SREs). What slowed them down? What helped them move faster? Which tools made troubleshooting feel manageable versus overwhelming?
Whenever a tool's strength or pain point repeatedly popped up, I cross-checked the themes against additional reviews and G2 internal discussions to ensure consistency in the feedback.
Every tool on this list earned its spot by solving real problems, not just looking good in a demo.
The screenshots throughout this article include a mix of verified visuals from vendor listings on G2 and publicly available material.
I considered the following factors when evaluating the best application performance monitoring tools.
The list below contains genuine user reviews from the APM software category page. To be included in this category, a solution must:
*This data was pulled from G2 in 2025. Some reviews may have been edited for clarity.
Dynatrace is a full-stack application performance monitoring platform designed to help teams troubleshoot complex systems faster and more clearly. Based on what I saw in G2 reviews, Dynatrace stood out for how much it automates from tracing user journeys to detecting anomalies across large, dynamic apps.
One of the biggest strengths users called out was PurePath, Dynatrace’s distributed tracing engine. It stands out because it automatically traces every user transaction from start to finish across microservices, databases, APIs, and external dependencies without manual tagging or custom configuration. That means teams get immediate context around what happened and where things slowed down without jumping between tools. It helped reduce the time spent building and maintaining trace logic.
Another common theme was the Davis AI engine, which analyzes telemetry data to surface potential problems and suggest likely root causes. Users mentioned that it helped filter out noise and gave them a focused starting point for investigations, especially during critical incidents. Instead of just getting alerts, teams said they were getting insights. While not every suggestion was perfect, it was enough to shift how teams approached problem-solving.
Despite its depth, many reviews mentioned that Dynatrace was relatively easy to use, especially for basic monitoring and visualization. The onboarding process is well-documented, and several users noted that auto-discovery of services worked out of the box with minimal setup. Dashboards and metrics were available almost immediately, which helped teams get early wins.
That said, the deeper you go, the steeper the learning curve becomes. Custom dashboards, advanced metric analysis, and creating custom alerts were all mentioned as areas that required either trial-and-error or help from documentation and support. Some people said that the interface got harder to navigate once you started fine-tuning the tool.
Pricing also came up as a frequent pain point. Some reviewers mentioned that while Dynatrace offered clear value, the cost scaled quickly depending on how many services or containers you monitored. Others said the pricing structure wasn’t very transparent, which made it hard to forecast expenses over time. A few reviews mentioned surprise bills or reducing usage to stay within budget. It seemed more manageable for enterprise teams, but every buyer should be aware of it early on.
“Using the tracing of requests through multiple microservices, I can find where the request is stalling out and or failing. It has helped me and my team get to the root of many problems without having to write custom code.”
- Dynatrace Review, Jason D.
“They know the value they provide and charge you accordingly. It can be very difficult to digest the cost of the tool, and it can be difficult to manage your organization's consumption of licensing.”
- Dynatrace Review, Andrew H.
Related: Explore the latest APM software insights and trends to help you choose the right tool for your stack.
LogRocket helps teams understand exactly how users experience their applications. It’s especially popular with product and engineering teams looking to replay user sessions, monitor performance metrics, and catch bugs that traditional APM tools often miss.
The most praised feature by far was session replay. Reviewers consistently mentioned how valuable it was to watch a visual playback of what users actually did before encountering a bug, whether that meant misclicks, form errors, or UI glitches. Instead of relying on vague user feedback or guessing what might have gone wrong, teams could see the problem exactly as it happened. While session replay isn’t new, the way LogRocket ties it directly to network logs and console errors made a noticeable difference.
Another strength that came up often was how well LogRocket handles frontend performance metrics. It tracks key indicators like time-to-interactive, layout shifts, and page load delays from the perspective of real users. Users appreciated that performance and behavior data were presented side-by-side, making it easier to correlate slowdowns with real-world impact.
LogRocket also earned praise for surfacing actionable insights, not just data. Reviews highlighted how it flagged abnormal user behaviors or usage patterns, making it easier to spot when something in the product wasn’t working as intended. Some mentioned using these insights to improve onboarding flows, clean up confusing UI elements, or catch failed conversions. Across use cases, it seemed to offer more than just error tracking; it helped teams understand why users were getting stuck.
But not everything came easy. The session filtering and search experience was one of the most frequently mentioned challenges. Some users said finding a specific session or isolating an issue took too many steps. Others wanted more advanced filtering options to narrow things down by user type, event, or flow. While the data was there, the interface sometimes made it feel buried. A few reviews noted that the dashboards could be confusing without prior experience or documentation.
Pricing was another common theme in the feedback. Smaller companies, in particular, said LogRocket felt expensive once they started using it at scale. Users felt that while the tool delivered value, the pricing model didn’t offer enough flexibility. There were also mentions of features being locked behind higher pricing tiers, which made the entry-level experience feel limited.
“LogRocket has completely transformed how we troubleshoot user issues. The session replay feature is an absolute lifesaver—being able to see exactly what the user experienced removes all the guesswork from bug tracking. It's also invaluable for understanding user behavior and optimizing UI/UX. The integration with error tracking tools and Redux state logs gives us a full picture in one place. It’s user-friendly and surprisingly fast to implement.”
- LogRocket Review, Shane P.
“LogRocket can get a bit pricey, especially as your app scales and session volume increases. While the insights are top-notch, the pricing model based on sessions rather than users can make it harder to predict costs. Still, if you have the budget, the value it provides in terms of faster debugging and better product decisions is totally worth it.”
- LogRocket Review, Iván Sebastián M.
Related: Discover top cloud monitoring tools to extend your visibility across infrastructure and services.
IBM Instana is designed to give teams total visibility into application performance. It’s often used in environments where speed matters, from fast-moving DevOps teams to large enterprises running microservices.
One of the most consistent points of praise was Instana’s ability to automatically monitor performance across the full application stack. Users frequently highlighted how the platform detects services, dependencies, and issues with little manual configuration. Instead of spending time tagging services or creating complex rules, teams said Instana handled most of that work behind the scenes.
Another theme was real-time monitoring. Many reviewers said that one of the best things about Instana was how quickly it surfaced performance problems. Unlike tools that rely on batch data or delayed alerts, Instana streams metrics with second-level granularity, which helps teams catch anomalies as they happen. I also noticed several reviews that said they relied on Instana during deployments to validate performance in near real-time.
Users also appreciated that the setup was relatively painless. Many reviews mentioned how quickly they could get visibility into their systems after deploying the agent. Instana’s auto-discovery process was a significant time-saver, especially when working with complex architectures like Kubernetes or multi-cloud environments. Even for teams without much experience in APM tools, onboarding wasn’t a major hurdle.
The most common drawback I came across was around the user interface. While it’s functional, several users said the UI felt unintuitive, particularly as they started diving deeper into features. Some found it difficult to filter or visualize the specific data they needed without jumping through multiple steps. Others mentioned that customizing dashboards wasn’t as flexible as they’d hoped, and that finding relevant traces or metrics required more clicks than necessary. There were also a few mentions of slow load times in certain views. While none of this seemed like a dealbreaker, it did impact overall usability.
The second big challenge was the learning curve once you go beyond the basics. Even though the setup is easy, mastering the tool takes time. A number of users mentioned struggling to configure custom alerts or understand how to interpret some of the more technical metrics. Documentation helped in some cases, but not all reviewers found it intuitive or thorough. A few also said they had to lean on IBM support to get answers.
“What I like best about Instana is its real-time, full-stack monitoring and automatic instrumentation, which makes it easy to set up and provides comprehensive visibility across complex, dynamic environments. The platform's intuitive user interface and smart alerting system are also standout features, making it easier to quickly identify and resolve performance issues. In my project, I frequently use Instana to monitor the services, and the customer support also responds quickly and positively.”
- IBM Instana Review, Anshul C.
“I think the flexibility of alerting and custom metrics might be enhanced. I'd prefer more precise control as a CRO to set risk-specifc thresholds and customize alerts for our particular business environment."
- IBM Instana Review, Marawan E.
Related: Learn how AIOps platforms can transform IT operations with AI-driven automation and insights.
New Relic gives teams insight into application performance, infrastructure, and user experience in one place. Based on what I saw in G2 reviews, New Relic made the list for how quickly teams can start tracking what matters.
Many reviewers praised New Relic’s full-stack observability. It’s clear from the data that users value being able to monitor everything from application traces and frontend performance to server health and infrastructure metrics inside a single tool. This consolidation helped reduce context switching, especially for teams juggling multiple services and environments. A few reviews mentioned how helpful it was to trace issues across services without relying on multiple vendors or stitched-together tooling. Whether users were troubleshooting backend slowdowns or tracking third-party API latency, New Relic seemed to deliver a consistent view of the entire system.
Real-time monitoring was also frequently mentioned. Many reviewers liked how quickly data appeared in dashboards, making it easier to respond to issues as they happened. The second-level granularity allowed teams to catch performance dips and slowdowns without waiting for batch reports. A few users also highlighted that alerts kicked in fast, giving them enough context to act without digging through logs manually.
The third standout feature was the customizable dashboard experience. G2 reviews said New Relic’s interface felt clean, flexible, and user-friendly. Users liked how they could tailor views based on their workflows, whether infrastructure health, service performance, or frontend UX. Some people also called out the ability to set up dashboards for specific teams or components, which helped make the data more actionable.
However, configuration complexity was discussed in a number of reviews. While the platform offers a lot of power, users said it took time to understand how to configure everything correctly. Some reviewers mentioned that setting up alerts, tuning thresholds, or building precise queries required a bit of trial and error. The depth is there, but it’s not always straightforward. Several teams pointed out that while the basics were easy, unlocking the full potential took more effort than expected.
As with other tools in this category, pricing was a concern with New Relic, too. I read reviews that while the platform delivered value, the pricing restrictions for smaller teams were real. There were also mentions of key features being locked behind higher-tier plans, which added friction during evaluation. Compared to some alternatives, users said they had to make tradeoffs or reduce usage to stay within budget.
“I always have instant access to real-time information regarding the performance of my systems, often allowing me to address issues prior to the customer being impacted. I rely on New Relic every single day to ensure that our systems are functioning optimally.”
- New Relic Review, Richard T.
“Some integrations are harder to set up than they should be. While New Relic supports a wide range of tools, the documentation can feel outdated or assume too much prior knowledge. I’ve had to do more troubleshooting than expected just to get basic metrics working.”
- New Relic Review, Viren L.
Datadog is a full-stack observability platform that helps teams monitor infrastructure, applications, logs, and more from a central location. It’s widely used by DevOps, SRE, and IT operations teams looking to unify their monitoring workflows across complex, cloud-native environments.
One of the most complimented features in the reviews was Datadog’s customizable and effective dashboards. Users highlighted how they could tailor visualizations to their exact needs, whether they were tracking service performance, system metrics, or application health. The dashboards were described as flexible, combining multiple data sources into clear, actionable views.
Log management was another standout strength that came up across many reviews. Users valued how Datadog integrates log data directly into the monitoring experience, making correlating events, metrics, and traces in one place easier. Several teams mentioned that this integration saved them time investigating incidents because they didn’t rely on separate logging tools. The ability to search, filter, and analyze logs alongside real-time metrics made Datadog especially useful for incident response workflows.
The third advantage I noticed in G2 reviews was the ease of integration. Datadog connects with various services, cloud providers, and third-party tools. Integrations worked smoothly out of the box, with helpful documentation and prebuilt templates to get started. This integration depth was a major win for teams working across multiple platforms, helping them centralize their observability.
However, for many users, the challenge wasn’t getting Datadog connected; it was learning how to make the most of its advanced capabilities. G2 reviewers said that setting up complex alerts, fine-tuning dashboards, or fully leveraging all the available tools wasn’t always intuitive. Many leaned heavily on documentation or reached out to support when navigating advanced workflows.
Pricing is a common theme among many of the products I’ve listed so far, and it also showed up for Datadog. While the platform offers strong functionality, costs can add up quickly at scale. While this wasn’t unique to Datadog, every buyer should keep it in mind when evaluating observability tools.
“Datadog does particularly well in incident detection. Datadog enables real-time monitoring of service health, with alerting configured via integrations like PagerDuty. This helps us quickly detect production issues, minimise downtime, and maintain SLA/SLO commitments. At Indeed, we use Datadog extensively across our engineering organisation for monitoring, incident detection, observability, and SLO management. It plays a critical role in ensuring the reliability and performance of our services, especially those with high user impact like the IRL Sign-In Tool and our GraphQL APIs. I use Datadog very frequently because it is easy to use and easy to integrate.”
- Datadog Review, Yash M.
"As our usage grows and we monitor more hosts and services, processing costs also increase. There is a learning curve involved in creating custom queries within the log management interface.”
- Datadog Review, Bikash S.
Rakuten SixthSense Observability provides IT teams with a centralized place to track issues, understand performance patterns, and act on alerts.
Many reviewers underlined monitoring capabilities as one of Rakuten SixthSense’s strongest points. The tool effectively tracks application performance and surfaces issues across distributed systems. Reviews noted that the platform helped them quickly spot bottlenecks or abnormal behavior. The ability to monitor multiple applications and services in real time was said to be a key strength.
Another commonly highlighted aspect was how user-friendly the platform is. Reviewers noted that the dashboard and interface were easy to navigate, even for teams new to observability tools. Many users mentioned that SixthSense made it simple to surface the right information without overwhelming them with noise. The visual clarity of the dashboards was often called out, helping teams get a quick sense of overall health at a glance. People appreciated that the learning curve was relatively gentle, with basic workflows feeling intuitive right away.
The alerting system also stood out as a positive. Many users liked how the tool surfaced real-time alerts, allowing their teams to respond quickly to emerging issues. Some reviewers noted that the alerts were well-integrated with their workflows, making it easier to coordinate responses and avoid downtime. There were also positive mentions of how the alerting system helped teams prioritize issues by severity or urgency.
Despite the appreciation the alert feature gets, several reviews pointed out that it could be improved. Some users noted running into false positives or noisy alerts. A few reviewers also said they needed to spend extra time fine-tuning thresholds or filters to get the alerts to work as intended. Others expressed a desire for more advanced alerting options or integrations that would help reduce manual triage work.
Another area where reviewers saw potential was in the documentation. While many users praised the support team's responsiveness, some noted that stronger documentation could help them navigate advanced configurations and troubleshooting more independently. A few also mentioned that having deeper guides or more detailed examples would make it easier to tailor the platform to their unique environments.
“The tool is extremely user-friendly and easy to navigate. It has enabled us to identify and optimize bottlenecks in our applications. This APM tool helped us improve our application's performance.”
- Rakuten SixthSense Observability Review, Aarti G.
“ There are occasionally some false positive alerts, and for log monitoring, you need to install additional dependencies.”
- Rakuten SixthSense Observability Review, Nimesh D.
Google Cloud Console isn’t a specialized APM tool, but it gives users centralized access to manage and monitor applications running on Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
One of the most consistent strengths users emphasized was real-time monitoring. Reviewers appreciated being able to see live performance data for their GCP services, track resource utilization, and spot system issues as they emerged. Several reviews noted that the platform made it easy to stay on top of system health without relying on separate monitoring tools. While it’s not a full-featured APM platform, the monitoring it offers still provided many teams with essential operational insights.
User-friendliness came up as another advantage. Many reviewers said they found the console intuitive and easy to navigate, even when juggling multiple services. The visual design of the dashboards and performance views made it easier for teams to quickly understand what was going on without needing to dive deep into logs or metrics.
The third standout point was customer support. Several reviewers called out Google’s support team as responsive and helpful when issues did arise. Whether it was help setting up monitoring workflows or troubleshooting system alerts, users felt they had reliable backup when they needed it.
That said, GSC isn’t a purpose-built APM tool. While it provides solid monitoring for GCP services, it doesn’t offer the deep application tracing, advanced alerting, or fine-grained performance analytics you’d find in dedicated APM platforms. Users looking for full-stack observability would need to pair GSC with more specialized solutions.
Another area where some reviewers wanted improvement was the UI. While the console was generally seen as user-friendly, there were mentions of inconsistent elements, especially when navigating across complex service architectures. While these weren’t dealbreakers, they added some friction to day-to-day use.
“The ease of implementation and monitoring are the best part of Google Cloud. It also offers very prompt support and has plenty of features that help us save on other tools.”
- Google Cloud Console Review, Rahul G.
“Its documentation is still improving, and they have to scale their region and availability zones.”
- Google Cloud Console Review, Ankur V.
LogRocket stands out for its frontend session replay and real user monitoring, which make it ideal for catching UI issues. Datadog and New Relic also include frontend monitoring features in their full-stack observability offerings.
Datadog, New Relic, Dynatrace, and Instana are highly rated for real-time performance tracking. They deliver second-level metrics and fast actionable alerts that help teams respond quickly to system issues.
LogRocket, New Relic, Datadog, and Rakuten SixthSense Observability offer valuable free plans.
Pricing is a recurring challenge across many APM platforms. While several tools offer free tiers, scaling up usage often leads to high costs, something many reviewers pointed out when comparing tools.
Dynatrace, Datadog, New Relic, and Rakuten SixthSense Observability all provide strong alerting features. Dynatrace uses AI for smart alerts, Datadog offers highly customizable thresholds, New Relic delivers fast real-time alerts, and Rakuten SixthSense integrates alerts directly into its monitoring workflows. All require some tuning to avoid unnecessary noise.
Application monitoring isn’t just about tracking metrics. It’s about staying confidently ahead of issues, keeping your systems healthy, and delivering seamless user experiences. The best application performance monitoring tools don’t just watch your stack; they help you understand it, improve it, and make sure no slowdown goes unnoticed.
In this list, I’ve gathered the top 7 tools based on real user feedback, focusing on what works in practice. Whether you need frontend insights, backend stability, or full-stack observability, these platforms put you back in control of your applications.
Ready to act on your APM insights? Explore the best incident management tools to help your team respond faster, coordinate fixes, and reduce downtime.
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