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 over 20 applications and 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's Spring 2025 Grid Reports. I've also included the standout features and monthly pricing for easy comparison.
Spotting an issue is one thing. Solving it before it affects users is another. The global application performance monitoring market is projected to reach USD 19.62 billion by 2030, reflecting how critical this capability has become. That’s the lens I used while evaluating these tools: not just whether they flag problems, but how effectively they help teams resolve them before users ever notice.
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. G2 Data also shows that 70% of its users are enterprises, the highest in this list, which reflects its strength in handling large, dynamic environments.
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.
On the flip side, customization brought some challenges. A few G2 users mentioned that building advanced dashboards or tuning custom alerts required more trial-and-error than expected, with a steeper learning curve the deeper they went.
Pricing was another recurring theme. While many reviewers felt Dynatrace delivered strong value, others noted that costs scaled quickly with usage and weren’t always easy to forecast. Some even mentioned trimming usage to stay within budget. That said, enterprise teams often felt the platform’s depth and automation justified the investment.
Overall, Dynatrace stands out as one of the most advanced APM solutions available, combining automation, AI-driven insights, and enterprise-scale observability in a way that few competitors match.
“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. According to G2 Data, it holds the highest satisfaction score in this list at 100%, reflecting how well it resonates with product and engineering teams.
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. G2 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.
That said, the session filtering and search process was mentioned as an area for improvement. Some users said finding a specific session or isolating a bug required too many steps, while others wished for more advanced filtering options. A few G2 reviewers also mentioned that the dashboards could feel less intuitive without documentation, though they still found value once they learned the workflow.
Pricing was another recurring theme. Smaller companies in particular felt that LogRocket could get expensive at scale. While many agreed it provided clear value, G2 users noted that feature limitations at lower tiers sometimes pushed teams toward higher plans sooner than expected.
Even with these considerations, LogRocket remains one of the most highly rated APM tools, blending session replay, error tracking, and performance insights into a package that delivers immediate clarity for teams.
“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. G2 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 G2 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 user interface was a recurring friction point. Some reviewers felt that dashboards weren’t as intuitive as they could be, with filtering and visualization requiring extra clicks. A few also noted occasional slow load times in specific views. While not a dealbreaker, it did add a layer of complexity to day-to-day use.
Feedback also surfaced a learning curve. While initial setup was easy, some G2 users said configuring custom alerts or interpreting advanced metrics required more time and, in some cases, direct support from IBM. Documentation was helpful for some, but felt incomplete for others.
All in all, Instana is one of the strongest APM tools for teams that value speed and automation. It gives businesses real-time performance insights with minimal setup.
“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-specific 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 G2 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.
Configuration complexity came up in a number of reviews. While the platform’s depth was appreciated, some users said fine-tuning alerts or building detailed queries required extra trial and error. The basics were easy to set up, but unlocking advanced functionality took more effort than expected.
Pricing was also mentioned as a small friction point. Some reviewers noted that while New Relic delivered clear value, pricing tiers made it difficult to access all features without stretching budgets. A few mentioned cutting back usage or limiting access to stay within plan limits.
Even with these trade-offs, G2 reviewers consistently describe New Relic as a powerful and flexible APM platform that brings system-wide visibility into one reliable place.
“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 G2 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.
Overall, Datadog is a versatile, feature-rich platform that delivers exceptional visibility, particularly for teams that value real-time insights across their entire stack.
“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. On G2, it has the highest ease-of-use score in this list at 93%, showing how user-friendly it is, even for teams unfamiliar with observability tools.
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. G2 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.
That said, alerts weren’t without their challenges. Some reviews mentioned noise from false positives or the need to fine-tune thresholds to reduce unnecessary notifications. A few also wanted more advanced options or integrations to reduce manual triage work.
Documentation came up as another area with room to grow. While reviewers spoke positively about the responsiveness of Rakuten’s support team, they said deeper guides or configuration examples would help teams become more self-sufficient when handling complex setups.
To sum it up, Rakuten SixthSense Observability delivers reliable monitoring and actionable insights in a streamlined package.
“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.
Combine APM insights with the best session replay software to understand how performance issues impact the user experience.
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. G2 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 provides 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 G2 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 G2 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.
Google Cloud Console is a dependable way to oversee GCP environments, giving teams the real-time monitoring and usability they need to keep operations steady.
“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.
Got more questions? We have the answers.
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.
New Relic and Datadog are popular among SaaS teams for their scalability and wide integration ecosystem. LogRocket is also frequently adopted to better understand user behavior in SaaS apps through session replay and frontend tracking.
Startups lean toward tools like LogRocket and Rakuten SixthSense Observability for their ease of use and affordability. Instana is also popular with fast-moving engineering teams that want zero-configuration monitoring out of the box.
IBM Instana and Dynatrace frequently show up in G2 reviews from IT services firms. Both tools are praised for auto-discovery, fast anomaly detection, and the ability to manage large distributed systems without excessive manual configuration.
Datadog and Google Cloud Console are strong choices here. Datadog provides extensive integrations with AWS, Azure, and GCP, while Google Cloud Console offers built-in monitoring for GCP workloads. New Relic is another trusted name for multi-cloud monitoring.
Smaller tech teams often adopt LogRocket or Rakuten SixthSense Observability, thanks to their user-friendly dashboards and cost-effective pricing. G2 reviews also show that New Relic’s free tier is popular with smaller businesses.
Dynatrace and Datadog are frequently mentioned as reliable options for online-first businesses. G2 reviewers praised their ability to manage high traffic loads, catch anomalies in real time, and deliver actionable insights without overwhelming noise.
Enterprise-scale organizations lean heavily on Dynatrace and IBM Instana for their AI-powered insights and automation. New Relic also ranks highly with large teams that need broad instrumentation across distributed applications.
G2 reviewers often recommend Datadog, New Relic, and Instana for mid-market businesses. These tools strike a balance between depth and usability, offering robust dashboards and integrations without requiring the resources of a large enterprise.
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.
I’ve spent the last three years writing about IT and cloud security, talking to DevOps teams,...
by Soundarya Jayaraman
If you've ever stared at a high bounce rate and thought, what happened here? Same.
.png)
by Tanuja Bahirat
Your pipeline breaks. No alerts. No warnings. Just a flood of messages about a broken...
by Harshita Tewari
