What is application performance management?

This can include everything from code-level diagnostics and detecting slow application transactions to measuring end-user satisfaction levels.

Here is our list of the best application performance management tools:

  • SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor EDITOR’S CHOICE This tool that runs on Windows Server combines both application and server monitoring. Recognizes over 1,200 applications out-of-the-box and you can be up and running in a couple of hours. A risk-free 30-day trial is available.
  • Datadog Real-Time APM (FREE TRIAL) This cloud-based monitoring service is designed for tracking the activities and performance of Web applications, which includes discovering all supporting services and modules. Observability is achieved through distributed tracing. Start a 14-day free trial.
  • ManageEngine Applications Manager (FREE TRIAL) Monitors physical, virtual, and cloud servers running Windows and Linux operating systems.
  • Site24x7 Application Performance Monitoring (FREE TRIAL) Online suite of infrastructure management tools that monitor networks, and servers as well as applications.
  • SolarWinds AppOptics Application Monitoring (FREE TRIAL) A Cloud-based service that focuses on application performance issues.
  • AppDynamics This monitor includes an application stack map so you can instantly see which underlying resource is causing application performance problems.
  • New Relic APM This applications monitors & analyzes events by inspecting the performance of code written in the seven most frequently-used languages for online services: Java, Node.js, PHP, .NET, Python, Ruby, and Go.
  • Dynatrace Application Performance Management An online service that specializes in monitoring apps for Cloud-based businesses.
  • Splunk IT Service Intelligence This tool includes an AI module that produces predictive reports that show you where capacity problems may be likely to occur.
  • WhatsUp Gold with Application Monitoring Add-on The core WhatsUp Gold monitors networks and you can extend it with an add on to track application performance.
  • CA Application Performance Management This bundle of tools includes Application Performance Monitoring, App Experience Analytics, and Synthetic Monitoring.
  • AppEnsure This tool is aimed at providers of online servers; it monitors both user experience on a website and application delivery statistics.

Business application performance monitoring options

There are too many factors that could impair software performance for you to keep on top of all of them unassisted. Application performance management tools will allow you to keep the system running and head off disasters. With proper application insights & management, you can prevent problems that cause users to make Help Desk calls. So, this software pays for itself because it will save your IT department time and money on customer support functions.

The options open to you include on-premises software, cloud-based application performance monitoring software, services that you pay for by subscription, and software packages that you buy outright.

The best APM tools

Your choice of application performance management tool will depend on your IT support strategy – whether you run all your services in-house or prefer off-site solutions. The size of your organization and your IT budget will also be major factors. So, when you read through this list, you will need to keep your own circumstances in mind to identify the application performance management software that is right for you.

1. SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (FREE TRIAL)

Our methodology for selecting an application performance monitor

We reviewed the market for APM monitoring software and analyzed the options based on the following criteria:

  • A service that can discover all applications on a system
  • A tracing package that identifies linked modules
  • An application dependency mapper
  • Services that can monitor server resources that support applications
  • Full activity monitoring
  • A free trial or a demo package that gives a no-cost assessment opportunity
  • Value for money from an APM that is offered at a fair price

If your IT department supports a large organization, you will need an application manager that integrates with other infrastructure monitoring modules. SolarWinds provides a suite of infrastructure support tools that are all written on the same platform. These tools all share data, so the more of them you implement, the better the insight you will get into the performance of your applications and all of the services that support them.

Key Features:

  • Automatic discovery
  • Application dependency mapping
  • Cloud service monitoring

The performance of applications is very closely tied to the performance of the hosts that the software runs on, so it is a very good idea to get a management tool that combines both application and server monitoring and that is what this software provides. The servers that you include in your management environment can be spread across several sites, and the tool will also monitor Cloud servers operated by Azure or AWS.

The monitors and displays of the dashboard don’t rely on a “one size fits” all strategy. The software adapts to show critical information related to each application, so you will see different metrics for a database management application from what you would for a web server. This adaptability is driven by a series of templates. The Server and Application Monitor includes more than 1,200 templates that cover all of the major applications that are available on the market today.

The server monitoring element of this software extends to the statuses of the storage server, which may be on-premises or in the cloud. You can extend the depth of information gathered by this module by adding on the SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor.

A great feature of this tool is the AppStack module. This gives you a visual representation of the applications that are running on your system, with all of the support layers of services and hardware shown in a stack below each. So, you can see the status of the application, the metrics for the application server that it runs on, and, if you are operating a virtual environment, all of the servers and networks that underlie that virtual machine. This is particularly useful if you operate applications in a Cloud environment or remote servers because it helps you see within an instant where underlying services are dragging your application performance down.

SolarWinds sells a perpetual license to this software, so once you pay for it, it is yours forever. However, the price only includes the first year of support and updates for the tool, so you will have to pay for support in subsequent years. This software is only available to load on the Windows Server environment.

The monitor installs in minutes and it will discover all of your applications and server statuses itself automatically. If you also buy the SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor and the SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, you will be immediately in control of all of the factors that could cause your business’s applications to fail or perform badly.

The Server and Application Monitor can be bought individually, or in the Systems Management Bundle. This pack also includes the company’s Virtualization Manager, the Storage Resource Monitor, and the Web Performance Monitor. Another bundle offered by SolarWinds combines the Server and Application Monitor with the Database Performance Analyzer. This grouping is called the Applications Performance Optimization Pack and is a particularly good buy if your business is heavily dependent on an ERP system. Whether you choose the Server and Application Monitor on its own, with a combination of other SolarWinds tools, or as part of a bundle, you can get the software on a 30-day  free trial.

Pros:

  • Designed with large and enterprise networks in mind
  • Supports auto-discovery that builds network topology maps and inventory lists in real-time based on devices that enter the network
  • Has some of the best alerting features that balance effectiveness with ease of use
  • Supports both SNMP monitoring as well as packet analysis, giving you more control over monitoring than similar tools
  • Uses drag and drop widgets to customize the look and feel of the dashboard
  • Robust reporting system with pre-configured compliance templates

Cons:

  • This is a feature-rich enterprise tool, small networks may find it overwhelming

2. Datadog Real-Time APM (FREE TRIAL)

EDITOR’S CHOICE

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is our first choice for monitoring applications and their supporting infrastructure. It automatically discovers the applications on your network along with their environmental dependencies. A powerful tool for establishing root causes during troubleshooting.

Download: Start 30-day FREE Trial

Official Site: solarwinds.com/server-application-monitor

OS: Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 and up

Datadog offers Cloud-based monitoring for infrastructure, applications, and event logs. You can sign up just for the application performance monitor or use all three systems in combination to improve service visibility. All of these services are charged for by subscription and the price depends on the number of hosts that you operate. The system can monitor on-premises, cloud-based, and hybrid systems.

  • SaaS package
  • Code profiling
  • Distributed tracing
  • Dependency mapping
  • Activity monitoring

Datadog monitors every request for an application and tracks its delivery, which involves examining events down the application stacks. Any anomalies that appear during the delivery of the application causes an alert trigger. Those alerts will accumulate, so you will instantly be able to see in the dashboard what application is in trouble and which service seems to be the cause of the problem.

The dashboard is very attractive and integrates graphical data representation to ease status recognition. You will be able to switch views to focus on the end users that are experiencing the worst performance and zoom in on individual users to examine the problems that application delivery encounters in that session.

You can customize the dashboard and even create different views to assign to individual team members. The system includes APIs, so you can even integrate elements of Datadog’s dashboard into your own corporate system monitoring pages. Interfacing between Help Desk software and Datadog reduces the need for support staff to switch between applications to tie in human error notification with automated alerts.

You will get more assistance from the Datadog Real-Time APM if you integrate it with the company’s infrastructure package. The two packages are designed to share data, so the trace through application performance down to infrastructure statuses is seamless.

Datadog APM is hosted in the cloud, which means that you don’t need to install and maintain the software. Furthermore, the cloud location of this package enables it to view other systems that are hosted remotely anywhere in the world because it is not bound by one host or network. The tool tracks all underlying modules and services so it can identify when contributing support systems are the real cause of performance problems. An optional extra, the continuous profiler, offers scanning and is ideal for DevOps teams for use in a CI/CD pipeline.

  • Great interface – easy to use, and customizable

  • Cloud-based SaaS product allows monitoring with no server deployments or onboarding costs

  • Can monitor both internally and externally giving network admins a holistic view of network performance and accessibility

  • Supports auto-discovery that builds network topology maps on the fly

  • Changes made to the network are reflected in near real-time

  • Allows businesses to scale their monitoring efforts reliably through flexible pricing options

  • Would like to see a longer trial period for testing

There is a free version of the infrastructure monitor that will manage data from up to five hosts. You can’t get the APM for free perpetually, but you can get a 14-day free trial.

Datadog APM Start a 14-day FREE Trial

3. ManageEngine Applications Manager (FREE TRIAL)

The ManageEngine Applications Manager covers applications running directly on your production servers, over virtualizations, and on cloud servers. The utility covers all of those essential services that your enterprise relies on, including Web applications, ERP suites, and databases. In total, the manager covers more than 50,000 widely used applications.

  • Tracks more than 50,000 applications
  • Links to server resources
  • Application dependency mapping

Performance monitoring features in this tool include the analysis of SQL execution to detect inefficiently structured database queries. The delivery of transactions performed on the server, across the network and over to end-users wherever they may be is another key performance measure included in this utility. Constant monitoring will alert you of performance metric deterioration and indicate which supporting services are the cause of delivery problems.

The dashboard for the tool is feature-rich with plenty of graphical data visualizations to speed performance comprehension. That dashboard is customizable, so you can delegate tasks and allow access to the utility by role without having to give all controls to every member of your administration team. The dashboard is also accessible from mobile devices to let field technicians get access to service information while out on a call.

While your team works on its system admin tasks, the Applications Manager keeps monitoring in the background, building up a record of regular performance patterns so that it can spot anomalies in service delivery quicker and more accurately. Fault detection utilities include a root cause analysis tool and a browser simulator that lets you experience the delivery speeds that your system’s users encounter. A reporting module lets you track performance metrics through both scheduled and on-demand execution, helping you to build up an SLA proof library and communicate the activities of your support department to stakeholders.

The Applications Manager runs on Windows, Windows Server, and Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, RHEL, SuSE, Mandriva, and Oracle Enterprise Linux. ManageEngine offers this tool on a 30-day free trial. If you choose not to buy the Professional or extended Enterprise edition at the end of the trial period, you can continue to use the software for free with capability restrictions.

  • Offers on-premise and cloud deployment options, giving companies more choices for install

  • Can highlight interdependencies between applications to map out how performance issues can impact businesses operations

  • Offers log monitoring to track metrics like memory usage, disk IO, and cache status, providing a holistic view into your database health

  • Can automatically detect databases, server hardware, and devices in real-time

  • Can take time tomaster all available features and options

ManageEngine Applications Manager Download 30-day FREE Trial

4. Site24x7 Application Performance Monitoring (FREE TRIAL)

The Site24x7 Application Performance Monitoring platform is a cloud-based monitoring tool that lets you analyze the performance of applications running on various platforms like Java, Node.js, Ruby, PHP, and .NET. The tool is administered remotely, so it is capable of analyzing applications running anywhere, including those running on cloud servers and mobile devices.

  • Cloud based
  • Mixed with server and network monitoring
  • Code analysis

The online access model of Site24x7 is very liberating because you aren’t limited to monitoring systems in the same building. The tool is available over the internet, through a browser, so you can access it from home just as easily as you could in the office.

With Site24x7 APM Insight, you can drill down to the exact line of code and find the needle in the haystack. This low-level analysis enables you to determine why a specific program method or a function call is slow and helps you identify potential bottlenecks.

Performance analysis also extends to databases. The tool helps you identify slow queries and work out which supporting service is causing the slowdown. You can also view live metrics on transaction data and also view reports for varied time periods.

You can set performance alerts, or let Site24x7 work out suitable levels for thresholds itself through machine learning and AI. You can also analyze how users perceive your online services from several different endpoints. This is known as “real user monitoring” (RUM). It demonstrates the end-user experience of your system from different geographical locations and in through different devices. The tracking capabilities of Site24x7 enables you to the dependencies between applications and the stack of supporting infrastructure for each of them.

Application performance monitoring is available with the Site24x7 Pro package. This deal includes the capacity to monitor three applications. It includes 50,000 RUM page views and will cover up to five sites.

Site24x7 is charged for on a subscription basis, charged monthly. You get a lower rate if you pay a year’s subscription up front. The Pro package can be enhanced by add-on deals that get you the capacity to monitor more applications, or more servers or websites. You can get a 30-day free trial of Site24x7’s Pro plan.

  • One of the most holistic monitoring tools available, supporting networks, infrastructure, and real user monitoring in a single platform

  • Uses real-time data to discover devices and build charts, network maps, and inventory reports

  • Platform is intuitive, little training needed to get fully functional

  • User monitoring can help bridge the gap between technical issues, user behavior, and business metrics

  • Supports a freeware version

  • Is a very detailed platform that will require time to fully learn all of its features and options

Site24x7 Application Performance Monitoring Start 30-day FREE Trial

5. SolarWinds AppOptics Application Monitoring (FREE TRIAL)

AppOptics is a new offering from SolarWinds. It is a cloud-based solution and, unlike the Application Performance Monitor, is set up on a subscription basis. The company offers two levels of service for AppOptics. The cheaper plan covers infrastructure monitoring, but not application management. This plan covers server and network monitoring, AWS Cloudwatch integration, and the storage of historical data. The higher-priced plan adds on application performance monitoring and application delivery tracing.

  • Cloud based
  • Hybrid tracking capabilities
  • Tools for manual analysis

The application management aspect of the higher-priced plan covers both traditionally-hosted applications and distributed systems, which may deliver applications across sites or from the Cloud. The tracking capabilities of the system show you the resources that application communications pass through on their journey from the server to the endpoint. This will enable you to spot bottlenecks in the network path and give you the ability to move or add on resources to optimize delivery times. The dashboard can show application, server, and infrastructure metrics on the same screen. This will enable you to see whether underlying services are the cause of application performance problems.

Facilities in the dashboard include analytical tools that enable you to combine metrics, set ratios, and thresholds for your own customized triggers and assessments. The data analyzer includes a query language that allows ad-hoc queries for you to make quick explorations of the data arising from the monitor. Graphical features in the dashboard give you the capability to overlay a series of time-shift data to compare the performance metrics of your applications over time.

Although AppOptics is a cloud-based service, the APIs that collect data from your system can’t be installed on just any operating system. The service can interact with Windows Server and Linux environments. You can get a 14-day free trial of SolarWinds AppOptics.

  • Offers great visualizations reflecting live and historical health metrics and resource consumption

  • Is easily scalable, built as a cloud service

  • Tracks all major resources such as CPU, memory, and network usage

  • Can monitor Docker, Azure, and Hyper-V platforms, offering more flexibility than competing options

  • Would like to see a longer trial period

AppOptics Application Monitor from SolarWinds Signup for a 14-day FREE Trial

6. AppDynamics

AppDynamics started as an independent company, but it is now owned by Cisco Systems. The involvement of this networking giant should see this monitoring system evolve into an industry leader, so this is one to watch.

  • On premises or cloud based
  • Free version available
  • Application stack monitoring

The dashboard for the service is very busy and it focuses on your applications and the services that support them. Another view of performance data follows user cases to show the speed of delivery and the demand for different services and applications from your enterprise. As there are almost no infrastructure metrics in this tool, you would probably choose AppDynamics for online businesses that are entirely provided by Cloud services.

The application stack map, shown in the illustration above explains the performance trends of all of the apps that are active on your system in a real-time monitoring display. The services that support those applications are also included and problems highlighted in those supporting systems may highlight status issues. These issues, with the underlying infrastructure, would need to be investigated with a separate monitoring package.

The software monitors your application software in real-time and builds up historical data, enabling it to create a baseline of standard performance. This alone might prompt you to make changes in your capacity provision if it displays poor performance. If everything looks good at the baseline, you can progress to the diagnostic tool to see whether the applications perform well around the clock. You will be able to identify which applications are likely to run into trouble in times of high demand. The user experience module of the tool lets you see where all the demand for your services comes from and which products and services are the most popular. This is a great tool for business analysis as well as application performance monitoring.

AppDynamics is available in a free version, called AppDynamics Lite and there is also a paid version, which is available on a 15-day free trial. The standard paid package is called APM Pro, but there are two higher packages: APM Advanced which adds on server and network metrics, and APM Peak which also includes marketing analysis functions. The service is provided on the Cloud by default, but you can request software to install on-premises instead. If you go for the Cloud version, you still have to install some software. This is the App Server Agent and it can only be installed on 64-bit Linux and 64-bit Windows environments.

  • Tailored for large-scale enterprise use

  • Excellent dependency mapping and visualizations to help troubleshoot complex application systems

  • Includes a free version

  • Priced higher than similar tools on the market

  • Can have a steep learning curve, could use more tutorials

  • Deployment/onboarding can be complex

  • Mobile app could use improvement

7. New Relic APM

New Relic produces a range of monitoring tools and the APM is one of those. The other modules available are New Relic Infrastructure, which observes the statuses of your underlying hardware and services, New Relic Browser, which helps online businesses track user experience, and New Relic Insights, which is an analysis module. The New Relic APM will work without any of these other modules. However, combining the APM with other modules will give you deeper knowledge of the causes of problems and help you improve your online service.

  • Cloud based
  • Monitor on-premises and cloud systems
  • Code profiling

The New Relic system is an online service and if your infrastructure is also provided by Cloud services, the monitoring software will integrate directly with them. The monitor can be integrated into AWS, Google, Microsoft Azure, and Rackspace hosted servers. It can also integrate with your own on-premises servers.

The service analyzes events by inspecting the performance of code written in the seven most frequently-used languages for online services: Java, Node.js, PHP, .NET, Python, Ruby, and Go. This means that it will also be able to trace the activities of your custom software, not just the well-known pre-written applications.

The APM monitors all of your internet traffic including that originating from mobile apps. This service is tailored to online businesses, such as information websites, and web stores. The tool can support the migration of applications from on-premises servers to cloud services and it is also helpful when managing the release of new products or revamping existing web services. Both data transfers to the Cloud server of New Relic and data storage are covered by encryption and user authentication.

The dashboard for the service includes a lot of graphics to help you identify problems and performance successes rapidly. The main information that you need is all there in the application monitoring display. You will see response times, throughput metrics, and error rates both as figures and as time-sampled graphs. You can also track individual visitors’ journeys through your website as well as getting overviews of application performance. The interface includes database monitoring and you can search through collected data to analyze performance issues.

The dashboard includes team collaboration features, such as information sharing and note-making. You can customize the dashboard and create user groups, giving different team members access to different data views and controls. The New Relic APM can be integrated with help desk management systems.

There are three plans available for New Relic APM. The Pro APM version is the top of the line and it is available on a 14-day free trial. A cut-down version, called APM Essentials lacks the analytical functions of the service. An important element of the Cloud service is its data retention period, enabling you to query performance over time and get analytical insights into your application delivery. If you are not as interested in this data retention, you can get APM Lite, which is a free version of APM essentials but with data held for only 24 hours.

  • Great visualization options for monitoring app performance

  • Can integrate into hosted server solution such as Rackspace

  • Uniquely offers built-in team collaboration features, great for NOC teams and developers

  • Fairly steep learning curve when compared to similar tools

  • Filters take time to configure

  • Monitoring of cloud and microservices need improvements and support to monitor more metrics

  • Alerting could use more customization options

  • Interface could be simplified and made easier to use

See also: Improve Java Application Performance

8. Dynatrace Application Performance Management

Dynatrace specializes in support software for Cloud-based systems and web enterprises. The software can be installed in-house, or you can access it on the Cloud. The pricing structure also gives you options; you can buy an annual license or buy the software outright.

  • Deploy on-premises or take as a SaaS package
  • User experience tracking
  • Good for Web application monitoring

Even if you choose to use the system online, you still need to install an element. This is called OneAgent. This is the data collecting monitor that reports back to the analytical engine which may be on your server or operated remotely by Dynatrace. The OneAgent monitor installs on Windows Server, Windows, Linux, and Unix. If you choose to install the entire system in-house, you will need one of those operating systems to host it.

The Dynatrace structure covers Cloud infrastructure with one package or applications, hosts, and services for in-house systems with a different package. Apart from that division of service, the software isn’t sold as specialized modules, so you get infrastructure monitoring and user experience tracking with the application performance management system.

The Dynatrace methodology observes your application performance from two angles. One aspect focuses on the mechanics of delivery and that reaches down into infrastructure performance and produces metrics on the throughput of application execution. The other viewpoint is user experience. The software logs each visitor and measures application usage and response times per session.

The Dynatrace package also includes “synthetic monitoring.” This is a planning tool that emulates the actions of users and can generate expected visitor volumes. This is useful when you plan to add new pages and services to your website. The information you glean from these application tests can warn you of any need to increase infrastructure capacity and also help you optimize the location of the new pages on your website.

  • Highly visual and customizable dashboards, excellent for enterprise NOCs

  • Operates in the cloud, allowing it to be platform-independent

  • Can monitor application uptime as well as the supporting infrastructure and user experience

  • Designed specifically for larger networks, smaller organizations may find the product overwhelming

  • Offers synthetic monitoring rather than real-user monitoring

9. Splunk IT Service Intelligence

Splunk applies artificial intelligence (AI) to its monitoring software. The company produces a range of monitoring tools including infrastructure management. However, the product you need to monitor your applications is called Splunk IT Service Intelligence. Although this is a separate product to the infrastructure monitoring package, it does include features that monitor events and hardware statuses so that you can get an insight into the causes of poor application performance.

  • AI-based routines
  • Capacity demand predictions
  • Identifies quiet periods

The AI element of the tool creates predictive reports that show you where capacity problems may be liable to occur. The application management tool also indicates peaks and troughs in demand and predict when the next surge in demand will occur. This will enable you to schedule batch jobs in quiet times and relieve the pressure on your infrastructure or buy extra capacity. If you already have an application monitoring tool, you can just opt for the add-on ITSI module for application performance. This will analyze the log files of your existing APM to focus on predictive capabilities. The tool also gathers information from your event logs to spot service delivery problems.

Splunk offers a 15-free trial of the Sandbox version of IT Service Intelligence. The package is an add-on to one of the main IT monitoring packages of Splunk, which will manage your infrastructure. The main package that the company offers is called Splunk Enterprise. If your business doesn’t have any on-premises infrastructure but is entirely supported by Cloud services, you should opt for Splunk Cloud. There is also a specialized package that will monitor AWS services.

Splunk Enterprise is available on a 60-day free trial and you can get a 15-day free trial of Splunk Cloud. A cheaper version of Splunk, called Splunk Light has a limit of 200 GB of data per day and you can get it on a 30-day free trial. There is also a free version, which has a data limit of 500 MB per day. However, you can’t add on IT Service Intelligence to the free Splunk.

Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Light, and Splunk Free are all implemented as on-premises software and Splunk Cloud is accessed online through a browser. Splunk software can be installed on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.

  • Leverages AI to monitor applications and provide root cause analysis to technicians

  • Developed to support large enterprise applications

  • Highly customizable dashboard views, reports, and live metrics

  • Can monitor both on-premise apps as well as cloud/hybrid products

  • Would like to see a longer 30-day trial of the sandbox version

  • Can be complex, uses its own query language

  • Expensive when compared to similar tools

Related post: AppDynamics vs Splunk

10. WhatsUp Gold with Application Performance Monitor Add-on

WhatsUp Gold is an alternative to the SolarWinds Application Monitor solution if you want to go the route of integrating several infrastructure monitoring tools. With this option, the Application Performance Monitor is an add-on module to the core WhatsUp Gold package. The basic WhatsUp Gold plan gives you server monitoring and also network device management. With the Application Performance Monitor added onto those modules you get a system-wide overview that will help you identify underlying problems that could cause problems with the performance of your applications.

  • Addition to core network monitor
  • Autodiscovery
  • Live application performance monitor

The standard WhatsUp Gold software also includes storage monitoring and wifi and cloud-based services monitors. The network features of the tool create a map of your system so that you can identify which network devices pass traffic through to which others. This will help you see where bottlenecks impair the delivery of applications to individual areas of your enterprise. Higher package plans include the Network Traffic Analysis module and that can give you deep insight into network performance. The top WhatsUp Gold package includes Configuration Management for your network devices.

The Application Performance Monitor add-on will log all of your applications during its set-up phase, which is automated. Once the monitor is in place, it will keep track of application performance in real-time, displaying metrics in the dashboard and generating alerts when critical performance issues arise. Both alert conditions and the dashboard display are customizable. The Component Summary Dashboard in the tool shows you a view of a selected application and all of its supporting services. This facility lets you see instantly where application performance problems are really caused by issues in other areas of the system.

The applications manager recognizes well-known applications, such as Apache, Hyper-V, and SQL Server, and adapts its monitoring activities according to the application type. You can also set up the monitor to track lesser known applications and your own custom-built software. There are more conditions that the tool can monitor than could fit on one screen and so you can browse through the options in the tool to select which statuses you want to monitor. A straight-forward script system enables you to combine sensors to create your own alert conditions, which can include factors from any level of your system, combining application delivery speeds with network device performance, for example.

You can buy WhatsUp Gold and its add-ons outright, or subscribe to the software annually. The company produces a Total Plus package, which is only available for sale and not for subscription. This pack includes all of the modules of the top WhatsUp Gold package plus the Application Performance Monitor and the Network Traffic Analysis, Virtualization Monitor, and Configuration Manager modules. You can read more about WhatsUp Gold in our review.

WhatsUp Gold and its Application Performance Monitor module run on Windows Server and the demo version will also run on Windows Pro environments. You can get a 30-day free trial of the software to run it through its paces risk-free.

  • Supports monitoring of infrastructure alongside applications and servers

  • Helps technicians read between the lines and discover bottlenecks quickly

  • Can be expanded to support network traffic analysis and monitoring

  • Requires Whatsup Gold, not a standalone product

  • Could be made easier to navigate

  • Text alerts can become jumbled if not formatted correctly

  • Would benefit from a larger community

11. CA Application Performance Management

CA Technologies produces three separate packages for application performance monitoring. These are: Application Performance Monitoring, App Experience Analytics, and Synthetic Monitoring. Each of these modules is delivered on a SaaS model and charged by subscription. The company doesn’t offer a package of all three. The App Experience Analytics system covers user experience and would be a useful addition if you want to monitor a website. The Synthetic Monitoring module also focuses on user engagement and it models visitor transactions so you can analyze the performance of a website. The main APM product of CA, though, is its Application Performance Management tool.

  • SaaS package
  • Three application monitors
  • Application dependency mapping

This APM is aimed at large organizations and its main feature is the ability to promote teamwork. Its key perspective is the transaction tracer that builds up a map of application components and service dependencies. The visibility of app dependencies extends to database performance. You will be able to see graphs of application delivery performance over time, which should help you spot abnormal behavior as well as peak demand and times with spare capacity.

The baseline built by the monitor gets updated constantly, so it will be able to provide you with a better insight into the normal behavior of your apps as time progresses. If you employ containers for secure app delivery under BYOD policies, the APM can see into the delivery of those apps as well. The data collected by the system extends to host performance and application code analysis. The services of Cloud-based and remote hosts are also included in the APM’s line of sight.

A higher Enterprise plan offers unlimited usage of the system. This service can be accessed on the Cloud or installed on-premises. The Enterprise plan includes the retention of data for 90 days to aid analysis. The Essentials package only gives you 7 days of data. You can get the system on a 30-day free trial, during which time all of your monitoring data is retained.

  • Simple- combines visuals with application log data

  • SaaS model makes the product accessible to any size company

  • Can use baseline analysis to highlight abnormalities

  • Onboarding for the on-premise version can be complicated

  • Reporting could use improvement, made easier to use

12. AppEnsure

AppEnsure monitors both user experience on a website and application delivery statistics to help you provide online services effectively. The alert conditions arise from poor performance as experienced by the user. You don’t need to wait for a complaint to come in from any of the visitors to your site because the AppEnsure monitor will detect the problem. In fact, you should be able to head off delivery impairment because the monitor will identify deterioration in service before it gets to the point where users of a site notice problems. Infrastructure monitoring will lead you to the cause of mounting problems and enable you to make adjustments to resources.

  • Web application monitoring
  • Autodiscovery
  • AI-based anomaly detection

The AppEnsure service is delivered online. When you begin with the service, AppEnsure software will search through your system for all end-user apps and then trace back to identify supporting apps and services. This application discovery process results in a map, which amounts to an application stack.

Once operational, AppEnsure records the performance of app delivery to every user. Initially, this data gathering allows the system to establish a baseline pattern of normal behavior. Once an acceptable level of delivery performance has been established, subsequent performance can be monitored for any anomalies or deterioration in response times that would indicate a problem in the system.

As AppStack also monitors the application stack, it can draw your attention to the service performance that is the probable cause of application delivery problems; rather than just telling you that a user-facing application is possibly encountering trouble.

The complete visibility of AppEnsure includes onsite and remote resources, plus Cloud-based services. The application stack monitoring extends to virtualized environments. It can trace the servers that support your virtual machines and identify status issues there. AppEnsure is particularly well integrated with the Citrix XenApp environment.   The detection methods of AppEnsure will detect and track pre-written applications, such as Microsoft Exchange, Sharepoint, and ERP systems. It is also able to monitor your own custom-built applications.

The AppEnsure service is charged for on a subscription basis. You can get a 14-day free trial of the system.

  • Alerts are simple to configure, and can easily be set to trigger before performance is impacted

  • Leverages baseline analysis to spot behavioral anomalies

  • Straightforward and gets the job done

  • Could use a longer trial period

  • Would benefit from additional integrations into to other log/monitoring platforms

Application Performance Management

No matter what type of business you have, application performance management is an important task of the IT department. In online businesses, the applications offered to visitors are the only contact that customers get with the organization, so guaranteed application performance is essential. For all other types of businesses, application performance is still a very important element of the IT system, and heading off problems will keep the business running and reduce the number of Help Desk calls.

You don’t want to rely on the system’s users to tell when the applications in your business are experiencing problems. If the service gets so bad that users notice, you have already failed in your job as an IT manager. Keep on top of your application performance with one of the tools on our list.

Do you use an application performance monitor? Do you use one of the systems recommended in our list, or have you installed a different APM? Leave a message in the Comments section below and share your experience.