Alerty Blog

18 Best Automated Application Monitoring Tools

Written by Jack Dwyer | Jul 20, 2024 9:34:03 PM

Application performance monitoring is crucial for businesses aiming to deliver flawless digital experiences. Imagine instantly accessing insights into your system's health, identifying bottlenecks, and spotting potential issues before they escalate. In this blog, we’ll be able to know automated application monitoring tools and compare the top options.

Alerty's free APM solution stands out for those looking to compare tools. Its intuitive interface, easy setup, and comprehensive monitoring capabilities make it perfect for businesses wanting to streamline their monitoring process.

Table of Contents

What Is an Application Monitoring Tool?

Application monitoring tools are software solutions that monitor and manage application performance and availability. 

Key Benefits of Automated Application Monitoring Tools

  • Provide real-time insights into application performance
  • Detect problems quickly
  • Help diagnose the root causes of issues

Key Metrics Tracked by Automated Monitoring Tools

  • Response times
  • Error rates
  • System resource usage

The primary goal is to minimize downtime and improve application reliability by identifying and resolving issues before they impact users.

How Do Automated Application Monitoring Tools Work?

  • Automated application monitoring tools work by continuously: 
  • Monitoring application performance metrics
  • Analyzing data in real time, 
  • Alerting IT teams when issues arise

Data Collection Methods of Automated Monitoring Tools

  • Built-in agents
  • Probes
  • Synthetic transactions

These methods gather data from application servers, networks, and user interactions.

By comparing the collected data against predefined performance thresholds, the tools can quickly identify:

  • Performance bottlenecks
  • Errors
  • Resource constraints affecting application performance

This allows IT teams to address issues before they impact end-users proactively.

What Key Features Do Automated Application Monitoring Tools Offer?

Automated application monitoring tools offer a range of features to help IT teams manage application performance effectively. These features include: 

  • Real-time monitoring of application performance metrics
  • Alerting
  • Root cause analysis
  • Reporting

Beyond essential monitoring, these tools often include features for: 

  • Alerting
  • Reporting
  • Integrating with other IT management tools

These features create a comprehensive automated ecosystem for managing application health. This allows teams to avoid potential problems, optimize application performance, and make data-driven decisions to improve user satisfaction.

The Benefits of Using Automated Application Monitoring Tools

Automated application monitoring tools offer a range of benefits to organizations looking to improve application performance and deliver a smooth user experience. These tools can help: 

  • Reduce downtime
  • Improve application reliability
  • Optimize application performance
  • Enhance user satisfaction 

By proactively identifying and resolving performance issues, IT teams can ensure that applications meet performance standards and deliver a seamless user experience.

Types of Application Monitoring Tools

Code-Level APM

Code-level APM tools provide deep insights into application performance by monitoring code execution in real time. They offer features like: 

  • Code profiling
  • Transaction tracing
  • In-depth diagnostics

These features help identify performance bottlenecks at the code level. These tools help developers optimize code performance and enhance user experience.

Server Monitoring

Server monitoring tools focus on monitoring the performance and health of the server infrastructure that hosts the application. They track metrics such as: 

  • CPU usage
  • Memory usage
  • Disk I/O
  • Network traffic

These metrics ensure the servers run optimally. These tools are vital to ensure the reliability and scalability of server infrastructure.

Cloud Monitoring

Cloud monitoring tools focus on monitoring applications and services deployed in cloud environments such as: 

  • AWS
  • Azure
  • Google Cloud Platform

They provide insights into cloud infrastructure performance, resource utilization, and availability to optimize cloud-based applications and services. These tools help businesses leverage cloud resources efficiently.

Database Performance Monitoring

Database performance monitoring tools specialize in monitoring the performance of database systems that support the application. They track metrics such as:

  • Query execution time
  • Database connections
  • Transaction throughput

These metrics help optimize database performance and ensure data accessibility and availability. These tools are crucial for maintaining database performance and data integrity.

Network Performance Monitoring

Network performance monitoring tools monitor the performance and availability of the network infrastructure that connects users to the application. They track latency, packet loss, and bandwidth utilization metrics to identify network issues that may impact application performance. By optimizing network performance, these tools ensure a seamless user experience.

Container Monitoring

Benefits of Container Monitoring Tools

  • Provide visibility into container metrics
  • Track resource usage
  • Monitor orchestration events

These features ensure the scalability and reliability of containerized applications. With the rise of containerized applications and orchestration, these tools have become essential for monitoring containerized environments.

End-User Experience Monitoring (EUEM)

EUEM tools focus on monitoring the experience of end-users interacting with the application. 

Key Metrics for User Experience Monitoring

  • Page load times
  • Transaction times
  • User interactions

These metrics provide insights into user experience and identify areas for improvement. These tools are critical for optimizing user experience and increasing user satisfaction.

Elevate Your Development With Alerty's Comprehensive and Cost-Effective Monitoring Solutions

Alerty is a cloud monitoring service for developers and early-stage startups. It offers application performance monitoring, database monitoring, and incident management.

Versatile Technology Support for Developers

  • Supports NextJS, React, Vue, and Node.js
  • Helps developers identify and fix issues

Comprehensive Monitoring and User Experience Optimization With Alerty

  • Monitors databases such as Supabase, PostgreSQL, and RDS
  • Tracks key metrics like CPU usage and memory consumption
  • Features quick incident management
  • Includes Real User Monitoring (RUM) to optimize user experience

Its Universal Service Monitoring covers dependencies like:

  • Stripe API
  • OpenAI
  • Vercel 

Alerty uses AI to simplify setup, providing a cost-effective solution compared to competitors. It is designed for ease of use, allowing quick setup, and integrates with tools like Sentry, making it ideal for developers and small teams needing efficient, affordable monitoring. 

Catch issues before they affect your users with Alerty's free APM solution today!

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Benefits of Using Application Monitoring Tools To Automate App Monitoring

Identify Performance Bottlenecks and Troubleshoot Issues

Automated application monitoring tools can help you identify performance bottlenecks and troubleshoot issues to improve your app's overall performance. 

You can quickly pinpoint areas where your application may be underperforming by monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) such as: 

  • Response times
  • Throughput
  • Error rates

This information empowers you to make data-driven decisions to enhance your app's performance and provide a seamless user experience.

Provide Detailed Logs and Reports

Automated application monitoring tools provide detailed logs and reports about your app's performance, guiding future enhancements and updates. These logs can help you identify trends in your application's performance over time, allowing you to make informed decisions about resource allocation and infrastructure upgrades. By leveraging these insights, you can optimize your app's performance and ensure it meets your users' demands.

Optimize Response Times and Error Rates

Monitoring your application's response times and error rates is crucial to ensuring your app functions as expected and delivers a positive user experience. Automated application monitoring tools can help you identify performance issues that may impact your app's response times or error rates. By addressing these issues promptly, you can optimize your app's performance and provide a seamless user experience that keeps your users returning for more.

Monitor Resource Needs

Automated application monitoring tools allow you to monitor your application's resource needs, helping you better allocate your resources and optimize your infrastructure. By tracking key performance indicators such as CPU and memory usage, you can identify potential resource bottlenecks and address them before they impact your app's performance. This proactive approach to resource management can help you optimize your app's performance and reduce the risk of downtime or service interruptions.

Quickly Address Issues

Automated application monitoring tools enable you to quickly address performance issues, saving time and reducing maintenance costs. Automating the monitoring process allows you to identify and resolve issues before they escalate, minimizing the impact on your users and business. 

This proactive approach to application monitoring can help you maintain a high level of performance and reliability, ensuring your app meets users' expectations and delivers a positive user experience.

18 Best Automated Application Monitoring Tools

1. Alerty

Alerty is a cloud monitoring service for developers and early-stage startups. It offers application performance monitoring, database monitoring, and incident management. It supports technologies like NextJS, React, Vue, and Node.js, helping developers identify and fix issues. 

Key Features of Alerty's Monitoring Capabilities

  • Monitors databases such as Supabase, PostgreSQL, and RDS
  • Tracks key metrics like CPU usage and memory consumption
  • Features quick incident management
  • Includes Real User Monitoring (RUM) to optimize user experience
  • Universal Service Monitoring covers dependencies like Stripe API, OpenAI, and Vercel

Alerty uses AI to simplify setup, providing a cost-effective solution compared to competitors. It is designed for ease of use, allowing quick setup, and integrates with tools like Sentry, making it ideal for developers and small teams needing efficient, affordable monitoring. 

Prevent user-impacting issues with Alerty's free APM solution. Start monitoring today!

2. Dynatrace

Dynatrace is a famous application performance and network monitoring tool. It gives you deep insights into your full application stack. You can monitor your application development environment from top to bottom and understand how everything is connected.

Identify Code-Level Issues and Fix Bugs Faster

This platform offers code-level monitoring so you can identify the source of any issue down to the line of code. It can check for vulnerabilities and bugs in your code to help you fix them.

Dynatrace has native integrations with many cloud services, including: 

  • AWS
  • Azure
  • Google Cloud
  • VMware

Using any of these services, you can easily connect your app to Dynatrace to get performance insights.

Preventative Detection and Intelligent Troubleshooting

Dynatrace incorporates artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to help troubleshoot issues with your app. Davis, This AI engine continually scans your app to detect flaws before they become expensive problems. Dynatrace has an intuitive interface that’s easy to navigate. 

The main drawback is that it is pricey, with full-stack monitoring starting from $0.08 per hour. You can use the free trial period to test its features before deciding.

3. LogicMonitor

LogicMonitor is a well-known cloud infrastructure monitoring tool. It offers an application monitoring tool that gives you deep insights into your applications. This tool covers every part of your application architecture, enabling you to identify potential issues or the source of the problems already occurring. The proactive monitoring helps you prevent potential outages and save time and money.

Comprehensive Monitoring

  • Provides excellent insights into user behavior
  • Delivers insights through an easy-to-navigate dashboard
  • Built with a collaborative focus on ITOps and DevOps staff
  • Shared dashboard offers a bird's eye view of applications
  • Visualizes relationships between all app components
  • Supports both hybrid and multi-cloud environments

Scalability and Learning Curve

This platform scales very well. It can keep monitoring your app as it grows without sacrificing performance. LogicMonitor is known to work very well with large-scale apps. Like many APM tools, LogicMonitor has a steep learning curve. It’ll likely be challenging initially, but you can get used to it with time.

4. New Relic

New Relic is a well-known web tracking and analytics platform. It offers an application performance monitoring tool that lets enterprises stay on top of their apps and online services. 

Enhanced Cloud Monitoring

  • Integrates with popular cloud services like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud
  • Easily connects to apps hosted on these platforms
  • Constantly monitors apps to detect anomalies
  • Alerts you to any issues
  • Enables troubleshooting to discover root causes
  • Provides insights into code performance for optimization

Free Tier and Paid Plans

New Relic offers a free version with significant features unlike most other APM tools. The free version supports one user and lets you ingest up to 100GB of monthly data. Anything above this feature requires a payment, starting from $0.30 per GB of ingested data. You must also pay a monthly fee of between $49 and $99 for each user.

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What Should You Consider When Choosing an Automated Application Monitoring Tool?

Supported Platforms & Technologies

Ensure the monitoring tool supports your app’s programming languages, frameworks, and technologies. Consider whether the tool is compatible with your deployment environment, including: 

  • On-premises
  • Cloud
  • Hybrid setups

Monitoring Capabilities

Assess the tool’s monitoring capabilities, including: 

  • Performance monitoring
  • Availability monitoring
  • Error detection
  • Logging
  • User experience monitoring

Look for features that provide deep insights into application performance and help identify and diagnose issues quickly.

Scalability & Performance

Consider the monitoring tool's scalability and performance, especially if you have large-scale or high-traffic applications. Evaluate whether the tool can handle the volume of data your mobile app generates and scale to accommodate future growth.

Smooth Deployment & Use

Choose a user-friendly monitoring tool that is:

  • Easy to deploy
  • Simple to configure
  • Intuitive to use

Consider installation complexity, setup time, and user interface intuitiveness. A user-friendly tool can streamline the monitoring process and reduce your team's learning curve.

Customization & Flexibility

Evaluate customization and flexibility features:

  • Define custom metrics
  • Set personalized alerts
  • Create tailored dashboards

Consider whether the tool supports integrations with other systems and tools in your environment.

Alerts & Notifications

Assess alerting and notification capabilities

  • Define custom alerting thresholds
  • Set up escalation policies
  • Choose notification channels

Ensure that the tool provides timely alerts for critical issues and supports integration with incident management systems.

Data Storage & Retention

Consider how the monitoring tool handles data storage and retention. Evaluate data management and reporting features:

Ensure that the tool complies with data privacy and security regulations.

Cost & Licensing Model

Evaluate the cost and licensing model of the monitoring tool, including: 

  • Upfront costs
  • Subscription fees
  • Additional charges for features or usage

Consider factors such as pricing transparency, scalability, and value for money.

Support & Documentation

Ensure these resources help you get started and troubleshoot issues. Review support and documentation resources:

  • Comprehensive documentation
  • Knowledge bases
  • Tutorials
  • Community forums

Security

Security should be a project's priority, especially if the project involves significant amounts of essential business data. You should ensure that the APM tool you use has numerous security features that improve the confidentiality and availability of your application data.

A good APM tool should have the following features:

  • Data encryption
  • Industry-standard compliance
  • Role-based access control and user authentication
  • Audit trails

The average data breach cost has increased to $4.35 million in 2022. With 2.5 quintillion bytes of data generated daily, security and incident prevention remain a top priority for all users. 

Why Should You Automate?

Saves Money

Automating tasks within your organization is a one-time effort that ultimately saves time and money on that task every time. Even the automation of small daily tasks can amount to significant savings, allowing you to reallocate this money toward developing better services for your company.

Accurate Monitoring

Application monitoring is a time-consuming and less productive manual task for your employees. 

Benefits of Automated Application Monitoring

  • Automatically detects and maps all services
  • Ingests observability metrics
  • Traces and profiles each request
  • Maps all application dependencies

This automation saves you significant time, which can be redirected to other vital priorities within your company, ultimately enhancing performance and profit.

Instant Access to Otherwise Unknown Metrics

Automated business monitoring systems can quickly surface insights that would otherwise go undetected. These systems can alert users to unnoticed trends in regional sales reports or unexpected changes in stock level patterns, providing valuable insights that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Related Reading

Catch Issues Before They Affect Your Users With Alerty's Free APM Solution

Alerty is an innovative cloud monitoring service that enhances application performance for developers and early-stage startups. Its comprehensive suite of features encompasses application performance monitoring, database monitoring, and incident management, making it a one-stop solution for small teams seeking efficient and affordable monitoring capabilities. 

Database Monitoring

Alerty specializes in monitoring databases, including popular technologies such as Supabase, PostgreSQL, and RDS. Tracking key metrics like CPU usage and memory consumption, it provides developers with valuable insights to optimize their database performance and ensure seamless user experiences.

Incident Management

Alerty streamlines incident management with quick response times and real-time alerts, enabling developers to address issues before they impact end-users proactively. By utilizing AI-driven analytics, Alerty simplifies setup and provides cost-effective solutions compared to other competitors in the market.

Real User Monitoring (RUM)

To enhance user experience optimization, Alerty offers real-time user Monitoring (RUM) capabilities. By tracking user interactions with applications in real-time, developers can gain valuable insights into performance bottlenecks and user behavior, enabling them to make data-driven decisions to improve application performance.

Universal Service Monitoring

Alerty's Universal Service Monitoring extends beyond application performance and database monitoring to cover dependencies like:

  • Stripe API
  • OpenAI
  • Vercel

By providing a holistic view of application ecosystems, developers can gain better visibility into their entire stack and resolve potential issues that could impact performance.

Integration With Other Tools

Alerty integrates with popular developer tools like Sentry, enhancing its usability and convenience for developers. By leveraging integrations with existing tools, Alerty ensures a smooth transition for teams adopting its monitoring platform and enables efficient collaboration and incident resolution processes. 

Quick Setup and Ease of Use

Designed for ease of use, Alerty boasts quick setup times and intuitive interfaces that enable developers to start monitoring their applications efficiently. With a user-friendly approach and streamlined features, Alerty caters to developers and small teams seeking straightforward yet comprehensive monitoring solutions. 

Cost-Effective Solution

By providing an affordable monitoring service that leverages AI to simplify setup and incident resolution, Alerty emerges as a cost-effective alternative to competitors. This approach makes it an attractive option for early-stage startups and small teams seeking to optimize application performance without breaking the bank.

Try Alerty’s free APM today to simplify your monitoring, optimize performance, and enhance user experience—all at no cost. Find out how our comprehensive and affordable solution can transform your application management.