Catchpoint vs Dynatrace: A Comprehensive Comparison
Unscalable applications with frequent performance issues are unimaginable in today’s fast-paced world. In 2021, Meta lost over $40 billion in market cap due to an unprecedented outage lasting six hours. Although every business is not Meta, companies have to ensure that their applications are up and running at all times. That’s why investment in application performance monitoring (APM) platforms is essential.
APM platforms monitor the real-time performance of applications for scalability and reliability and alert the business when they identify an issue. This helps companies resolve the problem immediately and keep the application functional even during peak times.
There are plenty of application performance monitoring platforms available. But in this blog, we will specifically compare the two most popular APM platforms – Catchpoint vs. Dynatrace.
Catchpoint
Catchpoint ensures internet resilience by monitoring users and applications across the internet stack. It predicts, detects, and provides insights to help companies fix problems before they impact the business. Catchpoint leverages its global observability network of over 2,400 vantage points to optimize the application’s performance, availability, reliability, and reachability. Nine of ten Forbes digital companies use Catchpoint to improve the application’s performance. It runs over 5 billion active tests each week.
Dynatrace
Dynatrace is an AI-powered observability and security platform that helps companies monitor applications and infrastructure across the entire stack to enhance digital experience and security. Dynatrace supports 625+ technologies and helps in simplifying cloud operations and automating DevSecOps. Gartner featured Dynatrace as a leader in the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for APM and Observability.
Catchpoint vs Dynatrace – A Comprehensive Comparison
1. Features
Technical Capabilities
Catchpoint provides synthetic, endpoint, and real user monitoring (RUM) capabilities to detect and fix application problems across the internet stack. Dynatrace offers a wide range of monitoring capabilities like infrastructure monitoring, application performance, and digital experience to improve the application’s performance.
Analytics and Reporting
Catchpoint is known for its ability to slice, dice, and compare data. It can capture many metrics and provide detailed visualization to help users identify the patterns and root causes of the issues impacting the application’s performance. Dynatrace uses an AI-powered analytics engine to identify problems, measure business impact, and share root cause information with teams. Its customizable dashboards, graphics, and real-time data streaming make it a comprehensive monitoring solution.
Source: Gartner Peer Insights
Ease of Use
According to G2’s user ratings, Dynatrace users gave it an average rating of 8.3 for ease of use and 8.5 for ease of setup. The average rating for Catchpoint was 8.4 for ease of use and 8.8 for ease of setup. This indicates that Catchpoint is far easier to set up and use than Dynatrace.
Integrations
Dynatrace offers over 600+ integrations and extensions that help companies automate infrastructure monitoring across cloud and hybrid environments, scale up DevSecOps, and analyze log data in real-time to derive actionable insights on application performance.
Although Catchpoint offers limited integrations compared to Dynatrace, it helps users send direct alerts to notification and collaboration tools through Catchpoint’s Alert Webhook. It improves the visibility of the alerts, reduces downtime by sending timely notifications, and improves the application’s security.
2. Pricing
Catchpoint offers a customized 14-day free trial that meets the company’s needs and dedicated support throughout the duration, after which companies can contact sales for complete pricing.
Dynatrace offers a 15-day free trial, after which they charge based on the pay-as-you-go model. The users can choose between full-stack or individual product pricing. While full-stack starts from $0.08 per hour for an 8 GiB host, individual product pricing varies depending upon the specialized functionalities. Several reviewers found the overall pricing more expensive and complex. Here’s what users had to say about Dynatrace’s pricing.
Source: Peerspot
3. Customer Support and Training
Catchpoint offers a 24/7 live chat option with observability and monitoring experts and an accounts team that addresses issues and helps users leverage the platform’s full potential. Users can also join the Catchpoint community to seek support from the best minds in the industry. Besides that, users can attend webinars and access resources like guides and reports to stay updated about the product and industry.
Dynatrace users can live chat with a Dynatrace ONE product specialist, email, or raise a ticket to solve the issues. Alternatively, users can join the Dynatrace Community or access the on-demand courses and live training through Dynatrace University to learn and stay updated about the industry.
Source: Capterra
4. Pros and Cons
Pros
Catchpoint is easy to use, requires no complex setup, and can be easily integrated with other services and systems. It is also known for its stellar customer support service and clear visualization of error reports.
Dynatrace is known for its versatility, AI-based tracking and reporting, and end-to-end monitoring capabilities, providing a holistic view of the application’s performance. It is mainly known for root cause analysis for application performance issues.
Cons
Catchpoint requires manual intervention while customizing test configurations or receiving alerts and notifications. Additionally, it has a steep learning curve and could be complicated for companies to set up. Many users also want the user interface (UI) to be more intuitive and user-friendly, as they find it slow, particularly while switching between the new and legacy UI versions. Lack of comprehensive documentation, last-mile visibility, and poor error handling are other drawbacks of Catchpoint.
Also Read: 3 Best Catchpoint Alternatives
Dynatrace, on the other hand, is quite expensive. Users may even have to pay additional costs for third-party solutions integration. Like Catchpoint, Dynatrace involves a steep learning curve. Users also don’t find the documentation detailed. This makes it hard for beginners to understand and use the platform efficiently.
5. Customer Reviews
According to Gartner’s peer comparison report, the average customer rating for Catchpoint is 4.7/5. For Dynatrace, it’s 4/5. Catchpoint performs better than Dynatrace in endpoint and service delivery monitoring, pricing, ease of use, and customer support. Dynatrace provides better diagnostics and fares better in the availability of third-party resources and ease of integration. Here’s what users had to say about both platforms.
Source: Gartner
Source: Gartner
How To Choose the Right Platform?
Here are a few factors to consider while choosing the right application performance monitoring platform:
Company Size
Catchpoint is ideal for enterprises with more than 1000 users, and Dynatrace is perfect for small-medium businesses and enterprises with 51 to 1000+ users.
Budget
Dynatrace is more expensive and has a more complex pricing structure than Catchpoint. Opt for Dynatrace only if it meets the budget.
Expertise
Dynatrace is more complex to set up and use and requires a steep learning curve than Catchpoint. So, opt for Dynatrace only if there are experts on the team who know to set it up.
Customer Support
Catchpoint offers limited documentation and customer support compared to Dynatrace but is known for being responsive. Dynatrace offers customer support across different touchpoints like email and live chat and also has a thriving Dynatrace University and community that helps users stay updated about the industry and products.
Goal
Catchpoint is a synthetic monitoring solution that tests applications across the entire internet stack. It focuses mainly on end-user experiences. So, choose Catchpoint if the goal is to understand how users interact with the application, identify user experience (UX) issues, and troubleshoot them to improve the overall experience.
Dynatrace, on the other hand, is ideal for companies that want to monitor applications and infrastructure in real-time, perform root cause analysis, and address the application’s underlying performance and availability issues. Companies must assess their business needs and identify the goal for improving the application’s performance before choosing the right platform.
Introducing appNeura – An Advanced Application Performance Monitoring Platform
We hope this comprehensive Catchpoint vs. Dynatrace comparison helps you choose the right application performance monitoring platform for your company.
If you’re looking for a more advanced application performance monitoring platform, appNeura could be your right choice.
appNeura is an ML/AI-powered product that continuously monitors and manages your web-based applications to provide a better customer experience. Here are a few features that make appNeura a perfect alternative to supercharge your application’s performance.
AI/ML Advantage
Users love appNeura for its exceptional expertise in Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) and its AI/ML capabilities. It helps users swiftly identify and resolve app-related issues and guarantees an unparalleled user experience. With over 1,000 unique use cases, appNeura diligently monitors applications and also delves deep into the root cause of the app’s code. This sets appNeura apart from other competitors in the DEM market.
ApDEX – The Patented App Health Scoring System
ApDEX is a patented app health scoring system that removes all guesswork in app monitoring and provides a comprehensive score that allows users to make informed decisions on improving the performance and overall health of the application. Here’s how the score is calculated:
Lightweight SDK Integration
appNeura’s lightweight SDK provides a seamless and hassle-free integration process that ensures optimal performance of the application. It provides users access to its powerful analytic tools and guarantees a smooth, hassle-free experience. The best part is it doesn’t require installation of agents or command lines on every server or device.
Advance Analytics
appNeura’s advanced analytics help users to:
- Obtain detailed insights into the performance of AJAX calls within web applications to HTTP or HTTPS domains, identify time-consuming calls, and take appropriate corrective measures.
- Visualize the page loads of web applications along with their static assets, and view the entire user session on informative graphs. This visualization eliminates the need for extracting logs from multiple services and simplifies the process of identifying potential issues.
- Analyze and troubleshoot JavaScript errors in users’ web applications by aggregating crucial details such as Stack Traces, Browser, OS, URL, and User information. It helps users determine the cause of crashes and address them on time.
Web Vitals Monitoring
appNeura helps users to optimize their web pages and improve user experience by monitoring the following web vitals:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures the time taken by a website to display the primary content to the user on the screen.
- First Input Delay (FID): Measures the duration it takes for the browser to respond to the user’s initial actions like clicking on a link, tapping a button, or interacting with a JavaScript-powered control.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Evaluates the visual stability of visible content.
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): Calculates the cumulative duration of unresponsiveness to user input. Increased TBT can lead to abandoned actions and impede critical tasks.
What If Analysis
What-if Analysis predicts how changes to an application may impact its performance. It helps with decision-making by simulating scenarios and providing valuable insights into how variables can affect the app’s performance.
Smart Alerts
appNeura’s smart alerts are AI/ML-powered. Hence, it notifies the users only when it detects something critical. It cuts down the unnecessary noise and allows users to take corrective measures at the right time.
Customizable Dashboards
appNeura’s customizable dashboards provide users with real-time insights into application performance and user experience. This empowers them to identify and resolve issues before they impact end users.
Level Up Your Web Application’s Performance With appNeura
appNeura is ideal for small businesses and startups seeking a Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) tool. What sets appNeura apart from competitors is its unique emphasis on improving the end-user experience through AI and ML. With easy integration, proactive monitoring, and comprehensive performance analysis, appNeura offers the advanced capabilities necessary for success in the digital landscape.
Sign up for a free trial to experience a smarter way of analyzing and improving the application’s quality of service (QoS), performance, and scalability.