Apica Synthetic vs. Retrace

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Apica Synthetic
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Apica WebPerformance is a synthetic monitoring platform. It features pre-release and scalability testing, and can integrate with other reporting and analysis programs.N/A
Retrace
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Retrace (formerly APM+) is a lightweight Application Performance Management solution. Retrace gives developers continuous, real-time analysis through a combination of code-level visibility with in-line log and error data. Retrace helps identify top performance offenders by analyzing top page requests, top SQL queries, and top external web services.
$99
up to 3 servers, 500,000 traces, and 1,000,000 logs
Pricing
Apica SyntheticRetrace
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Essentials
$99
up to 3 servers, 500,000 traces, and 1,000,000 logs
Standard
249+
2,000,000+ traces and 5,000,000+ logs
Enterprise
Custom
Customer number of traces and logs
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Apica SyntheticRetrace
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPricing is based on trace and log usage.
More Pricing Information
Features
Apica SyntheticRetrace
Application Performance Management
Comparison of Application Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Apica Synthetic
6.5
11 Ratings
16% below category average
Retrace
-
Ratings
Application monitoring7.610 Ratings00 Ratings
Database monitoring6.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Threshold alerts6.611 Ratings00 Ratings
Predictive capabilities8.57 Ratings00 Ratings
Application performance management console6.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Collaboration tools5.48 Ratings00 Ratings
Out-of-the box templates to monitor applications4.88 Ratings00 Ratings
Application dependency mapping and thresholding6.76 Ratings00 Ratings
Virtualization monitoring5.87 Ratings00 Ratings
Server availability and performance monitoring7.28 Ratings00 Ratings
Server usage monitoring and capacity forecasting7.26 Ratings00 Ratings
IT Asset Discovery6.96 Ratings00 Ratings
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Apica SyntheticRetrace
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User Ratings
Apica SyntheticRetrace
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(11 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Apica SyntheticRetrace
Likelihood to Recommend
Apica
As I use this for only my area, it is very well suited to what I need it to do. Apica Synthetic monitors two different web applications in a time interval that is easily customizable for uptime and latency. These are critical indicators for a cloud-based point-of-sale system. We need solid uptime and limited latency across the enterprise.
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Stackify
If I need to change a logo design on the invoice, the new logo is slightly larger or smaller so the type below the logo is in a different area than before. In this case, you would need to load the new version of the document into APM Plus and redo the mapping of the field areas to properly grab the information needed to process the document. Without doing this, the document could fail or go to the wrong archive based on the fields.
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Pros
Apica
  • Auto alerts trigger if any issue is identified
  • Graphical representation of the health of applications
  • Good product support from the team
Read full review
Stackify
  • Integration of performance management with log management so you get the parameters sent
  • In-line log and error data in trace
  • Integration of error and log data, so in one click you can see all the logs recorded when an error was thrown
  • Very reasonably priced
Read full review
Cons
Apica
  • It's very clunky. Infrastructure is large and very difficult to upgrade.
  • SaaS and On-premise versions are different. There is an LDAP integration but users can only be assigned to one group (i.e. department). If you are in 2 departments, you need 2 separate logins.
  • Update: they now offer federated logins
  • It filled a gap in monitoring for us, but we're looking to move on.
Read full review
Stackify
  • To set up the fields that APM Plus monitors, you need to map each field area on each document.
  • APM Plus could use a way to link the documents back into the finance or business software so you can find the document under the PO, Sales Order, Invoice, etc.
  • APM Plus setup is only for the professionals. There are many areas that need tweaking on setup, having a better default setup would lessen the learning curve to set it up for use.
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Likelihood to Renew
Apica
We trust the results that Apica Synthetic has achieved. Real-time alerting is critical to our clients and with limited resources, we can't handle many false positives; Apica Synthetic is the only solution that provides both of those features.
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Stackify
No answers on this topic
Usability
Apica
As per my experience while using it. Thanks!
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Stackify
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Apica
Apica Synthetic is very effective while configuring the account setup for any of the database/UserID.
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Stackify
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Apica
Easy for implementation in our Infrastructure, Easy for troubleshooting the issue and Easy to use as well.
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Stackify
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Apica
We were using different monitoring tools for different requirements (e.g.,Nagios and Checkmk for infrastructure issues) and we were in need of a tool for service and API monitoring for which we were using ThousandEye. But alerts were 60-70% valid irrespective of conditions like network issues. But Apica Synthetic's alert mechanism is a perfect fit for our department. It helped us to reduce unnecessary/false alerts and a number of wrong tickets.
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Stackify
It is a very impressive tool which doesn't overwhelm you with unnecessary data. They have combination of tools that haven't seen by any other company which makes it a very powerful tool
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Return on Investment
Apica
  • My department is not charged for Apica Synthetic so no ROI, but from a customer service perspective, we can react to an outage and repair it faster than our customers can report the outage.
  • Our vendor's own monitoring tools are not as accurate nor as timely as ours. They rely on us telling them, from Apica Synthetic, that they have an issue.
Read full review
Stackify
  • APM Plus has freed up users from having to manually attach documents to each place they are sending it. APM Plus will do it automatically.
  • APM Plus provides a searchable archive to re-visit sent documents with customers and vendors. Having to reprint a document you risk the potential that something has changed since it was last printed.
  • APM Plus does need IT staff for adjustments and to review sending problems. Not for an average user.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Retrace Screenshots

Screenshot of Detailed stack trace with inline error and logsScreenshot of Web Apps Dashboard:
The Apps Page gives you a high-level overview of all applications found and monitored across all servers in each environment. Click on any app to take you to the App Dashboard to view more information for a particular app.Screenshot of Apps Dashboard:
The App Dashboard is a powerful monitoring and troubleshooting perspective that gives you a view of application health across one or more environments.Screenshot of Performance (APM+) Dashboard:
The Performance section will give you a report of how well the application is performing overall, as perceived by your users.  A graph will allow you to view all requests by Satisfaction by viewing "Fast", "Sluggish", "Too Slow", or "Failed" types of requests.  Another report includes graphs of HTTP Error%, Satisfaction Score%, and Page Load Time.  Lastly, you will have the ability to sort each page request of your App by different categories: Satisfaction, Slowest page, Failed pages, pages hit, and total load time.  By clicking on an individual page a Performance Details page with further information about that specific page's health, performance, and errors will be displayed.Screenshot of Performance Traces:
One of the ways we strive to deliver relevant insights is to only collect traces around interesting requests. Some examples of these request types that are interesting would be faster than normal, slower than normal, new web requests, requests introducing new SQL, requests introducing new exceptions, or abnormal satisfaction scores. Under performing requests will be profiled more often than fast requests. As long as the app is getting steady traffic Retrace should be saving a trace every 5 to 15 minutes.Screenshot of Errors Dashboard:
From the Errors Dashboard, you can get an overview of all the exceptions of all your applications across different environments. It gives you a central location to view details about your errors.