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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM Instana

    Score7.8 out of 10
    N/AInstana, an IBM company since the December 2020 acquisition, provides APM services for SOA, microservices, containerized applications and Kubernetes, and cloud native applications, as well as discovery and monitoring for IT assets.

    $75

    per month per Managed Virtual Server (MVS)

    Looker

    Score8.1 out of 10
    N/ALooker is a BI application with an analytics-oriented application server that sits on top of relational data stores. It includes an end-user interface for exploring data, a reusable development paradigm for data discovery, and an API for supporting data in other systems.N/A
    Pricing
    IBM InstanaLooker
    Editions & Modules
    Essentials
    $20
    per month per Managed Virtual Server (MVS)
    Standard
    $75
    per month per Managed Virtual Server (MVS)
    Self-Hosted
    $93.80
    per month per Managed Virtual Server (MVS)
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM InstanaLooker
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
    Additional Details—Must contact sales team for pricing.
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    IBM InstanaLooker
    Monitoring Tasks
    Comparison of Monitoring Tasks features of IBM Instana and Looker
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    7.6
    3 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Looker
    -
    Ratings
    Remote monitoring9.14 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network device monitoring5.54 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple Server Monitoring8.94 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-device monitoring5.54 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated alerts and notifications9.14 Ratings00 Ratings
    Management Tasks
    Comparison of Management Tasks features of IBM Instana and Looker
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    5.5
    1 Ratings
    23% below category average
    Looker
    -
    Ratings
    Software and hardware inventory6.42 Ratings00 Ratings
    Policy-based automation4.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting
    Comparison of Reporting features of IBM Instana and Looker
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    6.5
    3 Ratings
    20% below category average
    Looker
    -
    Ratings
    Performance data reports8.34 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable reporting4.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data visualization8.83 Ratings00 Ratings
    Risk analysis4.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of IBM Instana and Looker
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    -
    Ratings
    Looker
    7.4
    134 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings6.5110 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards00 Ratings8.2133 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings7.5115 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of IBM Instana and Looker
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    -
    Ratings
    Looker
    6.8
    132 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Drill-down analysis00 Ratings6.3128 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities00 Ratings6.6130 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings5.655 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings8.8131 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of IBM Instana and Looker
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    -
    Ratings
    Looker
    7.9
    128 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Publish to Web00 Ratings7.7105 Ratings
    Publish to PDF00 Ratings7.8113 Ratings
    Report Versioning00 Ratings7.984 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.2110 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of IBM Instana and Looker
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    -
    Ratings
    Looker
    6.6
    128 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings7.7124 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings7.5110 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics00 Ratings4.66 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of IBM Instana and Looker
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    -
    Ratings
    Looker
    7.3
    128 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings7.5120 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings7.2105 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings7.2122 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings7.360 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of IBM Instana and Looker
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    -
    Ratings
    Looker
    5.2
    95 Ratings
    39% below category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings4.991 Ratings
    Mobile Application00 Ratings5.01 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings5.885 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM InstanaLooker
    Small Businesses
    Amazon CloudWatch
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    LogicMonitor
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ManageEngine Site24x7
    Score10 out of 10
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM InstanaLooker
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.8
    (60 ratings)
    8.0
    (134 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    9.2
    (8 ratings)
    Usability
    8.3
    (3 ratings)
    8.8
    (12 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    8.8
    (14 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (51 ratings)
    Data Sources
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (51 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM InstanaLooker
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    Well-suited for an org with a large application base, where many microservices are created and destroyed daily. IBM Instana doesn't require any manual configuration, so deploying the Instana agents takes very little time. Data capture from IBM Instana is highly granular and can detect even short spikes lasting a few seconds. Not suitable for legacy applications where there will be rarely any changes. They can use a simpler monitoring mechanism. Also, highly dense data capturing can sometimes overload the information.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    When data drives potential for new orders, Looker earns its place in our tech stack. If, on the other hand, we are hoping for pipeline generation, Looker is useful if you are willing to repeatedly go check customer utilizations .... it is not appropriate if you are hoping to automate data analysis for this purpose.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    IBM
    • Can monitor application(s) and system(s) with very large throughput of transactions by the second ( it gets everything !!!)
    • Provide strong drill down for your applications and will tell you where the points of failure of an application's is ( servers , network , Databases , etc you name it )
    • Very easy to set up and have it up and running when using the SaaS solution. There's an on premise solution which works just as well but requires more effort and preparation from an infrastructure point of view for your teams to implement.
    • Continuously improve their features and their agents auto-update and keep up. All while not interfering with your applications.
    • Let's you create your own dashboards and visualizations that can be tailored for different kind of users with the data collected.
    • Create your own events and smart alerts so you can know on the spot if something is happening or is likely to happen that needs addressing on your applications / systems
    Incentivized
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    Google
    • Show visited pages - sessions, pageviews - which programs are viewed the most.
    • Displays session source/medium views to see where users are coming from.
    • It shows the video titles, URLs, and event counts so we can monitor the performance of our videos.
    • It gives a graphic face to the numbers, such as using bar charts, pie graphs, and other charts to show user trends or which channels are driving engagement.
    • Our clients like to see the top pages visited for a month.
    • I like the drop-and-drag approach, and building charts is a little easier than it was before.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    IBM
    • It's very difficult to create custom dashboards, only a handful of scenarios can be visualized to dashboards.
    • Extracting information from Instana to further analysis into excel for example is something that can be improved. Using an API to get data is very limiting.
    • Open telemetry features which allow to send application data to Instana is not working as documented.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • Documentation is scarce, and very difficult to find when you need it.
    • Pricing is unclear, particularly as you look to scale your reports across the business.
    • Data from other sources is not represented in the system as well as first party Google services.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    Instana has been able to fulfill our all requirement and provide out of box solution for multiple component like AWS RDS Monitoring and real time alerting setup on basis of that. it is also easy to integrate with other open-source alerting and monitoring tools which makes it easier to incorporate into our solutions
    Incentivized
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    Google
    I give it this rating because it deems as effective, I am able to complete majority of my tasks using this app. It is very helpful when analyzing the data provided and shown in the app and it's just overall a great app for Operational use, despite the small hiccups it has (live data).
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    IBM
    IBM Instana totally alters our monitoring approach since it increases the stability of the system and simplifies the process of problem solving. And since it helps to lower the degree of alert exhaustion that we experience, it is a total game changer for us.
    Incentivized
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    Google
    Looker is relatively easy to use, even as it is set up. The customers for the front-end only have issues with the initial setup for looker ml creations. Other "looks" are relatively easy to set up, depending on the ETL and the data which is coming into Looker on a regular basis.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    No objections
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    Somehow resources heavy, both on server and client. I recommned at least 50Mbs data rate and high performance desktop comouter to be abke to run comolex tasks and configure larger amount of data. On the other hand, the client does not need to worry when viewing, the performance is usually ok
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    IBM
    IBM instana support team is good but when we ask them for support, they keep asking same thing again and again and mostly there is no solution
    Incentivized
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    Google
    Never had to work with support for issues. Any questions we had, they would respond promptly and clearly. The one-time setup was easy, by reading documentation. If the feature is not supported, they will add a feature request. In this case, LDAP support was requested over OKTA. They are looking into it.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    Very satisfied, easy to implement
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    Instana is much more robust and modern compared to our previous product which was AppDynamics. We compared Dynatrace and Datadog and they were very similar in many aspects. The licensing simplicity with Instana and our existing relationship with IBM made it a much more enticing option and accelerated the adoption timeline
    Read full review
    Google
    Looker Studio, you can easily report on data from various sources without programming. Looker Studio is available at no charge for creators and report viewers. Enterprise customers who upgrade to Looker Studio Pro will receive support and expanded administrative features, including team content management. So it's good.
    Incentivized
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    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    Perfect price to performance
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • Increase up time by early failure identification and performance optimization based on findings in Instana.
    • Enhance user experience by mapping user issues with backend failures
    • Automated actions help fixing known issues without human intervention
    • increase support team efficiency by root cause analysis which decrease the incident solving time
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • Looker has a poignant impact on our business's ROI objectives. As an advertising exchange we have specific goals for daily requests and fill, and having premade Looks to monitor this is an integral piece of our operational capability
    • To facilitate an efficient monthly billing cycle in our organization, Looker is essential to track estimated revenue and impression delivery by publisher. Without the Looks we have set up, we would spend considerably more time and effort segmenting revenue by vertical.
    • Looker's unique value proposition is making analytical tools more digestible to people without conventional analytical experience. Other competing tools like Tableau require considerably more training and context to successfully use, and the ability to easily plot different visualizations is one of its greatest selling points.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    Looker Screenshots

    Screenshot of a Looker dashboard with a geo chart.