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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)

    Sisense

    Score6.9 out of 10
    N/ASisense is a BI software and analytics platform. With what the vendor calls their In-Chip™ and Single Stack™ technologies, users have access to a comprehensive tool to analyze and visualize large, disparate data sets without IT resources.N/A
    Pricing
    IBM InstanaSisense
    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 InstanaSisense
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Must contact sales team for pricing.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM InstanaSisense
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Sisense Ltd
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    61 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    53 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    61 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    40 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    47 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    IBM InstanaSisense
    Monitoring Tasks
    Comparison of Monitoring Tasks features of IBM Instana and Sisense
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    7.6
    3 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Sisense
    -
    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 Sisense
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    5.5
    1 Ratings
    23% below category average
    Sisense
    -
    Ratings
    Software and hardware inventory6.42 Ratings00 Ratings
    Policy-based automation4.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting
    Comparison of Reporting features of IBM Instana and Sisense
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    6.5
    3 Ratings
    20% below category average
    Sisense
    -
    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 Sisense
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    -
    Ratings
    Sisense
    9.7
    47 Ratings
    17% above category average
    Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings10.037 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards00 Ratings10.047 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings9.033 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of IBM Instana and Sisense
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    -
    Ratings
    Sisense
    8.8
    47 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Drill-down analysis00 Ratings10.047 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities00 Ratings9.047 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings9.027 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings7.33 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of IBM Instana and Sisense
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    -
    Ratings
    Sisense
    10.0
    46 Ratings
    20% above category average
    Publish to Web00 Ratings10.036 Ratings
    Publish to PDF00 Ratings10.046 Ratings
    Report Versioning00 Ratings10.024 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings10.039 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of IBM Instana and Sisense
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    -
    Ratings
    Sisense
    9.5
    45 Ratings
    17% above category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings10.045 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings9.042 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics00 Ratings9.029 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of IBM Instana and Sisense
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    -
    Ratings
    Sisense
    10.0
    45 Ratings
    16% above category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings10.045 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings10.044 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings10.045 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of IBM Instana and Sisense
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    -
    Ratings
    Sisense
    9.7
    40 Ratings
    22% above category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings10.040 Ratings
    Mobile Application00 Ratings10.025 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings10.034 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM InstanaSisense
    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 InstanaSisense
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.8
    (60 ratings)
    10.0
    (58 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    8.9
    (14 ratings)
    Usability
    8.3
    (3 ratings)
    10.0
    (6 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (6 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.1
    (3 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (47 ratings)
    Data Sources
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.2
    (47 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM InstanaSisense
    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
    Sisense Ltd
    I believe Sisense is perfectly suited for any organization of any size that have access to the proper resources, as the tool is very expensive. The data connectors come in all shapes and sizes out of the box, which allows a great deal of data control within the ElastiCubes. Additionally, while the platform only runs on Windows platforms, the web application can be accessed on any client: mobile, Apple, Windows, etc. This allows a much more flexible user experience, resulting in data and dashboards reaching further than any other tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Sisense Ltd
    • Customization - lots of supported and community plugins available. Users can also adjust the look and feel through JavaScript.
    • Innovation - Sisense is continuing to push the envelope by developing new features through Sisense Labs.
    • Customer support - the commitment to excellent customer service and ensuring organizations get the most out of their investment.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Sisense Ltd
    • The usability of the application on mobile devices needs some improvement, especially navigation and filtering.
    • Dashboards that are created by multiple users can be a bit of a hassle to share by Admins.
    • If you need to embed dashboards into your website, you are require to buy a license separate from the user and platform license. This is a norm on most BI visualization tools, but Sisense can seem a bit on the high side, cost-wide.
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Sisense Ltd
    I think the business and myself as a user has come to rely on SiSense as a dashboarding and quick ad-hoc reporting tool. I am hoping to integrate SiSense dashboards into more parts of the business in the future. We have reduced our report turn-around time for the most part from hours/days to minutes and in some cases almost the speed of thought. Reports are also easier on the eye and more easily distributed. I would also like to say that the support and professionalism from the SiSense team has been excellent.
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Sisense Ltd
    New V5 is ground floor of an exciting collection of possibilities. Weekly Sisense developers come up with new functionality that they share with us in their forums. The move to HTML5 has been pleasing in that widgets auto size themselves into appropriate forms in the board but everyone of them can be popped out to full page size to be looked at in more detail
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Sisense Ltd
    There are very few situations when there is unexpected downtime. Mostly during development, new dashboard implementation and during upgrades. other then that there were very few crashes.
    Read full review
    Performance
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Sisense Ltd
    SiSense is usually performing better then other solutions even if going for complex reports/dashboards(of course within reasonable frames). I haven't noticed any bad influence on other systems, usually if something happens it stays within SiSense.
    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
    Read full review
    Sisense Ltd
    SiSense's support ninjas are very knowledgeable and are exceptionally responsive. So far, all of the issues we ran into were resolved within minimum time. My sense of dealing with the support staff at SiSense is that they are very focused on not just answering your immediate question, but also to delve into the cause of the matter.
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Sisense Ltd
    Easy and free training that allowed us quickly understand basics in SiSense and start using them. More advanced features requires some browsing through SiSense forums, but there is always support to help, and SiSense support is one of the best whith which I worked so far.
    Read full review
    Online Training
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Sisense Ltd
    Many examples, videos and scenarios which you try on your own right away. This combined with in-person training gives you enough to utilize most of SiSense's power.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Sisense Ltd
    Remember to migrate the plugins. The documentation however is pretty straight forward.
    Read full review
    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
    Sisense Ltd
    1) Easy to use, really, there is nothing too much to say. The set up is easy and not confusing. You can use it internally or externally.
    2) Customer Service, having spoken to various product reps from similar industry. Sisense rep provides you with the best support to get started, and it is really appreciated.
    Read full review
    Scalability
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Sisense Ltd
    Product is quite easily scalable. The whole installation can be easily moved to stronger machine if needed.
    Read full review
    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
    Sisense Ltd
    • Report development time is reduced from 2~3 days to 2~3 hours.
    • Report querying time is improved from 0.5~10 mins to 2~30 seconds.
    • A 2-staff team delivers 10 times the BI output that we did on the old system.
    • We were able to deliver BI and data analysis for all business functions instead of a very limited group of users
    Read full review
    ScreenShots