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AppDynamics vs PagerDuty

AppDynamics logo

AppDynamics

Logging

Enterprise Application Performance Management

From
$6/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
PagerDuty logo

PagerDuty

Technology

Real-time operations for real-time business

From
$21/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: AppDynamics appdynamics.com/pricing returns a 301 redirect to Splunk's observability pricing page; the product is now sold as Splunk AppDynamics; PagerDuty aIOps, status pages, and live call routing are expensive add-ons not included in base plans, significantly increasing total cost
  • They diverge on capability: AppDynamics covers Application performance monitoring, PagerDuty covers Incident response.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which AppDynamics and PagerDuty actually diverge.

Attributes where AppDynamics and PagerDuty differ
AttributeAppDynamicsPagerDuty
Starting price$6/month$21/month
Pricing modelsubscriptionUnknown
PlatformsWeb, ApiWeb, Ios, Android, Api
CategoryLoggingTechnology
Founded20082009

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in AppDynamics

  • Application performance monitoring
  • Distributed tracing
  • Real-time analytics
  • Alert management
  • API
  • Webhooks
  • REST
  • Web support

Only in PagerDuty

  • Incident response
  • On-call management
  • Alert grouping
  • Escalation policies
  • Mobile incident management
  • Postmortems
  • Status pages
  • Event intelligence

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

AppDynamics

  • Application performance monitoring for Java, .NET and other enterprise application stacksnot PagerDuty
  • Business transaction tracing across distributed application tiersnot PagerDuty
  • Infrastructure monitoring priced per vCPUnot PagerDuty

PagerDuty

  • Incident managementnot AppDynamics
  • On-call schedulingnot AppDynamics
  • Real-time alertingnot AppDynamics
  • Service reliabilitynot AppDynamics
  • Digital operationsnot AppDynamics

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

AppDynamics

  • appdynamics.com/pricing returns a 301 redirect to Splunk's observability pricing page; the product is now sold as Splunk AppDynamics
  • Infrastructure Edition starts at $6 per vCPU per month billed annually, so cost scales with core count rather than host count
  • Premium Edition starts at $33 per host per month and Enterprise Edition at $50 per host per month, both billed annually
  • The published figures are starting prices only, with volume pricing requiring a sales quote

PagerDuty

  • AIOps, status pages, and live call routing are expensive add-ons not included in base plans, significantly increasing total cost
  • Complex escalation policies require workarounds for scheduling patterns beyond basic weekly rotations
  • 5-user minimum requirement forces costs even for small teams, with forced Business tier upgrades adding $12,000+ annually for larger teams

Pricing, plan by plan

AppDynamics

$6/month
  • Infrastructure Edition$6/month
    • Infrastructure monitoring
  • Premium Edition$33/month
    • Infrastructure monitoring
    • Applications
    • APM
  • Enterprise Edition$50/month
    • Premium Edition features
    • Business Analytics

PagerDuty

$21/month

No published plan breakdown. See the PagerDuty review.

Which should you pick?

Choose AppDynamics if

  • You need application performance monitoring.
  • You work on Web, Api.
  • You also want distributed tracing.
AppDynamics review

Choose PagerDuty if

  • You need incident response.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android, Api.
  • You also want on-call management.
PagerDuty review

Questions people ask

Is AppDynamics or PagerDuty better?
Neither clearly leads. AppDynamics starts at $6/month and PagerDuty at $21/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, AppDynamics or PagerDuty?
AppDynamics starts at $6/month and PagerDuty at $21/month.
Does AppDynamics or PagerDuty run on more platforms?
AppDynamics runs on Web, Api. PagerDuty runs on Web, Ios, Android, Api.
What is AppDynamics best used for?
AppDynamics is most often used for application performance monitoring for java, .net and other enterprise application stacks, business transaction tracing across distributed application tiers, infrastructure monitoring priced per vcpu. Of those, application performance monitoring for java, .net and other enterprise application stacks and business transaction tracing across distributed application tiers are not what PagerDuty is typically brought in for.
What can AppDynamics do that PagerDuty cannot?
AppDynamics covers Application performance monitoring, Distributed tracing, Real-time analytics, Alert management. PagerDuty covers Incident response, On-call management, Alert grouping, Escalation policies.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

AppDynamics: How is AppDynamics priced?

AppDynamics uses a subscription model based on vCPU usage, billed annually. Infrastructure Edition starts at $6 per vCPU/month, Premium Edition at $33 per vCPU/month, and Enterprise Edition at $50 per vCPU/month. Additional capabilities like Secure Application, Real User Monitoring, and Synthetics have separate per-unit pricing.

Source
PagerDuty: What is the minimum cost to use PagerDuty?

PagerDuty requires a minimum of 5 users per account. The Professional plan starts at $21 per user per month ($105/month minimum), with annual billing providing 16% discount.

Source
AppDynamics: What add-on costs does AppDynamics charge?

Secure Application costs $13.75 per CPU core per month (billed annually). Real User Monitoring is $0.06 per 1000 tokens per month. Browser Synthetics costs $12 per test location per month. SAP Solutions monitoring is $95 per CPU core per month.

Source
PagerDuty: What integrations does PagerDuty support?

PagerDuty integrates with 750+ monitoring, ticketing, and collaboration tools including Datadog, Slack, Jira, ServiceNow, New Relic, and Nagios.

Source
PagerDuty: How much does AIOps cost in PagerDuty?

AIOps Intelligence is sold separately as an add-on starting at $699 per month, and is not included in any of the base plans.

Source
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