The Best Runtime Monitoring Software in 2026
We researched runtime monitoring products using official vendor websites, including pricing pages, plan tables, and product documentation. Our rankings focus on the category’s core job, value for money, and verified features that help engineering and SRE teams understand application behavior, errors, and performance while code is executing.
Our top picks
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Top ranked
9.4/10A broad observability suite for teams that need infrastructure, logs, traces, and Kubernetes in one view.
From $7 · 15-day trial
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Runner-up
Datadog APM#2 of 579.3/10Cloud APM links distributed traces with service maps, logs, metrics and real-user data.
From $31/mo (annual) · 14-day trial
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Top-ranked free plan
New Relic APM#3 of 579.2/10Broad APM coverage starts free, with paid plans adding users, SSO and support.
Free plan · paid from $10/user/mo
Advertiser disclosure: iTechGuides is reader-supported. We may earn a commission when you click some links. How we rank.
The full ranking 57 tools, best first · page 1 of 2
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Best forTeams needing full-stack hybrid observability
A broad observability suite for teams that need infrastructure, logs, traces, and Kubernetes in one view.
- Distributed tracing
9.4/10★★★★★Visit Dynatrace -
Best forTeams wanting cloud APM with broad telemetry links
Cloud APM links distributed traces with service maps, logs, metrics and real-user data.
- Real user monitoring
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
From $31/mo (annual) · 14-day trial Our Datadog APM verdict → Visit DatadogFor vendors Sponsor this spot · #2 · $99/mo →9.3/10★★★★★Visit Datadog -
Best forTeams seeking broad APM with a free starting tier
Broad APM coverage starts free, with paid plans adding users, SSO and support.
- Real user monitoring
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
Free plan · paid from $10/user/mo Our New Relic APM verdict → Visit New RelicFor vendors Sponsor this spot · #3 · $79/mo →9.2/10★★★★★Visit New Relic -
Best forTeams comfortable self-hosting open-source monitoring
A broad self-hosted monitoring stack for teams that can operate its backend and storage.
- Real user monitoring
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
9.1/10★★★★★Visit site -
Best forTeams needing modular APM and infrastructure monitoring
Modular monitoring for application services and the infrastructure they depend on.
- Real user monitoring
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
From $8/mo (annual) · 30-day trial Our SolarWinds Observability verdict → Visit SolarWindsFor vendors Sponsor this spot · #5 · $59/mo →9.0/10★★★★☆Visit SolarWinds -
Best forTeams wanting automated discovery and hybrid APM
Automatic discovery and hybrid deployment suit teams that need broad runtime visibility.
- Real user monitoring
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
8.9/10★★★★☆Visit IBM Instana -
Best forMid-market and enterprise transaction monitoring
Transaction-level diagnostics for teams monitoring applications across hybrid infrastructure.
- Real user monitoring
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
8.8/10★★★★☆Visit Splunk -
Best forTeams wanting flexible cloud or self-hosted APM
Flexible APM with tracing, service maps, and browser and mobile monitoring.
- Real user monitoring
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
8.7/10★★★★☆Visit Elastic -
Best forTeams wanting a low-cost unified application view
A cloud-based application view for teams bringing service telemetry together.
- Real user monitoring
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
Free plan · paid from $0.03 Our Grafana Cloud Application Observability verdict → Visit Grafana Labs8.6/10★★★★☆Visit Grafana Labs -
Best forTeams running applications on Azure
Azure-focused monitoring with transaction diagnostics, dependency maps, and live telemetry.
- Real user monitoring
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
8.5/10★★★★☆Visit Microsoft -
Best forTeams prioritizing full-fidelity traces and profiling
A cloud APM service for teams that need detailed traces, service maps, and profiling.
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
8.4/10★★★★☆Visit Splunk -
Best forMid-market and enterprise teams using OpenTelemetry
OTel-native monitoring links telemetry signals with service maps and AI-assisted investigations.
- Distributed tracing
8.3/10★★★★☆Visit Observe -
Best forTeams monitoring applications and infrastructure
Broad application and infrastructure monitoring, with tracing, logs, and user-experience insight.
- Real user monitoring
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
Free plan · paid from $395/yr · 30-day trial Our ManageEngine Applications Manager verdict → Visit ManageEngine8.2/10★★★★☆Visit ManageEngine -
Best forTeams wanting open-source APM with cloud options
Open-source and cloud APM with broad telemetry views, plus usage-based cloud costs.
- Real user monitoring
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
8.1/10★★★★☆Visit SigNoz -
Best forTeams seeking low-cost, broad telemetry monitoring
Broad telemetry, tracing, and profiling with a free tier and usage-based pricing.
- Real user monitoring
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
8.0/10★★★★☆Visit Middleware -
Best forTeams focused on high-cardinality telemetry analysis
A tracing-led observability platform for teams investigating high-cardinality telemetry.
- Real user monitoring
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
7.9/10★★★★☆Visit Honeycomb -
Best forTeams using Kubernetes and eBPF-based collection
eBPF-based Kubernetes monitoring with tracing, log correlation, and flexible deployment.
- Real user monitoring
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
7.8/10★★★★☆Visit groundcover -
Best forTeams wanting trace-centric APM with broad integrations
Trace-focused APM with service maps, RUM and usage-based trace pricing.
- Real user monitoring
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
7.7/10★★★★☆Visit Coralogix -
Best forTeams wanting self-hosted OpenTelemetry tracing
A tracing-focused observability platform with self-hosting and a free Community edition.
- Real user monitoring
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
7.6/10★★★★☆Visit Uptrace -
Best forTeams monitoring container and Kubernetes runtimes
Self-hosted runtime monitoring with broad container telemetry and a per-core paid plan.
7.5/10★★★★☆Visit Coroot -
Best forTeams needing transaction and synthetic monitoring
Combines transaction tracing, synthetic journeys and infrastructure diagnostics, from $100/month.
- Real user monitoring
- Distributed tracing
7.4/10★★★★☆Visit eG Enterprise -
Best forTeams prioritizing release and error diagnostics
Release-aware error diagnostics with tracing, offered in cloud and self-hosted deployments.
7.3/10★★★★☆Visit BugSnag -
Best forTeams using Tencent Cloud services
A tracing-focused APM with service maps, profiling, and Tencent Cloud log correlation.
- Continuous profiling
- Service maps
- Error tracking
Free plan · 15-day trial Our Tencent Cloud Application Performance Monitoring (APM) verdict → Visit Tencent Cloud7.2/10★★★★☆Visit Tencent Cloud -
Best forTeams monitoring Android and iOS app experience
Mobile-focused RUM for crash, ANR, network and frontend performance visibility.
7.1/10★★★★☆Visit Alibaba Cloud -
Best forGoogle Cloud teams focused on request tracing
A Google Cloud tracing service for examining latency, spans, and request paths.
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
7.0/10★★★★☆Visit Google Cloud -
Best forTeams building self-hosted tracing infrastructure
A self-managed tracing backend for searching traces and mapping service dependencies.
- Distributed tracing
6.9/10★★★☆☆Visit Jaeger -
Best forJava teams needing self-hosted transaction tracing
A self-hosted APM focused on tracing Java transactions and inspecting JVM health.
6.8/10★★★☆☆Visit Pinpoint -
Best forTeams focused on infrastructure and node monitoring
Per-second infrastructure visibility with monitoring for systems, services, and containers.
6.7/10★★★☆☆Visit Netdata -
Best forTeams prioritizing error triage with APM features
Error monitoring with tracing and APM features, from a free plan to paid tiers.
- Continuous profiling
- Error tracking
- Real user monitoring
6.6/10★★★☆☆Visit Sentry -
Best forTeams monitoring mobile and web app performance
A no-cost Firebase service for tracking app startup, screens, and network performance.
6.5/10★★★☆☆Visit Firebase -
Best forTeams wanting application performance and error alerts
A broad application monitoring toolkit with a permanent free tier and beta distributed tracing.
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
6.4/10★★★☆☆Visit AppSignal -
Best forTeams needing request and background-job diagnostics
Focused request and job diagnostics with query analysis, errors, and correlated logs.
- Log correlation
6.3/10★★★☆☆Visit Scout APM -
Best forMid-market and enterprise teams monitoring transactions
Transaction tracing, profiling, and service controls for web application monitoring.
- Service maps
- Error tracking
- Real user monitoring
6.1/10★★★☆☆Visit JenniferSoft -
Best forSmall teams combining error and uptime monitoring
A practical error, log, performance, and uptime toolkit, with less emphasis on deep runtime tracing.
6.0/10★★★☆☆Visit Honeybadger -
Best forTeams prioritizing error capture and replay
Error capture, release tracking and session replay, with a free plan and paid entry at $9/month.
5.9/10★★★☆☆Visit Rollbar -
Best forTeams focused on mobile sessions and crash diagnostics
Connect mobile and web sessions to crashes, performance data, and traces.
5.8/10★★★☆☆Visit Embrace -
Best forTeams needing replay context for user-facing issues
Replay connects user interactions with errors, logs, network activity, and traces.
5.7/10★★★☆☆Visit Sentry -
Best forTeams needing continuous CPU and memory profiling
Continuous CPU and memory profiling with self-hosted or cloud deployment options.
5.6/10★★★☆☆Visit Pyroscope -
Best forTeams diagnosing server-side request performance
Request traces and flame charts help teams investigate server-side performance issues.
- Distributed tracing
5.5/10★★★☆☆Visit Raygun -
Best forTeams prioritizing error tracking and release visibility
Error tracking, deployment context, and APM in a hosted service with a free plan.
5.4/10★★★☆☆Visit Airbrake -
Best forGame and app teams diagnosing native crashes
Crash investigation with dump analysis across mobile, PC, consoles, and servers.
5.3/10★★★☆☆Visit Backtrace -
Best forTeams seeking open-source telemetry collection and search
A flexible telemetry hub with collection, search, dashboards, alerting, and pipelines.
5.2/10★★★☆☆Visit OpenObserve -
Best forTeams self-hosting distributed application monitoring
A broad observability toolkit for teams prepared to run it themselves.
- Log correlation
- Distributed tracing
5.1/10★★★☆☆Visit Pointer -
Best forCloud teams monitoring serverless and distributed workloads
A tracing-focused cloud monitor for serverless and distributed workloads, with a free plan.
- Service maps
- Error tracking
- Log correlation
5.0/10★★☆☆☆Visit Lumigo -
Best forTeams monitoring hosts, containers, and services
Host and container metrics with autodiscovery, dashboards, alerts, and a free plan.
4.9/10★★☆☆☆Visit Sematext -
Best forTeams focused on browser and Node.js error monitoring
Focused browser and Node.js error monitoring with timelines, source maps, and alerts.
4.8/10★★☆☆☆Visit TrackJS -
Best forMobile app teams focused on crash and release health
A no-cost crash monitor for app stability and release health, not broad performance observability.
4.7/10★★☆☆☆Visit Firebase -
Best forOpenTelemetry teams seeking self-hosted trace analysis
A self-hosted observability backend for teams investigating distributed traces and service behavior.
4.6/10★★☆☆☆Explore DataBuff -
Best forBudget-conscious teams needing basic error and uptime
A low-cost error and uptime monitor with cloud and self-hosted options.
4.5/10★★☆☆☆Visit GlitchTip -
Best forTeams diagnosing web and mobile user issues
Combines replay, heatmaps, analytics, and frontend monitoring to investigate user-facing issues.
4.4/10★★☆☆☆Visit LogRocket
No tools match those filters.
Compare at a glance
| # | Tool | Free plan | Paid from | Distributed tracing | Error tracking | Continuous profiling | Service maps | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dynatrace Infrastructure Observability | No | $7/mo | Yes | — | — | — | 9.4 |
| 2 | Datadog APM | No | $31/unit/mo | Yes | — | — | — | 9.3 |
| 3 | New Relic APM | Yes | $10/user/mo | Yes | — | — | — | 9.2 |
| 4 | Apache SkyWalking | Yes | None | Yes | — | — | — | 9.1 |
| 5 | SolarWinds Observability | No | $5/GB/mo | Yes | — | — | — | 9.0 |
| 6 | IBM Instana Observability | No | $0.03/unit usage-based | Yes | — | — | — | 8.9 |
| 7 | Splunk AppDynamics | No | $6/unit/mo | Yes | — | — | — | 8.8 |
| 8 | Elastic APM | Yes | $99/mo | Yes | — | — | — | 8.7 |
| 9 | Grafana Cloud Application Observability | Yes | $0.03/unit usage-based | Yes | — | — | — | 8.6 |
| 10 | Azure Application Insights | No | — | Yes | — | — | — | 8.5 |
| 11 | Splunk APM | No | $60/device/mo | Yes | — | — | — | 8.4 |
| 12 | Observe by Snowflake | No | $0.01/unit usage-based | Yes | — | — | — | 8.3 |
| 13 | ManageEngine Applications Manager | Yes | $395/yr | Yes | — | — | — | 8.2 |
| 14 | SigNoz | Yes | $49/mo | Yes | — | — | — | 8.1 |
| 15 | Middleware | Yes | $0.3/GB usage-based | Yes | — | — | — | 8.0 |
| 16 | Honeycomb | Yes | $150/mo | Yes | — | — | — | 7.9 |
| 17 | groundcover | Yes | $30/unit/mo | Yes | — | — | — | 7.8 |
| 18 | Coralogix APM | No | $0.16/GB usage-based | Yes | — | — | — | 7.7 |
| 19 | Uptrace | Yes | $39/mo | Yes | — | — | — | 7.6 |
| 20 | Coroot | Yes | $1/unit/mo | — | — | — | — | 7.5 |
| 21 | eG Enterprise | No | $100/mo | Yes | — | — | — | 7.4 |
| 22 | BugSnag | Yes | — | — | — | — | — | 7.3 |
| 23 | Tencent Cloud Application Performance Monitoring (APM) | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 7.2 |
| 24 | Alibaba Cloud ARMS RUM | No | $0.02/unit usage-based | — | — | — | — | 7.1 |
| 25 | Google Cloud Trace | Yes | $0.2/unit usage-based | Yes | — | — | — | 7.0 |
| 26 | Jaeger | Yes | None | Yes | — | — | — | 6.9 |
| 27 | Pinpoint | Yes | None | — | — | — | — | 6.8 |
| 28 | Netdata | Yes | $4.5/unit/mo | — | — | — | — | 6.7 |
| 29 | Sentry Error Monitoring | Yes | $26/mo | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | 6.6 |
| 30 | Firebase Performance Monitoring | Yes | None | — | — | — | — | 6.5 |
| 31 | AppSignal | Yes | $279/yr | Yes | — | — | — | 6.4 |
| 32 | Scout APM | Yes | $19/mo | No | — | — | — | 6.3 |
| 33 | JenniferSoft APM | No | — | Yes | Yes | — | Yes | 6.1 |
| 34 | Honeybadger | Yes | $26/mo | — | — | — | — | 6.0 |
| 35 | Rollbar | Yes | $7.5/mo | — | — | — | — | 5.9 |
| 36 | Embrace | Yes | $0.8/unit usage-based | — | — | — | — | 5.8 |
| 37 | Sentry Session Replay | Yes | $26/mo | — | — | — | — | 5.7 |
| 38 | Pyroscope | Yes | $19/mo | — | — | — | — | 5.6 |
| 39 | Raygun APM | No | $80/unit/mo | Yes | — | — | — | 5.5 |
| 40 | Airbrake | Yes | $17/mo | — | — | — | — | 5.4 |
| 41 | Backtrace | Yes | $600/user/yr | — | — | — | — | 5.3 |
| 42 | OpenObserve | Yes | — | — | — | — | — | 5.2 |
| 43 | Pointer | — | None | Yes | — | — | — | 5.1 |
| 44 | Lumigo | Yes | $99/mo | Yes | Yes | — | Yes | 5.0 |
| 45 | Sematext Monitoring | Yes | $2.8/device/mo | — | — | — | — | 4.9 |
| 46 | TrackJS | No | $45/mo | — | — | — | — | 4.8 |
| 47 | Firebase Crashlytics | Yes | None | — | — | — | — | 4.7 |
| 48 | DataBuff | — | None | — | — | — | — | 4.6 |
| 49 | GlitchTip | Yes | $15/mo | — | — | — | — | 4.5 |
| 50 | LogRocket | No | — | — | — | — | — | 4.4 |
Head-to-head All 5 comparisons →
- Dynatrace Infrastructure Observability vs Apache SkyWalking
- Datadog APM vs SolarWinds Observability
- New Relic APM vs SolarWinds Observability
- Apache SkyWalking vs SolarWinds Observability
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How we rank runtime monitoring software
Every tool on this page was researched by iTechGuides Editors from its official website — pricing pages, plan tables and product documentation. We rank on how well each one does this category's core job, what the free or entry plan includes, and where it falls short. Where we have enough verified facts, the score out of 10 is a rubric — job fit, value and how much we could verify — shown with its breakdown on every tool's page; a tool we have not verified enough to score yet shows its rank without a number. Scores are re-checked when a product changes its plans. Read the full editorial policy, or submit a tool we missed.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Last updated · How we research and update