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Elastic APM

by Elastic, Inc.

Open-source APM for real-time application monitoring.

Reviewed October 2026by CBAI Editorial Team

8.0/10

Score

8.0/10

Score

4.0 out of 5 · our score

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Developer

Our verdict

Elastic APM offers a robust, open-source solution for real-time application performance monitoring, integrating seamlessly with the Elastic Stack. Its broad language support and flexible deployment options make it suitable for diverse development environments. While the free tier is adequate for small teams, larger organizations may find value in the paid tiers, which offer advanced features like machine learning for anomaly detection and enhanced support. Overall, Elastic APM is a strong choice for teams seeking comprehensive observability without vendor lock-in.

Overview

Elastic APM is an open-source application performance monitoring system built on the Elastic Stack. It enables real-time monitoring of software services and applications by collecting detailed performance data, such as response times for incoming requests, database queries, and external HTTP requests. This facilitates the rapid identification and resolution of performance issues. Elastic APM also automatically collects unhandled errors and exceptions, grouping them based on s…

Score breakdown

Overall score

8.0/10

Output quality8.5/10

Ease of use7.5/10

Value for money8.0/10

Features & tools8.5/10

API & integrations7.0/10

Support & docs7.5/10

Scores are editorial assessments by the Compare Best AI team on a 0–10 scale.

Expert review

CBAI Editorial Team

Compare Best AI · Editorial Team

## Overview

How we tested

Days tested

7 days

Tasks evaluated

·Real-time application monitoring
·Error tracking
·Distributed tracing
·Infrastructure monitoring

Method

Compared against Datadog APM and New Relic APM using identical inputs

Reviewer

CBAI Editorial Team

Plans & pricing

Elastic Cloud Hosted — Standard

$99/month

Starting on Elastic Cloud with Observability apps including APM

Distributed Elasticsearch Platform on AWS/Azure/GCP
Observability: Apps for APM, logging, and metrics
Centralized ingest and agent management
Managed global Synthetic Monitoring (additional metering)
Universal Profiling; LLM observability
Limited Support: web-based; 2 contacts; 3-business-day target (platform only)

Elastic Cloud Hosted — Gold

$114/month

Reporting + base support

Everything in Standard plus Reporting, third-party alerting actions, Watcher, multi-stack monitoring
Base Support: business hours; phone+web; 6 contacts; Urgent 4 business hours

Feature comparison

Feature	Elastic APM	Datadog APM	New Relic APM
Distributed Tracing
Service Maps
Error and Exception Tracking
Real User Monitoring (RUM)
Machine Learning for Anomaly Detection
OpenTelemetry Support

Included Partial / add-on Not included

Is it right for you?

Good fit for

Developers

Provides real-time monitoring and debugging tools for application performance.

DevOps Teams

Offers comprehensive observability to maintain application health and performance.

Organizations

Delivers flexible deployment options to suit various operational needs.

Less suited for

Non-technical Users

Requires technical expertise to set up and interpret monitoring data.

Small Teams

Free tier may be sufficient; paid plans may be more than needed.

User reviews

4.0

Editorial score

48%

28%

Distribution is estimated from our editorial score. Verified user reviews coming soon.

Integrations

Reported connectors

Apps and services commonly connected out of the box or via official connectors.

Elasticsearch
Kibana
Logstash
Beats
OpenTelemetry

Overview

Score breakdown

Expert review

Plans & pricing

Feature comparison

Is it right for you?

Good fit for

Less suited for

User reviews

Integrations

Details