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Application performance monitoring for Elastic Stack

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Reviews onG2Capterra
39 reviews tracked

The Bottom Line

Entry price

Free plan available, paid tiers above

Biggest pro

Part of Elastic Stack

Biggest con

Resource intensive

TL;DR - Elastic APM

  • Elastic APM is application performance monitoring integrated with the Elastic Stack
  • It traces requests, identifies bottlenecks, and correlates errors with logs and metrics
  • Free self-hosted with Elastic Stack, Cloud from $95/month
Pricing: Free plan available
Best for: Growing teams
4.2/5 across review platforms

What is Elastic APM?

Editorial review
Elastic APM traces requests through distributed systems as part of the Elastic Stack. Performance monitoring that integrates with Elasticsearch for powerful querying and visualization. The integration with Elastic's ecosystem is seamless. Distributed tracing works across services. The analysis capabilities are deep. Organizations using Elastic Stack add Elastic APM for application performance monitoring that fits their observability strategy.

Available on: Web

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Part of Elastic Stack
  • Good tracing
  • Many agents
  • Correlate with logs
  • Self-hostable

Cons

  • Resource intensive
  • License concerns (SSPL)
  • Complex setup
  • Learning curve
  • Can be expensive

Ratings Across the Web

4.2(39 reviews)

Ratings aggregated from independent review platforms. Learn more

Key Features

APMDistributed tracingReal user monitoringElastic StackMulti-languageOpen source

Pricing Plans

14-day Free Trial

Pricing checked Jul 14, 2026

Most Popular

Free

Free

Self-hosted

  • APM
  • Distributed tracing
  • All features

Cloud Standard

$95/month

Starting

  • Managed hosting
  • Auto-scaling
  • Support

How Elastic APM's pricing compares

At $95/mo, Elastic APM is the most premium of its 4 direct competitors.

Elastic APM
$95

Entry paid plan, monthly. Pricing checked Jul 14, 2026.

Reviews

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4.2/5

Across 39 verified user reviews on Capterra, G2

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Elastic APM FAQ

How does Elastic APM help monitor application performance?

Elastic APM traces requests through distributed systems, providing performance monitoring that integrates with Elasticsearch. This allows for powerful querying and visualization of application performance data within the Elastic Stack.

Which teams benefit most from using Elastic APM?

Teams already utilizing the Elastic Stack for their observability strategy will find Elastic APM particularly beneficial. It is designed for organizations that need to correlate application performance with logs and other operational data.

How is Elastic APM priced?

Elastic APM is available on a free tier, offering basic functionality. For organizations requiring more extensive usage and advanced features, paid plans are available.

What kind of trade-offs should users consider before adopting Elastic APM?

Users should be aware that Elastic APM can be resource-intensive and has a learning curve due to its complex setup. There are also considerations regarding its licensing model (SSPL).

Can Elastic APM be self-hosted?

Yes, Elastic APM offers the flexibility to be self-hosted. This allows organizations to manage their application performance monitoring infrastructure within their own environments.

How does Elastic APM compare to Datadog for application monitoring?

Elastic APM is deeply integrated into the Elastic Stack, offering seamless correlation with logs and other data within that ecosystem. Datadog provides a broader monitoring platform that may integrate with a wider array of third-party tools outside of a specific stack.

Does Elastic APM support distributed tracing across different services?

Yes, Elastic APM is designed to support distributed tracing, allowing users to track requests as they move across various services within a distributed system. This provides a comprehensive view of transaction flows.

Source: elastic.co

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