Azure Application Insights vs Azure Monitor: What are the differences?

Introduction

Azure Application Insights and Azure Monitor are two monitoring solutions provided by Microsoft Azure to help developers and IT professionals gain insights into the performance and health of their applications and systems. While both solutions offer monitoring capabilities, there are several key differences between them.

1. Data Collection and Scope: Azure Application Insights primarily focuses on monitoring the performance and user behavior of applications by collecting telemetry data from various components such as web servers, databases, and client devices. On the other hand, Azure Monitor provides a broader scope of monitoring by collecting metrics and logs from not only applications but also infrastructure resources, virtual machines, and operating systems.

2. Alerting and Visualization: Azure Application Insights includes built-in capabilities for setting up alerts and visualizing application telemetry data through dashboards and charts. It provides a rich set of metrics and performance counters specific to applications. Azure Monitor, on the other hand, offers more extensive alerting and visualization options as it covers a wider scope of monitoring. It allows users to create alerts based on custom metrics, logs, and events from resources across the entire Azure environment.

3. Integration: Azure Application Insights is tightly integrated with the Azure portal, allowing developers to view and analyze application telemetry data alongside other Azure resources and services. It also provides seamless integration with popular development tools like Visual Studio and PowerShell. On the other hand, Azure Monitor is not limited to Azure resources and services but can also integrate with on-premises resources and applications through agents and extensions.

4. Application Insights SDK: To collect telemetry data, Azure Application Insights requires developers to instrument their applications using the Application Insights SDK. This SDK can be integrated into various programming languages and frameworks such as .NET, Java, Node.js, and more. On the other hand, Azure Monitor collects monitoring data automatically without requiring any additional SDK integration. It makes use of agents, extensions, and Azure Resource Manager templates to collect data from various resources.

5. Pricing and Licensing: Azure Monitor is billed based on the volume of monitoring data ingested and stored, while Azure Application Insights offers different pricing options based on the number of data points collected per month. Azure Monitor has a free tier available for basic monitoring, while Application Insights pricing is separate and has its own free and paid tiers.

6. Availability: Azure Monitor is a core monitoring service provided by Azure and is available in all Azure regions. Azure Application Insights, on the other hand, is available in most Azure regions but may not be available in all regions.

In summary, Azure Application Insights focuses on monitoring the performance and user behavior of applications, while Azure Monitor provides a broader scope of monitoring for applications, infrastructure, and operating systems. Azure Application Insights offers specific capabilities for application monitoring and provides tight integration with Azure portal and development tools. Azure Monitor offers more extensive alerting and visualization options, supports integration with on-premises resources, and has wider availability across Azure regions.