15+ Best Java Monitoring Tools for Performance & Optimization (2023)

Java monitoring performance and optimization tools

Java is one of the most popular and user-friendly programming languages for creating applications. However, after development, the hardest part for software developers is keeping track of the Java application's performance. This is usually done through Java monitoring tools.

But which works best for your own needs?

We have therefore put together a list of the top Java monitoring tools for Java performance monitoring and optimization to assist developers in mastering the monitoring of Java-based applications.

Let's first define a Java application performance monitoring tool before moving forward.

What is a Java Monitoring or Java Application Monitoring Tool?

A Java application monitoring tool is a type of software that helps in performance measurement and the identification of issues that may have an impact on the experiences of your end-users.

Of course, for such an important task as performance optimization, it's crucial to select the most effective Java performance monitoring tools given the variety of tools available today for Java monitoring.

15+ Best Java Application Performance Monitoring Tools

The list of the most popular Java application performance monitoring tools is provided below to assist you in identifying memory leaks, identifying performance bottlenecks, and better understanding of any threading issues.

All of these different tools for Java monitoring have their own strengths and weaknesses, so it is best to run a trial of some of the ones which appeal to you and which fit your budgets and then bite the bullet.

1. JProfiler

jprofiler

Price: $549 for a standard license

Users can locate Java memory leaks and solve performance issues by using JProfiler. It also aids users in understanding threading problems. Developers can view a group of objects from various perspectives using JProfiler's intelligent user interface.

This tool can help developers fix memory issues.

2. VisualVM

Price: Free

Java 8 VisualVM

With a stunning graphical user interface, VisualVM is a potent Java troubleshooting tool. It incorporates command-line JDK tools and offers total visibility into Java Virtual Machine-based applications.

Tools like JConsole and Jstatt are part of the Java Virtual Machine. Regardless of the environment in which they are running, these tools let you view data from various Java applications uniformly.

3. Eclipse Memory Analyzer (MAT)

eclipse MAT

Price: Free

Memory usage in a Java-based system needs to be constantly tracked. Java objects are kept in heaps, and as an application runs, the heap's size changes. Java heap analyzer Eclipse Memory Analyzer helps identify memory leaks.

It also decreases memory usage and examines productive heap dumps to ascertain the object sizes that are retained. Additionally, a report's leak suspects can be automatically extracted using this method.

4. AppOptics by SolarWinds

Price: From $9.99/per month

SolarWinds AppOptics

A Java application performance monitoring tool called SolarWinds AppOptics helps in the in-depth code analysis of Java-based applications by developers. It can offer thorough and immediate troubleshooting using Java applications.

For efficient and ongoing monitoring of Java applications, it also lists JVM metrics on the dashboard. It is simple to implement all Java-based app management processes, from JMX integration to code profiling, with the aid of this Java monitoring tool.

5. Stagemonitor

java monitoring stagemonitor

Price: Free

Stage monitor is designed to monitor distributed applications. The tool assists developers in keeping track of Java-based programs that are running across numerous servers and is useful for clustered application stacks.

Additionally, Stagemonitor informs developers of the performance of the application during development, testing, and production. It also provides users with a summary of recent and historical data from the developer server and cluster for improved monitoring and enables them to build custom alerts based on thresholds.

Users can therefore get real-time information about CPU and heap performance as well as garbage collection behavior from the Stagemonitor JVM Dashboard.

6. NetBeans Profiler

netbeans profiler

Price: Free

The NetBeans Profiler is a component of the Apache NetBeans Integrated Development Environment. The tool is integrated into the IDE for convenience and allows monitoring of the application's CPU performance, memory usage, and threads with only a small amount of overhead.

You can examine memory usage for object allocation and garbage collection using NetBeans Profiler.

7. Scouter

scouter for java monitoring

Price: Free

Scouter is a free and open-source APM alternative to New Relic and AppDynamics. Real-time metrics on user activity, service activity (TPS, response time, SQL profiling, and more), and resource consumption metrics are available with Scouter.

8. Pinpoint

pinpoint

Price: Free

Pinpoint is an additional free and open-source APM tool that assists you in keeping track of the efficiency of sophisticated distributed systems created in Java and PHP.

Additionally, you can view request counts, response patterns, and JVM performance metrics like CPU and memory usage, garbage collection, and JVM arguments with the Pinpoint Java Performance Monitoring Tool.

9. JavaMelody

javamelody

Price: Free

Another free and open-source APM tool, JavaMelody, is made for monitoring Java or Java EE applications in testing and production settings.

Additionally, JavaMelody is a lightweight solution that is simple to integrate into the majority of applications.

10. MoSKito

MoSKito

Price: Free

MoSKito is a comprehensive toolset for DevOps to track the performance and behavior of Java applications. It gathers, analyzes, and stores all essential JVM performance metrics in real-time, including those related to memory, CPU, threads, caches, load distribution, and many others.

Additionally, MoSkito does not require code changes, protects your data, and works with all popular app servers, including Tomcat, JBoss, Jetty, and WebLogic. Thresholds, alerts, and a simple dashboard that records user activity make it simpler to keep track of all application processes in a multi-node production environment.

11. Oracle Java Mission Control

oracle mission control

Price: Free

The second element of the toolchain for examining the information gathered by the Java Flight Recorder is the JDK Mission Control.

A comprehensive monitoring toolchain can be created to gather the specific runtime data required for incident analysis post-mortem using Oracle Java Development Kit Mission Control and Java Flight Recorder.

Gathering low-level details about the JVM and the Java application that runs on top of it is made possible by Oracle JDK's inclusion of Java Flight Recorder, a framework for tracking events and profiling. Even environments for testing, development, and production can use the tools.

12. xRebel

xrebel

Price: Price on Request

Users of all xRebel-enabled services can view the execution details of each request using xRebel. This ensures that each part of the distributed application receives performance even though the request spans multiple Java Virtual Machines.

This includes queries made to datastores like MongoDB, Cassandra, HBase, and Neo4j using JPA, Hibernate, and JDBC. It is perfectly suited to monitoring and troubleshooting microservices because it has all of these features.

13. Glowroot

glowroot

Price: Free

Glowroot is an open-source Java APM tool. It is fast, spick-and-span, and simple to use.

Glowroot offers logging for every SQL catch, aggregation of logged user actions, and log time follow in addition to tracing to capture slow requests and errors.

The monitoring tool also offers charts to show percentiles and breakdowns of response times, along with historical data with customizable maintenance.

Additionally, this program offers an interactive user interface that enables you to keep an eye on Java programs from both a desktop computer and a mobile device.

14. Sematext Experience

sematext experience

Price: A bit weird

Sematext Experience is a real-time monitoring tool that enables you to track the performance of Java applications and get alerts whenever it finds problems that have an impact on end-user experience.

To get a more comprehensive picture of end-user behavior over time, you can correlate the Sematext Experience with Sematext Java Monitoring. You gain a wider perspective when you troubleshoot or analyze metrics in real-time.

Understanding how users interact with your application gives you the opportunity to identify the problem's root cause faster and more effectively by looking at it from various angles.

15. YourKit Profiler 

Price: From $499

YourKit Java Profiler

You can profile CPU and memory usage in local, test, and production environments using the YourKit Java Profiler, using a live connection, or locally offline analysis.

You can observe how changing your code impacts JVM performance using Yourkit Profiler in conjunction with the CPU and memory snapshots of the same session.

In order to diagnose slow SQL queries and web requests, the tool also supports widely used data stores like MongoDB, Cassandra, and HBase.

In addition, Java Exception Profiling allows one to quickly identify the areas where exception throwing during execution is impacting application performance.

16. LightStep

lightstep java performance monitoring

Price: From free

You can gain insight into the most complex layer of your Java application to facilitate root cause analysis and troubleshooting using LightStep's full-context distributed tracing and Application Performance Monitoring.

With the simple UI, you can explore each of the calls made by the service you are interested in, group them, and filter them.

This Java application monitoring tool is thought to be very helpful when used in conjunction with dashboards, alerts, and data streams.

Top Java Application Monitoring Tips to Boost the Performance of Your Java Application

The best Java monitoring advice is provided below to help you enhance Java application performance.

Profiling of code

Experts advise systematic code profiling for the purpose of monitoring Java-based applications. This is a direct way to find regressions and inefficiencies in the code.

By profiling the Java code, you can even find low-performance regions of the Java virtual machine (JVM).

Developers must install profiling software with live code profiling capabilities in order to avoid the hassles of manual code profiling and to quickly identify problems.

Use Transaction Tracing To Find Java Log Errors

Transaction tracing can be used to follow the Java logs. Software for transaction tracing can be used to track app transactions.

You can quickly identify the origin of transactions using effective software origins in the log data. By monitoring application transactions, you can even find solutions to issues in the Java logs.

Improve Log Libraries for Intelligent Troubleshooting

When you understand how to use JVM logging libraries, monitoring and troubleshooting Java application performance is simpler.

With Java logging libraries, you can manually or automatically use log management software to obtain information about historical SMTP server logs, console logs, and other Java logs.

Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks

Early detection and resolution of performance bottlenecks are crucial to preventing application slowdowns or malfunctions.

You must evaluate a wide range of JVM performance metrics, including garbage collection, heap usage, and response time, in order to locate and rank bottlenecks according to the severity of the problem.

Tracking exceptions will help you be more effective

In Java, exceptions are defined as a pre-configured code line that aids in the detection of programming errors.

Java performance can be enhanced by exception monitoring. JVM troubleshooting software can speed up exception tracking because it offers pertinent metrics and visually appealing summaries to make monitoring easier.

Takeaway

Java Performance Monitoring has never been simpler thanks to the aforementioned tools. Users can maximize uptime, improve performance, and gain crucial insights thanks to this.

Additionally, the ideal Java monitoring tool for your company should be affordable and scalable.

One such Java monitoring tool is Seagence, which tracks your Java production application continuously and identifies errors and their causes in real-time, obviating the need for debugging.

Additionally, it offers thorough debug information so that you won't overlook anything when conducting your investigation.

Simply fix the code as you normally would. By doing so, you can save time and put it to use on other worthwhile projects.

So why are you still waiting? For comprehensive Java application performance monitoring, pick the tools mentioned above today!

Java Monitoring FAQs

What does Java's performance monitoring mean?

Java performance monitoring was developed to help programmers troubleshoot JVM-related performance issues like inefficient CPU and memory usage. Java application monitoring can also speed up the process of identifying and fixing performance issues in test and production environments. Typically, such tools will find areas which are taking too much time execute, or using to many hardware resources such as CPU, RAM or disk space.

How can the performance of a Java application be analyzed?

The performance of Java-based code can be analysed using a Java profiler to keep track of constructs at the JVM level. JProfiler from EJ Technologies is one such Java profiling tool that enables users to more quickly identify memory leaks, fix performance bottlenecks, and understand any threading problems such that they can be fixed.

How is the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) monitored?

It is possible to monitor and manage the Java VM using JMX technology thanks to its integrated instrumentation. JMX technology enables management of Java applications without requiring a heavy investment: A JMX technology agent (which logs the performance) can run on most Java technology-enabled devices, which ensures that Java applications can become manageable with little impact on their design. 

About the Author
David Attard
David has been working in or around the online / digital industry for the last 18 years. He has vast experience in the software and web design industries using WordPress, Joomla and niches surrounding them. As a digital consultant, his focus is on helping businesses get a competitive advantage using a combination of their website and digital platforms available today.

One more thing... Did you know that people who share useful stuff like this post look AWESOME too? ;-)
Please leave a useful comment with your thoughts, then share this on your Facebook group(s) who would find this useful and let's reap the benefits together. Thank you for sharing and being nice!

Disclosure: This page may contain links to external sites for products which we love and wholeheartedly recommend. If you buy products we suggest, we may earn a referral fee. Such fees do not influence our recommendations and we do not accept payments for positive reviews.

Author(s) Featured On:  Inc Magazine Logo   Sitepoint logo   CSS Tricks logo    webdesignerdepot logo   WPMU DEV logo   and many more ...