SkySignal vs MontiAPM: Meteor APM Comparison (2026)
MontiAPM has been the default Meteor APM for years — it's the established option and it works. SkySignal is the modern alternative, built for Meteor 3 and opinionated about observer-leak detection, MongoDB insights, and AI-driven fixes. Here's the honest breakdown.
Feature-by-feature
| Feature | SkySignal | MontiAPM |
|---|---|---|
| Meteor 3 async/await support | Yes | Partial |
| Observer leak detection | Yes | No |
| COLLSCAN / slow query flagging | Yes | Partial |
| Publication efficiency analysis | Yes | No |
| AI-powered root-cause suggestions | Yes | No |
| Method tracing | Yes | Yes |
| Subscription / DDP monitoring | Yes | Yes |
| Error tracking + source maps | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing model | per-container | per-host |
| Modern UI (2026) | Yes | dated |
| Meteor 2 support | No | Yes |
| Self-hosted + Galaxy | Yes | Yes |
When MontiAPM is still the right choice
We're not going to pretend MontiAPM is a bad tool. It isn't. Here are the cases where sticking with MontiAPM makes sense:
- You're on Meteor 2 and not ready to upgrade. SkySignal is Meteor 3 only, so MontiAPM remains the practical choice until you complete your 3.x migration.
- You already have years of historical data in MontiAPM and trend continuity matters for your team.
- Your team is familiar with MontiAPM's UI and the switching cost outweighs the new-feature benefit.
- You don't need AI-driven diagnostics, observer-leak confidence scoring, or publication-efficiency analysis yet.
When to switch to SkySignal
- You're migrating to Meteor 3 and want Method traces that follow Promise chains correctly.
- You suspect observer leaks but can't find them in MontiAPM — our confidence-scored detection is built exactly for this.
- You're hitting performance walls in MongoDB and want COLLSCAN flagging plus publication-efficiency analysis.
- You want an APM that doesn't stop at dashboards — Astra proposes fixes and can open pull requests against your repo.
- You're running multiple containers and want per-container pricing with predictable costs.
Migrating? We've got a guide.
A step-by-step walkthrough covers agent swap, keeping both APMs running during transition, data-mapping between MontiAPM metrics and SkySignal equivalents, and common gotchas.
Read the migration guideFrequently asked questions
Is SkySignal a drop-in replacement for MontiAPM?
Functionally, yes — you uninstall the MontiAPM agent with `meteor remove montiapm:agent`, install SkySignal with `meteor add skysignal:agent`, add your SkySignal API key to settings, and redeploy. You won't lose the core metrics you rely on (Methods, Pub/Sub, Errors, Response Times). Historical MontiAPM data stays in MontiAPM; SkySignal starts collecting fresh on install.
Does SkySignal support Meteor 3 and async/await?
Yes — first-class, and Meteor 3 only. SkySignal was built around Meteor 3's async runtime, including Promise-based Methods, async publications, and the modernized Mongo driver. Method traces follow awaited calls correctly. Meteor 2 apps are not supported — if you're still on 2.x, finish the upgrade first.
Is SkySignal cheaper than MontiAPM?
Pricing is per-container (host) rather than per-request or per-host family. For single-container apps the free tier is usually sufficient; for multi-container production deployments the per-container model tends to be more predictable at scale. See /#pricing for current rates.
What about Kadira?
Kadira (the original Meteor APM) is no longer actively maintained. MontiAPM forked Kadira's codebase and has been the incumbent. SkySignal is a modern rewrite, not a fork, targeting Meteor 3 exclusively.
Can I run both APMs side by side?
Yes. Both are Atmosphere packages (montiapm:agent and skysignal:agent) and are designed to coexist — when skysignal:agent detects montiapm:agent at startup, it auto-disables its DDPQueueCollector and skips MethodTracer unblock wrapping to avoid handler collisions. Many teams dual-run for a week during migration to compare coverage before removing MontiAPM.
Try SkySignal alongside MontiAPM
Run both agents for a week. Compare coverage. Decide with data.