SolarWinds AppOptics vs Splunk AppDynamics comparison

SolarWinds and Splunk are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. SolarWinds is ranked #56, while Splunk is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.3. SolarWinds holds a 0.3% mindshare in APM, compared to Splunk’s 4.6% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of SolarWinds users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

SolarWinds AppOptics

Read 9 SolarWinds AppOptics reviews

1,032 Views
619 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Splunk AppDynamics

Read 249 Splunk AppDynamics reviews

13,425 Views
10,740 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

SolarWinds AppOptics

Splunk AppDynamics

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 11, 2025

Splunk AppDynamics, SolarWinds AppOptics, and SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor compete in application monitoring and management. Splunk AppDynamics excels due to its advanced analytics and detailed tracking capabilities, while SolarWinds AppOptics is known for its ease of integration and scalability.

Features: Splunk AppDynamics offers detailed stack trace analysis, transaction tracking, and JVM/Java container monitoring that provide valuable insights into complex environments. SolarWinds AppOptics is praised for its user-friendly interface and straightforward application performance monitoring.

Room for Improvement: Splunk AppDynamics could be enhanced with easier initial configuration, better asynchronous call tracking, and improved network monitoring integration. SolarWinds AppOptics would benefit from more detailed Unix monitoring and better integration with external tools.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Splunk AppDynamics is effectively deployed across various cloud environments, with strong technical support despite occasional complexity. SolarWinds AppOptics favors ease of setup in on-premises and public cloud setups, offering responsive customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Splunk AppDynamics is a premium product with pricing justified by comprehensive features and high ROI for large enterprises. SolarWinds AppOptics provides competitive pricing with a perpetual license model, appealing to cost-sensitive businesses. ROI varies based on organizational needs and application complexities.

To learn more, read our detailed SolarWinds AppOptics vs. Splunk AppDynamics Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds AppOptics vs. Splunk AppDynamics

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 861,524 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

SolarWinds AppOptics

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

56th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

57th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Monitoring Software (43rd)

Splunk AppDynamics

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

3rd

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

249

Ranking in other categories

IT Operations Analytics (2nd), Mobile APM (1st), Container Monitoring (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of SolarWinds AppOptics is 0.3%, down from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk AppDynamics is 4.6%, down from 5.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

John Yuko

Assistant Manager ICT - Projects at I&M Bank Ltd

Unique features allow consolidating and combing metrics into a single dashboard, but don't monitor mobile solutions

I would like to see more granular information provided on Unix applications. Also, the integration with Unix services should be a bit more straightforward in terms having an agent to retrieve your credentials rather than having to enter or save them for SSH on SolarWinds. From the outset, we had to set some commands to log into the search console, and they are saved on the solution, which presents a challenge in terms of exposure. The solution is unable to monitor APK solutions completely because we'd then be forced to break down the APK and provide the APIs or go through the source code. They don't have a module that can analyze an application that is maybe under-used.

Read full review

Gyanesh Rahatekar

Back office at Reliance Industries Ltd

Application performance management and error resolution improved with data-driven insights

Dynatrace has multiple functions compared to Splunk AppDynamics, so Splunk AppDynamics should add those functions, which are not available as of now. Dynatrace has a universal agent that collects all information related to their CI, and if one CI has multiple languages, then there is no need to instrument multiple agents. However, Splunk AppDynamics requires multiple agents; if I have one server with multiple applications in different languages, then I need to instrument different agents for each application. Splunk AppDynamics should work with Dynatrace with one single universal agent that works with all application languages, eliminating the need for multiple implementations.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The sum solution, NTA, and DPA."

"The reporting of the solution is very good."

"Some of the most valuable features of SolarWinds are the topology discovery and network performance analysis."

"I have found the most valuable feature is application performance management."

"The product has a great dashboard."

"Technical support is always live and they're supportive."

"Setting up the monitoring agents was straightforward."

"AppDynamics Database Monitoring's dashboarding is its best feature."

"It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I don't see any problems in the solution...The solution's technical support was good."

"We have found the scalability to be quite good."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its GUI."

"Before we moved the code to AppDynamics, we had to compare the agile process and also had to make sure that they're following the standards."

"In 2014 and 2015, AppDynamics was one of the best products on the market."

"I find troubleshooting is quicker because we can drill down into the end points and see which endpoints are getting critical. Visibility-wise, the micro details are easy to find."

More Splunk AppDynamics pros

Cons

"In terms of the technology, I think they need to put some more advanced troubleshooting into SolarWinds, in terms of AI capabilities. That's the next generation, especially in the cases of APIs which have already adopted AI capabilities into their products."

"I would like to see more integration with other tools that are available on the market."

"The implementation needs improvement. It needs to get modernized with the newer cloud scenario in both public and private deployment models."

"AppOptics would benefit from having a much more centralized view."

"The solution should be more user-friendly."

"The integration with Unix services should be a bit more straightforward."

"What could be improved in AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring is for the synthetic jobs or synthetic agents, in particular, you can't do a lot of tests with just one agent. You have to install a lot of agents if you want to do more tests, so this is an area for improvement in the solution. Another area for improvement in AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring is that you're only able to see basic metrics in the absence of server or database visibility. For the SaaS version of AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring, my team just downloaded then installed the extension in an application in Azure to see the application on the controller, so if this can be done in the on-premise version of the solution as well, without needing to install the agent on the machine, then it would make AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring better. Currently, the .NET agent consumes the CPU or memory and clients usually raise this issue with my team, so it would be good if the on-premises version doesn't require agent installation on the machine. Another functionality I'd like to see in the next release of AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring is for it to receive updates from the file config without needing to reset IIS because right now when you do a modification in IIS, you have to restart IIS. When you add a service to the agent config, you have to restart IIS. For the product server, it's not possible to reset IIS after you make changes to the config file, so if this could be improved, then it would make AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring a better solution."

"At this time, we don't have much visibility on the virtual environment, monitoring, and all other things. We have visibility only for database monitoring, and we have noticed performance impact when deploying database agents on the database server. We got to know this from AppDynamics support also that we should not deploy database agents from the database server. When agents are deployed on the same server and the database is monitored from there, we are not getting database server metrics. Therefore, we don't have those insights, and sometimes, we struggle because of that. They can improve this functionality so that we do not have a performance impact, and we can deploy anywhere. This would help us a lot. In terms of end-user monitoring, currently, it is not working for us because there are some complexities. It is a little complicated, and it takes a little bit of time to understand where you need to make changes. It would be very helpful if they can provide some template designs for end-user monitoring. When our servers are running on VMs, we don't get many insights from the VM side. I don't know whether it is possible to have visibility beyond the database, server, and application and whether there are some features where we can deploy AppDynamics on VMs as well. Such functionality would give us more control over storage, VM, OS, and database. It will also provide complete visibility of our hardware and software."

"SQL statement monitoring"

"The worst part is that the AppDynamics SaaS Environment has a lot of downtimes, and AppDynamics, despite our efforts, does not give us any feedback on these downtimes/incidents."

"I could not find a user-friendly interface for querying, and analytics sometimes gives the wrong results...I feel that analytics could have been better in searching and running the analytical queries."

"Splunk AppDynamics does not support the complete MELT framework, which includes metrics, events, logging, and tracing for the entire stack. It lacks maturity in correlation within the observability spectrum."

"Rolling out version upgrades is a difficult job at times."

"I would like to see support for mobile testing and mobile monitoring."

More Splunk AppDynamics cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Since it's a negotiable rate, I would rate the pricing as a five out of five."

"Mostly, it's a perpetual license. We don't have any customers using the subscription right now—it's mostly a perpetual license that the customers purchase. The licensing is based on the number of elements, whereas other solutions are node-based."

"I believe the current licensing cost is reasonable."

"We buy the platform's yearly subscription."

"The pricing needs to come down."

"If one is expensive and ten is low price, I rate the product price as seven out of ten."

"AppDynamics is priced on the higher side."

"The pricing is very competitive."

"The pricing of the solution is reasonable for what features you receive."

"I rate AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring's pricing as seven out of ten. Mobile monitoring is paid based on the number of instances utilizing the mobile monitoring service, which increases as the scale grows. Consequently, your mobile user count can proportionally surpass all other applications."

"It is expensive. However, our time to recover has been reduced, and this product has helped recuperate costs and provided us with ROI."

More Splunk AppDynamics pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

17%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

26%

Computer Software Company

14%

Educational Organization

12%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Any advice about APM solutions?

There are many factors and we know little about your requirements (size of org, technology stack, management systems, the scope of implementation). Our goal was to consolidate APM and infra monitor...

See all answers

APM tools for a Managed Service Provider - Dynatrace vs. AppDynamics vs. Aternity vs. Ruxit

Hi Avi! It's great to see your thorough approach to selecting an APM package for your MSP company. Considering your focus on SMBs and enterprises in Israel, Dynatrace seems like a solid choice with...

See all answers

What do you like most about AppDynamics?

The solution saves time and cost.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dynatrace vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 29% of the time

New Relic vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 17% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 11% of the time

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 10% of the time

Zenoss Cloud vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 9% of the time

More SolarWinds AppOptics Competitors

Dynatrace vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 14% of the time

Datadog vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 9% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 8% of the time

New Relic vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 8% of the time

Grafana vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 5% of the time

More Splunk AppDynamics Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

July 2025

Download SolarWinds AppOptics product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk AppDynamics

June 2025

Download Splunk AppDynamics product report

Also Known As

AppOptics, SolarWinds TraceView, Librato

No data available

Overview

AppOptics is a SaaS-based simple, powerful and affordable Infrastructure & Application monitoring for custom on-premises, cloud, and hybrid systems.

Your business runs on applications, and when they go down or run slowly, it can impact the business in lost productivity, customers, or revenue. To add to the complexity, your IT environment is changing, and workloads can be spread across data centers, and cloud resources. You need to monitor the availability and performance of applications and infrastructure, regardless of where they are, so you can identify potential issues early and address them before they impact users

SolarWinds

Splunk AppDynamics enhances application performance monitoring with advanced diagnostics and real-time insights, offering seamless end-to-end transaction tracking and infrastructure visibility.

AppDynamics provides critical tools for businesses to analyze application behavior and performance. Through innovative features like transaction snapshot analysis and adaptable dashboards, users can quickly identify and address issues, ensuring high levels of system uptime and efficiency. It is designed to support complex environments including Kubernetes and AWS, enhancing user experience by detecting performance issues early. Despite needing improvements in network monitoring and integration, it remains a robust option for tracking application health.

What are the key features of AppDynamics?

Real-time Performance Monitoring: Offers immediate insights into application behavior.
Business Transaction Tracking: Tracks transactions from start to finish for bottleneck identification.
JVM Memory Monitoring: Provides detailed JVM metrics and memory use information.
Deep-dive Diagnostics: Enables in-depth analysis of code and stack traces.
Adaptable Dashboards: Customizable views for better data interpretation.

How does AppDynamics benefit users?

Improved Incident Resolution: Faster problem detection and solution implementation.
Enhanced Application Performance: Real-time monitoring optimizes system operations.
Comprehensive Visibility: Provides a full view of application infrastructure.
Informed Decision Making: Detailed analytics guide performance improvements.
Customer Satisfaction: Enhances user experience through faster issue resolutions.

In industries like financial services and e-commerce, AppDynamics facilitates performance tracking across distributed systems, optimizing infrastructure to meet consumer demands. It excels in environments needing precise transaction monitoring and is pivotal in delivering high value and satisfaction.

Splunk

Sample Customers

TraxoCovea Insurance BTE TechnologyDatarista

Cisco, Sony, Nasdaq, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Edmunds.com, Puma, Fox News, DirecTV, Pizza Hut, T-Systems, Cornell University, OpenTable, BITMARCK, Green Mountain Power, Care.com, Overstock, Paddy Power, eHarmony, Kraft, The Motley Fool, The Container Store, and more See more customers

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds AppOptics vs. Splunk AppDynamics

July 2025

Free Report: SolarWinds AppOptics vs. Splunk AppDynamics

Find out what your peers are saying about SolarWinds AppOptics vs. Splunk AppDynamics and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our SolarWinds AppOptics vs. Splunk AppDynamics report.

See our list of best Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability vendors and best IT Infrastructure Monitoring vendors.

We monitor all Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.