SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) comparison

SolarWinds and Splunk are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. SolarWinds is ranked #16 with an average rating of 7.3, while Splunk is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.2. SolarWinds holds a 1.7% mindshare in APM, compared to Splunk’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of SolarWinds users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Read 42 SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor reviews

3,793 Views
2,563 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Int...

Read 50 Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) reviews

1,715 Views
1,052 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Int...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and Splunk IT Service Intelligence compete in the IT monitoring category. SolarWinds is preferred for its straightforward pricing, whereas Splunk ITSI is favored for advanced analytics despite higher costs.

Features: SolarWinds offers comprehensive monitoring, easy-to-configure alerting features, and valuable real-time visibility. Splunk ITSI provides advanced analytics, machine learning capabilities, and predictive analytics for deeper insights.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds could improve scalability, integration options, and may need more robust capabilities. Splunk ITSI can benefit from a more straightforward setup process, better documentation, and possibly more accessible user interfaces.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds has a simpler deployment process and readily available customer support. Splunk ITSI is powerful but complex to deploy, requiring a steeper learning curve. Customer service for Splunk is well-reviewed but may sometimes lag in responsiveness.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds is recognized for transparent, reasonable pricing that delivers good ROI. Splunk ITSI is more expensive but valued for its advanced features and predictive analytics, justifying the higher price for users needing in-depth data analytics.

To learn more, read our detailed SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)

April 2025

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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 Server and Appli...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

16th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (9th), Active Directory Management (12th)

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Int...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Alerting and Incident Management (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.7%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) is 0.7%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Subhajit Nag

Senior Process Associate at Tata Consultancy Services

The component and cable monitoring features are good, but the interface is slow

SolarWinds' interface is slow, and this is a global concern. Every SolarWinds user complains about the sluggishness. The response is slow. If you browse from one page to another, you have to wait. Our company is a massive user with plenty of licenses, so the performance issues could be due to the load per license. Ten thousand components can be mapped under one license. So SolarWinds needs to take care of the speed problem. It cannot be this slow. That is a huge complaint. Otherwise, the tool is good. It should also be easier to upgrade SolarWinds. AppDynamics is harder to deploy but easier to upgrade. So AppDynamics takes a lot of time and effort to install, but you can upgrade it in minutes. SolarWinds is the opposite. It's easy to deploy, but upgrades take forever. To date, nobody can complete it on time, so the production environment is sitting idle. The upgrade time matters because you only install the solution once, but you'll need to upgrade the solution repeatedly over the life of the product. A complex installation isn't an issue, but I mind if the upgrade takes too long because it's already in production.

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Sunil K R

Senior Software Engineer at Wipro Limited

Helps improve our incident response time, and our mean time to resolve, but visibility is limited

In my previous project, I successfully led the end-to-end deployment of a Splunk migration. The process went smoothly thanks in part to Splunk's professional services team. They conducted a thorough assessment, identified all our potential pain points, and developed a tailored solution and migration plan. This comprehensive approach ensured a seamless transition. Our core deployment team consisted of 5 internal members and two specialists from Splunk. Additionally, the project included a project manager and a product owner. We also benefited from the expertise of two professional service consultants and two representatives from the customer's side. An on-site admin architect further provided valuable technical support. Throughout the deployment process, we leveraged support from various resources whenever necessary. This included assistance with configuration changes, deployments, and other related tasks. We also collaborated effectively with our teammates to ensure a smooth and successful implementation.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"AppInsight. Provides a simple way to get very in-depth monitoring configured for our most popular applications. Exchange, SQL, and SharePoint."

"The solution is end-to-end from the network and the application to the processes. Everything about the enterprise infrastructure is being covered by the solution. It's easy to use and easy to navigate and one of the leaders among monitoring solutions."

"It is simple to implement and can provide fairly decent Windows-based monitoring, beyond simple SNMP. It is great for monitoring newbies and smaller shops."

"Manage Groups: The capability to group appropriate devices gives better visibility of sites, categories, or critical regions. The same can be used to represent a dashboard for higher management."

"Management Console - Managing service to each server enrolled in the Solarwinds is much easier. Using a web base console, you can control your service much convenient way. There is no need to login remotely. It save a lot of time and effort."

"The solution can be deployed quickly."

"Identifying the problem statement is easy."

"Solarwinds has an open database that allows you to do serious integrations. It doesn't matter which service desk you have, you can implement and integrate it with SolarWinds."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

"We have a lot of teams using Splunk and they would be blind without it."

"Customers have noted the solution helps streamline incident management."

"The most valuable features are the mapping of the entities, which provides a comprehensive analysis, and the service analyzer for thresholding."

"The feature that stood out to me most from Splunk IT Service Intelligence (ITSI) was automated dashboarding or reporting. The solution lists the severity level of issues, and the response times."

"The root cause analysis is very helpful for us."

"Instant usability of gathered event metrics is available. We have metrics data from systems, and we can use that to instantly get system status and trends."

"Splunk's intuitive interface and scalability make it accessible to non-technical users, and its capacity to monitor every millisecond of data across multiple applications is truly impressive."

"I particularly like the preview feature because it provides a prompt experience for impact analysis."

More Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) pros

Cons

"Support for the IBM Mainframe is needed."

"SAM's software-defined network monitoring capability is also low and could be improved."

"There is one feature that is a report writer. And they are currently trying to take it out from being a stand-alone application and integrating to the web. This doesn't give us the flexibility and it doesn't expand what we can get when it comes to reporting. So, putting it on the web is going to make it difficult to get some information. Leaving it where it is now will help us a lot."

"It should also be easier to upgrade SolarWinds. AppDynamics is harder to deploy but easier to upgrade. So AppDynamics takes a lot of time and effort to install, but you can upgrade it in minutes. SolarWinds is the opposite. It's easy to deploy, but upgrades take forever. To date, nobody can complete it on time, so the production environment is sitting idle."

"Currently SolarWinds SAM offers AppInsight for modern versions of: IIS, Exchange, SQL Server. They have shown to be powerful and insightful tools. However, AppInsight needs to be offered for more applications: Citrix, SharePoint, AX, etc."

"When you implement SolarWinds on a larger scale my customers complain about the speed."

"The product needs to reduce its price."

"The tool’s report feature created issues for us. We needed to gain skills to use that feature. The tool’s customization is not easy since you have to reconfigure the whole system."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

"We experience occasional delays in receiving solutions from Splunk technical support. Splunk's support for P3 cases seems inadequate, as they frequently switch support personnel. For instance, in a single P3 case, we had three different technical support representatives assigned. We were ultimately forced to escalate the issue to our account manager to get it resolved. In essence, we never receive complete support from a single point of contact; instead, the support team keeps changing, necessitating us to explain the problem from scratch each time."

"If they can somehow integrate it with AI in the near future, it will definitely be a game changer."

"The biggest improvement area is making it open to developers. Right now, it is very closed. It can only be downloaded by people who have a license to and not everyone. If it is open to everybody, more people will use it."

"They should make it easier to use. Many people are new to it. It is hard and has a steep learning curve."

"There should be entity conflict resolution, specifically regarding duplicate entities. There should be case sensitivity for various keys amongst entities, specifically host names. We need IT metrics-based indexes and more content packs. I know they are coming out with these features"

"ITSI could benefit from a security model that would allow operations team members to get involved in model building, KPI implementation, and model maintenance, while maintaining appropriate segregation of duties."

"The UI could be updated. Some elements of the KPI section aren't where you'd expect. It looks like a website from 2010 or maybe older. You can't change some things, like if it doesn't word-wrap well. For example, if you have a long list of KPIs that exceed a character limit, you need to hover over them and wait for the HTML text to pop up to see which KPI it is."

More Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"SAM is not per server so the pricing model can be deceiving. If you have an enterprise environment, you will quickly exceed your licensing quickly. You should know this before going in."

"Pricing and licensing is fair for what you get. It does have a great bang-for-the-buck appeal."

"We are on an annual license to use the solution. The price of the solution is expensive. The price is based on a bunch of factors, such as the number of engines and elements."

"Price can always be lower. It is neither on the expensive side nor on the cheap side. We have worked with them for a lot of years, so we get a discount due to the size of the installation."

"The price is too high."

"The solution is overpriced in terms of application management."

"Nagios XI, WhatsUpGold, Uptime Software, PRTG, Manage Engine, and SpiceWorks are the other tools that have lower pricing and licensing costs. However, they can't compete with SolarWinds when it comes to the features and functionality that SolarWinds can provide."

"We pay around $ 2,000 to $ 5,000 yearly for the solution."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pricing and cost advice

"It is interesting. I am not involved that much lately, but if I recall correctly, you license primarily on the volume of data that you are using in Splunk ITSI, but there is no way Splunk can ever check if that is true, so that is interesting. We are not doing it, but someone can pretend to just use 10%, and it would be super cheap. It is tricky, but it is more tricky for Splunk than for us."

"I would prefer that the price be reduced, as it would be easier to implement it and to sell it."

"Splunk ITSI is an expensive tool, and we need to purchase the utility license."

"Its pricing has been changed as per the market. You get a good support service with it as well. They have 24/7 customer support. There is a portal, and if you are having issues, they are available in order to resolve them. So, its pricing isn't too much."

"Splunk pricing is high."

"It would have been good if the product cost was much lower."

"Splunk ITSI is expensive."

More Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

41%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

Identifying the problem statement is easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

The initial cost is quite high, but the renewal cost is reasonable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

There are no specific features or functionality I would like to see improved or enhanced in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor at this time. I have not encountered any missing features or fu...

See all answers

What do you like most about Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)?

Our mean time to detect is down to five minutes.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)?

Pricing can vary significantly based on the selected modules and deployment choices. Splunk ITSI tends to be more expensive compared to some open-source solutions.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)?

Splunk ITSI could benefit from including more features that other solutions support, such as vulnerability management modules. This would help manage vulnerabilities effectively, allowing my organi...

See all answers

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Prometheus Group vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 8% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

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Compared 17% of the time

Dynatrace vs Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)

Compared 13% of the time

Splunk Observability Cloud vs Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)

Compared 9% of the time

OpsRamp vs Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)

Compared 9% of the time

Elastic Observability vs Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)

Compared 9% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

March 2025

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report

Download SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)

March 2025

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) report

Download Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) product report

Also Known As

SolarWinds SAM

No data available

Overview

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) delivers powerful application and server monitoring capabilities for IT pros, enabling them to diagnose and troubleshoot performance issues faster. Do not let slow applications and downtime impact your end-users and business services. Pinpoint the root cause of application issues across various layers of the IT stack. SolarWinds SAM is affordable and easy to deploy, use, and customize. You can automatically discover your system's environment and start monitoring in about an hour. No professional services or consultation needed.

SolarWinds

Splunk IT Service Intelligence (ITSI) is a powerful analytics-driven monitoring and analytics solution that provides real-time insights into the health and performance of IT services.

It enables organizations to proactively identify and resolve issues, optimize service delivery, and improve overall IT operations. With its advanced machine learning capabilities, ITSI automatically detects anomalies, predicts future events, and prioritizes alerts based on business impact.

The solution offers a centralized view of IT services, allowing users to visualize and analyze data from multiple sources in a single dashboard. ITSI also provides customizable KPIs, service-level agreements (SLAs), and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure and track service performance.

With its intuitive interface and powerful analytics capabilities, Splunk ITSI empowers IT teams to deliver reliable and efficient services, ensuring maximum uptime and customer satisfaction.

Splunk

Sample Customers

Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite

TransUnion, Cox Automotive, Carnival Cruises, Leidos, Econocom, National Ignition Factory, Entrust Datacard, Molina Healthcare, United States Census Bureau

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)

April 2025

Free Report: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)

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