SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs Splunk Observability Cloud 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 #11 with an average rating of 8.6. SolarWinds holds a 1.7% mindshare in APM, compared to Splunk’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of SolarWinds users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% 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 Observability Cloud

Read 50 Splunk Observability Cloud reviews

1,960 Views
1,160 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Splunk Observability Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 6, 2025

Splunk Observability Cloud and SolarWinds SAM compete in the field of cloud and IT infrastructure monitoring. Splunk Observability Cloud offers an advantage in visual and data integration tools, which may provide deeper insights for cloud-native environments, while SolarWinds SAM excels in infrastructure and application monitoring for traditional IT environments.

Features: Splunk Observability Cloud includes tools for creating custom dashboards, log searching, and a strong ability to integrate with cloud services, aimed at providing insights into cloud-native environments. It supports diverse environments with powerful visualization capabilities. SolarWinds SAM supports infrastructure monitoring with a focus on ease of use for components like SQL and SharePoint, enabling detailed service and performance monitoring especially suited for Windows servers.

Room For Improvement: Splunk Observability Cloud could improve in areas such as scalability, pricing models, and simplifying navigation for new users. Issues with complex configuration and certain aspects lacking real-time data collection have been noted. SolarWinds SAM could enhance its performance efficiency, reporting capabilities, and cloud integration. The system's speed and inflexible dashboard customization need addressing, and support for broader environments could boost its competitiveness.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Splunk Observability Cloud offers mixed deployment options, including on-premises and cloud, though initial setup complexity is an issue. Customer service reviews are mixed, with some noting responsiveness while others cite delays. SolarWinds SAM, focused on easier on-premises installations, faces challenges in more complex or larger environments. Customer support is generally satisfactory but sometimes lacks urgency in resolving complicated issues.

Pricing and ROI: Splunk Observability Cloud is seen as expensive, primarily due to its advanced features, with a data volume-based pricing model that's been a concern for users. Despite the cost, it often delivers a significant ROI through improved visibility and reduced downtime. SolarWinds SAM offers competitive pricing and a favorable feature-to-cost ratio for traditional IT setups. However, additional features and scaling can increase expenses, though many users report a good ROI via enhanced IT efficiency.

To learn more, read our detailed SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Splunk Observability Cloud Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

April 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 848,253 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 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 Observability Cloud

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

11th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (9th), Cloud Monitoring Software (9th), Container Management (8th)

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 Observability Cloud is 1.0%, up from 0.5% 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.

Read full review

Lakshmi Padaga

Java Developer at U.S. Bank

Collaborates performance metrics with log data to pinpoint the exact cause of issues and offers error detection

Splunk APM is a robust tool with many capabilities. There are always areas for potential improvement to enhance its functionality and user experience. For Splunk APM, there could be simplified navigation, like streamlining the user interface to make navigation more intuitive for our users, especially those new to APM, which can enhance usability. We can provide more customization options for dashboards and visualizations to help users tailor the platform to their specific needs. There could be more integration capabilities with a wider range of third-party tools and platforms would also be beneficial. By focusing on these areas, Splunk APM can enhance its value proposition, improve user satisfaction, and better meet the evolving needs of organizations monitoring their application performance.

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

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

"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."

"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."

"The graphical interfaces, GUI customizations, and alert configurations are impressive."

"The most valuable feature is application monitoring."

"The most beneficial aspect of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is its ability to monitor at the application level."

"Hardware health: It allows for proactive monitoring of the hardware health and is a game changer."

"The solution is great for monitoring. If something is going wrong, we can immediately find the root cause."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

"I find the monitoring console very helpful. With one click, I can see how we are performing, and at the same time, I can see what data is flowing."

"It supports proactive management, enhances security, and improves operational efficiency."

"Once configured correctly, the analysis reporting the Splunk APM provides is better than that of the other APM tools."

"Splunk APM has helped us to standardize logging and monitoring procedures."

"The alerts are the most valuable feature."

"The solution is stable and reliable."

"The solution's basic visibility is one of its most valuable features. So, it is a solution that is easy to use...The solution's initial setup process was straightforward."

"It is a great resource for us because we have so many different data sources and to be able to aggregate that and put it through a concise dashboard or an alert really helps."

More Splunk Observability Cloud pros

Cons

"The current script monitoring feature has limitations, especially when dealing with custom scripts."

"Mapping interactions between systems."

"The stability, flexibility, and ease of use could be improved."

"PerfStack can be made more effective. I am sure SolarWinds already has a plan for the same in coming versions."

"For each poller, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor can only monitor up to ten thousand components, which restricts scalability."

"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."

"I would like to see support for non-Windows or non-Microsoft domains, especially Apache and other non-Windows servers."

"Reporting is the only thing with which we currently have challenges. They have this in two ways. There is the report writer, which is the backend, and we also have web reports, which are on the console. So, they have removed the report writer for the backend reports, and we are making use of the web console, but most of the users are not finding it very interesting to use the frontend reports. I would like them to bring back the report writer. That's the key area within it to improve on the reporting. If they can bring back the report writer, then most users will actually be comfortable. I have some customers who are trying to export their report to an Excel format, but it is not possible because they said any report that has been done from the web console cannot be exported to Excel, but most of the customers need to export their reports to Excel. That's one area they need to work on."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

"The implementation can be more user-friendly."

"The solution's stability is an area that has room for improvement. It needs to provide constant stability to its users."

"Primarily, the logs in Splunk APM can be challenging to navigate and comprehend, making it difficult to understand the details within each log. Compared to other tools like LogDNA, which are more intuitive in this aspect, the logs in Splunk APM can require more effort to understand."

"The UI enhancements could be a way to improve the solution in the future."

"It is essential for the monitoring tool to deliver quick response times when generating analytical reports, instead of prolonged delays."

"There are some predefined metrics.......we may want to create customized metrics."

"The UI enhancements could be a way to improve the solution in the future."

"A wide variety of logging makes log onboarding difficult."

More Splunk Observability Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is expensive."

"I would advise potential buyers to wait until the end of the quarter, end of year, or other time to place orders. There are actually great deals to be had at those times if your budget cycle can match up."

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

"The tool is available for my company at a good price point."

"Pricing is inexpensive, starting at 2440 euros. For that, you get the ability to monitor a couple of nodes and one year of maintenance and support."

"I would rate the pricing for this solution a three out of five."

"Its licensing is on a yearly basis. It is just the standard price, but it can vary depending on the current rate of the dollar."

"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."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pricing and cost advice

"Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring is an expensive solution."

"The solution's pricing is costly."

"It is expensive."

"Splunk offers a 14-day free trial and after that, we have to pay but the cost is reasonable."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"This is an expensive solution."

"Licensing cost is the biggest argument I get from those divesting from Splunk. There are those within our organization who say we are going to go to other tools since Splunk is too expensive."

"I am not in that circle, but we are currently licensing based on our queries. That is working out for us. Previously, it was by volume of data, and now, we can store as much data as we want."

More Splunk Observability Cloud 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

848,253 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

40%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

15%

Retailer

Government

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 SignalFx?

The most valuable feature is dashboard creation.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SignalFx?

There is room for improvement in the alerting system, which is complicated and has less documentation available. We sometimes encountered issues in setting up alerts. The custom detector could be m...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SignalFx?

The main purpose of using Splunk APM is to optimize our application. We use Splunk APM primarily to understand how the application works, how it uses resources, and its response time in connection ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Azure Monitor vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 18% of the time

Dynatrace vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 18% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 12% of the time

Prometheus Group vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 8% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 5% of the time

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Competitors

Observe vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 20% of the time

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 7% of the time

Dynatrace vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 6% of the time

Rancher Labs vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

ServiceNow IT Operations Management vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

More Splunk Observability Cloud Competitors

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 Observability Cloud

March 2025

Download Splunk Observability Cloud product report

Also Known As

SolarWinds SAM

Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring

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 Observability Cloud combines log search, data integration, and dashboards for seamless monitoring, enhancing infrastructure visibility and security. Its cloud integration and scalability support diverse environments, improving operational efficiency.

Splunk Observability Cloud offers comprehensive monitoring tools with user-friendly interfaces, enabling end-to-end infrastructure visibility. Its real-time alerting and predictive capabilities enhance security monitoring, while centralized dashboards provide cross-platform visibility. Users benefit from fast data integration and extensive insights into application performance. Despite its advantages, improvements could be made in integration with other tools, data reliability, scalability, and cost management. Users face challenges in configuration complexity and require better automation and endpoint protection features. Enhancing AI integration, alerts, and adaptation for high-throughput services could further improve usability.

What are the key features of Splunk Observability Cloud?

Log Search: Efficiently search and analyze log data for enhanced insights.
Data Integration: Fast integration across platforms for comprehensive visibility.
Custom Dashboards: Powerful and adaptable dashboards for real-time monitoring.
Cloud Integration: Seamless integration with cloud services for scalable solutions.
Application Performance Monitoring: Advanced tools for improving application performance.

What benefits and ROI should be expected?

Infrastructure Monitoring: Improved visibility and monitoring across infrastructure components.
Operational Efficiency: Enhancements in data analysis lead to efficient operations.
Business Resilience: Supports adaptability and swift responses to changing needs.
Security Management: Enhances threat identification and response through real-time alerts.
Compliance Support: Aids in meeting compliance and auditing requirements effectively.

In industries like finance and healthcare, Splunk Observability Cloud is implemented for application performance monitoring and infrastructure metrics. Its ability to track incidents and analyze machine data benefits network infrastructure, while distributed tracing and log analysis aid in tackling security threats. Organizations often integrate it for compliance and auditing purposes, enhancing visibility into network traffic and optimizing performance.

Splunk

Sample Customers

Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite

Sunrun, Yelp, Onshape, Tapjoy, Symphony Commerce, Chairish, Clever, Grovo, Bazaar Voice, Zenefits, Avalara

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

April 2025

Free Report: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

Find out what your peers are saying about SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Splunk Observability Cloud and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

848,253 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Splunk Observability Cloud report.

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