Splunk Observability Cloud vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications comparison

Splunk and VMware are both solutions in the Cloud Monitoring Software category. Splunk is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.7, while VMware is ranked #23 with an average rating of 9.0. Splunk holds a 1.7% mindshare in CMS, compared to VMware’s 1.7% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Splunk users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Splunk Observability Cloud

Read 56 Splunk Observability Cloud reviews

5,130 Views
1,385 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Read 12 VMware Aria Operations for Applications reviews

2,555 Views
996 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Splunk Observability Cloud

VMware Aria Operations for ...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 19, 2025

Splunk Observability Cloud and VMware Aria Operations for Applications compete in the observability and application performance management category. VMware Aria Operations for Applications appears to have the upper hand due to its superior integration with VMware-specific infrastructures.

Features: Splunk Observability Cloud handles diverse data sources and offers strong dashboard customization and scalability for cloud environments. VMware Aria Operations excels in its integration with the VMware ecosystem, offering extensive application performance management and advantages for VMware-centric operations.

Room for Improvement: Splunk users recommend improvements in its pricing model, third-party integrations, stability, and user-friendliness for smaller enterprises. VMware Aria Operations could enhance predictive capabilities and user-friendly alerting, besides better support and documentation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Splunk supports hybrid and cloud deployments, offering flexibility, though its customer service may delay detailed technical responses. VMware Aria is preferred for on-premises and hybrid environments, with responsive support and effective documentation, especially in VMware settings.

Pricing and ROI: Splunk Observability Cloud is costly but delivers significant ROI with real-time insights and improved operations. However, VMware Aria Operations proves more cost-effective within VMware environments, especially when bundled with other VMware services, offering reduced overall spending.

To learn more, read our detailed Splunk Observability Cloud vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Splunk Observability Cloud vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

July 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

Splunk Observability Cloud

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

8th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

7th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

8th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (6th), Container Management (7th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (2nd)

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

29th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

31st

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

23rd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Container Monitoring (6th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Cloud Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Splunk Observability Cloud is 1.7%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Operations for Applications is 1.7%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

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.

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ToniLindberg

senior consultant at Virtual Consultants Sverige AB

Troubleshooting capabilities have improved application monitoring and support engagement

I can see what happens end to end, which is pretty beneficial. The solution has troubleshooting capabilities, providing a direct connection to knowledge base articles from VMware Broadcom. When I encounter an error, I can search directly within the system to see what solutions have been employed by others. It has a familiar interface, which makes it easy to get started.

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

"Overall, I would recommend Splunk to anyone seeking a monitoring solution, thanks to its extensive capabilities and features."

"The alerts are the most valuable feature."

"Dashboards help the application support teams to have a quick look at how their systems are running. It helps other teams as well."

"Great monitoring of network devices."

"The features are pretty much ready out of the box."

"The solution's service map feature allows us to have a holistic overview and to see quickly where the issues are."

"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."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to customize dashboards based on my queries or any other customization I may need."

More Splunk Observability Cloud pros

"The most valuable aspects of the solution are its ease of use and its ease of implementation."

"This solution allows me to have true visibility for any metrics when it comes to my cloud, and private."

"I find VMware Aria Operations for Applications to be very stable, and I would rate it a ten out of ten."

"No issues with stability."

"For us, the ease of deployment in combination with TMZ was the most important part because we don't have to manually deploy a complex monitoring solution. We can more or less do that with the click of a button, and we are not dependent on the developers to provide us with all the necessary features and functions to make that work. We can just deploy it on a workload cluster and monitor at least a good part of the workload. If we want to go into detail, we clearly need to make changes, but for a good part of application monitoring, it gives us good insights."

"The stability of Aria Operations for Applications has improved significantly over the years."

"I gladly recommend VMware Aria Operations for Applications because it is cost effective and has commendable AI response capabilities."

"VMware Aria Operations for Applications offers significant features such as real-time statistics, the ability to identify possible issues within the VM environment, and helpful heat maps."

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications pros

Cons

"There is room for improvement in customer support due to delays and standard feedback responses."

"The end-to-end visibility is lacking because Splunk cannot directly monitor network devices."

"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."

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

"I would rate Splunk technical support at six out of ten. When we have a problem and need to create a case, the response isn't quick."

"In Splunk Observability Cloud, I notice room for improvement in synthetic monitoring. It does not provide output based on server names."

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

"The initial setup of Splunk Real User Monitoring (RUM) was easy. The solution is deployed on-premises."

More Splunk Observability Cloud cons

"The solution could be expensive, which might be a limiting factor."

"The initial setup should be easier and more seamless."

"The implementation is a long process that should be improved."

"Its billing model is consumption-based. I understand the consumption-based model, but it is not necessarily easy to estimate and guess how many points or how much we are going to consume on a specific application up until we get to that point. So, for us, it would be helpful to have more insights or predictability into what we can expect from a cost perspective if we are starting to use specific features. This can potentially also drive our consumption a bit more."

"In the new version, I would love to see more prediction capabilities. It would be great if one could see the alerts get a little more enriched with information and become more human-friendly instead of the technical stuff that they put in there. I think those would be really awesome outcomes to get."

"An area for improvement would be more in-depth reporting, such as analyzing disk IO during business hours compared to after hours."

"They could make it more easy to plug-in data so that a nontechnical person will be able to use it, like accountants or finance people. That way they don't have to ask us."

"It could use a URL document server. Everything in the market is moving towards automation and everybody's looking for the single click operations as well relational data locality."

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"This is an expensive solution."

"Splunk's infrastructure monitoring costs can be high because our billing is based on data volume measured in terabytes, rather than the number of devices being monitored."

"The solution's pricing is costly."

"Splunk APM is expensive."

"The price of Splunk APM is less than some of its competitors."

"Splunk APM is a very cost-efficient solution."

"It is expensive."

More Splunk Observability Cloud pricing and cost advice

"Different locations require different setups. In your terms, around 300 to around 400K USD."

"The licensing costs are very high, particularly when you consider that we have to purchase a level 1 license for every integration, such as the load balancer, HAProxy, and the MSSP. And if you want to use vSAN, that's another license. Then, of course, Tanzu Observability has its own separate license."

"I don't have the details. In our case, there is a mixture in place. We have production usage, and we are also doing training for VMware. So, we also have a training instance. It is worth the money you would spend on it. That's because if you were to build all of this yourself by using some of the open source tools, then you would need a lot of time."

"I would rate the pricing as three out of five."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SignalFx?

The most valuable feature is dashboard creation.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SignalFx?

Regarding dashboard customization, while Splunk has many dashboard building options, customers sometimes need to create specific dashboards, particularly for applicative metrics such as Java and pr...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SignalFx?

The solution involves observability in general, such as Application Performance Monitoring, and generally addresses digital applications, web applications, sites, and mobile applications. I worked ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

The cost of VMware Aria Operations for Applications is fair and reasonable compared to what we receive in support and packages from VMware.

See all answers

What needs improvement with VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

I find that there could be improvements in the support service response time, as the urgency varies unless specified as Priority 2 or 1 cases.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

Our primary use case for VMware Aria Operations for Applications is to enhance application monitoring tasks, allowing us to set up alerts for different components and send them via SMTP to a team d...

See all answers

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Compared 7% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Splunk Observability Cloud

June 2025

Download Splunk Observability Cloud product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Operations for Applications

June 2025

VMware Aria Operations for Applications report

Download VMware Aria Operations for Applications product report

Also Known As

Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring, Splunk Real User Monitoring (RUM), Splunk Synthetic Monitoring

Tanzu Observability, Wavefront, Wavefront by VMware, VMware Tanzu Observability

Overview

Splunk Observability Cloud offers sophisticated log searching, data integration, and customizable dashboards. With rapid deployment and ease of use, this cloud service enhances monitoring capabilities across IT infrastructures for comprehensive end-to-end visibility.

Focused on enhancing performance management and security, Splunk Observability Cloud supports environments through its data visualization and analysis tools. Users appreciate its robust application performance monitoring and troubleshooting insights. However, improvements in integrations, interface customization, scalability, and automation are needed. Users find value in its capabilities for infrastructure and network monitoring, as well as log analytics, albeit cost considerations and better documentation are desired. Enhancements in real-time monitoring and network protection are also noted as areas for development.

What are the key features?

Log Searching: Efficiently search and analyze logs from various sources.
Data Integration: Seamlessly integrate with multiple environments.
Dashboard Customization: Tailor dashboards to specific monitoring needs.
Monitoring Capabilities: Provides comprehensive insights into application performance.
Security Features: Analyze and address security threats across systems.
Visualization Tools: Enhance data analysis and system performance optimization.

Why consider this for ROI?

Comprehensive Visibility: Gain complete insights into IT infrastructure.
Performance Optimization: Improve overall system performance and efficiency.
Rapid Deployment: Quick setup to meet organization demands swiftly.
Enhanced Security: Strengthen security measures through detailed analytics.

In industries, Splunk Observability Cloud is implemented for security management by analyzing logs from detection systems, offering real-time alerts and troubleshooting for cloud-native applications. It is leveraged for machine data analysis, improving infrastructure visibility and supporting network and application performance management efforts.

Splunk

VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront is a powerful tool for monitoring and analyzing the performance and availability of applications and infrastructure in real-time.

With its comprehensive monitoring capabilities, visualizing and analyzing data becomes effortless. The real-time alerting system ensures timely issue resolution, while scalability and a user-friendly interface provide a seamless experience for smooth operations.

VMware

Sample Customers

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

1. Atlassian 2. Cisco 3. Databricks 4. DigitalOcean 5. Equinix 6. Fidelity Investments 7. Google 8. Hewlett Packard Enterprise 9. Honeywell 10. IBM 11. Intel 12. JetBlue Airways 13. LinkedIn 14. Lyft 15. Mastercard 16. Microsoft 17. MongoDB 18. Netflix 19. Nvidia 20. Oracle 21. PayPal 22. Pinterest 23. Qualcomm 24. Red Hat 25. Salesforce 26. SAP 27. Spotify 28. Square 29. TMobile 30. Twitter 31. Uber 32. VMware

Buyer's Guide

Splunk Observability Cloud vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

July 2025

Free Report: Splunk Observability Cloud vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Find out what your peers are saying about Splunk Observability Cloud vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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