Amazon CloudWatch vs Splunk Observability Cloud comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Splunk are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.1, while Splunk is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.4. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 1.3% mindshare in APM, compared to Splunk’s 2.2% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

Amazon CloudWatch

Read 48 Amazon CloudWatch reviews

4,548 Views
2,410 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Splunk Observability Cloud

Read 75 Splunk Observability Cloud reviews

7,605 Views
4,183 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Amazon CloudWatch

Splunk Observability Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

Splunk Observability Cloud and Amazon CloudWatch compete in the observability and monitoring category. Splunk Observability Cloud seems to have the upper hand due to its robust APM features and real-time troubleshooting capabilities with machine learning.

Features: Splunk Observability Cloud includes custom dashboards, data integration, and rapid deployment as a SaaS solution. It excels in application performance monitoring and provides real-time troubleshooting capabilities. Amazon CloudWatch benefits from tight integration with AWS infrastructure, offering extensive logging and alerting functionalities, detailed metrics, and scalability.

Room for Improvement: Splunk Observability Cloud could improve with better third-party tool integration, a more intuitive UI/UX, and cost considerations. Documentation and hybrid cloud support also need enhancement. Amazon CloudWatch needs improvements in APM features, real-time data visualization, integration with non-AWS services, and more comprehensive dashboards for detailed insights.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Splunk Observability Cloud supports varied environments, offering a flexible deployment strategy that is user-friendly but complex in configuration for custom metrics. Its customer service receives mixed feedback, with some noting room for improvement. Amazon CloudWatch is utilized primarily on the public cloud, simplifying setup for AWS users. Its support is reliable, supported by comprehensive AWS documentation.

Pricing and ROI: Splunk Observability Cloud is often seen as expensive, but users feel the cost is justified by its comprehensive features and ROI through increased operational efficiency. The pricing model is complex but valued for analytics and security enhancements. Amazon CloudWatch is economically priced within AWS ecosystems, offering a solid ROI for AWS-invested organizations, though hidden costs can arise as project scopes expand.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon CloudWatch vs. Splunk Observability Cloud Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudWatch vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

January 2026

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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:

ROI

Sentiment score

6.8

Amazon CloudWatch reduces monitoring costs, boosts operational efficiency, is vital for oversight, but not direct revenue, especially for small projects.

Sentiment score

6.9

Splunk Observability Cloud boosts visibility, efficiency, and financial returns with faster debugging, reduced downtime, and improved collaboration.

Amazon CloudWatch offers cost-saving advantages by being an inbuilt solution that requires no separate setup or maintenance for monitoring tasks.

Satheesh Papisetty

Digital Services & Engagement Senior Manager at AXA

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon CloudWatch report

Using Splunk has saved my organization about 30% of our budget compared to using multiple different monitoring products.

reviewer1469784

Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Anyone working in front-end management should recognize the market price to see the true value of end-user monitoring.

EdwardShim

General Manager at MOCOMSYS

I have definitely seen a return on investment with Splunk Observability Cloud, particularly through how fast it has grown and how comfortable other teams are in relying on its outputs for monitoring and observability.

Taiwo Ige

IT Operations Engineer at ABC Supply Co. Inc.

For more quotes and insights, download the Splunk Observability Cloud report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

7.4

Amazon CloudWatch support is reliable, with varying response times and expertise based on support level, premium ensures faster help.

Sentiment score

7.1

Splunk Observability Cloud generally receives positive customer support reviews, citing prompt, knowledgeable assistance, despite occasional resolution delays.

In recent years, due to business expansion, knowledge levels among support engineers seem to vary.

Satheesh Papisetty

Digital Services & Engagement Senior Manager at AXA

While using their cloud and cloud resources, if you have an issue with CloudWatch, you must pay additional monthly fees to get time from dedicated tech support.

S K Mishra

founder, ceo at Techrev Solutions Pvt Ltd

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon CloudWatch report

On a scale of 1 to 10, the customer service and technical support deserve a 10.

reviewer2755917

Systems Administrator at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees

They have consistently helped us resolve any issues we've encountered.

Juan Baez

Software Engineer at UKG

They often require multiple questions, with five or six emails to get a response.

Abdelmonam LABBOUZ

Splunk Observability Expert

For more quotes and insights, download the Splunk Observability Cloud report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.7

Amazon CloudWatch excels in scalability and performance, efficiently managing data and adapts quickly to diverse organizational needs.

Sentiment score

7.3

Splunk Observability Cloud scales efficiently with organization needs, though costly, offering flexible integration and handling large deployments seamlessly.

It is already there as a managed service from AWS.

Azam S M

Infrastructure Lead at Danat Fz LLC

Amazon CloudWatch's scalability is managed by AWS.

Satheesh Papisetty

Digital Services & Engagement Senior Manager at AXA

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon CloudWatch report

We've used the solution across more than 250 people, including engineers.

Abdelmonam LABBOUZ

Splunk Observability Expert

As we are a growing company transitioning all our applications to the cloud, and with the increasing number of cloud-native applications, Splunk Observability Cloud will help us achieve digital resiliency and reduce our mean time to resolution.

Lalatendu Swain

Application Developer at UMB Financial

I would rate its scalability a nine out of ten.

reviewer1469784

Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Splunk Observability Cloud report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.1

Amazon CloudWatch is praised for its reliability and performance, though some note occasional data delays and slowness in low-capacity environments.

Sentiment score

7.7

Splunk Observability Cloud is praised for stability and reliability, with occasional performance issues managed effectively by support.

I sometimes notice slowness when Amazon CloudWatch agents are installed on machines with less capacity, causing me to use other monitoring tools.

Satheesh Papisetty

Digital Services & Engagement Senior Manager at AXA

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon CloudWatch report

I would rate its stability a nine out of ten.

Muhammad M

Head of DevOps at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

We rarely have problems accessing the dashboard or the page.

Abdelmonam LABBOUZ

Splunk Observability Expert

Unlike NetScout or regular agents for APM, RUM has many problems during the POC phase because customer environments vary widely.

EdwardShim

General Manager at MOCOMSYS

For more quotes and insights, download the Splunk Observability Cloud report

Room For Improvement

Users seek better customization, visualization, and integration in CloudWatch, citing high costs, steep learning curve, and scalability challenges.

Splunk Observability Cloud needs better integration, automation, user interface, Azure support, and enhanced log analysis for improved user experience.

When using third-party dashboards such as Kibana or Grafana and other visualization tools, there should be a way to feed CloudWatch's data and logging capabilities into these visualization tools.

S K Mishra

founder, ceo at Techrev Solutions Pvt Ltd

We are in a process of integrating Grafana, Loki, and Prometheus to have better visualization on Amazon CloudWatch.

Azam S M

Infrastructure Lead at Danat Fz LLC

Maybe Amazon Web Services can improve by providing a library for CloudWatch with some useful features.

Rohit Bhosale

Senior Software Engineer at Carnera

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon CloudWatch report

The out-of-the-box customizable dashboards in Splunk Observability Cloud are very effective in showcasing IT performance to business leaders.

Taiwo Ige

IT Operations Engineer at ABC Supply Co. Inc.

The next release of Splunk Observability Cloud should include a feature that makes it so that when looking at charts and dashboards, and also looking at one environment regardless of the product feature that you're in, APM, infrastructure, RUM, the environment that is chosen in the first location when you sign into Splunk Observability Cloud needs to stay persistent all the way through.

Sarah Van Zee

Systems Monitoring Engineer II at a government with 10,001+ employees

There is room for improvement in the alerting system, which is complicated and has less documentation available.

Muhammad M

Head of DevOps at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Splunk Observability Cloud report

Setup Cost

Amazon CloudWatch pricing is variable, with costs ranging from $25 to $350, depending on usage and AWS service integration.

Enterprise users see Splunk Observability Cloud as costly but valued for features, though some explore alternatives due to expenses.

Overall, the pricing of Amazon CloudWatch is very expensive.

S K Mishra

founder, ceo at Techrev Solutions Pvt Ltd

Amazon CloudWatch charges more for custom metrics as well as for changes in the timeline.

Satheesh Papisetty

Digital Services & Engagement Senior Manager at AXA

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon CloudWatch report

Splunk is a bit expensive since it charges based on the indexing rate of data.

reviewer1469784

Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

It is expensive, especially when there are other vendors that offer something similar for much cheaper.

Ernesto Gutierrez

Solutions Architect at Ikusi

It appears to be expensive compared to competitors.

Muhammad M

Head of DevOps at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Splunk Observability Cloud report

Valuable Features

Amazon CloudWatch offers real-time data, AWS integration, efficient monitoring, user-friendly interface, and versatile dashboards for enhanced system performance.

Splunk Observability Cloud offers real-time monitoring, data integration, and APM with machine learning for scalable, user-friendly performance insights.

Amazon CloudWatch allows me to set up and view even historical logs, which is one of the features I find valuable.

Satheesh Papisetty

Digital Services & Engagement Senior Manager at AXA

If there is a CPU spike or system issues, we set alarms to notify us if the system is going down or not reachable.

Azam S M

Infrastructure Lead at Danat Fz LLC

I like its filtering capability and its ability to give the cyber engine insights.

Rohit Bhosale

Senior Software Engineer at Carnera

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon CloudWatch report

Splunk provides advanced notifications of roadblocks in the application, which helps us to improve and avoid impacts during high-volume days.

reviewer1469784

Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

For troubleshooting, we can detect problems in seconds, which is particularly helpful for digital teams.

Abdelmonam LABBOUZ

Splunk Observability Expert

It offers unified visibility for logs, metrics, and traces.

Mary Vasantha Golleru

Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Splunk Observability Cloud report

Categories and Ranking

Amazon CloudWatch

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

13th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

11th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Log Management (15th)

Splunk Observability Cloud

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

8th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

6th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

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

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Amazon CloudWatch is 1.3%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk Observability Cloud is 2.2%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Splunk Observability Cloud	2.2%
Amazon CloudWatch	1.3%
Other	96.5%

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Azam S M

Infrastructure Lead at Danat Fz LLC

Has provided reliable monitoring and alerting through extensive metric tracking and dashboard configuration

Amazon CloudWatch itself provides a lot of data. However, for visualization, we need to use third-party tools. We are in a process of integrating Grafana, Loki, and Prometheus to have better visualization on Amazon CloudWatch. We are also integrating Grafana with the application itself to get the application data and logs. Alternatively, there is AWS Kinesis and Glue where you can scrape the logs and have visualization, but a more easy option is Grafana. If you want to get a proper visual representation to see what is happening, then you need to integrate a third-party tool. Amazon CloudWatch has all the data, but to see what is happening, you need some third-party tool.

Read full review

Dhananjay Dileep

Senior Software Engineer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

Unified monitoring has improved end-to-end visibility and reduced detection time across apps

When we have too many detectors in place for one particular app, such as when I have created 50+ detectors through my account, the entire page becomes a bit loaded when creating the 51st detector, feeling heavy and taking time to load. Additionally, it throws random errors; for example, when we try to save one detector, it might throw some random error which is not even related, with something else being wrong, not that particular error, but the underlying root cause might be different. Sometimes the error is just "some problem occurred," and we are not able to point out what the real cause is. This mainly happens when we have too many detectors or too many alerts in place rather than a standard number. One more thing is in the alert rules; if we have a main general alert, and instead of creating a new detector, we are adding a new rule under one detector, when the number of rules also increases, such as when we have 10 or 15 rules under one generic detector, that again creates the same kind of problem, taking some time to save that particular newly added rule, and it might not save at times, just keeps on spinning. Those are the two drawbacks which I spotted recently; other than that, everything looks perfect.

Read full review

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Transportation Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	24

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	47

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon CloudWatch?

The monitoring features are valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon CloudWatch?

No specific setup costs were mentioned.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon CloudWatch?

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?

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

Comparisons

Grafana Loki vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 16% of the time

Amazon OpenSearch Service vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 8% of the time

Zabbix vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 6% of the time

Dynatrace vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 5% of the time

More Amazon CloudWatch Competitors

Sentry vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

Observe vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

Avantra vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

Honeycomb Enterprise vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

Cribl vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

More Splunk Observability Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudWatch

January 2026

Download Amazon CloudWatch product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk Observability Cloud

December 2025

Download Splunk Observability Cloud product report

Also Known As

No data available

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

Overview

Amazon CloudWatch integrates seamlessly with AWS, providing real-time monitoring and alerting features. Its interface supports task automation, enhancing troubleshooting and analytics capabilities, while offering strong security and scalability at a cost-effective rate.

Amazon CloudWatch is an impactful platform for monitoring AWS resources and managing application performance. It simplifies infrastructure performance monitoring by providing comprehensive analytics capabilities, including application insights and event scheduling. Users appreciate CloudWatch for its detailed metrics, dashboards, and support in issuing alerts to detect anomalies. It efficiently tracks performance, optimizes resource utilization, and ensures service availability. CloudWatch is recognized for its robust alerting features and integration with other AWS services, further supporting its resource monitoring capabilities. However, there is room for improvement in dashboard customization, log streaming speed, and integration with non-AWS services. Enhancements in API integration, machine learning features, and support for third-party tools are also desired.

What features does Amazon CloudWatch offer?

Seamless Integration: Works effortlessly with AWS for cohesive service management.
Advanced Metrics: Provides detailed monitoring of CPU, memory, and more.
Real-time Monitoring: Offers up-to-the-minute alerts on infrastructure status.
Dashboards: User-friendly and informative for quick insights.
Automation: Supports task automation for efficient troubleshooting.

What benefits does Amazon CloudWatch provide?

Cost-effectiveness: Efficient resource monitoring without high costs.
Scalability: Easily adapts to growing infrastructure needs.
Security: Strong protocols for safe monitoring activities.
Improved Performance: Enhances application insights and operational efficiency.
Operational Insights: Provides comprehensive logging and performance analysis.

Industries implementing Amazon CloudWatch often focus on optimizing IT infrastructure. Companies in sectors like finance and e-commerce rely on its monitoring and alerting capabilities to ensure service uptime and performance. The platform's automation and analytics features empower teams to proactively manage performance and detect potential issues promptly.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

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

Sample Customers

AirAsia, Airbnb, Aircel, APUS, Avazu, Casa & Video, Futbol Club Barcelona (FCBarcelona), National Taiwan University, redBus

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

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudWatch vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

January 2026

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