SolarWinds AppOptics vs Splunk AppDynamics comparison

SolarWinds and Splunk are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. SolarWinds is ranked #48 with an average rating of 8.0, while Splunk is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.4. SolarWinds holds a 0.3% mindshare in APM, compared to Splunk’s 4.7% 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

726 Views
516 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Splunk AppDynamics

Read 246 Splunk AppDynamics reviews

13,079 Views
8,520 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

SolarWinds AppOptics

Splunk AppDynamics

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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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: May 2025).

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds AppOptics vs. Splunk AppDynamics

May 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 AppOptics

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

48th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

50th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Monitoring Software (34th)

Splunk AppDynamics

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

3rd

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

246

Ranking in other categories

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

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of SolarWinds AppOptics is 0.3%, down from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk AppDynamics is 4.7%, down from 6.1% 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.

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Muhammad Zeeshan Siddiqui

Head of Technology and Services at arwentech

Dynamic mapping enhances workflows that are user-friendly

One aspect that requires improvement is the agent. Without an agent, gathering sufficient information on applications is challenging. Additionally, the agent sometimes creates performance issues in production environments. If AppDynamics could develop a means to monitor without an agent, it could significantly improve application performance and reduce potential problems. Moving to an agentless solution, like what some competitors are doing, would be beneficial.

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 product has a great dashboard."

"The sum solution, NTA, and DPA."

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

"The reporting of the solution is very good."

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

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

"After we implemented this solution, we can easily determine the root cause of issues."

"I like that AppDynamics allows every organization to have what they want to see, like for my organization, we're able to customize the dashboard to show us details of what we want to see in our transactions."

"The most valuable feature is the one that enables you to have visibility into the end-users journey."

"AppDynamics is a good tool that offers excellent out-of-the-box dashboards and application topology."

"I have found some of the valuable features of AppDynamics Database Monitoring to be once the installation is complete, you are able to quickly start receiving metrics, which is great. The user interface is also very user-friendly."

"Has helped us to increase customer acquisitions and reduce revenue leakage."

"We were able to correct problems, which led to an increase in availability, time savings, and performance for our solutions."

"It is a stable solution."

More Splunk AppDynamics pros

Cons

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

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

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

"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."

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

"The solution should be more user-friendly."

"Regarding Search Guard functionality, there is room for improvement."

"I would like to see more artificial intelligence and machine learning brought in to monitor the statement and payment sum issues we have."

"We would like to be able to easily use this solution to monitor our Java script based browsers, which are currently blocked by the security settings."

"I think I would like to see a better way to deploy and upgrade the machine agents that we use. Currently, we have to use SCCM, and that might just be our environment with the customer."

"There are certain limitations with the agents in the solution"

"AppDynamics scaled well up to around 3,000 agents. The performance deteriorated after that, while Dynatrace could support more than 10,000 agents. We were surprised that AppDynamics' scalability is not so good."

"We would love to see support for more types of agents in the mainframe world."

"When you have high stress of visits I do not know if you are more stress because of the amount of visits or because you have to wait eternal 60 seconds to find out it things are going well or you already have mess."

More Splunk AppDynamics cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

"This price of this product is expensive."

"AppDynamics Server Monitoring is a very expensive product, but if you negotiate well, you get value for money...My company used to make early payments toward the licensing costs of the solution, but now my company has opted for a different licensing model."

"Yearly payments have to be made toward the licensing costs of the solution. The solution has no additional costs apart from the licensing costs."

"It does require licensing to be paid."

"The pricing needs to come down."

"We have two different licensing models for this solution. One of them is the agent based model, which requires payment per agent. The other is an infrastructure based model, where the price is based on the CPU core. For the infrastructure model wholesale level pricing applies. All of the up to date licensing prices for this product are available on the manufacturers website."

"The tool is expensive."

"There were no added costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

More Splunk AppDynamics pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

52%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

Educational Organization

47%

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SolarWinds AppOptics?

The product has a great dashboard.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds AppOptics?

The solution should be more user-friendly.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SolarWinds AppOptics?

I used the solution for monitoring servers and network equipment.

See all answers

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 33% of the time

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 18% of the time

New Relic vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 16% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 13% of the time

Zenoss Cloud vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 11% of the time

More SolarWinds AppOptics Competitors

Dynatrace vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 15% of the time

Datadog vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 10% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 8% of the time

New Relic vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 7% 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

April 2025

Download SolarWinds AppOptics product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk AppDynamics

April 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

May 2025

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