Datadog vs Splunk Enterprise Security comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Jun 9, 2022

We performed a comparison between Datadog and Splunk based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Users of both solutions give mixed reviews on their setup. Some say their initial setup is straightforward, but others disagree and say it is complex.
  • Features: Users of both products are happy with their stability and scalability. Datadog reviewers like its alerting system, interface, and integration options. Several users mention that they would like better traceability. Splunk users praise its log collection and management features and say it is user-friendly, fast, and robust, but note that its configuration has a bit of a learning curve.
  • Pricing: Most reviewers of both solutions feel that they are expensive products.
  • ROI: Users of both solutions report an ROI.
  • Service and Support: Reviewers of both solutions report being satisfied with the level of support they receive.

Comparison Results: Splunk has a slight edge in this comparison due to its impressive logging capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Datadog vs. Splunk Enterprise Security Report (Updated: March 2023).
687,947 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"APM and tracing are super useful.""The most valuable aspect of the solution is the APM.""The biggest thing I liked was the combination of all the things - monitoring, log aggregation, and profiling.""Dashboards and their versatility are among the most valuable features.""The observability on offer is the most useful aspect of the product.""It brings in observability, monitoring, and alerting capabilities - all of which we need to operate at scale.""We like the distributed tracing and flame graphs for debugging. This has been invaluable for us during periods of high traffic or red alert conditions.""We've found it most useful for managing Rstudio Workbench, which has its own logs that would not be picked up via Cloudwatch."

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"The level of robustness on offer is very good.""The flexibility of the search capability is most valuable. You can use it for more than just a basic log aggregator. It is powerful in that regard.""The indexing and data collection are valuable.""The additional vendors we've brought on board, particularly the elastic, have been quite beneficial.""Its dashboard is valuable. If you have a good knowledge of how to create a dashboard, you can create any dashboard related to cybersecurity. If fine-tuned, the alarms that are triggered for instant review are also very valuable and useful.""The solution is very fast and succinct.""I really like the user interface and how it works.""The solution is stable and reliable."

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Cons
"We need more visibility into the error tracking dashboard.""The parallel editing of the dashboards should not cause users to lose the work of another person.""Alerting timing should be improved to be more fine-tuned and exact.""It could probably be a little bit of a better user experience.""The logging could be improved in the future.""This service could be less costly.""Datadog isn't as mature as some of the established players like Dynatrace or Splunk. It's a new product, so they are constantly releasing new features, and I don't have much to complain about.""Lately, chat support has a longer waiting time."

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"Splunk can be an expensive solution. Technical support could be improved as well.""The price of the solution could be cheaper.""I feel the solution to be too slow.""The cluster environment should be improved. We have a cluster. In the Splunk cluster environment, in the case of heavy searches and heavy load, the Splunk cluster goes down, and we have to put it in the maintenance mode to get it back. We are not able to find the actual culprit for this issue. I know that cluster has RF and SF, but it has been down so many times. There should be something in Splunk to help users to find the reason and the solution for such issues.""It currently has limited default rules and customizations. If they can concentrate more on the compliance part and the security information part, it would be helpful. The platform part is good, but it requires many features from the security aspect.""Could be more user friendly.""I have concerns about the architecture as well since I can see it is not very well defined.""Its interface could be improved."

More Splunk Enterprise Security Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It has a module-based pricing model."
  • "I am not satisfied with its licensing. Its payment is based on the exported data, and there was an explosion of the data for three or four weeks. My customer was not alerted, and there was no way for them to see that there has been an explosion of data. They got a big invoice for one or two months. The pricing model of Datadog is based on the data. The customer was quite surprised about not being alerted about this explosion of data. They should provide some kind of alert when there is an increase in usage."
  • "Datadog does not provide any free plans to use the solution. When I start with a proof of concept it would be sensible to have a free plan to test the tool and check whether it fits the requirements of the project. Before the production stage, it is always good to have a free plan with some limited features, number of requests, or logs."
  • "They prefer monthly subscriptions."
  • "Our licensing fees are paid on a monthly basis."
  • "Sometimes it's very hard to project how much it will cost for the monthly subscription for the next month when you add certain features. Having better visibility of the cost would give a better experience."
  • "While it is an expensive product, I would rate the pricing level at four out of five."
  • "The price is better than some competing products."
  • More Datadog Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Its pricing model can be improved."
  • "The pricing model is based on the number of gigabytes that you ingest into the Splunk system. So it can be an expensive solution."
  • "My customers have found the price of the solution to be high."
  • "The price of Splunk is reasonable."
  • "The subscription is monthly."
  • "It can be cost-prohibitive when you start to scale and have terabytes of data. Its cost model is based on how much data it processes a day. If they're able to create scaled-down niche or custom package offerings, it may help with the cost. Instead of the full-blown features, if they can narrow the scope where it can only be used for a specific purpose, it would kind of create that market for the product, and it may help with the costing. When you start using it as a central aggregator and you're pumping tons of logs at it, pretty soon, you'll start hitting your cap on what it can process a day. Once you've got that, you're kind of defeating the purpose because you're going to have to scale back."
  • "It's a yearly subscription."
  • "This product could use better pricing in general."
  • More Splunk Enterprise Security Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer:With Datadog, we have near-live visibility across our entire platform. We have seen APM metrics impacted several times lately using the dashboards we have created with Datadog; they are very good core… more »
    Top Answer:Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether the Datadog or Dynatrace network monitoring software was the better fit for us. We decided to go with Dynatrace. Dynatrace offers network… more »
    Top Answer:For tools I’d recommend:  -SIEM- LogRhythm -SOAR- Palo Alto XSOAR Doing commercial w/o both (or at least an XDR) is asking to miss details that are critical, and ending up a statistic. Also,… more »
    Top Answer:It would really depend on (1) which logs you need to ingest and (2) what are your use cases Splunk is easy for ingestion of anything, but the charge per GB/Day Indexed and it gets expensive as log… more »
    Top Answer:Splunk handles a high amount of data very well. We use Splunk to capture information and as an aggregator for monitoring information from different sources. Splunk is very good at alerting us if we… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    56,213
    Comparisons
    38,195
    Reviews
    108
    Average Words per Review
    430
    Rating
    8.6
    Views
    79,046
    Comparisons
    64,121
    Reviews
    43
    Average Words per Review
    484
    Rating
    8.2
    Comparisons
    Learn More
    Overview

    Datadog is a cloud monitoring solution that is designed to assist administrators, IT teams, and other members of an organization who are charged with keeping a close eye on their networks. Administrators can use Datadog to set real-time alerts and schedule automated report generation. They can deal with issues as they arise and keep up to date with the overall health of their network while still being able to focus on other tasks. Users can also track the historical performance of their networks and ensure that they operate at the highest possible level.

    Datadog Benefits

    Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by deploying Datadog include:

    • Gain an integrated view of the services and programs that IT teams are employing across their networks. Users can view and monitor all of the disparate programs that they have running across their networks with this one solution. They can track these programs across the entirety of the data’s life cycle.
    • Analyze and utilize massive amounts of data in real time. Datadog’s dashboards gather data in real time. Administrators can utilize their network’s data the minute that it becomes relevant to them. Decisions can be made based on the most current information available.
    • Keep your cloud network secured against digital threats. Datadog enables users to create alerts that will notify the minute that threats arise. IT teams and administrators can rapidly address any issue that comes up and prevent any existing problem from growing worse.
    • Easily get it up and running. Users can set up Datadog, configure it, and employ API integrations to connect it to external solutions with ease.

    Datadog Features

    • Customizable and prefabricated monitoring dashboards. Administrators are supplied with two different types of dashboards that they can choose from when they are setting up Datadog. They can customize the dashboards to fit any specialized monitoring need. Additionally, users can choose to use prefabricated dashboards that come with the solution.
    • Disaster recovery feature. Datadog has a built-in feature that enables organizations to continue functioning if some disaster strikes their network. If the network suffers damage, Datadog can restore lost data and infrastructure. Should a digital threat do damage to the network, Datadog ensures that the damage is not irreparable.
    • Vulnerability scanning tool. Users can keep ahead of threats to their networks by employing Datadog’s vulnerability scanning feature. This tool scans the entirety of a user’s network and warns them if a vulnerability is detected. Users can then move to patch these holes in their security before the threat to their network can escalate.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Datadog is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. It can offer organizations many advantages. Two major advantages are the dashboards that users can create and the monitoring capability that it gives system administrators.

    A senior manager in charge of site reliability engineering at Extra Space Storage writes, “The dashboards we created are core indicators of the health of our system, and it is one of the most reliable sources we have turned to, especially as we have seen APM metrics impacted several times lately. We can usually rely on logs to tell us what the apps are doing.”

    Housecall Pro’s senior director of DevOps writes, “We value the monitoring capability since it allows us to be pushed alerts, rather than having to observe graphs continually.

    Splunk Enterprise Security is a SIEM, log management, and IT operations analytics tool. The solution provides users with the ability to secure their information and manage their data in the cloud, data centers, or other applications. Splunk Enterprise Security also offers visibility from different areas, levels, and devices, rather than from a single system, thus, providing its users with flexibility. Splunk Enterprise Security can monitor data and analyze, detect, and prevent intrusions. This benefits users as it provides alerts to possible intrusions, helps users to be proactive, and reduces risk factors. 

    Full visibility across your environment

    Break down data silos and gain actionable intelligence by ingesting data from multicloud and on-premises deployments. Get full visibility to quickly detect malicious threats in your environment.

    Fast threat detection

    Defend against threats with advanced security analytics, machine learning and threat intelligence that focus detection and provide high-fidelity alerts to shorten triage times and raise true positive rates.

    Efficient investigations

    Gather all the context you need and initiate flexible investigations with security analytics at your fingertips. The built-in open and extensible data platform boosts productivity and drives down fatigue.

    Open and scalable

    Built on an open and scalable data platform, you can stay agile in the face of evolving threats and business needs. Splunk meets you where you are on your cloud journey, and integrates across your data, tools and content.

    Offer
    Learn more about Datadog
    Learn more about Splunk Enterprise Security
    Sample Customers
    Adobe, Samsung, facebook, HP Cloud Services, Electronic Arts, salesforce, Stanford University, CiTRIX, Chef, zendesk, Hearst Magazines, Spotify, mercardo libre, Slashdot, Ziff Davis, PBS, MLS, The Motley Fool, Politico, Barneby's
    Splunk has more than 7,000 customers spread across over 90 countries. These customers include Telenor, UniCredit, ideeli, McKenney's, Tesco, and SurveyMonkey.
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm22%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Comms Service Provider12%
    Insurance Company5%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company19%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Educational Organization9%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Energy/Utilities Company10%
    Government7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Government9%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business37%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise43%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise60%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business33%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise54%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise69%
    Buyer's Guide
    Datadog vs. Splunk Enterprise Security
    March 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Datadog vs. Splunk Enterprise Security and other solutions. Updated: March 2023.
    687,947 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Datadog is ranked 1st in Cloud Monitoring Software with 107 reviews while Splunk Enterprise Security is ranked 1st in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) with 51 reviews. Datadog is rated 8.6, while Splunk Enterprise Security is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Datadog writes "Easy to set up and good UI but needs better customization capabilities". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Splunk Enterprise Security writes "Very versatile for many use cases". Datadog is most compared with Dynatrace, New Relic, Azure Monitor, Amazon CloudWatch and Sentry, whereas Splunk Enterprise Security is most compared with Microsoft Sentinel, Wazuh, Dynatrace, Elastic Security and vRealize Log Insight. See our Datadog vs. Splunk Enterprise Security report.

    We monitor all Cloud Monitoring Software 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.