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Docker vs Splunk Observability Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 11, 2025

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
8.0
Docker boosts ROI by reducing time, staffing, and costs, while improving efficiency, productivity, and simplifying deployment and collaboration.
Sentiment score
6.9
Splunk Observability Cloud boosts ROI with improved efficiency, reduced downtime, faster problem resolution, and significant operational savings.
I can do containerization and share it with every computer, making it work for everyone.
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
Using Splunk has saved my organization about 30% of our budget compared to using multiple different monitoring products.
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.
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.
IT Operations Engineer at ABC Supply Co. Inc.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
4.2
Docker provides strong support with thorough documentation, community resources, and additional SLA features for paid users.
Sentiment score
7.1
Splunk Observability Cloud's customer service is responsive and helpful but experiences issues with delays and limited staffing in regions.
From what I gather, customer support is great; they are quick and always available to support or help.
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
On a scale of 1 to 10, the customer service and technical support deserve a 10.
Systems Administrator at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
They have consistently helped us resolve any issues we've encountered.
Software Engineer at UKG
They often require multiple questions, with five or six emails to get a response.
Splunk Observability Expert
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Docker provides scalable container management with Kubernetes, suitable for cloud environments, though needing automation improvements for broader efficiency.
Sentiment score
7.3
Splunk Observability Cloud scales well but can be costly, requiring careful management of pricing and metric limits.
Previously, only one or two applications could run on a server, but now it can handle hundreds of applications, scaling up or down as needed.
Senior Cloud Engineer - AWS at Bytedance
A realistic metric I observe is that I can scale services from two to over 20 containers without code changes.
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
We've used the solution across more than 250 people, including engineers.
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.
Application Developer at UMB Financial
I would rate its scalability a nine out of ten.
Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Docker is favored for its stability and effective container management, despite minor issues like memory and Windows compatibility.
Sentiment score
7.7
Splunk Observability Cloud offers reliable performance with minimal issues, quickly resolving occasional glitches, leading to high user satisfaction.
Docker has been very stable in my environment, especially once best practices and proper organization were in place.
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
I would rate its stability a nine out of ten.
Head of DevOps at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
We rarely have problems accessing the dashboard or the page.
Splunk Observability Expert
Unlike NetScout or regular agents for APM, RUM has many problems during the POC phase because customer environments vary widely.
General Manager at MOCOMSYS
 

Room For Improvement

Docker requires improved documentation, stability, user interfaces, and performance, alongside easier cloud integration and better community support.
Splunk Observability Cloud needs improved integration, cost transparency, better UI, enhanced AI, customization, stability, and streamlined processes.
Docker is a time-tested, proven solution with industry-wide applications.
Senior Cloud Engineer - AWS at Bytedance
Windows containers are heavier and slower than Linux containers.
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
In terms of communication between services, perhaps the configuration within networks between containers could be improved.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The out-of-the-box customizable dashboards in Splunk Observability Cloud are very effective in showcasing IT performance to business leaders.
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.
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.
Head of DevOps at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
 

Setup Cost

Docker offers scalable open-source and enterprise options with flexible pricing, starting at $5 per user, impacting overall costs.
Splunk Observability Cloud is costly but offers negotiable and flexible pricing justified by its features and solutions.
Docker Desktop is free for individual developers and small teams, but a paid subscription is required for large enterprises.
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
I consider Docker's pricing to be affordable.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Splunk is a bit expensive since it charges based on the indexing rate of data.
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.
Solutions Architect at Ikusi
It appears to be expensive compared to competitors.
Head of DevOps at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
 

Valuable Features

Docker offers secure, flexible, and easy containerization with fast deployment, automation, cost savings, and seamless integration across platforms.
Splunk Observability Cloud offers user-friendly dashboards, AI analytics, and seamless integration, improving visibility, issue resolution, and operational performance.
It allows the software to run on various machines without compatibility issues, saving a lot of time.
Senior Cloud Engineer - AWS at Bytedance
Good security capabilities are included as well, providing image scanning, non-root containers, and minimal base images that reduce the attack surface.
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
The most valuable feature is the simple containerization.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Splunk provides advanced notifications of roadblocks in the application, which helps us to improve and avoid impacts during high-volume days.
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.
Splunk Observability Expert
It offers unified visibility for logs, metrics, and traces.
Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Docker
Ranking in Container Management
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
Development Platforms (1st), Software Supply Chain Security (3rd), AI Software Development (7th)
Splunk Observability Cloud
Ranking in Container Management
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (8th), Network Monitoring Software (6th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (7th), Cloud Monitoring Software (6th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Container Management category, the mindshare of Docker is 4.6%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk Observability Cloud is 0.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Container Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Docker4.6%
Splunk Observability Cloud0.7%
Other94.7%
Container Management
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2787357 - PeerSpot reviewer
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
Containerization has standardized deployments and drives faster, more reliable delivery
As Docker is already a very mature tool, there are areas where it can be improved based on real-world usage. One area I consider is the Windows container experience. The pain point here is that Windows containers are heavier and slower than Linux containers because I have worked in both environments and felt that Windows containers are heavier and slower than Linux containers. This also limits the ecosystem and tooling maturity compared to Linux containers. Improvements could include performance optimization and better parity with Linux container features. Apart from that, observability and debugging is another area. The pain point is the limited native metrics available and limited logging and tracing features. Improvements could include adding a good amount of metrics, logging, and tracing, as well as better built-in observability features and easier container introspection. Network complexity is also present. I face issues with Docker networking that can become confusing in complex setups, and debugging container-to-container issues is not always intuitive. Improvements can be made with simpler networking abstractions and better built-in troubleshooting tools. Docker is excellent for containerization and CI/CD, but it can be improved in areas of built-in security, network simplicity, and observability. These points should be kept in mind and worked on.
Dhananjay Dileep - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Retailer
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise35
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise47
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Docker?
We are using Docker to host applications.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Docker?
Regarding the cost, Mirantis Container Cloud is cheaper than other solutions like Red Hat. The license costs around 10,000 Indian rupees per year.
What needs improvement with Docker?
Mirantis Container Cloud should have AI integration tools, which are not available right now. These tools should assist in app scalability and deployment error handling.
What do you like most about SignalFx?
The most valuable feature is dashboard creation.
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...
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 ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring, Splunk Real User Monitoring (RUM), Splunk Synthetic Monitoring
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Sunrun, Yelp, Onshape, Tapjoy, Symphony Commerce, Chairish, Clever, Grovo, Bazaar Voice, Zenefits, Avalara
Find out what your peers are saying about Docker vs. Splunk Observability Cloud and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.