Nmap vs Splunk Observability Cloud comparison

Nmap and Splunk are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Nmap is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.8, while Splunk is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.4. Nmap holds a 0.7% mindshare in NMS, compared to Splunk’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Nmap users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

Nmap

Read 22 Nmap reviews

1,820 Views
1,638 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Splunk Observability Cloud

Read 75 Splunk Observability Cloud reviews

7,605 Views
2,358 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Nmap

Splunk Observability Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

Nmap and Splunk Observability Cloud are tools in the network analysis and monitoring sector. Splunk Observability Cloud often holds the upper hand due to its extensive analytic capabilities, despite Nmap's cost-effectiveness.

Features: Nmap provides robust scanning, efficient service detection, and adaptability. It gives administrators deep insights necessary for security purposes. Splunk Observability Cloud offers real-time data analytics, visualization, and powerful observability capabilities across IT operations.

Room for Improvement: Nmap could benefit from expanded automation features and a more user-friendly interface. Integration with more modern tools and enhanced customer support could also improve its offering. Splunk Observability Cloud could improve in cost-effectiveness and provide simpler deployment for non-experts. Offering more intuitive dashboard customization and expanding integration capabilities are also potential enhancements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nmap requires a manual setup process appealing to skilled professionals, yet lacks a strong support infrastructure. Splunk Observability Cloud supports automation in deployment with significant help in integration, making it accessible for businesses needing comprehensive observability and service support.

Pricing and ROI: Nmap is low-cost with a high ROI for scanning and mapping needs, requiring minimal initial investment. Splunk Observability Cloud involves higher setup costs, justified by its advanced analytics and monitoring, improving long-term ROI through better operational insights and problem resolution.

To learn more, read our detailed Nmap vs. Splunk Observability Cloud Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Nmap vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

December 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 881,176 peers since 2012

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

Nmap

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

9th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Splunk Observability Cloud

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

6th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (8th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (7th), Cloud Monitoring Software (6th), Container Management (6th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nmap is 0.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk Observability Cloud is 1.3%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Splunk Observability Cloud	1.3%
Nmap	0.7%
Other	98.0%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

MoshiurRahman Khan

CEO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Improves network monitoring and offers insights into traffic, including VPNs

The real-time reporting feature of Nmap is particularly valuable. It generates detailed reports on the source and destination IP addresses, the protocols used, and the types of traffic. This feature is crucial for law enforcement agencies to monitor and analyze network connectivity effectively. It also has traffic analysis. For example, assessing bandwidth usage and configuring the tool to track specific types of traffic is crucial. Unlike SolarWinds, which requires configuration for this, Nmap has built-in functionality that allows it to check all 4,000 computer ports. It identifies the type of traffic each port is using and can easily generate reports on network communications between computers, whether there are 100 or 1000 in the network.

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

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The most valuable feature of the solution for security audits stems from the fact that it serves as a powerful tool with the ability to scan a large number of ports."

"The real-time reporting feature of Nmap is particularly valuable. It generates detailed reports on the source and destination IP addresses, the protocols used, and the types of traffic."

"Nmap's performance is great, and I've never noticed any issues in this respect. It really doesn't put a heavy load on the machine when using it."

"The initial setup was simple."

"It is a very user-friendly product."

"From a functionality standpoint, it's robust and straightforward to comprehend."

"It helps us secure the network infrastructure."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its scripts. These scripts prove beneficial when security features may obscure or block connections. Nmap helps identify vulnerabilities across different systems, including web servers and various server types."

More Nmap pros

"I have primarily used it to go back into the past and understand why something happened. It provides enough information to do research and figure things out."

"The most valuable feature is dashboard creation."

"Detectors are a powerful feature."

"Splunk's GUI and dashboard capacity are the most valuable features of Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring."

"I manage six tools, but Splunk Observability Cloud is one of my favorites, and I aspire to build my career specializing in it because it has great features, more attention in the market, and is a relatively new tool with promising growth."

"Once configured correctly, the analysis reporting the Splunk APM provides is better than that of the other APM tools."

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

"It has been beneficial for our IT infrastructure."

More Splunk Observability Cloud pros

Cons

"It takes a bit of time to get familiar with the solution and its options."

"They should deliver Playtech's username and password."

"The price is high and could be cheaper."

"One of the drawbacks of the standard Nmap utility is that it does not come with a graphical user interface, unlike a number of other open-source alternatives such as Zenmap."

"There is room for improvement in the design, the GUI. It looks a bit odd. Maybe Nmap should improve it or add more widgets to make it more attractive, but the basic functionality is good and provides what we need."

"The challenge often lies in finding suitable courses and professional resources."

"Since I started using Nmap, it has been completely based on the command prompt and I think it would help other users if they implemented a decent GUI as well."

"The solution's initial setup could be better."

More Nmap cons

"Splunk could be better integrated with configuration manager solutions so we can automatically resolve issues without human interference."

"I would like to see an improvement and some innovation in the customer interface."

"There is a lot of room for improvement with the automation."

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

"It would be beneficial to have more enhanced features with capabilities to adapt more integrated applications. Improvements in dashboard configuration, customization, and artificial intelligence functionalities are desired."

"Splunk Observability Cloud has not yet completely improved our operational performance for our company's resilience as we are just starting out, however, it will help us ultimately to reduce incident time."

"The UI of Splunk Observability Cloud is one of the major issues; it's old and has been there for more than 10 years, acquired by other applications from other companies. It's time to reinvent how the UI is going to work with the AI modules and integrations, making it softer and cleaner."

"The feedback is that Splunk Observability Cloud is forcing me to modify my logs that I am ingesting in Splunk Observability Cloud in a specific format."

More Splunk Observability Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I am using the free version of Nmap."

"The solution is free of cost, but there are specific services that we have to buy."

"The solution is open source so it is free."

"Nmap is an open-source product. You don't need a license to install it."

"The solution is free of cost."

"Nmap is an open-source and free product."

"Nmap is open source software, which suits us well because we are a manufacturing company and not an IT company, for example. If we were an IT company, we would probably need to pay for extra support or instead go for another software solution. But as it is, we don't have any need for high-end troubleshooting tools."

"It's an open-source solution. Commerically, only the support service is available."

More Nmap pricing and cost advice

"The product is a bit expensive considering the competition but the company may negotiate the price."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"Splunk offers a 14-day free trial and after that, we have to pay but the cost is reasonable."

"This is an expensive solution."

"The solution's pricing is costly."

"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."

"Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring is an expensive solution."

"It appears to be expensive compared to competitors."

More Splunk Observability Cloud pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

14%

Government

University

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	11

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	48

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Nmap?

Nmap is mostly helpful during compliance checks. We run the scanner to see how many devices are on our network and find vulnerabilities in those that aren't compliant. We also use it monthly to sca...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nmap?

I am using the free version of Nmap.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Nmap?

Nmap is used for network scanning to map the network, identify devices, and assess their status. It helps determine open ports and services running on a particular endpoint or server within an ente...

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

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Compared 9% of the time

Zabbix vs Nmap

Compared 9% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Nmap

Compared 8% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Nmap

Compared 8% of the time

Domotz Pro vs Nmap

Compared 8% of the time

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Avantra vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

Sentry vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

Observe vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

Cribl vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

Honeycomb Enterprise vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Nmap

January 2026

Download Nmap product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk Observability Cloud

January 2026

Download Splunk Observability Cloud product report

Also Known As

No data available

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

Overview

Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free and open source (license) utility for network discovery and security auditing. Many systems and network administrators also find it useful for tasks such as network inventory, managing service upgrade schedules, and monitoring host or service uptime. Nmap uses raw IP packets in novel ways to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are running, what type of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens of other characteristics. It was designed to rapidly scan large networks, but works fine against single hosts. Nmap runs on all major computer operating systems, and official binary packages are available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. In addition to the classic command-line Nmap executable, the Nmap suite includes an advanced GUI and results viewer (Zenmap), a flexible data transfer, redirection, and debugging tool (Ncat), a utility for comparing scan results (Ndiff), and a packet generation and response analysis tool (Nping).

Nmap

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

Lockheed Martin, Eastern Bank Boston, Perspecta, Harris Corporation, Discovery Communication

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

Buyer's Guide

Nmap vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

December 2025

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