Nmap vs Splunk Observability Cloud comparison

Nmap and Splunk are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Nmap is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.7, while Splunk is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.4. Nmap holds a 0.6% mindshare in NMS, compared to Splunk’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Nmap users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

Nmap

Read 22 Nmap reviews

1,256 Views
1,068 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Splunk Observability Cloud

Read 71 Splunk Observability Cloud reviews

5,846 Views
1,578 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Nmap

Splunk Observability Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 21, 2025

Nmap and Splunk Observability Cloud operate in the IT management sector, where each product offers distinct advantages. Splunk Observability Cloud often excels due to its advanced analytics capabilities, justifying its higher cost against Nmap’s focus on network scanning.

Features: Nmap's key features include network scanning, host discovery, and operating system detection, essential for monitoring network traffic and identifying security vulnerabilities. It offers detailed reporting that helps in compliance audits by providing insights into open ports and services. On the other hand, Splunk Observability Cloud offers real-time data visibility, advanced analytical tools, and platform integration, which are essential for monitoring application performance and providing end-to-end visibility into data across different environments.

Room for Improvement: Nmap could enhance its graphical user interface to be more user-friendly and develop better integration capabilities with other security tools for enhanced automation. Its documentation could be more comprehensive to better guide advanced operations. Splunk Observability Cloud can improve its deployment simplicity and reduce associated learning curves. Clarifying pricing tiers and providing more flexible pricing models would benefit organizations with varying needs. Boosting the speed of real-time analytics and making setup processes for alerts less complex would enhance the user experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nmap is known for its straightforward deployment and low maintenance, making it attractive for security tasks with quick setup needs. Splunk Observability Cloud, while featuring extensive capabilities, requires a more complex deployment but is supported by highly reliable customer service. This robust support framework can help users effectively leverage its features, although it demands significant know-how for setup and ongoing management.

Pricing and ROI: Nmap is cost-effective with minimal initial setup costs, appealing to security-focused users with tight budgets. It provides substantial ROI for basic security auditing tasks. Splunk Observability Cloud, despite higher upfront investment, offers justified ROI with its extensive suite of monitoring and analytics capabilities. It is more suitable for organizations seeking comprehensive functionality and willing to pay for enhanced feature sets.

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

Buyer's Guide

Nmap vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 869,771 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

10th

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 (8th), Container Management (6th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Nmap is 0.6%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk Observability Cloud is 1.2%, up from 0.7% 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	1.2%
Nmap	0.6%
Other	98.2%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

AntoSebastin

Cyber Security Consultant - APAC at Logon Software

Scans the network and identifies vulnerabilities on each machine

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 scan our network and identify devices that aren't connected properly. This helps us detect any issues related to the operating systems of these devices. The tool's most valuable feature is its vulnerability scanning. It allows us to scan a specific range of IP addresses and discover devices within that range. This makes it easy to identify devices and view their details. Port scanning is crucial for network management tasks. It helps us identify vulnerabilities by finding open ports that may be unused or misconfigured. This tool makes it easy to detect such issues. The OS detection feature is great. Unlike other tools, Nmap provides accurate information about asset vulnerabilities, helping us easily detect and address them. Using Nmap provides value to the company, especially during compliance audits. It helps generate reports on assets, updates on workstations, and insights into network activities and potential attacks. Additionally, Nmap detects vulnerabilities and provides port details, allowing us to close unused ports on the client machines.

Read full review

Taiwo Ige

IT Operations Engineer at ABC Supply Co. Inc.

Alerting improves incident response across teams and enables faster awareness before customer impact

Splunk Observability Cloud could be improved in terms of integrations with more technical add-ons, such as Zoom. Although they have one with Zoom, it's not available in the cloud, so having that feature would be beneficial. Essentially, Splunk should continue expanding to create easier ways to ingest logs from different products. The out-of-the-box customizable dashboards in Splunk Observability Cloud are very effective in showcasing IT performance to business leaders. However, there are aspects that could be improved, such as linking dashboards to one another. While IT leaders may not drill down, it's crucial to create levels of dashboards for technical users to find root causes, making it effective for stakeholders.

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

"Nmap has a powerful command line tool and a set of diagnostic features."

"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 scanning procedure includes UDP ports which sets it apart from competitors."

"The best feature of Nmap is that it lets me see useful information about each endpoint in my entire network environment. For example, I can see every single connection of the network as well as each and every port."

"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."

"It is a very user-friendly product."

"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."

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

More Nmap pros

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

"The solution's basic visibility is one of its most valuable features. So, it is a solution that is easy to use...The solution's initial setup process was straightforward."

"The features of Splunk Observability Cloud that I prefer the most are its all-encompassing licensing model, which is comparatively better than others in the market."

"It can monitor, get the data, and then report on the data."

"I find the monitoring console very helpful. With one click, I can see how we are performing, and at the same time, I can see what data is flowing."

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

"The company has many systems that the customer is paying to access. Splunk APM issued via AppDynamics helps find problems in the feed. It reduces the risk of supervising all the devices. I can supervise the flow and simulate the conditions of the repository across several dashboards to show what's happening at the moment."

"The alerts are the most valuable feature."

More Splunk Observability Cloud pros

Cons

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

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

"Nmap major operates through the CLI; there's no GUI component, and that's where the challenge is."

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

"The solution is not that easy for a beginner to learn."

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

"The price is high and could be cheaper."

"Customization is not very user-friendly in Nmap."

More Nmap cons

"Primarily, the logs in Splunk APM can be challenging to navigate and comprehend, making it difficult to understand the details within each log. Compared to other tools like LogDNA, which are more intuitive in this aspect, the logs in Splunk APM can require more effort to understand."

"There are always areas for potential improvement to enhance its functionality and user experience."

"I've been using the Splunk query language, and it can be a bit time-consuming to set up the queries I need."

"They need more EDR functionalities."

"Technical support is good but could be improved, particularly concerning the time taken for ticket resolution."

"The only strain point we've encountered with Splunk Observability Cloud is that the search times can be lengthy for some things. We have a large environment, so that's expected."

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

"The licensing model is expensive. We need to monitor the amount of data ingested because the cost is based on the data collected."

More Splunk Observability Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"It's an open-source product, and I haven't seen any premiums. Options are available for those who purchase, but for my use case, everything I need is available in the community and forums."

"The solution is free of cost."

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

"The product's pricing is fine. The licensing options for Nmap include perpetual licenses and volume-based licenses. For perpetual licenses, once you purchase it, there's no need to invest in renewals. And for volume-based licenses, enterprise companies can use it multiple times based on the number of users or devices they need to scan. It's a pay-as-you-go model, similar to how you pay for what you use."

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

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

"I am using the standard free version of Nmap."

More Nmap pricing and cost advice

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

"The solution's pricing is costly."

"It appears to be expensive compared to competitors."

"This is an expensive solution."

"Splunk has been fairly expensive, but it has been predictable."

"Splunk APM is expensive."

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

More Splunk Observability Cloud pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

869,771 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

14%

Computer Software Company

10%

Retailer

10%

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

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	43

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Nmap?

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

Zabbix vs Nmap

Compared 14% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Nmap

Compared 10% of the time

LiveAction LiveNX vs Nmap

Compared 9% of the time

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs Nmap

Compared 9% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Nmap

Compared 9% of the time

More Nmap Competitors

Sentry vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 6% of the time

Observe vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 5% of the time

Cribl vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 5% of the time

SigNoz vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 5% of the time

Honeycomb Enterprise vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

More Splunk Observability Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Nmap

September 2025

Download Nmap product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk Observability Cloud

September 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

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

September 2025

Free Report: Nmap vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

Find out what your peers are saying about Nmap vs. Splunk Observability Cloud and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

869,771 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Nmap vs. Splunk Observability Cloud report.

See our list of best Network Monitoring Software vendors.

We monitor all Network 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.