Riverbed NPM+ vs Splunk Observability Cloud comparison

Riverbed and Splunk are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Riverbed is ranked #41 with an average rating of 9.0, while Splunk is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.3. Riverbed holds a 0.5% mindshare in NMS, compared to Splunk’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Riverbed users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

Riverbed NPM+

Read 2 Riverbed NPM+ reviews

965 Views
830 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Splunk Observability Cloud

Read 80 Splunk Observability Cloud reviews

10,049 Views
3,115 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Riverbed NPM+

Splunk Observability Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

Splunk Observability Cloud and Riverbed NPM+ are competing products in the network performance monitoring and management space. Splunk Observability Cloud seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive monitoring capabilities and seamless integration with multiple data sources, while Riverbed NPM+ provides more detailed network insights.

Features: Splunk Observability Cloud offers real-time data analytics, centralized monitoring across multiple environments, and seamless integration with various data sources. Riverbed NPM+ offers deep network analysis, detailed traffic insights, and specific diagnostic capabilities which cater to environments needing precise network control.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Splunk Observability Cloud deployment is streamlined with end-to-end support, facilitating quicker setup and ongoing assistance. Riverbed NPM+ provides a range of deployment options with more demanding initial setup due to its detailed configuration capabilities. Splunk is often easier to deploy while Riverbed's models require more configuration but offer extensive network management.

Pricing and ROI: Splunk Observability Cloud generally has a moderate setup cost with advanced analytics providing a good return on investment for multifaceted monitoring needs. Riverbed NPM+ can have higher initial costs but its extensive diagnostic features can justify the price for networks needing detailed analysis. Pricing favors Splunk for budget-conscious buyers, while Riverbed may yield greater ROI in environments requiring detailed diagnostic capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Riverbed NPM+ vs. Splunk Observability Cloud Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Riverbed NPM+ vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

March 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 884,933 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

Riverbed NPM+

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

41st

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

28th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Splunk Observability Cloud

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

8th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

6th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (6th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (7th), Container Management (5th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Riverbed NPM+ is 0.5%, up from 0.2% 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 Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Splunk Observability Cloud	1.3%
Riverbed NPM+	0.5%
Other	98.2%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Satyam Kumar

Senior Technical Engineer at a consultancy with 1-10 employees

Provides deep packet visibility for tracing failed transactions and helps improve enterprise-level monitoring

Many improvements are needed for Riverbed NPM+, particularly in NetIM, which does not perform as well as SolarWinds' single module NPM solution. Additionally, within Riverbed Portal, there is an Application Map module that could be improved. It can show the application's architecture and connectivity to the network. The applications map feature needs enhancements for better customization since currently, it is quite limited. The enhancements I recommend are not for the entire Riverbed product suite, but specifically for the application map feature within the Portal of Riverbed NPM+. This Portal is one of the dashboard modules and while there is potential for improvement, it must be enhanced significantly to provide better functionality. Currently, you cannot trace by transaction number alone; knowing the source and destination IP is necessary. For instance, if I transfer money and a transaction fails, tracing that transaction ID is not captured in AppResponse. I have raised this concern, and if this feature is implemented, it would greatly benefit banking customers, especially because it is not available with their competitors either.

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

"Riverbed NPM+ provides a holistic view of the network and deeper insights into traffic and packet analysis."

"Alluvio Network Performance Management is good for troubleshooting."

"Riverbed NPM+ provides a holistic view of the network and deeper insights into traffic and packet analysis."

"The solution overall is very valuable for me."

"The features are pretty much ready out of the box."

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

"The most valuable thing that we have seen within our group is the ability to ingest all this raw data and have it organized in a certain way so that different groups can get effective alerting from this massive amount of raw data that is out there."

"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 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."

"Splunk has drawn our attention to how the network is running. If there are alarms on things that are not functioning, it gives us early warning on problems that could arise."

"Splunk Observability Cloud has proven to be beneficial for our organization, helping improve operational performance and company resilience while reducing the costs of unplanned digital downtime."

More Splunk Observability Cloud pros

Cons

"Many improvements are needed for Riverbed NPM+, particularly in NetIM, which does not perform as well as SolarWinds' single module NPM solution."

"Alluvio Network Performance Management is good for troubleshooting."

"Many improvements are needed for Riverbed NPM+, particularly in NetIM, which does not perform as well as SolarWinds' single module NPM solution."

"Currently, you cannot trace by transaction number alone; knowing the source and destination IP is necessary."

"Many improvements are needed for Riverbed NPM+, particularly in NetIM, which does not perform as well as SolarWinds' single module NPM solution."

"The dashboards are used mainly to visualize information about the infrastructure, but it isn't easy to construct or use the dashboards. While we tried to resolve the issue by calling support, it would be easier if they had an AI co-pilot to identify the problem and help you solve it."

"The cost needs to be re-examined. It's extremely expensive to run. It's also expensive to expand. That's the number one complaint all of my customers have when it comes to Splunk. It's way too expensive compared to other solutions."

"We were facing some challenges with the stability of Splunk Observability Cloud regarding the login page. It was not working several times and was not accepting SSO authentication."

"The end-to-end visibility is lacking because Splunk cannot directly monitor network devices."

"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."

"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."

"If it is a new deployment and you have a medium client with about 2,000 users or computers or servers, it will take about six months just to install and configure."

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

More Splunk Observability Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's pricing is high and I would rate it one out of ten."

"Licensing cost is the biggest argument I get from those divesting from Splunk. There are those within our organization who say we are going to go to other tools since Splunk is too 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."

"The solution's pricing is competitive. I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten. The price of the solution could be cheaper."

"The price of Splunk APM is less than some of its competitors."

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

"Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring is an expensive solution."

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

"It is expensive."

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

884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Healthcare Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	53

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alluvio Network Performance Management?

The pricing of Riverbed NPM+ is indeed high, particularly as I work with enterprises in the banking sector primarily in India and the Middle East, and I have also interacted with clients in Europe....

See all answers

What needs improvement with Alluvio Network Performance Management?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Alluvio Network Performance Management?

Riverbed NPM+ has many primary use cases, making this NPM solution totally different from other tools like SolarWinds. They have a solution called AppResponse, which is not an agent-based solution ...

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

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG vs Riverbed NPM+

Compared 16% of the time

Datadog vs Riverbed NPM+

Compared 14% of the time

LiveNX vs Riverbed NPM+

Compared 11% of the time

ThousandEyes vs Riverbed NPM+

Compared 8% of the time

New Relic vs Riverbed NPM+

Compared 6% of the time

More Riverbed NPM+ Competitors

Avantra vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

Kentik vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

Datadog vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

Observe vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

Cribl vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

More Splunk Observability Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Network Monitoring Software

March 2026

Download Riverbed NPM+ product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk Observability Cloud

February 2026

Download Splunk Observability Cloud product report

Also Known As

Alluvio Network Performance Management

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

Overview

Riverbed NPM+ is a SaaS-delivered service that uses Riverbed Unified Agent to collect decrypted packet data at every user and server endpoint. It fills visibility gaps caused by encrypted tunnels in Zero Trust, remote work, and cloud-native environments. Taking an agent-based deployment approach ensures flexibility, simplicity, and scalability. With this AI-driven Network Observability, Riverbed takes a revolutionary step towards faster issue detection and higher service availability.

Riverbed

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

Information Not Available

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

Buyer's Guide

Riverbed NPM+ vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

March 2026

Free Report: Riverbed NPM+ vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

Find out what your peers are saying about Riverbed NPM+ vs. Splunk Observability Cloud and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Riverbed NPM+ vs. Splunk Observability Cloud report.

See our list of best Network Monitoring Software vendors and best Cloud 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.