ServiceNow Cloud Observability vs Splunk AppDynamics comparison

ServiceNow and Splunk are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. ServiceNow is ranked #39 with an average rating of 7.5, while Splunk is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.3. ServiceNow holds a 0.4% mindshare in APM, compared to Splunk’s 4.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of ServiceNow users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

ServiceNow Cloud Observability

Read 4 ServiceNow Cloud Observability reviews

790 Views
766 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Splunk AppDynamics

Read 249 Splunk AppDynamics reviews

13,425 Views
10,740 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

ServiceNow Cloud Observability

Splunk AppDynamics

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on May 11, 2025

Splunk AppDynamics and ServiceNow Cloud Observability are both competitive solutions in IT monitoring and management. Splunk AppDynamics may have an advantage in pricing and customer support, while ServiceNow Cloud Observability's advanced features might appeal to users needing comprehensive solutions.

Features: Splunk AppDynamics includes powerful analytics, machine learning capabilities, and application performance management that facilitate identifying and resolving application issues. It offers correlation and introspection within Java containers, ensuring less resource consumption, and automatic performance baselining to provide valuable insights. ServiceNow Cloud Observability integrates workflows, offers holistic cloud monitoring, and enables seamless operation across different environments, providing comprehensive oversight and advanced performance analytics for improved strategic insights.

Room for Improvement: Splunk AppDynamics could enhance its feature set by simplifying its setup for large-scale deployments and improving the intuitiveness of its interface. Additionally, expanding capabilities in real-time data visualization and better integration with third-party tools would be beneficial. ServiceNow Cloud Observability might improve by providing a more competitive pricing model, increasing flexibility in customization, and enhancing support for broader interoperability with existing IT systems.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: ServiceNow Cloud Observability offers rapid implementation with extensive enterprise support for smooth transitions. Conversely, Splunk AppDynamics provides effective customer service but may require a more complex setup for large-scale deployments, which could be streamlined for better user experience.

Pricing and ROI: Splunk AppDynamics presents a competitive pricing structure focused on maximizing ROI through effective monitoring tools. In contrast, ServiceNow Cloud Observability's higher setup cost may offer significant long-term benefits for those seeking comprehensive oversight capabilities, potentially yielding a solid ROI over time due to its all-inclusive feature set.

To learn more, read our detailed ServiceNow Cloud Observability vs. Splunk AppDynamics Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Cloud Observability vs. Splunk AppDynamics

July 2025

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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

ServiceNow Cloud Observability

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

39th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Splunk AppDynamics

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

249

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (5th), IT Operations Analytics (2nd), Mobile APM (1st), Container Monitoring (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of ServiceNow Cloud Observability is 0.4%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk AppDynamics is 4.6%, down from 5.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

VinayKumar16

Senior DeliveryManager at ITC Infotech

Provides ease of use in areas like analytics and reporting

The feature of the tool that is more impactful for cloud performance stems from the area revolving around analytics and reporting. It is an easy-to-use tool. There is something known as performance analytics within ServiceNow that offers complete analytics, which offers end-to-end analytics along with the KPI metrics with what we have in place and so on. With the aforementioned aspects of the tool, I think we should be able to create a dashboard according to the operations view called the operation dashboard view, specifically for C-level executives.

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Gyanesh Rahatekar

Back office at Reliance Industries Ltd

Application performance management and error resolution improved with data-driven insights

Dynatrace has multiple functions compared to Splunk AppDynamics, so Splunk AppDynamics should add those functions, which are not available as of now. Dynatrace has a universal agent that collects all information related to their CI, and if one CI has multiple languages, then there is no need to instrument multiple agents. However, Splunk AppDynamics requires multiple agents; if I have one server with multiple applications in different languages, then I need to instrument different agents for each application. Splunk AppDynamics should work with Dynatrace with one single universal agent that works with all application languages, eliminating the need for multiple implementations.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution Lightstep/ServiceNow has a couple of pretty advanced functionalities to help us investigate a deviation and help the development teams have better observability in the environment using distributed and complex services."

"The UI is very intuitive."

"The ability to create a stream based on different parameters, operation name, service name, URL, tags, and URI part, is one valuable feature."

"To a certain extent, it is possible to save on the costs of the product."

"The transaction snapshots are the most valuable feature of AppDynamics"

"AppDynamics has a very broad range of supported technologies, and it's user-friendly. It looks nice, and it's easy to sell the solution to the stakeholders when we can visualize how the website is working. For example, where we have any problems through visual analytics."

"What I like best about AppDynamics is that it's functional, particularly in APM in Java and .NET."

"AppDynamics' best feature is automation - for example, when I add a note, it can understand the data automatically."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to take a report, and in particular, a visual, and link it to actual application performance and then the consequences. This means you can show how an incident or action has an effect on the business."

"The transaction snapshots let you find out where the application broke; it pinpoints where in the call stack, and then how long it took to resolve."

"It has improved my organization because we are able to proactively and reactively look at performance issues."

"Whenever the application crashes from user behavior, we can easily simulate the error. We are happy with this feature and find it to be valuable."

More Splunk AppDynamics pros

Cons

"In terms of licensing, users would want the product to offer them the ability to tailor the tasks offered in the solution to suit their needs."

"The dashboard and graphics must be improved."

"The design of this solution is not very intuitive and probably could come with more friendly tips for beginners."

"The support team could be better. Because of the different versions of different tactics of integrating reactive code base, the documentation is not very clear if someone has to be onboard. I would rate the documentation of Lightstep a five out of ten. It could need improvement."

"Sometimes, it is hard to navigate through and find if something is wrong or figure out where an error stemmed from."

"The product’s dashboard could be more easy to implement."

"Splunk AppDynamics provides an end-to-end view of the application but misses the infrastructure part, which is crucial."

"The dashboard can be better. Also, the automated reports could be improved."

"They need to improve the consolidation of agents for the agent's installation process."

"Needs more integration with applications suites, like Oracle Enterprise Server or BMC Remedy."

"In the current version of AppDynamics, there is a correlated section, where we can see all servers’ performance along with application performance, but network performance is missing."

"Maybe some more CPU power or something like that could be an area to improve."

More Splunk AppDynamics cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is expensive. I rate the tool's pricing model an eight out of ten."

"AppDynamics is what I would consider an enterprise-level solution. This means that it's a solution that is intended for use by larger organizations, while small or medium-sized businesses may find it difficult to afford. The number of agents required will also impact the pricing, and smaller companies may only be able to afford a limited number of agents. Essentially, the cost of the solution is not within the reach of every organization, and only some may be able to afford it."

"If one is expensive and ten is low price, I rate the product price as seven out of ten."

"Take into consideration what you get for specific pricing models and how much it costs to add on things you may need later."

"The pricing for AppDynamics Server Monitoring in Africa and the Middle East is too expensive, so it's very hard to sell it to customers. If there could be different pricing or package for the region, that would be great. My company pays for the license of AppDynamics Server Monitoring on a per-agent, per-server basis. It's $700 to $1000 per server, and it's paid annually. My company is on a subscription model for the solution. On a scale of one to five, where one is expensive and five is cheap, my rating for the price of AppDynamics Server Monitoring is a two."

"There is a license needed to use the solution and it is expensive. The licensing model needs to improve."

"AppDynamics Server Monitoring is a very expensive product, but if you negotiate well, you get value for money...My company used to make early payments toward the licensing costs of the solution, but now my company has opted for a different licensing model."

"AppDynamics is priced on the higher side."

"I rate AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring's pricing as seven out of ten. Mobile monitoring is paid based on the number of instances utilizing the mobile monitoring service, which increases as the scale grows. Consequently, your mobile user count can proportionally surpass all other applications."

More Splunk AppDynamics pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

Retailer

10%

Financial Services Firm

26%

Computer Software Company

14%

Educational Organization

12%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about LightStep?

The UI is very intuitive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with LightStep?

There are a lot of workflows and connectors. In terms of licensing, users would want the product to offer them the ability to tailor the tasks offered in the solution to suit their needs.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for LightStep?

I use the solution in my company since it has multiple tenants available. Basically, what happens in business is that you have a hybrid setup model, and for that, you extensively use a cloud platfo...

See all answers

Any advice about APM solutions?

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 monitor...

See all answers

APM tools for a Managed Service Provider - Dynatrace vs. AppDynamics vs. Aternity vs. Ruxit

Hi Avi! It's great to see your thorough approach to selecting an APM package for your MSP company. Considering your focus on SMBs and enterprises in Israel, Dynatrace seems like a solid choice with...

See all answers

What do you like most about AppDynamics?

The solution saves time and cost.

See all answers

Comparisons

Grafana vs ServiceNow Cloud Observability

Compared 37% of the time

Datadog vs ServiceNow Cloud Observability

Compared 31% of the time

Dynatrace vs ServiceNow Cloud Observability

Compared 20% of the time

Splunk Observability Cloud vs ServiceNow Cloud Observability

Compared 11% of the time

More ServiceNow Cloud Observability Competitors

Dynatrace vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 14% of the time

Datadog vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 9% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 8% of the time

New Relic vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 8% of the time

Grafana vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 5% of the time

More Splunk AppDynamics Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Cloud Observability

June 2025

Download ServiceNow Cloud Observability product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk AppDynamics

June 2025

Download Splunk AppDynamics product report

Also Known As

LightStep

No data available

Overview

ServiceNow Cloud Observability is a comprehensive platform designed to enhance visibility, control, and performance monitoring of your IT infrastructure and applications. It seamlessly integrates log management, trace management, metrics monitoring, and infrastructure monitoring in real-time, leveraging AI and machine learning for automated tasks and actionable insights. With benefits including improved visibility, faster incident resolution, enhanced application performance, simplified IT operations, and reduced costs, this cloud-native solution is ideal for businesses of all sizes with complex IT infrastructures. It integrates seamlessly with ServiceNow IT Operations Management (ITOM), supports OpenTelemetry standards, and provides AI-powered insights along with pre-built dashboards and reports.

ServiceNow

Splunk AppDynamics enhances application performance monitoring with advanced diagnostics and real-time insights, offering seamless end-to-end transaction tracking and infrastructure visibility.

AppDynamics provides critical tools for businesses to analyze application behavior and performance. Through innovative features like transaction snapshot analysis and adaptable dashboards, users can quickly identify and address issues, ensuring high levels of system uptime and efficiency. It is designed to support complex environments including Kubernetes and AWS, enhancing user experience by detecting performance issues early. Despite needing improvements in network monitoring and integration, it remains a robust option for tracking application health.

What are the key features of AppDynamics?

Real-time Performance Monitoring: Offers immediate insights into application behavior.
Business Transaction Tracking: Tracks transactions from start to finish for bottleneck identification.
JVM Memory Monitoring: Provides detailed JVM metrics and memory use information.
Deep-dive Diagnostics: Enables in-depth analysis of code and stack traces.
Adaptable Dashboards: Customizable views for better data interpretation.

How does AppDynamics benefit users?

Improved Incident Resolution: Faster problem detection and solution implementation.
Enhanced Application Performance: Real-time monitoring optimizes system operations.
Comprehensive Visibility: Provides a full view of application infrastructure.
Informed Decision Making: Detailed analytics guide performance improvements.
Customer Satisfaction: Enhances user experience through faster issue resolutions.

In industries like financial services and e-commerce, AppDynamics facilitates performance tracking across distributed systems, optimizing infrastructure to meet consumer demands. It excels in environments needing precise transaction monitoring and is pivotal in delivering high value and satisfaction.

Splunk

Sample Customers

InVision, Twilio, Lyft, Yext, DigitalOcean,

Cisco, Sony, Nasdaq, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Edmunds.com, Puma, Fox News, DirecTV, Pizza Hut, T-Systems, Cornell University, OpenTable, BITMARCK, Green Mountain Power, Care.com, Overstock, Paddy Power, eHarmony, Kraft, The Motley Fool, The Container Store, and more See more customers

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Cloud Observability vs. Splunk AppDynamics

July 2025

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