ServiceNow Security Operations vs Splunk Security Essentials comparison

ServiceNow and Splunk are both solutions in the Security Incident Response category. ServiceNow is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.1, while Splunk is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.5. ServiceNow holds a 13.2% mindshare in IRP, compared to Splunk’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of ServiceNow users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

ServiceNow Security Operations

Read 22 ServiceNow Security Operations reviews

2,198 Views
308 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Splunk Security Essentials

Read 4 Splunk Security Essentials reviews

291 Views
58 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

ServiceNow Security Operations

Splunk Security Essentials

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

ServiceNow Security Operations and Splunk Security Essentials compete in the security management software category. ServiceNow appears superior in customer support and deployment ease, while Splunk is recognized for its features and cost-effectiveness.

Features: ServiceNow Security Operations includes automation capabilities, integration with IT operations, and incident response management. Splunk Security Essentials provides powerful analytics, visualizations, and is effective for threat detection and monitoring. ServiceNow emphasizes workflow automation, whereas Splunk focuses on data insights and visualization.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: ServiceNow Security Operations offers a streamlined deployment process with extensive customer service. Splunk Security Essentials allows flexible deployment but may require more technical expertise, complicating initial setup. ServiceNow excels in customer support.

Pricing and ROI: ServiceNow Security Operations has a high setup cost, justified by strong ROI due to its service management capabilities. Splunk Security Essentials is more affordable initially, with attractive ROI due to its feature set and performance improvements. Splunk offers a cost-benefit ratio appealing to those seeking feature-rich solutions at lower entry cost.

To learn more, read our detailed ServiceNow Security Operations vs. Splunk Security Essentials Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Security Operations vs. Splunk Security Essentials

September 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 Security Operations

Ranking in Security Incident Response

1st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (6th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (9th)

Splunk Security Essentials

Ranking in Security Incident Response

11th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Visualization (17th), IT Alerting and Incident Management (14th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Security Incident Response category, the mindshare of ServiceNow Security Operations is 13.2%, down from 19.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk Security Essentials is 2.0%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Security Incident Response Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
ServiceNow Security Operations	13.2%
Splunk Security Essentials	2.0%
Other	84.8%

Security Incident Response

Featured Reviews

Abhinay Sharma

ServiceNow Developer at Bangmetric services pvt ltd

Experience seamless integration and effective incident response with a little room for improvement in setup time

Integration is crucial in ServiceNow Security Operations because everything must be integrated to obtain data. Without integration, the solution is not as beneficial as expected. In SecOps, real-time data is essential to avoid discrepancies between real-time events and ServiceNow data. Multiple tools integrate with ServiceNow Security Operations, with Qualys being one of them. ServiceNow Security Operations collects data from various sources and presents it in a single, respectable format for assessment and action. The main benefit is not having to access separate tools for different data. It provides a unified user experience where all work and fixes can be managed from one location.

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Srinivas Prudhivi Reddy

Lead Consultant at Stickman cyber

Enables us to examine the parameters of the events found and take appropriate actions as necessary

Once we've configured our logs, for example, if we need to monitor processes and IP addresses, we ensure these logs are being ingested into our Splunk instance. The logs gathered from various endpoints are then consolidated into our Splunk platform. Once the data is collected, we can create searches and dashboards to analyze it. With these searches and dashboards, we gain insights into events and can make informed decisions based on them. We'll examine the parameters of these events and take appropriate actions as necessary.

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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 is stable."

"ServiceNow Security Operations also takes care of GRC, governance, risk and compliance, enabling it to provide risk assessment."

"It gives you the ability to bring data into the system. The workflows are out of the box, and it gives you the ability to auto-assign the incidents based on criteria and vulnerabilities."

"The "follow" feature is really good. If the user is not responding, there's an option to "follow". Just click on the button, and it will automatically trigger an email to the end user."

"ServiceNow is a convenient platform to raise tickets, and the respective support team will contact us to resolve any issues."

"ServiceNow Security Operations collects data from various sources and presents it in a single, respectable format for assessment and action, providing a unified user experience where all work and fixes can be managed from one location."

"Reduces time to closure and closure metrics for vulnerabilities."

"What I found most valuable in ServiceNow Security Operations is that it's very useful for any incoming vulnerability. For example, if my team finds any vulnerability on servers such as the CA and CMDB integrated with ServiceNow Security Operations, my team can make some changes. My team can map the vulnerabilities found on the CA server, make the changes required, and resolve the vulnerabilities before the system is attacked. You can avoid vulnerability attacks through ServiceNow Security Operations, so this is the best feature of the solution. ServiceNow Security Operations is beneficial mainly for vulnerability response and engagement purposes."

More ServiceNow Security Operations pros

"We are focusing on security to ensure incidents are reported efficiently. In addition to that, for reporting purposes, we are utilizing our dashboards or creating new ones. We will be using free visualization tools for this purpose."

"They have a good catalog of plans to use to resist the attacks."

"The network monitoring feature is particularly valuable for gathering information about users, login times, and other statistics."

"I would have to rate Splunk Security Essentials a 10 out of 10 because it's free and there's tons of usable content."

Cons

"Report generation within ServiceNow can take some time."

"The initial setup is difficult."

"There is room for improvement in terms of developer support and documentation."

"It doesn't interact with things very well."

"An area for improvement I observed in ServiceNow Security Operations is the need to maintain correct CMDB data because if you're unable to do this, you can't perfectly maintain the vulnerability data. CMDB data in ServiceNow Security Operations needs to be accurate. As I've been working on ServiceNow Security Operations for only seven months, I still need more time to try all its modules before I can give recommendations regarding additional features I'd like to see in the solution."

"Visibility and transitions between teams present significant challenges in the SecOps space, indicating that substantial training and hand-holding are required to improve usability, which is one observation I have had."

"One area for improvement for the product is the need to tailor and alter some codes for customization, which can cause issues during upgrades. It does not support customized operations."

"The solution needs to make customization easier. You cannot do much customization immediately. It requires an extensive workload. If the customization process was user-friendly, it would be much better."

More ServiceNow Security Operations cons

"The price could be improved."

"The reporting feature needs to be more user-friendly."

"They could add more AI content or AI and machine learning."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Compared to competitor tools, ServiceNow Security Operations is more affordable"

"The solution is more expensive than BMC Remedy, the other ITSM tool available in the market."

"The product is more expensive than other solutions."

"It is an expensive product."

"If you're going to implement it on your own, there would be internal costs. If you're going to implement it through a contractor or consultant, you have to pay for that."

"This product is a good value for the money."

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

Government

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	15

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ServiceNow Security Operations?

The most valuable aspect of working with ServiceNow is its meaningful and feature-rich product.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Security Operations?

It is relatively expensive but manageable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ServiceNow Security Operations?

ServiceNow Security Operations is not specifically a vulnerability management or incident tool, but rather a data aggregator. It would be beneficial if, similar to the Discovery module which assess...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Splunk Security Essentials?

Our SecOps manager and CISO were more familiar with Splunk, and the price was right. That was probably the primary driver, and we did evaluation as well with strict criteria and Gartner ratings.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Splunk Security Essentials?

I have not used Splunk Security Essentials' customizable dashboards. I have not taken advantage of the pre-built security use cases in Splunk.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Splunk Security Essentials?

We use Splunk Security Essentials. We have projects, though not many projects per year. The solution is used to resist cyber attacks. They have a good catalog of plans to use to resist the attacks.

See all answers

Comparisons

Splunk SOAR vs ServiceNow Security Operations

Compared 22% of the time

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR vs ServiceNow Security Operations

Compared 19% of the time

Microsoft Sentinel vs ServiceNow Security Operations

Compared 12% of the time

Tines vs ServiceNow Security Operations

Compared 8% of the time

Swimlane vs ServiceNow Security Operations

Compared 5% of the time

More ServiceNow Security Operations Competitors

Splunk Enterprise Platform vs Splunk Security Essentials

Compared 100% of the time

More Splunk Security Essentials Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Security Operations

September 2025

Download ServiceNow Security Operations product report

Buyer's Guide

Data Visualization

October 2025

Download Splunk Security Essentials product report

Overview

ServiceNow Security Operations is a cutting-edge security solution designed to elevate organizations' security incident response (SIR) processes through automation and orchestration. Going beyond traditional SOAR, this comprehensive Security Operations Suite integrates seamlessly with other ServiceNow products and offers a wide array of features. Its components include Security Incident Response (SIR), which automates incident workflows and offers pre-built playbooks; Security Configuration Compliance (SCC), continuously scanning and automating compliance tasks; Vulnerability Response (VR), prioritizing and remediating vulnerabilities; Threat Intelligence (TI), aggregating threat data for proactive threat hunting; and additional features like IT Service Management integration, Machine Learning and AI, reporting, and a mobile app. The benefits span improved incident response speed, reduced mean time to resolution, increased security posture, enhanced compliance, collaborative synergy between security and IT teams, and operational cost reductions.

ServiceNow

Splunk Security Essentials provides a user-friendly interface that streamlines security operations with prebuilt content, helping organizations implement and manage security use cases efficiently.

This tool allows users to navigate a wide range of security use cases, offering valuable insights and tailored solutions. With its ability to enhance security postures, Splunk Security Essentials is essential for managing complex security operations. It supports use case development by providing actionable guidance and resources, enabling effective security measure planning.

What are the standout features of Splunk Security Essentials?

Prebuilt Use Case Content: Provides ready-to-use templates for common security scenarios.
Visual Analytics: Offers intuitive data visualization for threat analysis and reporting.
Guided Implementation: Facilitates easy adoption through step-by-step use case setups.

Which benefits and ROI can be expected when evaluating Splunk Security Essentials reviews?

Improved Threat Detection: Enhances the capability to identify and mitigate threats quickly.
Operational Efficiency: Streamlines processes, saving time and resources.
Cost-Effective: Reduces the need for additional security tools through integrated solutions.

In financial and healthcare sectors, Splunk Security Essentials is often utilized to bolster security frameworks, addressing unique industry challenges. Its adaptable structure supports compliance requirements, ensuring sensitive data protection and regulatory adherence in environments where security is paramount.

Splunk

Sample Customers

DXC Technology, Freedom Security Alliance, Prime Therapeutics, Seton Hall University, York Risk Services

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Security Operations vs. Splunk Security Essentials

September 2025

Free Report: ServiceNow Security Operations vs. Splunk Security Essentials

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