SolarWinds AppOptics vs Splunk Observability Cloud comparison

SolarWinds and Splunk are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. SolarWinds is ranked #57, while Splunk is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.4. SolarWinds holds a 0.5% mindshare in APM, compared to Splunk’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of SolarWinds users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

SolarWinds AppOptics

Read 9 SolarWinds AppOptics reviews

1,182 Views
721 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Splunk Observability Cloud

Read 71 Splunk Observability Cloud reviews

6,374 Views
3,633 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

SolarWinds AppOptics

Splunk Observability Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 21, 2025

Splunk Observability Cloud and SolarWinds AppOptics are leading products in the observability and application performance management sector. Splunk seems to have the upper hand due to its expansive monitoring abilities and strong data integration and reporting capabilities, while SolarWinds is favored for its network-oriented monitoring strengths.

Features: Splunk Observability Cloud is valued for fast data integration, customizable dashboards, and comprehensive monitoring, which greatly enhance observability and operational performance. Users have reported its ability to effectively integrate with tools like ServiceNow and its end-to-end visibility capabilities. SolarWinds AppOptics is appreciated for application performance management, a strong dashboard, and topology discovery, though its features are seen as less comprehensive compared to Splunk's.

Room for Improvement: Splunk requires simplification in its pricing model and more straightforward integration with other products. Users also criticize its high cost and complex configuration. SolarWinds AppOptics could improve with better integration capabilities, a more user-friendly interface, and more granular functionality.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Splunk Observability Cloud supports flexible deployment across on-premises, public, and hybrid cloud environments and is praised for responsive customer service. SolarWinds AppOptics offers satisfactory technical support and supports both on-premises and cloud deployments.

Pricing and ROI: Both Splunk and SolarWinds AppOptics are considered expensive, yet justified by their capabilities. Splunk's pricing is seen as a barrier due to its high upfront investment but is perceived as providing significant ROI through improved visibility. SolarWinds AppOptics offers satisfactory ROI, especially with its perpetual licensing, which provides long-term value predictability.

To learn more, read our detailed SolarWinds AppOptics vs. Splunk Observability Cloud Report (Updated: October 2025).

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds AppOptics vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

October 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

SolarWinds AppOptics

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

57th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

58th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

45th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Splunk Observability Cloud

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

8th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

7th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

7th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

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

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of SolarWinds AppOptics is 0.5%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk Observability Cloud is 2.0%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Splunk Observability Cloud	2.0%
SolarWinds AppOptics	0.5%
Other	97.5%

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

John Yuko

Assistant Manager ICT - Projects at I&M Bank Ltd

Unique features allow consolidating and combing metrics into a single dashboard, but don't monitor mobile solutions

I would like to see more granular information provided on Unix applications. Also, the integration with Unix services should be a bit more straightforward in terms having an agent to retrieve your credentials rather than having to enter or save them for SSH on SolarWinds. From the outset, we had to set some commands to log into the search console, and they are saved on the solution, which presents a challenge in terms of exposure. The solution is unable to monitor APK solutions completely because we'd then be forced to break down the APK and provide the APIs or go through the source code. They don't have a module that can analyze an application that is maybe under-used.

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

"Technical support is always live and they're supportive."

"I have found the most valuable feature is application performance management."

"The reporting of the solution is very good."

"The product has a great dashboard."

"Some of the most valuable features of SolarWinds are the topology discovery and network performance analysis."

"The sum solution, NTA, and DPA."

"The solution is stable and reliable."

"It is very easy to monitor multiple cloud environments. It's like a single pane of glass for us. We can use it to monitor our on-prem and both of our cloud environments as opposed to having different tools for each environment. It makes it all come together in one tool."

"The volume it handles is very good, including the number of metrics, the volume number of traces, and more."

"Splunk Observability Cloud has enhanced our operational performance and our company's resilience, ultimately contributing to improved customer satisfaction."

"Splunk Observability Cloud has helped improve our operational performance and company's resilience, which was their initial offering."

"The most valuable features include user time tracking and the ability to analyze application load times."

"It supports proactive management, enhances security, and improves operational efficiency."

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

More Splunk Observability Cloud pros

Cons

"The integration with Unix services should be a bit more straightforward."

"The implementation needs improvement. It needs to get modernized with the newer cloud scenario in both public and private deployment models."

"In terms of the technology, I think they need to put some more advanced troubleshooting into SolarWinds, in terms of AI capabilities. That's the next generation, especially in the cases of APIs which have already adopted AI capabilities into their products."

"I would like to see more integration with other tools that are available on the market."

"The solution should be more user-friendly."

"AppOptics would benefit from having a much more centralized view."

"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 Infrastructure Monitoring's data analytics can be improved by including suggestions for various types of continuous monitoring."

"A lot of customers had a hard time effectively searching within the data in Splunk. There is a learning curve from searches to indexes and using all the macros that we have created. It is a little difficult for somebody who has not used it quite a bit and does not have a lot of practice with it, but the AI features that we have been hearing about through Splunk will make it a lot easier for us to use human language to search this data. That is big. That is pretty powerful, and that will help a lot with our customers."

"If a customer utilizes third-party tools and wants to forward data from Splunk Observability Cloud, seamless integration would be beneficial."

"Splunk Observability Cloud could be improved with better integration with AppDynamics, as we know that's coming, however, it is an issue we've had between the OpenTelemetry and the AppDynamics collector."

"Splunk Observability Cloud could be improved by having more integration with Splunk Cloud because at the moment they're two separate products. They're making great moves on what they call unified access; tighter integration is always a good thing."

"To improve Splunk Observability Cloud, we need more applications to be included in the observability so that more applications can have agents to monitor them and bring that information to the cloud."

"Splunk would be better if some tools were integrated to be able to take action on security or network concerns."

More Splunk Observability Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I believe the current licensing cost is reasonable."

"Mostly, it's a perpetual license. We don't have any customers using the subscription right now—it's mostly a perpetual license that the customers purchase. The licensing is based on the number of elements, whereas other solutions are node-based."

"Since it's a negotiable rate, I would rate the pricing as a five out of five."

"It is expensive."

"Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring is an expensive solution."

"This is an expensive solution."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"I would rate the price of Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring as an eight out of ten, with ten being the most expensive."

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

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

"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."

More Splunk Observability Cloud pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	43

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about SignalFx?

The most valuable feature is dashboard creation.

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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...

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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 ...

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

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Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 4% of the time

Honeycomb Enterprise vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

October 2025

Download SolarWinds AppOptics product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk Observability Cloud

October 2025

Download Splunk Observability Cloud product report

Also Known As

AppOptics, SolarWinds TraceView, Librato

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

Overview

AppOptics is a SaaS-based simple, powerful and affordable Infrastructure & Application monitoring for custom on-premises, cloud, and hybrid systems.

Your business runs on applications, and when they go down or run slowly, it can impact the business in lost productivity, customers, or revenue. To add to the complexity, your IT environment is changing, and workloads can be spread across data centers, and cloud resources. You need to monitor the availability and performance of applications and infrastructure, regardless of where they are, so you can identify potential issues early and address them before they impact users

SolarWinds

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

TraxoCovea Insurance BTE TechnologyDatarista

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

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds AppOptics vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

October 2025

Free Report: SolarWinds AppOptics vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

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