Splunk AppDynamics vs WhatsUp Gold comparison

Splunk and Progress Software are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Splunk is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.2, while Progress Software is ranked #28 with an average rating of 9.5. Splunk holds a 4.6% mindshare in APM, compared to Progress Software’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of Splunk users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Progress Software users who would recommend it.

Splunk AppDynamics

Read 250 Splunk AppDynamics reviews

11,969 Views
9,575 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

WhatsUp Gold

Read 24 WhatsUp Gold reviews

2,642 Views
872 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Splunk AppDynamics

WhatsUp Gold

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 11, 2025

WhatsUp Gold and Splunk AppDynamics are leading tools in network monitoring and application performance management respectively. AppDynamics seems to have the upper hand with its robust application performance features, which justify its higher cost.

Features: WhatsUp Gold stands out with its network device discovery capabilities, customizable dashboards, and robust reporting features. It focuses on comprehensive network monitoring with real-time alerts. In contrast, Splunk AppDynamics excels at application performance management, offering deep insights through application flow monitoring and end-user experience tracking, with advanced capabilities for viewing JVM performance, business transaction monitoring, and automated baselining of metrics.

Room for Improvement: WhatsUp Gold could improve its application performance tracking features and expand its monitoring capabilities beyond basic network tasks. Its auto-scanning and real-time monitoring functionalities require enhanced depth to match competitors. Meanwhile, Splunk AppDynamics could simplify its deployment process, provide more straightforward configuration options, and extend integration capabilities with other popular IT management tools and environments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: WhatsUp Gold offers straightforward deployment with excellent customer service, beneficial for organizations with limited technical support staff. Splunk AppDynamics requires more complex setup but provides advanced support options ideal for enterprises needing detailed application insights.

Pricing and ROI: WhatsUp Gold is known for its economical pricing structure, appealing for smaller businesses with network monitoring needs and promising a faster ROI. On the other hand, Splunk AppDynamics, despite its higher cost, offers significant ROI through detailed and rigorous application management capabilities, better suited for larger enterprises.

To learn more, read our detailed Splunk AppDynamics vs. WhatsUp Gold Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Splunk AppDynamics vs. WhatsUp Gold

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 864,432 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

Splunk AppDynamics

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

4th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

250

Ranking in other categories

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

WhatsUp Gold

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

28th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

29th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (28th), Server Monitoring (16th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Splunk AppDynamics is 4.6%, down from 5.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhatsUp Gold is 0.6%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

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.

Read full review

Tom Condo

Supervisor Information Services Operations at Seminole County Public Schools

If CPU, memory, or disk space is over-utilized, it alerts us immediately via text or email if there is an issue

When it comes to the intuitiveness of the topology mapping feature, our network architect created a vision diagram of our entire network and then created the links tied into the WhatsUp active monitoring to different spots on our topology map. It's one of the more critical functions we do here. We have the map displayed in different places in our room and help desk. We get alerted via emails but we can also see it visually. It does what it says it's going to do. We find this feature very helpful. The interactive mapping interface for scrolling, zooming, and drilling down on an element to learn about a network issue is good. When we see a network there will sometimes be a spot that has one link. You can go into a particular part of the topology map, scroll in, and see exactly which module it is. All the information is provided. This feature really helps. You can see the correlation between that link and what failed. This feature is very helpful. The interface is fairly intuitive. Some of our users used SolarWinds and Nagios, and WhatsUp is easy in comparison. Once you get set up, the look, feel, and configuration are good. Our network architect had never used it before but he was able to create the Visio and map. It was very simple. He has no problems with it.

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

"The best feature of about Splunk AppDynamics is its interface, which allows me to see the full transaction, exactly what is happening, from where it starts to where the call is going, all the services involved in a call, and exactly the time it took from each node to each node along with the network delays."

"The event alerting feature or the trigger system is what I like most about AppDynamics Server Monitoring. Whenever an issue occurs, the tool automatically generates an even trigger that tells engineers in the company to take action, so it's an essential feature of AppDynamics Server Monitoring. Another valuable feature of the tool is end-to-end monitoring, which means if you need to debug, you can go transaction by transaction, where the issue lies, and how it's linked. For example, if it's a low-performance issue, you can look into it more through AppDynamics Server Monitoring in terms of which area takes too much time to execute. You can also see the SQL queries and the kind of query going on through the tool."

"I like that AppDynamics allows every organization to have what they want to see, like for my organization, we're able to customize the dashboard to show us details of what we want to see in our transactions."

"What I like the most about Splunk AppDynamics is the end-to-end observability for the application, along with traces."

"From the performance management side, I like everything from business transaction work to tracking. On the database side, we can get a lot of insights from the database. On the server monitoring side, it helped us a lot to find out some of the issues on the VM side because VMs were creating a little trouble for us."

"We have been able to monitor our applications more accurately."

"The best feature of AppDynamics is the analytics, which gives us the business insights of the application."

"The product provides a nice end-user experience."

More Splunk AppDynamics pros

"Auto scanning is most valuable. It looks for rogue devices on your network."

"The interface in the last few years it has been a lot greater, they are much more user-friendly. I like the interface."

"The most valuable feature of WhatsUp Gold is NetFlow and the virtualized maps."

"The tool's most valuable feature is the visibility it offers of everything in the network and infrastructure."

"WhatsUp Gold is very easy to deploy."

"The installation and configuration process are easy."

"The most valuable feature is the auto-discovery function."

"It is stable."

More WhatsUp Gold pros

Cons

"The GUI can be overwhelming at first to a novice Dev or Ops support person, and the possible root causes of an issue do not bubble up to the first screen you see."

"AppDynamics Database Monitoring would be a better product if it could support new technology, such as cloud technology. Even Dynatrace lacks support for newer technologies."

"Product-wise, everything is good, but the main concern is the extensions and their documentation, particularly for the installation of Azure app services."

"The documentation and training material have room for improvement."

"I would like to see a better way to automate actions based on the events generated by the tool."

"They are using Flash for their website, which is very slow. We had hoped the website would be much faster to use, and that is definitely what we want to see."

"I would like to see more artificial intelligence and machine learning brought in to monitor the statement and payment sum issues we have."

"AppDynamics Browser Real-User Monitoring needs to offer an end-to-end experience, including the internet layer and third-party elements that come into play on websites."

More Splunk AppDynamics cons

"The interface needs some work."

"The new release cadence needs to be improved. It takes a while for them to add new features and functionality. There should be a quicker turnaround with new versions."

"The initial setup of WhatsUp Gold is a medium range of difficulty levels. However, if it is your first time it could be difficult."

"I would like to see better integration with switches so that you can see what is connected to each port, what the traffic is, and have a network map automatically generated."

"Regional product team support is not very good."

"I might like to see a better interface in the future."

"Users want SMS available via Whatsapp Gold. They don't want to go through third party SMS servers. The solution should work to make this possible."

"You have to invest a few days to become an expert in this solution."

More WhatsUp Gold cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You are required to purchase licenses whether you use it or not. It is not pay-as-you-use."

"For those who appreciate the value and had issues with the visibility of the performance of their applications, then the pricing is good. For somebody who does not need it, it can be pricey, but overall, it is worth the money which it costs."

"It is expensive. However, our time to recover has been reduced, and this product has helped recuperate costs and provided us with ROI."

"I was not involved with the procurement of AppDynamic, but I believe it's expensive."

"AppDynamics Database Monitoring is expensive. I rate it a seven to eight out of ten."

"There is a license to use this solution. However, the clients pay for the licenses we are the service provider."

"Because it is priced per JVM, the price can increase pretty fast, into the millions. We have had challenges because we had to justify the price to our clients, as well, when we are putting in certain tools."

"AppDynamics offers a yearly basis license."

More Splunk AppDynamics pricing and cost advice

"It is per device, per year. The pricing is very clear. If you have a service agreement, you get all of your major upgrades and minor upgrades. It was under $10,000 to go all-in with all of the different add-ons for it."

"The most valuable feature is the cost compared to other solutions."

"I'm not sure, but it's expensive. We don't pay any additional fees."

"This is a well priced solution."

"The price of WhatsUp Gold is good."

"The choice of version depends on the number of points, or devices, that you want to monitor, and this makes the product expensive."

"There is a license needed to use WhatsUp Gold."

"The pricing can be on the expensive side when considering competing products."

More WhatsUp Gold pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

864,432 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

29%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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

What do you like most about WhatsUp Gold?

The interactive mapping interface for scrolling, zooming, and drilling down on an element to learn about a network issue is good. When we see a network there will sometimes be a spot that has one l...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for WhatsUp Gold?

Clients find the licensing calculator confusing, but we simplify this for them by collecting relevant information first. The licensing is based on devices, providing better cost-effectiveness than ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with WhatsUp Gold?

Improvements are needed in integration, especially for WhatsApp call and messages. Our region heavily uses WhatsApp Messenger for communication, and integration with this platform would be benefici...

See all answers

Comparisons

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 4% of the time

More Splunk AppDynamics Competitors

Grafana vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 11% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 10% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 9% of the time

Zabbix vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 7% of the time

ManageEngine OpManager vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 7% of the time

More WhatsUp Gold Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Splunk AppDynamics

July 2025

Download Splunk AppDynamics product report

Buyer's Guide

WhatsUp Gold

July 2025

Download WhatsUp Gold product report

Overview

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

Explore and manage your entire network infrastructure effortlessly with WhatsUp Gold's robust layer 2/3 discovery, creating a detailed interactive map from the edge to the cloud. Monitor devices, wireless controllers, servers, virtual machines, applications, and traffic flows across various environments. Real-time alerts ensure optimal performance, allowing you to meet or exceed SLAs. The platform offers customizable maps, dashboards, and alerts for easy network management. Quickly resolve issues with intuitive workflows, reducing Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR). WhatsUp Gold's integrated log management provides easy visibility and control of device log data, allowing monitoring, filtering, searching, and alerting on syslogs or Windows logs. Archive logs to comply with regulatory requirements and preserve historical data, all through a user-friendly interface. Streamline network monitoring and issue resolution with WhatsUp Gold, making network management efficient and hassle-free.

Progress Software

Sample Customers

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

Artoni Trasporti, Austin Independent School District, Banca Marche, Burke County North Carolina, Cambridge University School of Clinical Medicine, Clayco, Community Integrated Care, Desca, Deutsche Bergbau, Flexi-Van, Gropper, Hamleys, Hammonds Furniture, Knowledge IT, Idras S.P.A., Sibeg, Swann Engineering, Trivium Lindenhof

Buyer's Guide

Splunk AppDynamics vs. WhatsUp Gold

July 2025

Free Report: Splunk AppDynamics vs. WhatsUp Gold

Find out what your peers are saying about Splunk AppDynamics vs. WhatsUp Gold and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

864,432 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Splunk AppDynamics vs. WhatsUp Gold report.

See our list of best Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability vendors and best IT Infrastructure Monitoring vendors.

We monitor all Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability 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.