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Splunk Enterprise Platform vs Splunk Security Essentials comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

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 Enterprise Platform
Ranking in Data Visualization
4th
Ranking in IT Alerting and Incident Management
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Splunk Security Essentials
Ranking in Data Visualization
17th
Ranking in IT Alerting and Incident Management
14th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Security Incident Response (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Data Visualization category, the mindshare of Splunk Enterprise Platform is 1.6%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk Security Essentials is 0.4%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Visualization Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Splunk Enterprise Platform1.6%
Splunk Security Essentials0.4%
Other98.0%
Data Visualization
 

Featured Reviews

Mohammed Hassan - PeerSpot reviewer
Real-time data analysis benefits but automation in role creation needs improvement
Splunk Enterprise Platform is a good tool to have, but it is expensive. The features that have proven most effective for real-time data analysis include parts of the platform and its automation capabilities. However, I want them to enhance their automation to cover every aspect, particularly the automation of roles creation.
Srinivas Prudhivi Reddy - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature I've found in the Splunk Enterprise Platform is its log readability and filtering capabilities. The filters on the left side are particularly useful, allowing me to quickly narrow down the data to what's relevant for any application or server service. The interesting fields feature helps me get the values I need most of the time."
"The most valuable feature of Splunk for data analysis is its ability to search using SPL and SQL."
"It is a scalable solution."
"The most valuable features of the solution are the load balancing technique, the forwarding technique, and SSL certification."
"Splunk is very flexible in handling various formats of data as long as basic rules are adhered to."
"Splunk Enterprise Platform can be used for security, IT monitoring, and observability."
"Splunk Enterprise Platform has a vast and versatile powerful search engine with which I can handle all queries, and creating use cases and the search and dashboard is the main selling point, allowing me to visualize live dashboards."
"I found the incident notification to be very helpful."
"I would have to rate Splunk Security Essentials a 10 out of 10 because it's free and there's tons of usable content."
"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."
"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."
 

Cons

"Pricing is an area that needs improvement, as it is considered high."
"The Splunk Enterprise Platform has room for improvement, particularly in automating the permissions process during app promotions. Currently, permissions are manually set when different teams request an application move to production, which is time-consuming. Automating this process would streamline operations by automatically assigning the appropriate permissions and roles to specific services or teams, reducing the need to review each request ticket manually."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"While Splunk Enterprise Platform is a good product, it is expensive. Additionally, it is complex for inexperienced cybersecurity engineers and requires experienced personnel to handle it effectively."
"Based on my experience, I've noticed areas for improvement, particularly in support. Developers typically interact with support personnel who may lack technical expertise when raising support tickets. This can result in delays as initial interactions involve sharing documents before escalation to higher support levels."
"Splunk can be used primarily to port log files, allowing for easy and quick management of large amounts of logs. However, this can also be a drawback due to the configuration, parsing, and dashboard creation limitations. Communication is stream-based, which means you need to do a lot of pre-emptive setup to get a nice export."
"The tool lacked in providing a shareable format. I had to use pivot tables and manually parse and edit the data to create a visualization-friendly format. It was helpful when we had an issue. What would make it stronger is if it were more proactive. For example, if it highlighted major incidents and their impact on users without digging through notifications, that would be better. Typically, the first question we get is, "Oh, we had an incident. How bad was it? How many customers were impacted?" So having that information pop up from the notification would be helpful."
"The platform is too expensive for small businesses. Splunk should focus more on delivering something for small businesses and entrepreneurs."
"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

"The solution's pricing increases with the amount of data used. This pricing model is acceptable because it aligns with the security features provided. It ensures that the price reflects the level of security and the amount of data we're managing."
"The tool is expensive."
"The solution is expensive, so I rate its pricing a four out of ten."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing around seven or eight out of ten."
"I rate the product's pricing a ten on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive. It is a very pricey tool."
"There are yearly payments to be made towards the licensing costs attached to the solution."
"I have heard from my managers that Splunk Enterprise Platform is an expensive solution."
"Splunk Enterprise Platform is an expensive solution."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Hospitality Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Insurance Company
12%
Healthcare Company
12%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise23
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Splunk Enterprise Platform?
The most valuable features of the solution are the load balancing technique, the forwarding technique, and SSL certification.
What needs improvement with Splunk Enterprise Platform?
The cost is the most significant area for improvement in Splunk Enterprise Platform, as it is quite expensive, causing many clients to differ due to this reason. Otherwise, I don't see that Splunk ...
What is your primary use case for Splunk Enterprise Platform?
I have implemented the complete Splunk Enterprise Platform structure in my previous organization, implementing the platform, creating use cases, dashboard queries, creating dashboards, and onboardi...
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.
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.
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.
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Splunk Enterprise Platform vs. Splunk Security Essentials and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
872,706 professionals have used our research since 2012.