IBM Instana Observability vs Splunk Observability Cloud comparison

IBM and Splunk are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. IBM is ranked #44 with an average rating of 8.0, while Splunk is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.7. IBM holds a 0.4% mindshare in APM, compared to Splunk’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

IBM Instana Observability

Read 3 IBM Instana Observability reviews

558 Views
411 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Splunk Observability Cloud

Read 52 Splunk Observability Cloud reviews

2,051 Views
1,211 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

IBM Instana Observability

Splunk Observability Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 11, 2025

Splunk Observability Cloud and IBM Instana Observability are direct competitors in the domain of observability solutions. While Splunk holds an edge in complex data settings with its pricing flexibility, IBM Instana leads with its comprehensive features despite higher costs.

Features: Splunk Observability Cloud is noted for its scalability, seamless data source integration, and robust alerting. It is particularly effective in handling complex data environments. IBM Instana Observability emphasizes automated monitoring, AI-driven insights, and detailed application performance data, catering to businesses that require thorough application analysis.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Instana provides streamlined deployment and strong customer support, resulting in a smoother onboarding process. Splunk, with its flexible deployment model, focuses on easy integration with existing systems. The reliability of IBM Instana's deployment process and customer service is beneficial for organizations that prioritize quick implementation and support.

Pricing and ROI: Splunk Observability Cloud's flexible pricing model often leads to cost-effective solutions with a strong return on investment. IBM Instana, with a more rigid pricing structure, offers comprehensive features and depth of insights, potentially yielding higher long-term returns. Businesses prioritizing budget might prefer Splunk, while those needing detailed performance management might benefit more from IBM Instana.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Instana Observability vs. Splunk Observability Cloud Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Instana Observability vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

April 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 851,604 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

IBM Instana Observability

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

44th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Splunk Observability Cloud

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

10th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (9th), Cloud Monitoring Software (8th), Container Management (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of IBM Instana Observability is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk Observability Cloud is 1.1%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Tomas Kim

Managing Director at BA Solutions

Not expensive and offers good performance

The most valuable feature of the solution is performance. A one-vendor solution serves as a good feature of the tool. In the IT industry, the IT support team has lots of vendors to contact. DB monitoring is done by one company, while WaaS monitoring is done by another and done by another company, which makes it really complicated for the IT team concerned about the security levels. The tool's main feature is that it is a one-vendor solution. The analysis done by the tool is a good feature. The tool is used as an open-source tool. The tool is growing, and new features are being added to the product.

Read full review

Lakshmi Padaga

Java Developer at U.S. Bank

Collaborates performance metrics with log data to pinpoint the exact cause of issues and offers error detection

Splunk APM is a robust tool with many capabilities. There are always areas for potential improvement to enhance its functionality and user experience. For Splunk APM, there could be simplified navigation, like streamlining the user interface to make navigation more intuitive for our users, especially those new to APM, which can enhance usability. We can provide more customization options for dashboards and visualizations to help users tailor the platform to their specific needs. There could be more integration capabilities with a wider range of third-party tools and platforms would also be beneficial. By focusing on these areas, Splunk APM can enhance its value proposition, improve user satisfaction, and better meet the evolving needs of organizations monitoring their application performance.

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 most valuable feature of the solution is performance."

"The most valuable features of IBM Instana are its quick data collection and analytics after installing the agent."

"The solution has a one-second resolution, giving you the status of your application within one second."

"The most valuable feature is dashboard creation."

"I have primarily used it to go back into the past and understand why something happened. It provides enough information to do research and figure things out."

"The best features in Splunk Observability Cloud are the metrics; I can see any logs or anything related to the server or services we want to monitor, and the metrics are a good function."

"Splunk APM helps us to find errors immediately and resolve them."

"I find the monitoring console very helpful. With one click, I can see how we are performing, and at the same time, I can see what data is flowing."

"The features are pretty much ready out of the box."

"The most valuable feature in this solution is the log searching."

"This solution is very quick to deploy as it is a SaaS solution and integrates with tools like ServiceNow."

More Splunk Observability Cloud pros

Cons

"One area that requires improvement is related to the automation part, specifically automated actions like sending SMS."

"The product's initial setup phase is not very easy."

"The solution should include log management and improve reporting and integration with Cognos."

"The security could be better."

"The deployment can be quite complex."

"A wide variety of logging makes log onboarding difficult."

"There is not a lot of support for the tool's on-premises version, especially since everything is on the cloud."

"There is a lot of room for improvement with the automation."

"It would be useful if they provided some help pages. If you don't know too much about the tool, there should be more documentation readily available. It would be useful if they had a help button embedded in the solution so you could ask questions and get answers."

"I've been using the Splunk query language, and it can be a bit time-consuming to set up the queries I need."

"Splunk's functionality could be improved by adding database connectors for other platforms like AWS and Azure."

More Splunk Observability Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing is reasonable compared to that of its competitors like Dynatrace."

"The tool's cost is normal as per the market. The tool is not expensive."

"It appears to be expensive compared to competitors."

"The pricing is based on several factors, including the scale of deployment."

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

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

"Splunk Observability Cloud is expensive."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"The product is a bit expensive considering the competition but the company may negotiate the price."

"I am not in that circle, but we are currently licensing based on our queries. That is working out for us. Previously, it was by volume of data, and now, we can store as much data as we want."

More Splunk Observability Cloud 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

851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

15%

Retailer

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Instana Observability?

The tool's cost is normal as per the market. The tool is not expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Instana Observability?

The tool should offer more LDR AI models. The monitoring is just a status, but the next level of a monitoring solution is to prevent an accident or stop an accident status. The solution should be t...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Instana Observability?

Before IBM, I ordered our company's engineer to have a look at the tool and test it. I think it was two years ago, the transfer to IBM happened in our company. At the beginning, IBM Instana Observa...

See all answers

What do you like most about SignalFx?

The most valuable feature is dashboard creation.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Elastic Observability vs IBM Instana Observability

Compared 38% of the time

Grafana vs IBM Instana Observability

Compared 17% of the time

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager vs IBM Instana Observability

Compared 10% of the time

BMC TrueSight Operations Management vs IBM Instana Observability

Compared 7% of the time

Zabbix vs IBM Instana Observability

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM Instana Observability Competitors

Observe vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 19% of the time

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 6% of the time

Dynatrace vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 6% of the time

Rancher Labs vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

ServiceNow IT Operations Management vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

More Splunk Observability Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

May 2025

Download IBM Instana Observability product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk Observability Cloud

April 2025

Download Splunk Observability Cloud product report

Also Known As

No data available

Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring

Overview

IBM Instana Observability is a versatile tool tailored for real-time monitoring and management of applications, especially in complex cloud environments. It excels in automated root cause analysis, improving system reliability, and dynamic graphing for visualizing system interconnections. With features like real-time alerting, it enhances operational efficiency and aids in prompt issue resolution, making it invaluable for maintaining robust IT operations.

IBM

Splunk Observability Cloud combines log search, data integration, and dashboards for seamless monitoring, enhancing infrastructure visibility and security. Its cloud integration and scalability support diverse environments, improving operational efficiency.

Splunk Observability Cloud offers comprehensive monitoring tools with user-friendly interfaces, enabling end-to-end infrastructure visibility. Its real-time alerting and predictive capabilities enhance security monitoring, while centralized dashboards provide cross-platform visibility. Users benefit from fast data integration and extensive insights into application performance. Despite its advantages, improvements could be made in integration with other tools, data reliability, scalability, and cost management. Users face challenges in configuration complexity and require better automation and endpoint protection features. Enhancing AI integration, alerts, and adaptation for high-throughput services could further improve usability.

What are the key features of Splunk Observability Cloud?

Log Search: Efficiently search and analyze log data for enhanced insights.
Data Integration: Fast integration across platforms for comprehensive visibility.
Custom Dashboards: Powerful and adaptable dashboards for real-time monitoring.
Cloud Integration: Seamless integration with cloud services for scalable solutions.
Application Performance Monitoring: Advanced tools for improving application performance.

What benefits and ROI should be expected?

Infrastructure Monitoring: Improved visibility and monitoring across infrastructure components.
Operational Efficiency: Enhancements in data analysis lead to efficient operations.
Business Resilience: Supports adaptability and swift responses to changing needs.
Security Management: Enhances threat identification and response through real-time alerts.
Compliance Support: Aids in meeting compliance and auditing requirements effectively.

In industries like finance and healthcare, Splunk Observability Cloud is implemented for application performance monitoring and infrastructure metrics. Its ability to track incidents and analyze machine data benefits network infrastructure, while distributed tracing and log analysis aid in tackling security threats. Organizations often integrate it for compliance and auditing purposes, enhancing visibility into network traffic and optimizing performance.

Splunk

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

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

Buyer's Guide

IBM Instana Observability vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

April 2025

Free Report: IBM Instana Observability vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Instana Observability vs. Splunk Observability Cloud and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our IBM Instana Observability vs. Splunk Observability Cloud report.

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