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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 #38 with an average rating of 8.0, while Splunk is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.4. IBM holds a 0.8% mindshare in APM, compared to Splunk’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Splunk users who would recommend it.
IBM Instana Observability
Read 3 IBM Instana Observability reviews
  • 954 Views
  • 935 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
Splunk Observability Cloud
Read 70 Splunk Observability Cloud reviews
  • 5,846 Views
  • 3,391 Comparison Views
95% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 10, 2025

Splunk Observability Cloud and IBM Instana Observability compete in the observability sector. IBM Instana seems to have an advantage due to its superior features, although some users prefer Splunk for pricing and support.

Features: Splunk Observability Cloud offers real-time data analytics, integration across multiple data sources, and comprehensive data coverage. IBM Instana focuses on automation, in-depth application performance monitoring, and detailed analysis suited for complex environments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Instana provides a straightforward cloud-based deployment model that is simple and fast, delivering quick time-to-value. Splunk’s deployment might be more intricate due to its extensive integrations, requiring more time initially. IBM Instana’s emphasis on automation and efficient customer support provides an advantage over Splunk’s robust, yet potentially more complex setup process.

Pricing and ROI: Splunk Observability Cloud offers flexible pricing models requiring a substantial initial investment but promising long-term ROI with extensive data capabilities. IBM Instana, while potentially higher in initial cost, provides significant returns in environments demanding application performance and automation, which can justify the expense. Key differences lie in Splunk's initial investment for comprehensive coverage versus IBM Instana's premium cost for detailed analytics and automation.

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Buyer's Guide
IBM Instana Observability vs. Splunk Observability Cloud
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

IBM Instana Observability
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
38th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Splunk Observability Cloud
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
70
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (6th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (7th), Cloud Monitoring Software (8th), Container Management (6th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of IBM Instana Observability is 0.8%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk Observability Cloud is 2.0%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Splunk Observability Cloud2.0%
IBM Instana Observability0.8%
Other97.2%
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
 

Featured Reviews

Tomas Kim - PeerSpot reviewer
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
Taiwo Ige - PeerSpot reviewer
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

"The most valuable features of IBM Instana are its quick data collection and analytics after installing the agent."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is performance."
"The solution has a one-second resolution, giving you the status of your application within one second."
"What I appreciate most about Splunk Observability Cloud is the correlation feature, specifically the ease of correlating logs and issues to those traces to see where within the path of the business function is failing."
"Splunk has drawn our attention to how the network is running. If there are alarms on things that are not functioning, it gives us early warning on problems that could arise."
"Customer service and technical support respond very quickly."
"Splunk APM has helped us to standardize logging and monitoring procedures."
"Initially, before Splunk, we had a long time to resolve issues; now, with Splunk Observability Cloud, we will be able to solve them quickly and know exactly where the issue is."
"Dashboards help the application support teams to have a quick look at how their systems are running. It helps other teams as well."
"The dashboards are the features of Splunk Observability Cloud that I appreciate the most, providing visual representation of all data and text, which has benefited my organization by speeding up people's jobs and allowing a place to monitor all logs, as there are usually thousands of entries coming in which can become very disorderly."
"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."
More Splunk Observability Cloud pros
 

Cons

"The product's initial setup phase is not very easy."
"The solution should include log management and improve reporting and integration with Cognos."
"One area that requires improvement is related to the automation part, specifically automated actions like sending SMS."
"They need more EDR functionalities."
"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."
"Splunk APM's performance could be improved - at the moment, it's very slow and takes forever to give me what I want."
"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."
"The user interface of Splunk Observability Cloud needs a lot of work."
"The UI enhancements could be a way to improve the solution in the future."
"The monitoring of workloads when using SignalFx could be improved."
"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."
More Splunk Observability Cloud cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's cost is normal as per the market. The tool is not expensive."
"The solution's pricing is reasonable compared to that of its competitors like Dynatrace."
"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."
"Licensing cost is the biggest argument I get from those divesting from Splunk. There are those within our organization who say we are going to go to other tools since Splunk is too expensive."
"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."
"Splunk Observability Cloud is expensive."
"This is an expensive solution."
"Splunk APM is a very cost-efficient solution."
"The price of Splunk APM is less than some of its competitors."
More Splunk Observability Cloud pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Insurance Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Retailer
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise43
 

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

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Compared 14% of the time
Dynatrace vs IBM Instana Observability Logo
Dynatrace vs IBM Instana Observability
Compared 11% of the time
Azure Monitor vs IBM Instana Observability Logo
Azure Monitor vs IBM Instana Observability
Compared 11% of the time
IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager vs IBM Instana Observability Logo
IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager vs IBM Instana Observability
Compared 7% of the time
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Compared 7% of the time
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Compared 6% of the time
SigNoz vs Splunk Observability Cloud Logo
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Compared 5% of the time
Cribl vs Splunk Observability Cloud Logo
Cribl vs Splunk Observability Cloud
Compared 5% of the time
Honeycomb Enterprise vs Splunk Observability Cloud Logo
Honeycomb Enterprise vs Splunk Observability Cloud
Compared 4% of the time
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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
September 2025
IBM Instana Observability reportDownload IBM Instana Observability product report
Buyer's Guide
Splunk Observability Cloud
September 2025
Splunk Observability Cloud reportDownload Splunk Observability Cloud product report
 

Also Known As

No data available
Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring, Splunk Real User Monitoring (RUM), Splunk Synthetic Monitoring
 

Overview

IBM Instana Observability offers real-time application monitoring and management, designed for automation and intelligence on modern cloud-based environments.

IBM Instana Observability provides deep visibility into application performance, empowering businesses with automated root cause analysis and intelligent alerts to optimize cloud-native applications. It captures and visualizes comprehensive health metrics to enhance operational efficiency across distributed systems, making it an invaluable tool for IT and DevOps teams seeking to improve application reliability and performance.

What are the key features of IBM Instana Observability?
  • Automatic Discovery: Identifies application components and dependencies without manual configuration.
  • Real-Time Monitoring: Delivers live data for instant visibility across application metrics.
  • AI-Powered Root Cause Analysis: Quickly pinpoints issues to reduce downtime and enhance user experience.
  • Intelligent Alerts: Provides actionable insights, minimizing false alarms.
  • Seamless Integration: Easily integrates with popular DevOps tools.
What benefits should users look for when evaluating IBM Instana Observability?
  • Increased Productivity: Reduces manual monitoring efforts, enhancing team efficiency.
  • Enhanced Performance: Improves application responsiveness and user satisfaction.
  • Cost Efficiency: Optimizes resource allocation, leading to reduced operational costs.
  • Scalable Solutions: Adapts to growing business needs, ensuring long-term value.
  • Detailed Insights: Offers granularity in monitoring, aiding in swift decision-making.

IBM Instana Observability is widely adopted across industries like finance, healthcare, and retail, addressing specific challenges in each sector. In finance, it helps manage high-volume transactions with minimal latency. Healthcare benefits from its compliance support and reliable data monitoring. Retail industries utilize it for maintaining seamless customer interactions and operational uptime, ensuring business continuity and customer satisfaction.

IBM

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

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
September 2025
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