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Riverbed NPM+ vs Splunk Observability Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

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

Riverbed NPM+
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
40th
Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software
30th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Splunk Observability Cloud
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
7th
Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (7th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (7th), Container Management (5th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Riverbed NPM+ is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk Observability Cloud is 1.3%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Splunk Observability Cloud1.3%
Riverbed NPM+0.5%
Other98.2%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

SK
Senior Technical Engineer at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Provides deep packet visibility for tracing failed transactions and helps improve enterprise-level monitoring
Many improvements are needed for Riverbed NPM+, particularly in NetIM, which does not perform as well as SolarWinds' single module NPM solution. Additionally, within Riverbed Portal, there is an Application Map module that could be improved. It can show the application's architecture and connectivity to the network. The applications map feature needs enhancements for better customization since currently, it is quite limited. The enhancements I recommend are not for the entire Riverbed product suite, but specifically for the application map feature within the Portal of Riverbed NPM+. This Portal is one of the dashboard modules and while there is potential for improvement, it must be enhanced significantly to provide better functionality. Currently, you cannot trace by transaction number alone; knowing the source and destination IP is necessary. For instance, if I transfer money and a transaction fails, tracing that transaction ID is not captured in AppResponse. I have raised this concern, and if this feature is implemented, it would greatly benefit banking customers, especially because it is not available with their competitors either.
Taiwo Ige - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Riverbed NPM+ provides a holistic view of the network and deeper insights into traffic and packet analysis."
"Riverbed NPM+ provides a holistic view of the network and deeper insights into traffic and packet analysis."
"Riverbed NPM+ provides a holistic view of the network and deeper insights into traffic and packet analysis."
"Alluvio Network Performance Management is good for troubleshooting."
"Riverbed NPM+ provides a holistic view of the network and deeper insights into traffic and packet analysis."
"The Add data feature lets you gather any type of log and easily analyze it."
"The Add data feature lets you gather any type of log and easily analyze it, which is easier than using other solutions like ArcSight or Elasticsearch, and we can use these logs with our data processes to explain our situation."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"The initial setup was straightforward. We didn't find it to be too complex."
"The ability to create custom dashboards is one of the best features and that's typically why most people deploy Splunk."
"I like the fact that Splunk APM makes it easy to connect to the application database and run queries against the data."
"I have seen a return on investment with Splunk Observability Cloud, with current metrics showing over 75% efficiency, and it has really helped our workflow, saved time, reduced costs, and also saved employees' time."
"The most valuable features include user time tracking and the ability to analyze application load times."
 

Cons

"Many improvements are needed for Riverbed NPM+, particularly in NetIM, which does not perform as well as SolarWinds' single module NPM solution."
"Many improvements are needed for Riverbed NPM+, particularly in NetIM, which does not perform as well as SolarWinds' single module NPM solution."
"Alluvio Network Performance Management is good for troubleshooting."
"Many improvements are needed for Riverbed NPM+, particularly in NetIM, which does not perform as well as SolarWinds' single module NPM solution."
"Currently, you cannot trace by transaction number alone; knowing the source and destination IP is necessary."
"When we have too many detectors in place for one particular app, such as when I have created 50+ detectors through my account, the entire page becomes a bit loaded when creating the 51st detector, feeling heavy and taking time to load."
"It does not have a user-friendly interface and it is difficult to use."
"The feedback is that Splunk Observability Cloud is forcing me to modify my logs that I am ingesting in Splunk Observability Cloud in a specific format."
"The deployment can be quite complex."
"I've only experienced downtime, crashes, or performance issues when it isn't configured correctly."
"Unfortunately, with our current setup, we just have to implement Log Observer in a couple of instances so that we can have that integration with Splunk Observability Cloud."
"One area that has room for improvement is the pricing; as I mentioned, it can be expensive due to large data volumes."
"Regarding the negative side, I think the licensing can be much better because it is based upon host units and there is additional licensing for the number of traces that I can bring in."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's pricing is high and I would rate it one out of ten."
"Splunk's infrastructure monitoring costs can be high because our billing is based on data volume measured in terabytes, rather than the number of devices being monitored."
"Splunk APM is a very cost-efficient solution."
"Splunk has been fairly expensive, but it has been predictable."
"Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring is an expensive solution."
"It appears to be expensive compared to competitors."
"The pricing is based on several factors, including the scale of deployment."
"The solution's pricing is costly."
"The product is a bit expensive considering the competition but the company may negotiate the price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Healthcare Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
9%
Retailer
8%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise53
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alluvio Network Performance Management?
The pricing of Riverbed NPM+ is indeed high, particularly as I work with enterprises in the banking sector primarily in India and the Middle East, and I have also interacted with clients in Europe....
What needs improvement with Alluvio Network Performance Management?
Many improvements are needed for Riverbed NPM+, particularly in NetIM, which does not perform as well as SolarWinds' single module NPM solution. Additionally, within Riverbed Portal, there is an Ap...
What is your primary use case for Alluvio Network Performance Management?
Riverbed NPM+ has many primary use cases, making this NPM solution totally different from other tools like SolarWinds. They have a solution called AppResponse, which is not an agent-based solution ...
What do you like most about SignalFx?
The most valuable feature is dashboard creation.
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...
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 ...
 

Also Known As

Alluvio Network Performance Management
Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring, Splunk Real User Monitoring (RUM), Splunk Synthetic Monitoring
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Sunrun, Yelp, Onshape, Tapjoy, Symphony Commerce, Chairish, Clever, Grovo, Bazaar Voice, Zenefits, Avalara
Find out what your peers are saying about Riverbed NPM+ vs. Splunk Observability Cloud and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.