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ServiceNow Cloud Observability vs Splunk Observability Cloud comparison

ServiceNow and Splunk are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. ServiceNow is ranked #39 with an average rating of 7.5, while Splunk is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.7. ServiceNow holds a 0.4% mindshare in APM, compared to Splunk’s 1.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of ServiceNow users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Splunk users who would recommend it.
ServiceNow Cloud Observability
Read 4 ServiceNow Cloud Observability reviews
  • 766 Views
  • 445 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
Splunk Observability Cloud
Read 56 Splunk Observability Cloud reviews
  • 3,129 Views
  • 1,456 Comparison Views
94% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 19, 2025

Splunk Observability Cloud and ServiceNow Cloud Observability compete in the observability solutions category. ServiceNow is seen as having the upper hand due to its comprehensive features, whereas Splunk is recognized for its competitive pricing and support.

Features: Splunk Observability Cloud provides real-time data analytics, strong integration capabilities, and scalable solutions for large-scale environments. ServiceNow Cloud Observability offers advanced automation, anomaly detection, and comprehensive incident management tailored for reducing manual workloads.

Room for Improvement: Splunk could enhance its offerings by integrating more advanced automation and expanding its anomaly detection capabilities. Additionally, improvements in robust incident management would be beneficial. ServiceNow could focus on simplifying its deployment process and documentation for quicker onboarding. Reducing complexity in initial implementation could also provide a better user experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Splunk Observability Cloud ensures an easier deployment process with extensive documentation and customer support that facilitates quick setup and resolution. ServiceNow, while comprehensive in support during onboarding, requires a more elaborate implementation phase, emphasizing continuous engagement throughout the customer journey.

Pricing and ROI: Splunk Observability Cloud offers a more affordable entry with an emphasis on delivering high ROI through efficient data processing. ServiceNow, though potentially higher in initial cost, justifies the investment with extensive functionality that promises long-term savings by enhancing operational efficiency.

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Buyer's Guide
ServiceNow Cloud Observability vs. Splunk Observability Cloud
June 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

ServiceNow Cloud Observability
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
39th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Splunk Observability Cloud
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (6th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (7th), Cloud Monitoring Software (8th), Container Management (7th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of ServiceNow Cloud Observability is 0.4%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk Observability Cloud is 1.9%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
 

Featured Reviews

VinayKumar16 - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides ease of use in areas like analytics and reporting
The feature of the tool that is more impactful for cloud performance stems from the area revolving around analytics and reporting. It is an easy-to-use tool. There is something known as performance analytics within ServiceNow that offers complete analytics, which offers end-to-end analytics along with the KPI metrics with what we have in place and so on. With the aforementioned aspects of the tool, I think we should be able to create a dashboard according to the operations view called the operation dashboard view, specifically for C-level executives.
Read full review
Lakshmi Padaga - PeerSpot reviewer
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 solution Lightstep/ServiceNow has a couple of pretty advanced functionalities to help us investigate a deviation and help the development teams have better observability in the environment using distributed and complex services."
"The UI is very intuitive."
"To a certain extent, it is possible to save on the costs of the product."
"The ability to create a stream based on different parameters, operation name, service name, URL, tags, and URI part, is one valuable feature."
"The initial setup of Splunk Real User Monitoring (RUM) was easy."
"The feature I find most valuable, is the data integration."
"Great monitoring of network devices."
"The product's deployment phase is good and very easy because it is done with OpenTelemetry for most of the parts."
"The vibrant dashboards are valuable."
"Detectors are a powerful feature."
"Overall, I would recommend Splunk to anyone seeking a monitoring solution, thanks to its extensive capabilities and features."
"Splunk APM provides a holistic view of the application. Unlike other APMs, Splunk's service map is quite effective."
More Splunk Observability Cloud pros
 

Cons

"The design of this solution is not very intuitive and probably could come with more friendly tips for beginners."
"In terms of licensing, users would want the product to offer them the ability to tailor the tasks offered in the solution to suit their needs."
"The support team could be better. Because of the different versions of different tactics of integrating reactive code base, the documentation is not very clear if someone has to be onboard. I would rate the documentation of Lightstep a five out of ten. It could need improvement."
"The dashboard and graphics must be improved."
"Once you see the issues related to the scalability part, you need to understand that it is a warning triangle. After seeing the warning triangle, you need to realize that you cannot trust any of the numbers you see in the chart because it is not a complete, full data set."
"The UI enhancements could be a way to improve the solution in the future."
"The UI enhancements could be a way to improve the solution in the future."
"Support from Splunk is not very helpful because Splunk doesn't have a dedicated APM; they only have one APM engineer in Korea."
"The clustering part of indexes can be more refined."
"There is room for improvement in the alerting system, which is complicated and has less documentation available."
"There are always areas for potential improvement to enhance its functionality and user experience."
"A wide variety of logging makes log onboarding difficult."
More Splunk Observability Cloud cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is expensive. I rate the tool's pricing model an eight out of ten."
"Splunk offers a 14-day free trial and after that, we have to pay but the cost is reasonable."
"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."
"It is expensive."
"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."
"The price of Splunk APM is less than some of its competitors."
"Splunk APM is expensive."
"Splunk Observability Cloud is expensive."
More Splunk Observability Cloud pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
21%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Retailer
10%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
7%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about LightStep?
The UI is very intuitive.
See all answers
What needs improvement with LightStep?
There are a lot of workflows and connectors. In terms of licensing, users would want the product to offer them the ability to tailor the tasks offered in the solution to suit their needs.
See all answers
What is your primary use case for LightStep?
I use the solution in my company since it has multiple tenants available. Basically, what happens in business is that you have a hybrid setup model, and for that, you extensively use a cloud platfo...
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 31% of the time
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Compared 20% of the time
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Observe vs Splunk Observability Cloud
Compared 10% of the time
Sentry vs Splunk Observability Cloud Logo
Sentry vs Splunk Observability Cloud
Compared 9% of the time
SigNoz vs Splunk Observability Cloud Logo
SigNoz vs Splunk Observability Cloud
Compared 5% of the time
Dynatrace vs Splunk Observability Cloud Logo
Dynatrace vs Splunk Observability Cloud
Compared 4% of the time
ThousandEyes vs Splunk Observability Cloud Logo
ThousandEyes vs Splunk Observability Cloud
Compared 4% of the time
More Splunk Observability Cloud Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
ServiceNow Cloud Observability
June 2025
ServiceNow Cloud Observability reportDownload ServiceNow Cloud Observability product report
Buyer's Guide
Splunk Observability Cloud
June 2025
Splunk Observability Cloud reportDownload Splunk Observability Cloud product report
 

Also Known As

LightStep
Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring, Splunk Real User Monitoring (RUM), Splunk Synthetic Monitoring
 

Overview

ServiceNow Cloud Observability is a comprehensive platform designed to enhance visibility, control, and performance monitoring of your IT infrastructure and applications. It seamlessly integrates log management, trace management, metrics monitoring, and infrastructure monitoring in real-time, leveraging AI and machine learning for automated tasks and actionable insights. With benefits including improved visibility, faster incident resolution, enhanced application performance, simplified IT operations, and reduced costs, this cloud-native solution is ideal for businesses of all sizes with complex IT infrastructures. It integrates seamlessly with ServiceNow IT Operations Management (ITOM), supports OpenTelemetry standards, and provides AI-powered insights along with pre-built dashboards and reports. 

ServiceNow

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

InVision, Twilio, Lyft, Yext, DigitalOcean,
Sunrun, Yelp, Onshape, Tapjoy, Symphony Commerce, Chairish, Clever, Grovo, Bazaar Voice, Zenefits, Avalara
Buyer's Guide
ServiceNow Cloud Observability vs. Splunk Observability Cloud
June 2025
Free Report: ServiceNow Cloud Observability vs. Splunk Observability Cloud
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