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SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server vs Splunk Cloud Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (25th)
Splunk Cloud Platform
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (2nd), IT Alerting and Incident Management (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Systems Management solutions, they serve different purposes. SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server is designed for Log Management and holds a mindshare of 1.2%, down 1.6% compared to last year.
Splunk Cloud Platform, on the other hand, focuses on Data Visualization, holds 1.0% mindshare, up 0.8% since last year.
Log Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server1.2%
Splunk Enterprise Security6.8%
Wazuh4.8%
Other87.2%
Log Management
Data Visualization Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Splunk Cloud Platform1.0%
Tableau Enterprise9.7%
Qlik Sense4.8%
Other84.5%
Data Visualization
 

Featured Reviews

SJ
Network Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Valuable log segregation aids in auditing, but Windows integration needs enhancement
Our primary use case for Kiwi Syslog is for gathering logs necessary for auditing purposes I appreciate that with Kiwi Syslog, we can segregate the logs based on the display, such as using different colors and fonts, which helps greatly in identifying logs by their severity. This feature is…
reviewer2805510 - PeerSpot reviewer
Partner Account Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees
Unified log analytics has transformed security monitoring and cuts breach detection to minutes
Splunk Cloud Platform has areas for improvement, including the fact that it is obviously an enterprise tool and can be expensive, which is the biggest complaint I have noted. Costs can rise due to high data ingestion and long retention periods, along with a complex licensing structure that makes pricing difficult to predict as usage grows, especially since more systems send logs. There are also performance concerns at scale where users have reported slower searches and expensive long-term storage needs, particularly in multi-terabyte environments. Additionally, operational complexity exists as enterprises still need to do data onboarding, create dashboards, handle retention policies, access control, and performance tuning. These are the three key areas of improvement I have identified.

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 SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server is its performance and management. Additionally, the solution integrates well."
"The most valuable features of SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server include its ability to provide network mapping and deliver information to my customers about their networks through various methods."
"The best thing about Kiwi Syslog is that it filters logs into different levels."
"Overall, I rate SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server ten out of ten."
"We are very happy with the stability of the solution."
"If anyone needs log management, we recommend SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server."
"I appreciate that with Kiwi Syslog, we can segregate the logs based on the display, such as using different colors and fonts, which helps greatly in identifying logs by their severity."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the alerting based on the security logs."
"The most valuable feature is the SPL because without it we wouldn't be able to correlate and build our use cases and manage what we have for our data inside Splunk."
"With Splunk Cloud Platform, you can modify whatever you want; let's say you want to run Python, you want to run any script, you want to monitor any port, you want to monitor data from syslog, whatever you think, you can do it in Splunk Cloud Platform."
"The most valuable feature for me is the flexibility of being able to send the log to the https endpoint."
"Previously when in our company, we had logs everywhere on multiple systems, it was a really big pain for me trying to find what I wanted. Now that it is all aggregated and centralized in one place with one interface, it is just a lot easier to get the information that I need."
"The most valuable feature of Splunk Cloud is the quick setup."
"The product's deployment phase was easy."
"This is a complete log reporting tool."
"We became pretty complete with our reporting using Splunk for all the log and event capabilities."
 

Cons

"SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server could improve by reducing the price."
"The Windows log forwarder is not functioning properly."
"I would like to see a more user-friendly and customizable dashboard."
"The Windows log forwarder is not functioning properly. This is a significant concern, as it led to losing a deal due to the inability to provide Windows logs effectively."
"SolarWinds pricing is perceived as very high in the market, which can be a barrier for many customers."
"I would like to see better search functions and better filters in the next release."
"There is a need for an on-premises solution, which could lead to easier sales in larger markets."
"I would like to have email notifications for emergency logs."
"Support is the bigger issue when we have a problem. When we need their help, it takes weeks or months to actually get resolved."
"Sometimes, the technical support case persons are not sufficiently technical; they are not technical enough or not understanding the issues."
"The pricing model makes the product costly."
"Its stability and performance can be better. Very rarely does a day go by when we do not see an error in the console, such as a health check error. Because it is cloud-hosted, we do not have access to the backend to figure it out ourselves. We are reliant on their support to figure it out, and a couple of days later, the error comes back or it is a different error. It is a never-ending cycle of support tickets. Their support is also not great."
"They can offer more self-service capability to their customers. Currently, most of the things happen behind the Splunk Cloud Platform. As a customer, I do not have an opportunity to see my platform. If they can offer more self-service to see the health of my endpoints and stack, it would be appreciated."
"One improvement I would suggest is in the cost part."
"Some of the Victoria Experience that was rolled out is not yet fully everywhere. The AI assistant is going to be good, but we are on GCP, so I am worried about how fast it is going to get rolled out and if it is going to be nine months late for the GCP customers or not."
"Splunk Cloud's SVC licensing model lacks transparency."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We subscribe and pay directly on the website."
"The price of SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server could improve."
"I do not have much idea. We previously used 1 GB at the cost of $600. Both on-prem and cloud licenses have the same price. There is no difference. It did not impact the cost because the costs of the on-prem license and the cloud license are the same. We did not have any issues with that. Overall, its price is reasonable."
"I know that Splunk Cloud Platform is an expensive product."
"I am familiar with the pricing and licensing model a little bit. I am not sure about the particulars of the actual price that we have, but I do like the idea of going towards a more CPU-based approach rather than the ingest approach because it allows us the ability to ingest more data if we need it."
"The price is something that people complain about."
"It is not that expensive."
"The cost of using Splunk Cloud Platform is high, but the value it provides is worth the investment."
"As far as the pricing goes, it was what was expected. It is a premium product. There were no surprises there."
"It is a touchy subject because we are locked into it. That goes back to the rehydrating data. We cannot have the retention that we want to store for legal and compliance purposes because that is seven years' worth of data for some of the indexes, so we ship them off into S3 buckets and install them there, at which point they are invisible to Splunk, so we have to rehydrate them, but we cannot rehydrate those pockets into Splunk Cloud. We have to rehydrate them into a self-hosted version of Splunk, which can take days to set up and get going. I would not call Splunk's licensing and pricing predatory, but they have made it very difficult to maintain the independence of your own data."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
11%
Construction Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business36
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise54
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server?
SolarWinds pricing is perceived as very high in the market, which can be a barrier for many customers.
What needs improvement with SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server?
The Windows log forwarder is not functioning properly. This is a significant concern, as it led to losing a deal due to the inability to provide Windows logs effectively. It should be more user-fri...
What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server?
Our primary use case for Kiwi Syslog is for gathering logs necessary for auditing purposes.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Splunk Cloud Platform?
As an entry level user working mainly in cybersecurity labs and training environments, I did not directly manage pricing or licensing decisions. My experience was mainly focused on using the platfo...
What needs improvement with Splunk Cloud Platform?
For betterment, there is definitely a cost concern. The cost is high, so there should be a somewhat lower cost. I am expecting a more competitive pricing structure from Splunk Cloud Platform, but o...
What is your primary use case for Splunk Cloud Platform?
For Splunk Cloud Platform, we perform analytics with a large scale of data pipelines and log data. We query logs and build dashboards to support our operational and business insights. We mainly wor...
 

Also Known As

Kiwi Syslog Server
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Holy Cross Energy, West Texas A&M University, Medium Enterprise Industrial Manufacturing Company
Mindtouch
Find out what your peers are saying about Splunk, Wazuh, Cribl and others in Log Management. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.