SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) comparison

SolarWinds and Splunk are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. SolarWinds is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.0, while Splunk is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.6. SolarWinds holds a 1.0% mindshare in APM, compared to Splunk’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of SolarWinds users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Read 44 SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor reviews

7,596 Views
4,330 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Int...

Read 64 Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) reviews

5,892 Views
3,771 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Int...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and Splunk ITSI compete in network management and IT service intelligence. SolarWinds has the upper hand in pricing and support, while Splunk ITSI excels in comprehensive service visibility due to its advanced analytics.

Features: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor offers real-time server monitoring, application performance monitoring, and extensive reporting capabilities. It provides a robust alerting system that allows quick identification of system issues. Splunk ITSI features advanced machine learning analytics, predictive and anomaly detection, and business service insights, providing a holistic view of IT operations.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds could improve integration capabilities and scalability in large environments. Additionally, its configuration and maintenance process can be streamlined. Splunk ITSI may benefit from simplifying its deployment, reducing its complexity, and enhancing its application monitoring features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds offers a straightforward deployment process with solid customer service, simplifying setup for IT teams. Its intuitive dashboard eases management tasks. Splunk ITSI presents a more complex deployment requiring technical expertise and longer setup time, yet it compensates with dedicated support helping organizations leverage its analytical capabilities.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor offers a competitive pricing model, delivering favorable ROI for budget-conscious businesses. Splunk ITSI entails a higher setup cost but provides significant long-term value with its advanced analytics, appealing to organizations needing profound IT service insights.

To learn more, read our detailed SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)

August 2026

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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

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

19th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

4.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (6th), Active Directory Management (8th)

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Int...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

10th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Alerting and Incident Management (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.0%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) is 0.8%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)	0.8%
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor	1.0%
Other	98.2%

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

NikhilKalwint

Technical Specialist at ServiceIO

Monitoring over a thousand systems has improved decision making and operational visibility

From an advantage perspective, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is comparatively cheaper from a commercial point of view. It is easy to install and configure, very user-friendly, and quick to get up and running, allowing you to see the early value adds in your organization. It is compatible with most technologies for monitoring with very few chances of incompatibility. Configuration also allows us to monitor all the technical parameters we are looking for, making it a very good experience for us. The alerting feature in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is a main advantage, as it alerts based on threshold breaches and can raise tickets to the ticketing system, send SMS, and email notifications, allowing engineers to work on those tickets to resolve issues and avoid further impact. The visibility into server health is a beneficial feature that I am utilizing. We widely use various application performance metrics in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor such as database monitoring and server monitoring, which are quite good enough for any monitoring solution. We utilize the customizable dashboards in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor.

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DhirendraSingh2

Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

Service health has been monitored and visual insights support proactive telecom operations

The installation process is the first aspect I dislike about Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence). If you do not configure it correctly, you will encounter issues in the search head. Because we use a distributed environment where each component has its own specific roles, installation is critical and requires careful attention. Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) is built with many applications. It is a compressed file, and when you extract the Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) app, you receive approximately 19 apps. Some applications, add-ons, and packages must be installed on specific components. If you do not configure an application correctly, it will not work. Sometimes we encounter issues during installation because of this complexity. I believe the installation process should be more uniform, meaning it could be deployed across all components to avoid post-installation issues. Sometimes after installation, you receive errors, and users cannot access Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence). We have experienced this type of issue due to installation errors. I believe there is currently room for improvement regarding scalability. When we create Glass Tables containing many searches, the Glass Tables sometimes fail due to memory constraints, and we receive error pages. Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) should have a lightweight version to address these concerns. I would rate current scalability as medium.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is great for monitoring. If something is going wrong, we can immediately find the root cause."

"The solution is end-to-end from the network and the application to the processes. Everything about the enterprise infrastructure is being covered by the solution. It's easy to use and easy to navigate and one of the leaders among monitoring solutions."

"We manage SolarWinds ourselves without outsourcing its services."

"Identifying the problem statement is easy."

"SolarWinds SAM has provided us with dynamic thresholds based on historical trends and requirements, so the threshold gets configured automatically, and it's no longer necessary to configure it manually every time."

"I'd rate technical support at eight out of ten. They are helpful and fast."

"SolarWinds SAM is very stable, and we are using it with hundreds or thousands of customers and there are no stability issues."

"SAM has altered the way monitoring is being looked at - from just being able to monitor CPU, Mem, Disk and network utilization levels we have moved to the next levels of finding out process related issues, service related issues and specific application related issues to identify root cause of performance issues."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

"I particularly like the preview feature because it provides a prompt experience for impact analysis."

"The solution is easy to scale."

"With Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence), all alerts feed into one tool, providing rich dashboards and visualizations for our team to look at, making it a standout feature."

"The most valuable feature is the Glass Tables. It gives you a nice, good overview of your KPIs. It's really slick and clean."

"The most valuable aspect lies in its utilization of predictive analytics to anticipate and prevent incidents within a window of twenty to thirty minutes."

"The most valuable feature of ITSI is the service KPIs. No other tool provides you with the same level of observability and enterprise security or the search and reporting applications."

"We can automate routine tasks. We're able to create alerts, reports, scheduled searches, et cetera. It's helping us to save time."

"The solution's most valuable feature is the aggregation of the metrics and the relative ease of getting them away from search."

More Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) pros

Cons

"When you implement SolarWinds on a larger scale my customers complain about the speed."

"The technical support was better in previous years. With the launch of the premium support service, the normal support has declined."

"SAM AppInsight for SQL: The ability to ignore fragmentation of specific indexes."

"Mapping interactions between systems."

"Currently SolarWinds SAM offers AppInsight for modern versions of: IIS, Exchange, SQL Server. They have shown to be powerful and insightful tools. However, AppInsight needs to be offered for more applications: Citrix, SharePoint, AX, etc."

"A lot of times, we have to do a lot of manual cleanups."

"I believe that SolarWinds should spend more effort in reporting."

"The product does not explain why a problem occurred."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

"I see areas for improvement in Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) such as cost, which is high."

"There should be entity conflict resolution, specifically regarding duplicate entities. There should be case sensitivity for various keys amongst entities, specifically host names. We need IT metrics-based indexes and more content packs. I know they are coming out with these features"

"Scalability is a bit challenging, mainly if high loads are encountered. I faced several issues with high thread usage, so I would rate it around seven to eight, particularly considering that scalability is crucial yet can be premium in cost."

"Training the database could make Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) even better for my work."

"The biggest improvement area is making it open to developers. Right now, it is very closed. It can only be downloaded by people who have a license to and not everyone. If it is open to everybody, more people will use it."

"It would be advantageous to enhance the dashboard by incorporating sections for monitoring, service health, and a filter for the KPIs."

"The dashboard queries should be improved. More queries should be suggested in order to produce better dashboards."

"While Splunk has existing add-ons, they are unreliable and do not provide accurate results."

More Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would advise potential buyers to wait until the end of the quarter, end of year, or other time to place orders. There are actually great deals to be had at those times if your budget cycle can match up."

"The solution is overpriced in terms of application management."

"The tool is available for my company at a good price point."

"I have always said SolarWinds is very “proud” of their products, meaning they are expensive. I cannot afford to purchase all the licenses I need for all the SolarWinds products."

"SAM is not per server so the pricing model can be deceiving. If you have an enterprise environment, you will quickly exceed your licensing quickly. You should know this before going in."

"Price can always be lower. It is neither on the expensive side nor on the cheap side. We have worked with them for a lot of years, so we get a discount due to the size of the installation."

"The product might cost you $30,000 USD to buy, but scaling this solution requires the purchase of additional polling engines at $20,000 USD each."

"I think SolarWinds' pricing is very decent compared to other competitors in the market."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pricing and cost advice

"Pricing was pretty good, and it is possible to just add on the features we want."

"I wouldn't say there's been an issue with the solution's pricing because we went through the AWS marketplace and negotiated directly with Splunk."

"Splunk ITSI is expensive."

"Splunk ITSI is a premium application and comes with a premium price tag."

"Splunk ITSI is expensive."

"Pricing has some room for improvement."

"Splunk ITSI is an expensive tool, and we need to purchase the utility license."

"It is interesting. I am not involved that much lately, but if I recall correctly, you license primarily on the volume of data that you are using in Splunk ITSI, but there is no way Splunk can ever check if that is true, so that is interesting. We are not doing it, but someone can pretend to just use 10%, and it would be super cheap. It is tricky, but it is more tricky for Splunk than for us."

More Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

13%

University

Financial Services Firm

Government

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	21

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	46

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

The initial cost is quite high, but the renewal cost is reasonable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

There is definitely room for improvement besides simplifying its setup. As a non-technical person, I believe the dashboards could be improved. Everything we use appears on video walls, and we need ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

I am doing research as we currently have both solutions, and I am looking to see if we need both or can manage with one. Currently, the outcome indicates that we need both. The focus point is diffe...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)?

From a pricing perspective, it is not that bad because we get it from a distributor and do not purchase it directly from Splunk. We get it from a distributor who gives the pricing to a partner and ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)?

In terms of improvements for Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence), I would suggest adding more out-of-the-box plugins and adapters, especially as there is a high demand for observability and dashb...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)?

I use Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) as a manager of the managers, a tool sitting on top of all the other observability tools. It gets the alerts feed from all the sources such as Splunk Ent...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

July 2026

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report

Download SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)

July 2026

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) report

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Also Known As

SolarWinds SAM

No data available

Overview

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor provides comprehensive server, application, and infrastructure monitoring, focusing on integration, application dependency, and network insights through user-friendly interfaces and detailed dashboards.

With AppStack and AppInsight support, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor offers service management, detailed resource dashboards, and integration capabilities. It monitors hardware metrics and performance parameters, facilitating database and network insights for cloud and virtual environments. Robust alerting, predictive analytics, and capacity planning ensure efficient management of server health and application performance.

What are the key features?

Integration: Seamlessly connects with existing tools.
AppStack: Provides a holistic view of applications.
AppInsight: Supports widely-used applications.
SNMP Polling: Efficient network data collection.
Diagnostics: Real-time troubleshooting.
Customizable Dashboards: Tailored monitoring views.

What benefits should users expect?

Comprehensive Monitoring: Extends from servers to databases.
Transparent Control: Enhances visibility into performance metrics.
User-Friendly: Simplifies proactive monitoring with alerts.
Predictive Features: Supports capacity and trend planning.

Industries implement SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor to enhance server utilization reporting, network configuration, and AV equipment performance tracking. They benefit from monitoring critical services across diverse deployment models, improving management efficiency and decision-making.

SolarWinds

Splunk ITSI offers intelligent alerting, predictive analysis, customizable dashboards, and improves visibility and monitoring through Service Analyzer and Glass Tables. Event correlation enhances incident management, reducing alert fatigue, and improves mean time to resolution.

Splunk ITSI enables businesses to proactively monitor their IT environments by offering functionalities that reduce noise and provide enhanced visibility through sophisticated dashboards. Service Analyzer and Glass Tables facilitate the monitoring of KPIs, allowing for the prompt identification of potential issues. The platform's event correlation capabilities streamline incident management. Its scalability efficiently supports large data volumes, integrating diverse data resources while incorporating AI for predictive insights. Future improvements are sought in integration, documentation, and user-friendly interfaces, with an emphasis on simplifying configurations in expansive deployments.

What are the Key Features of Splunk ITSI?

Intelligent Alerting: Provides proactive monitoring and noise reduction.
Service Analyzer: Enables KPI monitoring and issue identification.
Glass Tables: Allows visual monitoring of crucial metrics.
Event Correlation: Simplifies incident management and reduces alert fatigue.
Scalability: Supports large data volumes and integrates vast data sources.

What Benefits and ROI can Users Expect from Splunk ITSI?

Proactive Monitoring: Enhances ability to foresee and mitigate IT issues.
Improved Resolution Time: Accelerates incident resolution and operational efficiency.
Enhanced Business Resilience: Strengthens IT operations through detailed insights.

Industries leverage Splunk ITSI to monitor infrastructure and applications effectively, employing its Service Analyzer and KPI models. Especially in sectors requiring stringent incident management and predictive analytics, integrations like ServiceNow enable visual health assessments and automated anomaly detection, positioning ITSI as a manager of managers by enhancing IT operations with comprehensive reporting and alert correlations.

Splunk

Sample Customers

Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite

TransUnion, Cox Automotive, Carnival Cruises, Leidos, Econocom, National Ignition Factory, Entrust Datacard, Molina Healthcare, United States Census Bureau

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs. Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)

August 2026

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