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

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

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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

22nd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

4.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (5th), Active Directory Management (8th)

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Int...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

9th

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 October 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 1.0%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) is 0.8%, up from 0.7% 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

"This feature from Solarwinds SAM helped us to monitor and alert whenever the SSL cert is going to expire on the server to avoid any downtime of the services running on the server specially on ADFS platform where we have Video conference, Webex, Office 365 and single sign-on services."

"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."

"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is the network devices' performance monitor is the best."

"Monitoring the components on your devices with out of the box monitors or the ability to create new ones (SAM)"

"It's good at monitoring system-specific things like ports, services."

"Having used various other vendors for monitoring over my career, the SolarWinds products give outstanding value for the price."

"Manage Groups: The capability to group appropriate devices gives better visibility of sites, categories, or critical regions. The same can be used to represent a dashboard for higher management."

"We use the solution as a central monitoring tool. We use it to monitor every transaction that has a relation to the organization’s infrastructure."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pros

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

"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 features are the agility, being able to ingest many data sources with no limitation on capacity."

"The predictive analysis feature is quite useful, as it helps identify potential issues before they impact services and allows for proactive action."

"Alerts and episodes are valuable to me."

"It has saved a lot of time, made things more efficient, made budgeting easy, and made it enjoyable to learn and use as a tool."

"In my opinion, Splunk IT Service Intelligence (ITSI) is better than QRadar. With the help of Splunk, we can get results."

"The best feature I found in Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) is the ability to organize raw data we receive in a very particular manner as per the client's requirement, including the device name and message body."

More Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) pros

Cons

"The tool's AppStack needs to improve in the storage monitoring part. It should also include an analytics and recommendation approach. If I have found a fault in a server or application, I would like to know what caused it and how do I recover from it."

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

"For each poller, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor can only monitor up to ten thousand components, which restricts scalability."

"Reporting is the only thing with which we currently have challenges."

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

"This product has no real downside unless they fail to continue development of its capabilities."

"The technical support is nothing special."

"The tool’s report feature created issues for us. We needed to gain skills to use that feature. The tool’s customization is not easy since you have to reconfigure the whole system."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor cons

"Splunk ITSI lacks out-of-the-box solutions for enterprise users."

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

"The solution should integrate more features in NEAP."

"When configuring a dashboard, we can write search criteria. Based on the search criteria, the dashboard shows all the alerts, including the alert time, creation time, and a summary description of the alert. When you add an extra column, such as the user that triggered the alert, the next time he refreshes the dashboard, he wants to know that the alert is acknowledged. We want to improve that comment feature."

"The data recovery has room for improvement."

"We're getting alerts with delays of maybe five minutes, however, we'd like to see real-time alerting in the future."

"We're using predictive analytics, and there are three or four algorithms. It would be helpful if this process were more standardized and scalable."

"I believe the refresh time should be faster."

More Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I like the pricing for this SolarWinds product."

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

"Nagios XI, WhatsUpGold, Uptime Software, PRTG, Manage Engine, and SpiceWorks are the other tools that have lower pricing and licensing costs. However, they can't compete with SolarWinds when it comes to the features and functionality that SolarWinds can provide."

"I would rate the pricing for this solution a three out of five."

"The licenses start from USD 3000.00 and go up to USD 20,000.00 for the year. It's a perpetual license. Nothing is free in SolarWinds, anything that you need is an additional cost."

"Pricing is inexpensive, starting at 2440 euros. For that, you get the ability to monitor a couple of nodes and one year of maintenance and support."

"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."

"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."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pricing and cost advice

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

"It depends on how big an organization is. If we have a lot of resources, the licensing needs to be upgraded. If we have a small environment, the licensing cost is definitely going to be less."

"The pricing of Splunk is a bit high."

"Splunk ITSI is expensive."

"Splunk ITSI is expensive compared to other tools."

"The licensing is based on data usage."

"Splunk ITSI is expensive."

"Splunk ITSI is a pay-per-use service that is priced fairly based on the amount of data we use."

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

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability solutions are best for your needs.

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917,403 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

13%

University

Financial Services Firm

Outsourcing Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Healthcare 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.

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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

Training the database could make Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) even better for my work. I sometimes feel a lag with Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence). I gave it a nine out of ten.

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

I have been using Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) for the last two to three years for my data handling. I do IT implementation with strong technical skills. I sometimes use Splunk ITSI (IT Se...

Splunk AppDynamics vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

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Product Reports

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Download SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor product report

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence)

Download Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) product report

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) report

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

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