2026 Best Software Awards are here!See the list

Compare IBM Instana and Splunk Observability Cloud

Save
    Log in to your account
    to save comparisons,
    products and more.
At a Glance
IBM Instana
IBM Instana
Star Rating
(460)4.4 out of 5
Market Segments
Mid-Market (41.1% of reviews)
Information
Pros & Cons
Entry-Level Pricing
Starting at $18.00
Free Trial is available
Browse all 2 pricing plans
Splunk Observability Cloud
Splunk Observability Cloud
Star Rating
(25)4.3 out of 5
Market Segments
Enterprise (52.0% of reviews)
Information
Pros & Cons
Entry-Level Pricing
No pricing available
Learn more about Splunk Observability Cloud
AI Generated Summary
AI-generated. Powered by real user reviews.
  • G2 reviewers report that IBM Instana excels in providing real-time, automatic insights, which users find incredibly beneficial for monitoring application performance. Its ability to automatically discover services and map dependencies is frequently highlighted as a standout feature, making it a preferred choice for those seeking robust observability capabilities.
  • Users say that Splunk Observability Cloud offers a comprehensive and user-friendly interface, which simplifies gaining insights into application performance and infrastructure health. Reviewers appreciate the deep insights provided by Splunk dashboards, noting their effectiveness in identifying issues across multiple applications.
  • According to verified reviews, IBM Instana is praised for its quick implementation process, with many users finding it easy to deploy and use. This ease of setup is a significant advantage for teams looking to minimize downtime during onboarding.
  • Reviewers mention that while Splunk Observability Cloud is well-regarded for its reliability and ability to improve application uptime, it faces challenges in user experience compared to IBM Instana. Some users have noted that it can be less intuitive, which may require additional training or support.
  • G2 reviewers highlight that IBM Instana's dashboards and visualizations receive high marks for their clarity and effectiveness, with users noting that they provide valuable insights at a glance. This feature is particularly beneficial for teams needing to monitor performance metrics in real-time.
  • Users report that while both products have strong support ratings, IBM Instana's support is slightly less favorable compared to Splunk's. However, users still appreciate the overall quality of support from both platforms, indicating that both companies are committed to assisting their customers effectively.
Pricing
Entry-Level Pricing
IBM Instana
Essentials
Starting at $18.00
Browse all 2 pricing plans
Splunk Observability Cloud
No pricing available
Free Trial
IBM Instana
Free Trial is available
Splunk Observability Cloud
No trial information available
Ratings
Meets Requirements
8.6
350
8.6
22
Ease of Use
8.6
364
8.6
22
Ease of Setup
8.8
202
7.7
10
Ease of Admin
8.4
129
7.3
10
Quality of Support
8.6
315
9.1
22
Has the product been a good partner in doing business?
8.5
129
8.2
10
Product Direction (% positive)
8.5
336
9.5
22
Features by Category
9.2
21
Not enough data
Functionality
9.2
20
Not enough data
9.4
20
Not enough data
9.3
20
Not enough data
9.2
19
Not enough data
9.3
19
Not enough data
8.8
18
Not enough data
Agentic AI - Website Monitoring
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)Hide 17 FeaturesShow 17 Features
Not enough data
Not enough data
Experience
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Agentic AI - Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Management
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Performance
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
8.8
14
Not enough data
Functionality
9.4
13
Not enough data
8.8
13
Not enough data
8.7
13
Not enough data
8.6
13
Not enough data
8.8
12
Not enough data
8.5
13
Not enough data
Agentic AI - Database Monitoring
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Cloud Infrastructure MonitoringHide 20 FeaturesShow 20 Features
8.8
148
8.9
14
Monitoring
8.9
131
9.1
13
8.4
121
8.6
12
8.9
129
8.5
12
8.7
133
8.9
12
9.7
6
Not enough data
Administration
8.6
126
8.7
13
8.7
104
8.3
10
8.5
100
8.3
13
9.4
6
Not enough data
Analysis
8.5
114
8.8
12
8.5
131
8.7
13
8.3
99
8.5
11
Agentic AI - Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
AI Automation - Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
8.8
40
Not enough data
Functionality
8.7
27
Not enough data
8.4
25
Not enough data
9.0
34
Not enough data
Issue Resolution
9.1
34
Not enough data
8.9
32
Not enough data
8.7
33
Not enough data
Management
9.0
33
Not enough data
8.9
33
Not enough data
8.7
30
Not enough data
Generative AI
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Agentic AI - AIOps Platforms
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
7.7
5
Not enough data
Visibility
7.3
5
Not enough data
8.0
5
Not enough data
7.7
5
Not enough data
Monitoring and Management
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Agentic AI - Hardware Monitoring
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
8.4
6
8.4
13
Visibility
9.7
6
8.5
12
9.2
6
8.8
12
8.6
6
8.0
11
Monitoring and Management
7.8
6
8.3
12
7.2
6
8.1
12
8.1
6
8.6
12
Agentic AI - Log Monitoring
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Visibility
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Monitoring and Management
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Cloud environment support
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Agentic AI - Server Monitoring
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Functionality
10.0
6
Not enough data
10.0
6
Not enough data
10.0
6
Not enough data
9.7
6
Not enough data
Management
10.0
6
Not enough data
10.0
6
Not enough data
10.0
6
Not enough data
10.0
6
Not enough data
Agentic AI - Enterprise Monitoring
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Application Performance Monitoring (APM)Hide 19 FeaturesShow 19 Features
8.2
201
Not enough data
Monitoring
8.5
165
Not enough data
8.7
178
Not enough data
8.9
180
Not enough data
7.6
125
Not enough data
8.5
161
Not enough data
Response
8.6
174
Not enough data
8.4
167
Not enough data
8.2
159
Not enough data
Agentic AI - Application Performance Monitoring (APM)
7.0
10
Not enough data
8.2
11
Not enough data
7.3
10
Not enough data
7.3
10
Not enough data
7.4
11
Not enough data
Performance
8.3
141
Not enough data
8.4
154
Not enough data
Functionality
8.1
133
Not enough data
8.4
131
Not enough data
8.2
130
Not enough data
8.5
153
Not enough data
8.3
63
Not enough data
Alerts management
8.1
40
Not enough data
8.1
44
Not enough data
8.4
56
Not enough data
Monitoring
8.3
56
Not enough data
8.8
61
Not enough data
8.2
56
Not enough data
8.9
55
Not enough data
Automation
7.9
35
Not enough data
7.9
37
Not enough data
Analysis
8.2
54
Not enough data
8.1
45
Not enough data
8.6
60
Not enough data
8.5
41
Not enough data
Issue Resolution
8.5
52
Not enough data
7.6
44
Not enough data
8.2
46
Not enough data
8.3
11
Not enough data
Generative AI
8.7
10
Not enough data
Agentic AI - IT Alerting
8.3
5
Not enough data
8.3
5
Not enough data
8.3
5
Not enough data
8.0
5
Not enough data
8.3
5
Not enough data
8.0
5
Not enough data
8.3
5
Not enough data
Observability SoftwareHide 20 FeaturesShow 20 Features
Not enough data
Not enough data
Telemetry Collection & Ingestion - Observability
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Agentic AI - Observability Software
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Visualization & Dashboards - Observability
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Correlation & Root Cause Analysis - Observability
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Scalability & Ecosystem Integration - Observability
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
AI Features - Observability
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
8.6
7
Not enough data
Response
9.0
8
Not enough data
8.6
7
Not enough data
7.9
8
Not enough data
8.6
7
Not enough data
Records
9.0
7
Not enough data
9.0
7
Not enough data
8.3
6
Not enough data
Management
9.4
6
Not enough data
8.6
6
Not enough data
8.6
6
Not enough data
Generative AI
8.3
5
Not enough data
8.3
5
Not enough data
Categories
Categories
Shared Categories
IBM Instana
IBM Instana
Splunk Observability Cloud
Splunk Observability Cloud
IBM Instana and Splunk Observability Cloud are categorized as Observability Software, Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring, Log Monitoring, and Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)
Reviews
Reviewers' Company Size
IBM Instana
IBM Instana
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
20.2%
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
41.1%
Enterprise(> 1000 emp.)
38.7%
Splunk Observability Cloud
Splunk Observability Cloud
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
16.0%
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
32.0%
Enterprise(> 1000 emp.)
52.0%
Reviewers' Industry
IBM Instana
IBM Instana
Information Technology and Services
19.7%
Computer Software
10.7%
Telecommunications
6.2%
Financial Services
6.2%
Retail
5.5%
Other
51.8%
Splunk Observability Cloud
Splunk Observability Cloud
Information Technology and Services
20.0%
Security and Investigations
12.0%
Computer Software
12.0%
Financial Services
8.0%
Banking
8.0%
Other
40.0%
Alternatives
IBM Instana
IBM Instana Alternatives
Datadog
Datadog
Add Datadog
Dynatrace
Dynatrace
Add Dynatrace
New Relic
New Relic
Add New Relic
Splunk AppDynamics
Splunk AppDynamics
Add Splunk AppDynamics
Splunk Observability Cloud
Splunk Observability Cloud Alternatives
Dynatrace
Dynatrace
Add Dynatrace
Datadog
Datadog
Add Datadog
LogicMonitor
LogicMonitor
Add LogicMonitor
New Relic
New Relic
Add New Relic
Discussions
IBM Instana
IBM Instana Discussions
why use instana over another platform?
2 Comments
OG
If you compare those 2 only the price matters. Instana does not have the feature set of DataDog in any category.Read more
Is there a chatbot available?
2 Comments
OG
Best join a webinar or customer demo to learn more about it. It took me also a while to understand all the bits and pieces. Since IBM was acquired by IBM,...Read more
What is Application Performance Monitoring (APM)?
2 Comments
TS
Application performance monitoring (APM) is the practice of tracking key software application performance metrics using monitoring software and telemetry...Read more
Splunk Observability Cloud
Splunk Observability Cloud Discussions
Monty the Mongoose crying
Splunk Observability Cloud has no discussions with answers