Datadog vs. Splunk Enterprise Security (ES)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Datadog
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Datadog is a monitoring service for IT, Dev and Ops teams who write and run applications at scale, and want to turn the massive amounts of data produced by their apps, tools and services into actionable insight.
$18
per month per host
Splunk Enterprise Security (ES)
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Splunk Enterprise Security (SIEM) is the company's flagship SIEM product, offered as a premium service to subscribers of Splunk Cloud or Splunk Enterprise.N/A
Pricing
DatadogSplunk Enterprise Security (ES)
Editions & Modules
Log Management
$1.27
per month (billed annually) per host
Infrastructure
$15.00
per month (billed annually) per host
Standard
$18
per month per host
Enterprise
$27
per month per host
DevSecOps Pro
$27
per month per host
APM
$31.00
per month (billed annually) per host
DevSecOps Enterprise
$41
per month per host
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
DatadogSplunk Enterprise Security (ES)
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsDiscount available for annual pricing. Multi-Year/Volume discounts available (500+ hosts/mo).
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
DatadogSplunk Enterprise Security (ES)
Considered Both Products
Datadog

No answer on this topic

Splunk Enterprise Security (ES)
Chose Splunk Enterprise Security (ES)
We felt New Relic is great for APM and Splunk has that and some more focus on being a SIEM with SOAR and ES. Splunk has been able to focus more on ES than New Relic in terms of the use cases.
Top Pros

No answers on this topic

Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Features
DatadogSplunk Enterprise Security (ES)
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
Comparison of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) features of Product A and Product B
Datadog
-
Ratings
Splunk Enterprise Security (ES)
8.5
102 Ratings
8% above category average
Centralized event and log data collection00 Ratings9.4100 Ratings
Correlation00 Ratings8.799 Ratings
Event and log normalization/management00 Ratings8.6100 Ratings
Deployment flexibility00 Ratings8.4101 Ratings
Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools00 Ratings7.896 Ratings
Custom dashboards and workspaces00 Ratings9.3102 Ratings
Host and network-based intrusion detection00 Ratings7.996 Ratings
Data integration/API management00 Ratings8.598 Ratings
Behavioral analytics and baselining00 Ratings7.795 Ratings
Rules-based and algorithmic detection thresholds00 Ratings8.696 Ratings
Response orchestration and automation00 Ratings7.087 Ratings
Reporting and compliance management00 Ratings8.795 Ratings
Incident indexing/searching00 Ratings9.3101 Ratings
Best Alternatives
DatadogSplunk Enterprise Security (ES)
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Score 8.8 out of 10
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Medium-sized Companies
GitLab
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Score 8.6 out of 10
InsightIDR
InsightIDR
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 9.1 out of 10
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Score 9.2 out of 10
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User Ratings
DatadogSplunk Enterprise Security (ES)
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(22 ratings)
8.8
(103 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(1 ratings)
7.6
(2 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.9
(6 ratings)
6.6
(6 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(100 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
DatadogSplunk Enterprise Security (ES)
Likelihood to Recommend
Datadog
DataDog Is well suited to all of the Infrastructure Monitoring Solutions, DB monitoring, and other Network monitoring also. It's not well suited because it cannot give perfect Infrastructure recommendations for our use case but also For example: If we are using AWS DB to monitor performance insights then Datadog is less effective there because AWS gives very niche recommendations.
Read full review
Splunk
Well suited: Splunk ES is highly recommended in an environment with many data sources and experienced computer engineers. It has a steep learning curve, but once that hurdle is crossed, it is absolutely a beast. It is also very expensive, so a company putting a high amount of budget in Security is needed. Not well suited: Splunk ES is not recommended if a company has only a few sources and some non-technical IT users. The price won't justify the fewer data sources and scratching just the surface level. Moreover, non-technical IT users would be better off with something that has a query builder, unlike Splunk.
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Pros
Datadog
  • APIs, the ability to interact with the data we pull into data dog is key. We port the information over to Servicenow, so the ability to pull everything into DataDog, then Servicenow, is a key component of our success here at Wayfair.
  • Simple Interface - clean, useful, effective. Allows users to use DataDog for one reason, get work done.
  • Lightweight agent on hosts
Read full review
Splunk
  • Advanced Threat Detection and Correlation: ES stands out in its ability to detect sophisticated threats by correlating data from multiple sources. For instance, it can identify unusual patterns in user behavior, cross-referencing with network logs to flag potential insider threats.
  • Real-time Monitoring and Alerting: ES offers robust real-time monitoring capabilities. It excels in promptly alerting us to critical security events, such as suspicious network traffic spikes or unauthorized access attempts, allowing for immediate response.
  • Comprehensive Log Analysis: ES ingests and analyzes an extensive range of log data. It's particularly adept at parsing and making sense of complex log formats, making it a versatile tool for understanding system activities and security events.
Read full review
Cons
Datadog
  • We had a couple "integrations" that had some issues during setup, but Support addressed them very quickly
  • Unnecessary alerts about DataDog components...by the time I see them, they're almost always also fixed
  • I wish there was a DataDog mobile app that would have dedicated alerts (configurable per alert to override Do Not Disturb setting) instead of relying on emails notifications that could be overlooked in the midst of many incoming emails around the same time.
Read full review
Splunk
  • ES on the cloud (SaaS) has too many limitations with platform administration.
  • Supported integrations are not always on par with enterprise support especially when dependent on 3rd-party proprietary APIs.
  • In later versions, unforeseen glitches seem to show up that have no resolution except version upgrade. This used to not be the case in prior versions which were very stable.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Datadog
No answers on this topic
Splunk
We are very happy with Splunk and would advise anyone to take a serious look at it. It might look pricey but the rewards Splunk offers seem endless.
Read full review
Usability
Datadog
The user interface is quite intuitive with the exception of the network map. As a deployer of software, it is trivial to setup.
Read full review
Splunk
You definitely need to learn how to use Splunk to get the most of the tool. There are many courses available for free to get up to speed on the usability of the tool but it's not that simple. It will take time to digest all the data and to understand how to query for what you are looking for.
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Reliability and Availability
Datadog
No answers on this topic
Splunk
I'm not an ES user, but, in my implementation I usually try to prevent all service stops to guarantee High availability to the final customers.
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Performance
Datadog
No answers on this topic
Splunk
ES requires a very performant infrastructure: if it has it's performant, otherwise not. I had situation with a very performant infrastructure and I didn't notized that it was a distributed architecture, it seemed that there ware few data on my PC, othewise I experienced less performant infrastructures with less performaces.
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Support Rating
Datadog
The support team usually gets it right. We did have a rather complicate issue setting up monitoring on a domain controller. However, they are usually responsive and helpful over chat. The downside would be I don’t think they have any phone support. If that is important to you this might not be a good fit.
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Splunk
It's good when it's responsive, but I've had times where I had to wait quite a while for a response. But these are typically the exceptions rather than the rule. When you do get a response it is always well-informed and appropriate. I would say they've been trending better over time with this.
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In-Person Training
Datadog
No answers on this topic
Splunk
I experienced only on-line training, but the trainers were very professional and competent. Maybe it could be more useful if they also have an experience in projects because sometimes they didn't have a real project experience to communicate to the students. Anyway, it was very interesting and I learned many thing that's very difficoult (or maybe impossible!) to have by myself, aven if I have more than 10 years of Splunk activity experience.
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Online Training
Datadog
No answers on this topic
Splunk
It was very interesting and I learned many thing that's very difficoult (or maybe impossible!) to have by myself. The only problem was that, when I worked with the Splunk Professional Services, I found some difference between the training contents and the information from PS. In addition is required a long experience on Splunk Enterprise for the data ingestion part, in other words I'm able to work with ES because I'm worling on Splunk since 11 years, otherwise I'd some problem.
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Implementation Rating
Datadog
No answers on this topic
Splunk
It's a fantatic product and it was very useful the presence of Splunk Professional Services for the Design Phase and the final Health Check.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Datadog
We are still trying other products, but people still like Datadog. After setting up a dashboard, it's great for monitoring instances on Datadog. Also, the DevOps team had a good time setting up Datadog. It means Datadog was way easier to set up compared to those others.
Read full review
Splunk
Splunk enterprise is the only solution that we’ve been able to identify that provides risk based alerting, which allows our SOC to reduce analyst fatigue which would be a huge problem without it. Before RBA, there were thousands of alerts a day and it was impossible to review all of them
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Datadog
No answers on this topic
Splunk
for my exterience, unit pricing and billing frequency are correct. As I already said, I hint to have more discount flexibility, expecially with new customers, because there are competitors less expensive and very aggressive that are dangerous. In addition the possibility to don't pay the license for the development period could be a very interesting feature for the final customers.
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Scalability
Datadog
No answers on this topic
Splunk
- 8 out of 10 and took 2 for the data pipeline and administration part. Even if you'd like to improve yourself or your team, you have to pay a lot of money and it could be more than GIAC education + cert. - Normalization for Data models and CPU-based searches can be a problem sometimes.
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Professional Services
Datadog
No answers on this topic
Splunk
I had a fantastic experience with Splunk Professional Services: they worked with us in our last SON project (a SOC migration for a very large customer) and helped to build a multi tenent environment even if ES isn't a multi tenant platform. Th Splunk PS was a very professional and competent people, he is italian and was able to speak with our italian customers.
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Return on Investment
Datadog
  • Visibility into website issues and performance problems has improved our company communication.
  • Handling and detecting site issues faster has improved customer satisfaction and retention.
  • Configuration of the Datadog site can take a bit of time and we lost a bit of developer time during that process.
Read full review
Splunk
  • ES has highly impacted ROI because as the customer of the ES the work we do for creating use cases for clients in terms of security-related aspects by their logs has given more return than investment.
  • The correlation searches we run to get detailed results from the Data models are very less time-consuming than Splunk Enterprise itself we can get quick responses to the use cases and dashboards populated because of ES.
  • The CIM compliance feature is ES has made more jobs easy in the terms of finding more Authentication related data we can get data onboarded in the Email data model from O365 and search is email data model instead of searching for particular indexes.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Datadog Screenshots

Screenshot of the out-of-the-box and customizable monitoring dashboards.Screenshot of Datadog's collaboration features, where users can discuss issues in-context with production data, annotate changes and notify their teams, see who responded to that alert before, and discover what was done to fix it.Screenshot of where Datadog unifies traces, metrics, and logs—the three pillars of observability.Screenshot of some of Datadog's 400+ built-in integrations.Screenshot of Datadog's Service Map, which decomposes an application into all its component services and draws the observed dependencies between these services in real timeScreenshot of centralized log data, pulled from any source.