Elastic APM vs Splunk APM

Elastic APM7.3Visit Splunk APM6.6Visit

Higher score Elastic APM #6 in Application Performance & Observability - Enterprise Software 7.3/10 Free plan · 14-day trial Free plan✓ 1 of 4 features Visit Elastic APM

vs

Splunk APM #8 in Application Performance & Observability - Enterprise Software 6.6/10 Paid ✓ 1 of 4 features Visit Splunk

• Elastic APM fits best

  Teams needing flexible cloud or self-hosted APM

• Splunk APM fits best

  Teams needing tracing with continuous code profiling

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Side by side

Feature	Elastic APM 7.3/10 Visit ↗	Splunk APM 6.6/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	7.3	6.6
Ranking	#6 in Application Performance & Observability - Enterprise Software	#8 in Application Performance & Observability - Enterprise Software
Best for	Teams needing flexible cloud or self-hosted APM	Teams needing tracing with continuous code profiling
Pricing model	Free plan + paid	Paid
Starting price	Not published	Not published
Free plan	✓ (best)	—
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Cloud, Self-hosted	Cloud
Platforms	Web, Linux, Windows, macOS	Web
Support	Phone, Docs · 24/7	Docs
Integrations	4 integrations	100+ integrations
Built for	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Elastic APM 1/4 · Splunk APM 1/4
Distributed tracing	✓	✓
Application monitoring	Not published	Not published
Log management	Not published	Not published
Synthetic monitoring	Not published	Not published
Specs
Deployment options	Not published	Not published
Data retention	Not published	Not published
Our review
Pros	Distributed tracing with transaction and span exploration Service maps and telemetry correlation clarify dependencies Cloud or self-hosted deployment with browser and mobile RUM	Full-fidelity trace analysis with search and span waterfall views Service maps show dependencies across instrumented and inferred services AlwaysOn Profiling covers CPU and memory in Java, .NET and Node.js
Cons	Published paid prices are whole-platform estimates, not standalone APM rates Advanced APM correlations and service maps are listed only in Platinum Feature coverage is narrower than broader observability platforms	No free plan is established for APM App & Infra and End-to-End are $60 and $75 per host monthly on annual billing Real User Monitoring appears in End-to-End, not the App & Infra tier
Our verdict	Elastic APM collects application performance data from Elastic APM agents and OpenTelemetry SDKs for analysis in Elastic Observability. It is aimed at development and operations teams that need to inspect requests across services,… Read the review →	Splunk APM monitors distributed application availability and performance through trace and span collection. It is suited to teams investigating microservices and complex application environments, especially those that need to connect… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• Elastic APM — where it wins

  • Distributed tracing with transaction and span exploration
  • Service maps and telemetry correlation clarify dependencies
  • Cloud or self-hosted deployment with browser and mobile RUM

  Where it doesn't

  • Published paid prices are whole-platform estimates, not standalone APM rates
  • Advanced APM correlations and service maps are listed only in Platinum
  • Feature coverage is narrower than broader observability platforms

• Splunk APM — where it wins

  • Full-fidelity trace analysis with search and span waterfall views
  • Service maps show dependencies across instrumented and inferred services
  • AlwaysOn Profiling covers CPU and memory in Java, .NET and Node.js

  Where it doesn't

  • No free plan is established for APM
  • App & Infra and End-to-End are $60 and $75 per host monthly on annual billing
  • Real User Monitoring appears in End-to-End, not the App & Infra tier

• Elastic APM7.3/10 · Free plan · 14-day trial

  Flexible APM with distributed tracing, service maps, RUM, and hybrid deployment.

  Visit Elastic APMFull verdict →
• Splunk APM6.6/10 · Paid

  Distributed tracing, service maps and continuous profiling, with paid plans starting at $60 per host monthly.

  Visit SplunkFull verdict →