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Splunk and New Relic are two excellent options for tracking and examining business-critical data. However, both have distinctive features, advantages, and disadvantages. In this blog, we'll analyze both platforms in depth and figure out the differences between Splunk & New Relic to help you make the right choice.

Know the Differences between Splunk and New Relic cover image

Splunk and New Relic are some of the more well-known options to step up your data analysis and monitoring game.

Splunk, a pioneer in this area, provides powerful data indexing and search capabilities.

In comparison, New Relic provides excellent observability and monitoring options for applications.

While each presents unique opportunities and difficulties, it is crucial to thoroughly examine each of them. To help you make an informed decision, this article will compare and contrast Splunk vs New Relic.

What is Splunk?

Splunk is one of the top platforms for data analytics and monitoring. It has a powerful ability to glean important insights from various data sources.

It allows companies to gather, index, and correlate data from various sources, including apps, servers, network devices, and more.

Because of the platform's adaptability and scalability, it may be used for various use cases.

What is New Relic?

New Relic is a well-known SaaS product that offers thorough monitoring and analysis capabilities for apps and infrastructure.

Businesses can optimize their applications and provide outstanding user experiences thanks to the real-time performance insights it offers.

Users can design unique dashboards and reports for further in-depth investigation using its visualization and reporting tools.

Also Read: Differences between New Relic and Grafana

Splunk vs New Relic - Installation & Setup

Both Splunk and New Relic provide straightforward and easy-to-follow installation and configuration procedures.

Customers of Splunk can download and install the application on their infrastructure. Users may take control and have lots of customizing possibilities thanks to this.

In contrast, New Relic is a cloud-based service allowing users to easily and quickly set up accounts. Users can easily create an account and start instrumenting their applications immediately.

The supplier will do all upgrades and maintenance since New Relic is cloud-based.

New Relic vs Splunk Pricing - Cost Comparison

Based on the particular use case, both platforms have adjustable pricing ranges.

Prices from Splunk depend on the user's selected solution. The Splunk observability solution, which costs $15 per host per month as a starting price, is the most basic option.

Users can directly contact Splunk support for enterprise pricing.

On the other side, New Relic has a free edition with a monthly data ingestion cap of 100 GB. The free plan offers an infinite number of basic users, hosts, CPUs, and one full platform user.

Also Read: Splunk vs ELK Stack - Which One to Choose?

Splunk vs New Relic - Dashboard

Splunk offers a fully customized dashboard experience. Dashboards can be created by users from scratch and customized to meet their own needs.

You have the freedom to design data visualizations that are aesthetically pleasing because of the variety of visualization tools and widgets that are accessible.

You can track the performance of crucial systems in real-time using Splunk's dashboard, which also supports real-time monitoring.

On the other hand, New Relic provides a user-friendly and already-configured dashboard experience out of the box. The platform offers pre-built dashboards with conveniently accessible key monitoring and performance information.

With this simplified method, it's simple to quickly acquire insights on your apps and infrastructure without much customizing.

New Relic vs Splunk - Data Source Integrations

Splunk can interface with various data sources and is renowned for its adaptability. You can ingest and analyze data from diverse systems and devices because it supports structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data.

Splunk can manage everything from log files and databases to cloud platforms and IoT gadgets. Because of its adaptability, it's a great option for businesses with complicated infrastructures and various data sources.

On the other hand, New Relic is primarily concerned with monitoring infrastructure and applications. It makes it simple to instrument your apps and acquire performance statistics by offering seamless connectors with well-known programming languages, frameworks, and platforms.

To give you comprehensive insights into the performance of your application, New Relic excels in capturing specific data, like response times and error rates.

Also Read: Datadog vs Grafana

Splunk vs New Relic - Scalability

Splunk is renowned for its scalability, which enables businesses to effectively manage massive data volumes. Because of its horizontally scalable architecture, you may add more servers to expand the workload and enhance capacity.

Because of its scalability, Splunk is a good fit for businesses with high data volumes, and stringent data analysis needs.

Being a cloud-based solution, New Relic has built-in scalability advantages. According to your usage requirements, it may manage the scalability of resources automatically.

Whether your data volume increases gradually over time or you face abrupt surges in traffic, New Relic's cloud architecture can adapt and offer the resources you need to enable efficient monitoring and analysis.

Also Read: Grafana vs Kibana - Which One to Choose?

Splunk Logging vs New Relic

Splunk is famous for its powerful log management features. It does a great job of gathering, indexing, and evaluating event logs from various sources.

With Splunk, you can effectively identify defects, glean useful insights from log data, and fix problems.

New Relic, on the other hand, focuses on application performance monitoring. Thanks to its extensive insights into application performance indicators, you can analyze response times, error rates, and resource usage.

Using New Relic, you can optimize your applications, create outstanding user experiences, and proactively discover performance bottlenecks.

Both solutions provide useful features for API monitoring. You may ingest API logs using Splunk Logging and analyze the data to find patterns and trends.

It can be especially helpful for measuring usage, keeping tabs on API performance, and finding any irregularities in API activity.

Additionally, New Relic provides API monitoring services that give access to transaction traces and performance metrics for APIs. It allows you to monitor your APIs' effectiveness, spot any problems, and maximize their use.

New Relic vs Splunk - Search Capabilities

Splunk is famous for having powerful and flexible search capabilities. Users may do sophisticated searches across enormous amounts of data, allowing them to find patterns, anomalies, and trends.

Thanks to its versatile search syntax and query language, Splunk offers granular control over data exploration and analysis.

Strong search capabilities designed for application performance monitoring are also available from New Relic. Users can search and filter application-specific metrics, traces, and logs to understand their application's behavior.

Although the search features of New Relic are geared towards application-related data, they offer a clear and user-friendly interface for effective data analysis.

Also Read: Top 13 Kubernetes Monitoring Tools to Choose from

Splunk vs New Relic - Community & Market Share

The user and developer communities for Splunk are thriving. It has a sizable and engaged user population that participates in numerous forums, user groups, and knowledge bases.

The Splunk community is renowned for its active support and collaboration, making locating tools, best practices, and answers to frequent problems simpler.

The community at New Relic is likewise vibrant and expanding. New Relic's community may not be as large as Splunk's, but it has grown in popularity recently.

It provides various tools to assist users and promote cooperation, such as a knowledge base, community forums, and developer documentation.

Also Read: Microservices Monitoring Tools & Best Practices

Splunk vs New Relic - Documentation & Availability of Support

Splunk offers thorough documentation on various subjects, including installation, configuration, advanced capabilities, and troubleshooting.

Their material is well-organized and simple to find, offering users helpful instructions.

Additionally, Splunk provides customers with various support alternatives, including community forums, knowledge base articles, and official support channels, to ensure they have ways to ask for help and find solutions.

New Relic provides a wealth of documentation to help customers get started and make the most of the platform's features.

They provide user-friendly instructions and explanations in their paperwork.

Thanks to New Relic's community forums, knowledge base, and official support channels, users can access support when needed.

Also Read: How to Install & Setup Promethus Operator in Kubernetes?

Splunk vs New Relic - Alerts & Notifications

The flexible alerting features of Splunk allow you to establish criteria based on specific data patterns or thresholds.

Custom scripts, email notifications, report generation, and other actions can start by setting up alerts.

With Splunk's alerting capabilities, you can proactively monitor your data and respond swiftly to urgent occurrences.

Similar strong alerting and notification features are available in New Relic.

Various specified criteria, including application performance metrics and infrastructure health, can be used to configure alerts.

You can specify notification channels with New Relic, such as email or well-known collaboration platforms, to get alerts in real-time. This ensures that you are kept up to date on any abnormalities in behavior or performance.

New Relic vs Splunk - Security Features

Splunk offers security features like data encryption, audit trails, and role-based access controls (RBAC). RBAC enables you to specify precise permissions for various user roles, ensuring that only authorized users have access to sensitive information.

To add an extra degree of security, Splunk additionally provides encryption solutions to protect data in motion and at rest.

Audit trails also make it possible to monitor user activity, assuring accountability and facilitating adherence to security standards.

New Relic also prioritizes RBAC, encryption, and other security measures. RBAC allows you to give users particular rights based on their responsibilities, restricting access to sensitive data.

Data encryption is used to protect data while it is in transit and at rest.

Additionally, New Relic complies with industry-recognized security frameworks and certifications, guaranteeing adherence to security best practices.

When to Use Splunk vs New Relic?

Choose Splunk when you need a flexible platform to manage diverse data sources beyond application monitoring.

Splunk excels at analyzing structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data thanks to its strong log management, real-time analytics, and real-time data mining capabilities.

Splunk is an excellent option if you require extensive customization, granular control over your infrastructure, or complex data analysis.

On the other hand, choose New Relic if you want to monitor and observable application performance.

New Relic excels in these areas if you require in-depth insights into the performance metrics of your application, real-time monitoring, and pre-built dashboards.

It offers an easy setup process, specialized capabilities for application-centric monitoring, and a user-friendly interface.

Also Read: Top 13 Heroku Alternatives to Choose from

Splunk vs New Relic - Final Verdict

Here is the given information formatted into a table:

ParameterSplunkNew Relic
Installation & SetupDownload and install on your infrastructureCloud-based setup with minimal configuration requirements
PricingPricing is based on data volume and features.Pricing is based on various plans. Offers free plans as well.
DashboardHighly customizable dashboard experiencePre-configured dashboards for easy setup
Data Source IntegrationsSupports diverse data sources beyond applicationsSpecialized integrations for application performance monitoring
ScalabilityHorizontal scalability, add more servers as neededAutomatic scalability in a cloud-based environment
Search CapabilitiesVersatile and robust search functionalityFocused search capabilities for application-related data
Community & Market ShareLarge and active user community, recognized leaderGrowing community with increasing adoption
Documentation & SupportComprehensive documentation, multiple support optionsExtensive documentation, community forums, and official support channels
Alerts & NotificationsFlexible alerting options for proactive monitoringPowerful alerting and notification features
Security FeaturesRBAC, data encryption, audit trailsRBAC, data encryption, compliance with security standards

The ultimate decision is based on your unique needs and priorities.

Splunk has a strong community, broadened data analytic capabilities, and significant customization options.

New Relic excels in functionality, setup simplicity, and application performance monitoring.

To choose the ideal choice for your organization, consider elements like data sources, scalability requirements, customization preferences, and an emphasis on application monitoring.

FAQs

What is the difference between Splunk and New Relic log management?

While New Relic specializes in application-centric log management for performance insights, Splunk provides various log management tools for various data sources.

Which is the difference between - Splunk and New Relic?

The main difference between Splunk and New Relic lies in their core focus. Splunk offers versatile log management and data analysis capabilities across various sources, while New Relic specializes in application performance monitoring and observability.

What is Microsoft's replacement for Splunk?

Microsoft's replacement for Splunk is Azure Sentinel.

Priyansh Khodiyar's profile

Written by Priyansh Khodiyar

Priyansh is the founder of UnYAML and a software engineer with a passion for writing. He has good experience with writing and working around DevOps tools and technologies, APMs, Kubernetes APIs, etc and loves to share his knowledge with others.