Grafana vs Splunk AppDynamics vs CubeAPM — the main difference lies in how these platforms handle observability, scalability, and cost predictability. Grafana specializes in visualization, AppDynamics in enterprise APM analytics, while CubeAPM delivers full MELT observability  with OpenTelemetry-native ingestion, 800+ integrations, and smart sampling.

Teams using Grafana or AppDynamics often face fragmented telemetry pipelines, short data retention, and rising per-host fees

CubeAPM eliminates this complexity with a single backend that correlates logs, metrics, and traces in real time, supports 800 + agent and API integrations, and offers self-hosted or BYOC deployment for complete data-residency compliance. The result is up to 80 % lower total cost of ownership compared to multi-tool stacks like Grafana + AppDynamics.

In this comparison, we’ll break down how these three platforms differ across telemetry coverage, deployment, sampling, retention, support, and pricing—and highlight which fits your performance, compliance, and cost goals best in 2025.

Grafana vs Splunk AppDynamics vs CubeAPM Comparison

Grafana vs SplunkAppDynamics vs CubeAPM: Feature-by-Feature Breakdown

Multiagent Support

CubeAPM:
CubeAPM offers complete OpenTelemetry and Prometheus integration, supporting traces, metrics, and logs without relying on proprietary agents. With over 800 integrations, it connects seamlessly to tools like Datadog, Elastic, and New Relic, allowing teams to adopt CubeAPM without changing their existing instrumentation.

Grafana:
Grafana is not fully multi-agent. While this integration is flexible, it requires additional backend setup and fine-tuning, which can add to complexity as telemetry grows. It works best for teams already running self-hosted observability stacks or using Grafana as a visualization layer on top of Prometheus and other open-source tools.

Splunk AppDynamics:
AppDynamics supports OpenTelemetry through adapters but remains primarily dependent on Cisco’s proprietary agents for application and infrastructure monitoring. Although this ecosystem offers deep analytics within Cisco environments, it limits interoperability with external OTel-based tools.

MELT Support (Metrics, Events, Logs, Traces)

CubeAPM:
CubeAPM delivers full MELT coverage in one backend, correlating metrics, logs, traces, and events automatically. This unified approach simplifies troubleshooting and gives a complete view of system performance. Based on customer data, teams using CubeAPM report up to 40% faster mean time to resolution (MTTR) by eliminating the need to jump across tools or data silos. It’s ideal for organizations running distributed or multi-service architectures.

Grafana:
Grafana provides partial MELT coverage that depends on how many open-source components are connected. For full visibility, users need to combine Loki for logs, Tempo for traces, and Mimir for metrics, which increases setup and storage complexity. While powerful for visualization, this modular architecture makes Grafana better suited for teams with strong internal DevOps resources to manage multiple telemetry pipelines.

Splunk AppDynamics:
AppDynamics focuses primarily on APM and logs but lacks native support for events and trace correlation across infrastructure and applications. It performs well for performance monitoring but falls short in providing end-to-end observability. This makes it more suitable for enterprises using it alongside other analytics solutions rather than as a single-source observability platform.

Deployment (Self-hosted / On-Prem)

CubeAPM:
CubeAPM can be deployed self-hosted inside your VPC or on-prem, giving teams complete control over data location and security. Despite being self-managed, it’s delivered as a vendor-managed SaaS experience—automated updates, scaling, and maintenance are handled for you. This hybrid approach ensures compliance, while keeping data egress cost at zero.

Grafana:
Grafana offers both cloud and self-hosted options. The self-managed LGTM (Loki, Grafana, Tempo, Mimir) stack provides full flexibility but requires ongoing infrastructure management and scaling. Grafana Cloud removes this overhead but stores data on Grafana’s infrastructure, which can be a limitation for teams with strict data residency or compliance policies.

Splunk AppDynamics:
AppDynamics primarily runs as a cloud SaaS under the Cisco ecosystem, with on-prem deployments available only for enterprise customers. Its setup is more complex and typically requires professional services for installation and scaling. This approach suits large organizations with dedicated IT operations but may be excessive for mid-sized or agile teams looking for faster implementation.

Pricing: Approximate Cost for Small, Medium & Large Teams

Vendor pricing analysis shows that CubeAPM uses the simplest and most predictable cost structure among the three. It’s priced at $0.15 per GB ingested, applying uniformly across logs, metrics, and traces. Grafana Cloud separates billing per telemetry stream, while Splunk AppDynamics follows a host-based enterprise model that scales sharply with environment size. Here’s how the three compare for different team tiers.

Estimated Monthly Cost for Small Teams (~30 hosts):

• CubeAPM: $2,080/month
• Grafana Cloud: $3,870/month
• Splunk AppDynamics: $2,650/month

Estimated Monthly Cost for Mid-Sized Teams (~125 hosts):

• CubeAPM: $7,200/month
• Grafana Cloud: $11,875/month
• Splunk AppDynamics: $9,825/month

Estimated Monthly Cost for Large Teams (~250 hosts):

• CubeAPM: $15,200/month
• Grafana Cloud: $26,750/month
• Splunk AppDynamics: $20,150/month

Teams moving to CubeAPM consistently achieve 60–80% lower overall costs than Grafana or AppDynamics, thanks to a single ingestion rate and zero egress fees that remove billing surprises.

CubeAPM: Cost Overview

CubeAPM’s pricing model covers logs, traces, metrics, and events under one rate, removing the complexity of user-based or retention-based fees. There are no add-ons, hidden usage tiers, or transfer charges, giving complete cost visibility from day one.

Pricing:$0.15 per GB ingested

Typical Monthly Cost:

• Small teams (~30 hosts): $2,080
• Mid-sized teams (~125 hosts): $7,200
• Large teams (~250 hosts): $15,200

This straightforward structure gives DevOps and SRE teams full budget control, especially in Kubernetes or hybrid setups where data volumes fluctuate daily.

Grafana Cloud: Cost Overview

Grafana Cloud uses a modular billing model where each telemetry type is billed separately. Logs and traces are charged per gigabyte, while metrics and user licenses add incremental costs. It offers flexibility for smaller teams but grows expensive once multiple data sources are ingested simultaneously.

Pricing:

• Logs and Traces $0.50/GB,
• Metrics $0.05/GB,
• Pro Base $19/user/month

Typical Monthly Cost:

• Small teams (~30 hosts): ~$3,870
• Mid-sized teams (~125 hosts): ~$11,875
• Large teams (~250 hosts): ~$26,750
  Grafana Cloud suits visualization-driven workloads but becomes challenging to forecast as telemetry ingestion expands across teams and services.

Splunk AppDynamics: Cost Overview

Splunk AppDynamics applies a host-based enterprise pricing model that includes APM licensing and optional analytics modules. This approach works well for large organizations but quickly becomes costly for mid-sized deployments.

Pricing:

• Infra:$6/host/month
• Premium:$33/host/month

Typical Monthly Cost:

• Small teams (~30 hosts): $2,650
• Mid-sized teams (~125 hosts): $9,825
• Large teams (~250 hosts): $20,150
  While AppDynamics offers deep performance insights, its layered pricing and enterprise SLAs make cost prediction complex, particularly for teams scaling fast across multiple clusters.

In overall transparency and scalability, CubeAPM delivers the best pricing-to-performance ratio. Its single ingestion rate, zero egress cost, and predictable monthly spend make it the most budget-stable option for modern observability deployments.

Sampling Strategy

CubeAPM:
CubeAPM uses Smart Sampling, a context-aware mechanism that dynamically retains traces based on latency, errors, or anomalies. It achieves up to 95% compression, significantly cutting down ingestion volumes while keeping important transactions visible. This balance of cost and fidelity makes it ideal for high-traffic systems and microservice-heavy architectures.

Grafana:
Grafana employs probabilistic and tail-based sampling depending on component configuration. It’s effective for lightweight visualization use cases but lacks the contextual intelligence of CubeAPM’s smart sampling. As data volume increases, it often requires manual tuning to maintain performance and cost efficiency.

Splunk AppDynamics:
AppDynamics relies on fixed or adaptive sampling built into its Cisco agents. While this provides stable coverage for APM metrics, it offers less flexibility for dynamic, event-driven workloads. At larger scales, fixed sampling can result in unnecessary data capture and higher storage costs.

Data Retention

CubeAPM:
CubeAPM provides unlimited retention by storing telemetry directly in the customer’s cloud environment, ensuring compliance and zero egress cost. Long-term retention allows teams to perform year-over-year trend analysis and meet audit requirements without paying for additional storage tiers. This is particularly useful for fintech, healthcare, and government workloads that require historical trace data.

Grafana:
Grafana Cloud provides 15–30 days of default retention, extendable with paid tiers. For many teams, this short window is sufficient for active monitoring but less ideal for long-term diagnostics. Self-hosted Grafana instances can extend retention using external storage systems, but this adds to operational complexity.

Splunk AppDynamics:
AppDynamics’ retention period varies by license, typically 30 days by default. Extended retention requires higher-tier plans and additional data storage fees. While suitable for short-term debugging and performance tracking, it’s not optimized for historical analysis or compliance use cases.

Support Channel & TAT

CubeAPM:
CubeAPM provides direct Slack and WhatsApp access to core engineers with response times measured in minutes. This real-time collaboration model helps DevOps and SRE teams resolve incidents quickly without ticket delays. The company’s proactive engagement style aligns with production-critical use cases where immediate feedback matters.

Grafana:
Grafana offers community forums, email, and ticket-based support. Response times vary from a few hours to multiple days depending on the support tier. While the community is active, enterprise users often opt for paid support to ensure faster turnaround and consistent technical assistance.

Splunk AppDynamics:
AppDynamics operates through Cisco’s enterprise ticketing and SLA framework, providing different response priorities based on contract levels. Higher-tier support ensures faster resolutions but comes at a premium, often making it more suitable for large organizations with critical uptime requirements.

Known For

CubeAPM:
CubeAPM is known for being an OpenTelemetry-native, full-stack observability platform that delivers unified MELT coverage under one backend. With $0.15/GB predictable pricing, unlimited retention, and VPC or on-prem deployment options, it stands out for combining compliance, performance, and cost efficiency. Its Smart Sampling and zero egress model further position it as a future-proof choice for modern observability teams.

Grafana:
Grafana is best known for its visualization-first approach and extensive plugin ecosystem. It excels at creating rich dashboards and integrating data from multiple sources, making it a go-to solution for DevOps teams using open-source telemetry. However, achieving full observability requires additional components and management overhead.

Splunk AppDynamics:
AppDynamics is recognized for deep application performance analytics under the Cisco ecosystem. It offers mature enterprise features for monitoring, troubleshooting, and business impact analysis. While powerful for large-scale operations, its high licensing costs and proprietary structure make it less accessible to smaller, agile teams.

Which Tool Is Best for You? Why Brands Choose CubeAPM

CubeAPM stands out as the most balanced observability platform—combining self-hosting flexibility, OpenTelemetry-native design, and predictable pricing under a single backend. While Grafana and Splunk AppDynamics deliver strong visualization and analytics, CubeAPM eliminates the trade-offs between control, compliance, and cost efficiency.

Why Teams Choose CubeAPM

Most teams face a trade-off in observability—CubeAPM removes that compromise. Cloud SaaS tools like Datadog or New Relic are simple to run but send sensitive telemetry outside your cloud, failing residency and compliance checks.
CubeAPM bridges both worlds: deployed inside your VPC or on-prem for full data control, managed like SaaS with no Day-2 maintenance burden, and offering unlimited retention with predictable $0.15/GB pricing.

Benefits of Choosing CubeAPM

• Unified MELT Observability: Logs, metrics, events, and traces correlated in one backend.
• Multi-Agent Support: Works seamlessly with OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Datadog, Elastic, and New Relic agents.
• Extensive API Access: Open APIs for automation, integrations, and custom dashboards.
• Predictable Pricing: Flat $0.15/GB ingestion model—no user, infra, or retention fees.
• Self-Hosted in Your VPC: Complete data residency and compliance control with zero egress costs.
• Smart Sampling Engine: 95% compression while preserving latency and error-driven traces.
• Real-Time Support: Direct Slack or WhatsApp access to engineers with minute-level response times.
• Unlimited Retention: Store all telemetry data indefinitely without hidden storage charges.

CubeAPM gives DevOps, SRE, and platform teams the observability freedom they expect from cloud SaaS—without surrendering data control or predictability.

Grafana vs SplunkAppDynamics vs CubeAPM: Use Cases

Choose Grafana if

Your primary goal is visualization and dashboarding. Grafana is ideal for teams that already rely on open-source telemetry backends like Prometheus, Loki, and Tempo, and need a central UI to visualize diverse data sources. It fits startups and small DevOps teams comfortable managing infrastructure overhead and short-term retention, where deep correlation between logs and traces isn’t the top priority.

Choose Splunk AppDynamics if

You need enterprise-grade APM and business analytics tied to large application ecosystems. Splunk AppDynamics works best for organizations with established Cisco environments, dedicated IT operations, and compliance teams who require full performance visibility across applications. It’s suited for large enterprises that can handle complex deployment cycles and higher monthly spend in exchange for deep analytics and advanced SLA reporting.

Choose CubeAPM if

You want full-stack observability—metrics, events, logs, and traces—in one system that can run inside your own VPC. CubeAPM is built for teams that prioritize data sovereignty, unlimited retention, and predictable pricing. It’s the right fit for Kubernetes-heavy or multi-cloud deployments that need OpenTelemetry-native ingestion, zero egress cost, and instant correlation across telemetry. With 800+ integrations, real-time Slack/WhatsApp support, and 95% compression smart sampling, CubeAPM combines the control of self-hosting with the ease of SaaS management.

Conclusion

Grafana and Splunk AppDynamics deliver strong visualization and enterprise analytics but come with scaling costs, complex billing, and limited flexibility for modern telemetry.

CubeAPM removes these trade-offs by unifying observability under one OpenTelemetry-native backend with predictable pricing and full data control inside your VPC.

For teams seeking long-term retention, 800+ integrations, and instant visibility without layered billing, CubeAPM offers the simplest path to complete observability. Start your free trial or request a demo today.