Splunk is a data analytics and SIEM platform for log aggregation and security monitoring, while CrowdStrike is an endpoint detection and response (EDR) platform focused on threat prevention and incident response. Splunk excels at data analysis across IT operations, while CrowdStrike specializes in endpoint protection with AI-driven threat hunting.
Splunk vs CrowdStrike — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Data analytics and SIEM platform for log aggregation, monitoring, and operational intelligence.
Cloud-native endpoint detection and response (EDR) platform with AI-driven threat prevention.
Primary Function. Detection Speed (mean time to detection). Starting Price (annual, per user/endpoint). Implementation Complexity. Machine Learning Capabilities. Scope of Coverage. Incident Response Automation
Choose Splunk if you need comprehensive data analytics, correlation across all IT systems, or already have diverse log sources requiring centralized analysis. Choose CrowdStrike if endpoint security and threat detection are your primary concern, you want faster deployment with minimal infrastructure changes, or you prefer agent-based EDR with built-in incident response automation.
Splunk: $3,500-$5,500 | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: $450,000-$750,000 | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 21-30 days | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 30 days included | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 8-12 seconds | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 2,000+ apps | CrowdStrike Falcon: 400+
Splunk: 28% (2024) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 50+ algorithms | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 15-60 minutes (depends on alert configuration) | CrowdStrike Falcon: 2-5 minutes (AI-driven)
Starting Annual Cost (single user/endpoint)
Splunk: Varies by threat rules configured | CrowdStrike Falcon: 99.2%
Splunk: 800+ apps in Splunkbase | CrowdStrike Falcon: 200+ API integrations
Splunk: Heavy (varies, 500MB+) | CrowdStrike Falcon: Lightweight (30-50MB)
Splunk: Via SOAR integration (external) | CrowdStrike Falcon: Native (quarantine, isolate, kill process)
Splunk: $3,000 - $5,000 | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: $0.80 - $1.50 | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 4-8 (managed cloud) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 100-300ms | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 6 (HIPAA, SOC2, PCI-DSS, FedRAMP, GDPR, ISO27001) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 15+ (threat detection, predictive analytics, correlation, clustering) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: Unlimited (license-dependent) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 1 (24/7 enterprise SLA) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 7 weeks | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 120 months (10 years) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 700+ integrations | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 10-30 seconds | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: Leader | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 99.95% | CrowdStrike Falcon: 99.99%
Splunk: 4-6 weeks | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: $10,000-25,000 | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 14-42 days | CrowdStrike Falcon: 1-2 weeks (endpoint rollout)
Splunk: 15-30 minutes | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Default Data Retention (included in pricing)
Splunk: 12 months | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: Sampling-dependent (configurable) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 12 (HIPAA, PCI, SOC2, NIST) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 10,000+ (2024) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: $4,500+ (minimum commitment) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: $54,000-$108,000 | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 10,000+ | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 12+ algorithms | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: Enterprise Security module, threat detection, compliance dashboards | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: $2,400 | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: $250-350 | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: Not applicable (generates alerts) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: Limited (dashboards only) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: Full ML for anomaly detection, forecasting, root cause analysis | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: FedRAMP Authorized | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Base Monthly Pricing (1GB/day ingestion)
Splunk: $1,500-$2,000 | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 2,000-5,000ms | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 30-365 days | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 400+ built-in detections | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: Limited (add-on required) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Maximum Data Ingestion Per Day (Enterprise)
Splunk: Unlimited (licensing dependent) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: $5,000 minimum | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: $50,000-$200,000 | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 150+ (broader enterprise data ecosystem) | CrowdStrike Falcon: Endpoints only
Splunk: Yes (native) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 1-5 seconds | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 20+ (anomaly detection, forecasting, UEBA) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 8-16 weeks | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 2,500+ (proprietary, less open) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: $3,600 ($120/day minimum) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 30 (upgradeable to unlimited) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: Not offered | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 12,000 | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: Requires add-on license ($X additional) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: $4,500 | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: $36,000-$180,000 | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 8-12 weeks | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: Limited by ingestion | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: Advanced: forecasting, clustering, outlier detection | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: High (SPL requires training) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 1,024 GB/day (1TB) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: $35,000+ | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 75% of new users need training | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: Hybrid (on-premise, cloud, multi-cloud) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 85% adoption | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 500+ integrations | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Annual Licensing Cost (Small Deployment)
Splunk: $36,000 (minimum SaaS) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 10,000 | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 1-2 weeks | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: 100-500ms | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: N/A (proprietary) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: Native (SPL is SQL-like) | CrowdStrike Falcon: N/A
Splunk: Yes (Splunk Cloud, on-premise, hybrid) | CrowdStrike Falcon: Yes (SaaS only, no on-premise)
Splunk: Hours to days (after log ingestion/analysis) | CrowdStrike Falcon: < 5 seconds (real-time telemetry)
Splunk: 30-120 minutes (manual investigation) | CrowdStrike Falcon: 2-10 minutes (automated response actions)
Starting Price (Annual, 100 Endpoints/1TB Data)
Splunk: Windows, Mac, Linux, cloud-native environments | CrowdStrike Falcon: Windows, Mac, Linux, cloud-native environments
Splunk: 100+ (PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2, GDPR, NIST, CIS, FedRAMP) | CrowdStrike Falcon: 25+ (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS)
Splunk: Configurable (30-2000+ days) | CrowdStrike Falcon: 90 days standard (configurable to 7 years)
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: 8 minutes
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: 12 seconds
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: $200-400
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: 29,000+ enterprises
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: 3-5% CPU
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: 1M+ sensors
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: Limited autonomous actions with manual review
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: Cloud-only (SaaS requirement)
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: $2,500+
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: <1 minute
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: Windows, macOS, Linux
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: 40 (enterprise endpoints)
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: 4/5 (SOC team needed)
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: 4.2 minutes
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: 8-12 hours
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: 20+ billion/day
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: Yes - Falcon Horizon, threat graph, 90+ actor profiles
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: 2-4 hours
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: $425 (mid-range)
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: Standard (Falcon OverWatch)
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: Advanced AI-driven hunting with MITRE ATT&CK mapping
Splunk: N/A | CrowdStrike Falcon: Enterprise-specific licensing
How to choose between Splunk and CrowdStrike Falcon
Splunk vs CrowdStrike — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for Splunk vs CrowdStrike. Contains 134 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
Splunk vs CrowdStrike — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Splunk vs CrowdStrike.
Can Splunk and CrowdStrike work together?
Yes, they are complementary. Many enterprises use CrowdStrike for endpoint protection and detection, then send CrowdStrike events to Splunk for correlation with network logs, application data, and broader threat analysis. CrowdStrike has Splunk integration available, allowing bi-directional alerting and data enrichment.
Which is better for compliance (PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2)?
Splunk is stronger for compliance reporting because it centralizes all audit logs and provides built-in compliance dashboards for PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2, and other frameworks. CrowdStrike provides endpoint-specific compliance data but doesn't replace the need for a SIEM like Splunk for comprehensive compliance monitoring.
CrowdStrike is significantly easier—deploy a lightweight agent to endpoints in 1-2 weeks with minimal configuration. Splunk requires 8-16 weeks of planning, infrastructure setup, log source configuration, and tuning across your entire environment, making it more complex for large deployments.
What's the biggest cost difference at scale?
CrowdStrike costs scale linearly per endpoint ($2,000-4,000/endpoint/year). Splunk costs scale with data ingestion volume; organizations ingesting 1TB+ daily can exceed $200k+ annually. For 1,000 endpoints, CrowdStrike averages $2-4M annually; Splunk at high volume can cost 2-3x more depending on data retention and licensing model.
Does Splunk detect endpoint threats as fast as CrowdStrike?
No. CrowdStrike's AI-driven detection responds in seconds to behavioral anomalies and known threats. Splunk detects based on log patterns and rules, which takes 15-60+ minutes depending on how frequently logs arrive and how alert rules are configured. CrowdStrike is purpose-built for speed; Splunk is built for breadth.
How to Choose Between Splunk and CrowdStrike Falcon
Primary Function: Splunk has SIEM, Log Analytics, Observability, while CrowdStrike Falcon has Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR).
Consider: Detection Speed (mean time to detection)
Detection Speed (mean time to detection): Splunk has Minutes to hours depending on rules, while CrowdStrike Falcon has Seconds to minutes with AI.
Consider: Starting Price (annual, per user/endpoint)
Starting Price (annual, per user/endpoint): Splunk has $3,000-6,000 per user/year, while CrowdStrike Falcon has $2,000-4,000 per endpoint/year.
Implementation Complexity: Splunk has High - requires log source configuration, while CrowdStrike Falcon has Low - lightweight agent deployment.
Machine Learning Capabilities: Splunk has Custom ML models and anomaly detection, while CrowdStrike Falcon has AI-driven behavioral analysis (Falcon AI).
Scope of Coverage: Splunk has All data sources (logs, metrics, traces, security), while CrowdStrike Falcon has Endpoints only (workstations, servers).
Incident Response Automation: Splunk has Via Splunk SOAR integration, while CrowdStrike Falcon has Native automated response actions.