Can Site24x7 replace Splunk?

For most monitoring use cases — yes. For genuine SIEM capability (security event correlation, threat detection, compliance audit trail completeness, incident response workflows) — no. Site24x7 includes log management but is not a full SIEM. Organizations needing genuine SIEM should evaluate Splunk, Elastic Security, Microsoft Sentinel, or Datadog Cloud SIEM. Site24x7 is best positioned as the IT and infrastructure monitoring layer with optional log management; SIEM is a separate decision.

How much does Datadog cost for a typical SaaS startup?

Highly variable. For a Series A SaaS with 20 hosts, basic APM, and moderate log volume: expect $1,000-3,000/month. For Series B with 100 hosts, microservices APM, RUM, and full observability: expect $5,000-15,000/month. For Series C with 500+ hosts and full Datadog stack: expect $30,000+/month. Datadog's pricing scales aggressively with infrastructure size and feature adoption. Active cost optimization (sampling rates, log retention, package selection) becomes a meaningful operational discipline at scale.

Is Microsoft Sentinel a credible SIEM alternative?

Yes — particularly for Microsoft-365-centric and Azure-centric organizations. Microsoft Sentinel offers cloud SIEM with native integration to Microsoft Defender, Microsoft 365 logs, Azure resources, and Microsoft's threat intelligence. Pricing is consumption-based (per-GB ingested), competitive with alternatives at moderate scale. For Microsoft-stack organizations, Microsoft Sentinel is increasingly the default SIEM choice over third-party alternatives. Non-Microsoft-centric organizations have less reason to choose Microsoft Sentinel over Splunk, Elastic, or Datadog Cloud SIEM.

Best Cloud Monitoring Tools 2026: Site24x7 vs Datadog vs Splunk Compared

Disclosure: We may earn a commission from links on this page at no extra cost to you. See our full affiliate disclosure.

Quick Comparison

Tool	Best For	Starting Price	Action
Site24x7	SMBs and IT teams that need all-in-one cloud monitoring (web, server, application, network, log) without enterprise APM pricing.	From $9/mo	Start Free Trial
Datadog Cloud Security	Best for cloud-native teams already using Datadog for observability who want unified security and monitoring in one platform	From $0.20/GB analyzed (Cloud SIEM)	Start Free Trial
Splunk Enterprise Security	Best for large enterprises and SOCs needing the most powerful and flexible SIEM with extensive threat intelligence and correlation	Custom pricing — contact sales	Request Demo
Elastic Security	Best for security teams who want open-source SIEM flexibility with endpoint protection in one Elastic Stack deployment	Free (self-hosted); from $95/mo (Elastic Cloud)	Start Free

Quick Verdict

**Site24x7** is the right choice for SMBs and mid-market organizations needing all-in-one IT and infrastructure monitoring at SMB-friendly pricing — uptime, server, application, network, and log management in one subscription. **Datadog** is the right choice for cloud-native SaaS companies needing the deepest application performance monitoring and the broadest observability ecosystem. **Splunk Enterprise Security** remains the enterprise SIEM standard for organizations with dedicated SOCs handling regulatory compliance. **Elastic Security** is the right choice for organizations preferring open-source-aligned SIEM with strong search and log analytics capabilities.

Expert Perspective

Cloud monitoring and SIEM in 2026 has clearly bifurcated by buyer profile. SMBs and mid-market organizations need broad coverage at moderate cost — Site24x7 occupies this sweet spot uniquely well. Cloud-native technology companies (SaaS, fintech, AI infrastructure) need APM depth and a broad observability ecosystem — Datadog dominates this segment. Large enterprises with dedicated SOCs and compliance burdens need full SIEM — Splunk and Elastic Security are the enterprise standards, with Microsoft Sentinel growing rapidly in Microsoft-365-centric enterprises. From G2 review patterns and customer purchase data as of Q1 2026, the most-impactful insight is that "cloud monitoring" and "SIEM" are increasingly distinct categories with different right answers. Buying Splunk for monitoring needs creates SOC-tier complexity at enterprise pricing for what most SMBs solve with Site24x7 at 5-10% the cost. Conversely, buying Site24x7 for genuine SIEM needs leaves regulatory compliance and threat hunting unaddressed. For most BizTechScout-audience businesses (5-100 employees), Site24x7 is the right answer for IT and infrastructure monitoring; SIEM is typically not the right buy until either compliance requires it or the security team is large enough to operationalize it (typically 100+ employees with at least one dedicated security analyst).

This reflects our editorial team's perspective based on research and publicly available documentation.

Introduction

"Cloud monitoring" in 2026 covers four overlapping categories: infrastructure monitoring (server / VM / container performance), application performance monitoring (APM, tracking application latency and errors), log management (collecting and searching logs from all sources), and security event correlation (SIEM, detecting threats from log patterns). The right tool depends on which of these you need.

This guide compares four widely deployed cloud monitoring and SIEM platforms in 2026: Site24x7, Datadog, Splunk Enterprise Security, and Elastic Security. The four span SMB-affordable monitoring (Site24x7), enterprise APM (Datadog), enterprise SIEM (Splunk), and open-source-aligned SIEM (Elastic).

BizTechScout is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you.

Who this guide is for: IT managers, security leads, DevOps engineers, and operations leaders responsible for monitoring and observability at organizations of 25-1,000+ employees.

At-a-Glance Comparison

Criterion	Site24x7	Datadog	Splunk Enterprise Security	Elastic Security
Primary use case	All-in-one monitoring	Cloud-native APM + monitoring	Enterprise SIEM	SIEM + open-source aligned
Pricing	$9-89/mo feature packs	$15-31/host/mo	Custom enterprise	Open-source free + paid
APM depth	Solid (mid-market)	Industry-leading	Limited	Mid
SIEM capability	Log management only	Cloud SIEM available	Industry-leading	Strong
Cloud platform support	AWS, Azure, GCP	All major + extensive	All major	All major
Best fit	SMB / mid-market IT	Cloud-native SaaS	Large enterprise SOC	Open-source-aligned orgs
Affiliate availability	PartnerStack	Limited	Limited	Limited

How to Choose Between Categories

The decision tree:

Are you a cloud-native technology company (SaaS, fintech, AI)? Datadog is typically the right answer — deepest APM and broadest cloud-native ecosystem.
Are you an SMB or mid-market organization needing broad IT monitoring? Site24x7 is typically the right answer — covers websites, servers, applications, network devices, and basic log management at SMB-friendly pricing.
Do you have a dedicated security operations center? SIEM (Splunk, Elastic, Microsoft Sentinel) becomes appropriate. Without dedicated SOC capability, SIEM is typically over-buying — you pay for capability you can't operationalize.
Are you on Microsoft 365 / Azure? Microsoft Sentinel (cloud SIEM) is increasingly the default Microsoft-stack SIEM choice. Pricing and integration match Microsoft-centric environments better than third-party SIEMs.

1. Site24x7 — Best for SMB / Mid-Market All-in-One Monitoring

Bottom line: Site24x7 is the strongest choice for SMBs and mid-market organizations needing broad IT monitoring at SMB-friendly pricing — website uptime, server, application, network, and log management in one platform.

The pay-per-feature-pack pricing model is fundamentally different from Datadog's pay-per-host model and SMB-friendlier. Web Light at $9/month covers 10 monitors. Pro at $35/month adds APM and RUM. Classic at $89/month adds advanced features. Add-on packs (server, application, network, log management) extend coverage as needed.

100+ application integrations, 30+ alerting channels, and AI-powered anomaly detection on higher tiers round out the platform. PartnerStack-based affiliate program available.

Recommended for: Most SMBs and mid-market organizations needing IT and infrastructure monitoring without enterprise APM complexity.

2. Datadog — Best for Cloud-Native APM

Bottom line: Datadog is the right choice for cloud-native technology companies needing the deepest application performance monitoring, distributed tracing, and broad observability ecosystem.

The platform's APM capabilities are the deepest in the category — automatic distributed tracing across microservices, code-level performance profiling, real user monitoring with session replay, and synthetic monitoring. The 600+ integrations cover essentially every cloud service, CI/CD platform, and runtime.

Pricing scales aggressively with infrastructure size — $15-31/host/month plus per-feature add-ons. For organizations growing rapidly, Datadog bills can grow rapidly. Cost optimization (sampling, retention tuning, package selection) is an active operational discipline at scale.

Recommended for: Cloud-native SaaS companies, organizations with complex distributed applications, teams with engineering resources to operationalize Datadog's depth.

3. Splunk Enterprise Security — Best for Large Enterprise SIEM

Bottom line: Splunk Enterprise Security remains the enterprise SIEM standard for organizations with dedicated SOCs, regulatory compliance burdens, and the budget to support enterprise-tier licensing.

Splunk's depth in security event correlation, threat detection content, and incident response workflows is industry-leading. The Splunk Enterprise Security app provides pre-built compliance content for HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SOX, and other regulatory frameworks. Splunk Phantom (now part of Splunk SOAR) extends into security orchestration and automated response.

Pricing is custom and enterprise-tier — typically $50,000+/year for serious deployments, with large enterprise deployments running into seven figures. The capability is genuine; the operational and financial commitment is non-trivial.

Recommended for: Large enterprises (1,000+ employees) with dedicated SOCs, regulated industries with compliance requirements, organizations with security operations sophistication.

4. Elastic Security — Best Open-Source-Aligned SIEM

Bottom line: Elastic Security is the right choice for organizations preferring open-source-aligned SIEM with strong search capabilities — particularly for log-heavy workloads and search-driven threat hunting.

Built on the Elasticsearch / Kibana stack, Elastic Security provides SIEM capabilities with the search performance Elastic is known for. The open-source core means self-hosted deployment is possible; managed cloud (Elastic Cloud) is also available for organizations preferring SaaS.

Pricing is more transparent than Splunk's — published rate cards for cloud deployment, scaling with data volume rather than aggressive enterprise pricing. The depth in search-driven analytics is differentiated; the depth in pre-built compliance content trails Splunk.

Recommended for: Organizations preferring open-source-aligned tools, log-heavy workloads requiring strong search performance, teams comfortable with self-hosted SIEM infrastructure.

Use Cases — Which Tool Fits Your Situation

Scenario 1 — 50-Employee SaaS Company

A 50-person SaaS company needs to monitor 20 websites/APIs, 5 EC2 servers, 3 RDS databases, and basic application performance. No dedicated security team.

Recommended pick: Site24x7 Pro plan ($35/month) plus Server pack and Application pack. Total cost ~$100-150/month. Covers all monitoring needs at meaningful cost savings versus Datadog at this scale.

Scenario 2 — Cloud-Native Fintech Series B

A fintech Series B with 80 engineers, 40+ microservices on Kubernetes, and need for distributed tracing across the application stack. Strong engineering capability.

Recommended pick: Datadog. APM depth, distributed tracing, and Kubernetes integration justify the pricing. Expect $5,000-15,000/month based on infrastructure size — significant but appropriate for the value delivered.

Scenario 3 — 1,500-Employee Enterprise with Compliance

A 1,500-person regulated business has a dedicated SOC, compliance requirements (PCI-DSS, SOC 2), and needs SIEM with audit trail completeness for compliance reporting.

Recommended pick: Splunk Enterprise Security. The dedicated SOC can leverage Splunk's depth, the compliance content libraries match the regulatory burden, and the budget supports enterprise-tier pricing.

Final Verdict

Best for SMB / Mid-Market IT Monitoring: Site24x7. All-in-one breadth at SMB-friendly pricing.

Best for Cloud-Native SaaS APM: Datadog. Industry-leading APM and observability ecosystem.

Best Enterprise SIEM: Splunk Enterprise Security. Industry standard for SOC-equipped organizations.

Best Open-Source-Aligned SIEM: Elastic Security. Search performance, transparent pricing.

For broader monitoring context, see our best SIEM solutions 2026 existing comparison.

Written by

Editorial Team

Founder & Lead Researcher

Expert in reviewing and evaluating business software and technology tools.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between monitoring and SIEM?

Monitoring tools (Site24x7, Datadog) track infrastructure and application performance — uptime, latency, error rates, resource utilization. The goal is operational reliability. SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) tools (Splunk, Elastic Security) collect logs and security events for threat detection, incident response, and compliance reporting. The goal is security operations. The categories overlap (both deal with logs) but the user persona, alert content, and operational workflows differ. Most organizations need monitoring; SIEM becomes appropriate when you have dedicated security operations capability.

Is Datadog overkill for a small business?

Often yes. Datadog's pricing model and feature depth are calibrated for cloud-native technology companies with engineering teams. For typical SMBs running web infrastructure, traditional applications, and basic cloud services, Site24x7 typically delivers the practical monitoring value at 10-25% the cost. Switching from Datadog to Site24x7 is a common cost-reduction move at SMB scale. Datadog becomes appropriate when application complexity (microservices, distributed tracing, deep cloud-native architecture) requires Datadog's depth that simpler tools don't provide.

When does an organization need a SIEM?

When at least three conditions are met: (1) you have at least one dedicated security analyst capable of triaging SIEM alerts, (2) compliance frameworks (SOC 2, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, NIST) explicitly require centralized security monitoring, and (3) the organization is large enough that distributed log review across applications is operationally infeasible. Typically this is 100+ employees with mature security capability, or smaller organizations in highly regulated industries. Without dedicated SOC capability, SIEM tools generate alerts that nobody triages — paying for capability you can't operationalize.

More SIEM & Monitoring Articles Browse All Categories

Sales & Marketing

Operations & HR

Industry-Specific

IT & Creative