CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Cribl vs Splunk

Cribl sells the AI Platform for Telemetry to IT and security teams. Splunk sells a data platform for security, observability, and AI, and says the platform unifies petabyte-scale machine data wherever it lives. CISO Tribune files both under Security data lakes and pipelines and SIEM. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • Cribl
  • Splunk
Cribl vs Splunk: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
CriblCribl sells the AI Platform for Telemetry to IT and security teams.cribl.ioSplunkSplunk sells a data platform for security, observability, and AI, and says the platform unifies petabyte-scale machine data wherever it lives.splunk.com
What it sells
  • Cribl SearchCribl Search searches data in place across data lakes, object stores, analytics services, and API endpoints.
  • Cribl Lake[2][9]Cribl Lake receives data that is less likely to be frequently used.
  • Cribl EdgeCribl Edge is a vendor-neutral agent for endpoint data collection.
  • Cribl GuardCribl Guard uses AI to spot sensitive data as it flows through Cribl Stream.
  • Cribl PacksCribl Packs are bundles that package data routes, pipelines, and configurations.
  • Cribl Detect[4][15]Cribl Detect is offered as a SIEM.
  • Cribl as Code[7]Cribl as Code gives teams programmatic control to automate, configure, and manage their Cribl environment.
  • Splunk Cloud Platform[12][22][23][24]A platform to collect, index, and visualize data in the cloud.
  • Splunk Enterprise[1][12][14][17][18][22][24]A platform to collect, index, and visualize data using an on-premises engine.
  • Splunk Enterprise Security[1][14][17][18]A Splunk solution for security operations.
  • Federated Search[15][19]A search layer across the data estate.
  • Splunk AI Assistant[19]A natural-language entry point to the search workflow.
  • Splunk Edge Processor[21]A processor that applies cryptographic functions to data as it flows on-premises.
  • Splunk AI Toolkit[20]Guided workflows to build and deploy models.
  • Splunk Log Observer Connect[22]An integration that links logs to Splunk Observability Cloud.
Categories
Headquarters
San Francisco, United StatesSan Jose, United States[4]
Founded
2018[3]2003[3]
Ownership and funding
Privately held[5][14]Owned by Cisco[2][15][16][25]
Named customers
Not stated on its pages
Recent news
  • September 29, 2026Cribl introduced Cribl Detect, a SIEM built on its open data platform, claimed to cost up to 50% less than other companies.[15]
  • August 19, 2026Cribl acquired technology assets from Radiant Security's AI-native security operations center product, including intellectual property for autonomously triaging and investigating security alerts.[14]
  • September 15, 2026Cisco released Cisco AI POD for Splunk, which brings Splunk AI features to on-premises customers on Cisco infrastructure with NVIDIA computing.[10]
  • May 28, 2026Splunk reported that Cisco has completed its acquisition of Galileo, with plans to integrate Galileo technology into Splunk Observability.[25]
  • April 9, 2026Cisco agreed to buy AI observability startup Galileo Technologies to add its agent monitoring tools to the Splunk observability platform.[11]
  • February 18, 2026Splunk announced that its hosted AI models are generally available for Splunk Cloud Platform customers.[23]
  • January 16, 2026Splunk announced the release of Splunk Enterprise 10.2 and Splunk Cloud Platform 10.2.[24]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 3, 2026[16]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, Cribl sells mainly to IT and security teams at many of the world's largest enterprises. Its pages describe SREs, devs, and security teams who collect once and search anywhere. Cribl offers a consumption-based model on its cloud platform and volume-based licensing for customers who run their own infrastructure.From its own pages, Splunk sells mainly to organisations that want security, observability, and AI data on one platform. Splunk describes SOC teams that index authentication and firewall data for real-time detections. Splunk describes a healthcare organization that monitors logs from medical devices. Splunk offers material for CISOs and boards on priorities, budgeting, compliance, and success metrics. Splunk describes deployments on Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Cloud Platform.
Last verified
September 27, 2026October 10, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Cribl and Splunk are both filed under Security data lakes and pipelines and SIEM.
  • Both are headquartered in the United States.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Cribl's primary category is Security data lakes and pipelines; Splunk's is SIEM.
  • Splunk is also filed under SOAR and security automation.
  • Cribl lists Cribl Search, Cribl Lake, Cribl Edge, Cribl Guard, Cribl Packs and 2 more. Splunk lists Splunk Cloud Platform, Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Federated Search, Splunk AI Assistant and 3 more.
  • Cribl is headquartered in San Francisco, United States. Splunk is headquartered in San Jose, United States.
  • Cribl was founded in 2018. Splunk was founded in 2003.
  • Cribl is privately held. Splunk is owned by Cisco.
  • Splunk publicly names Carrefour, Intel, FINRA, Alaska Airlines and Honda of Alabama.

What it sells: Cribl

What Cribl Search does
Cribl Search is powered by a federated engine that searches data at rest and a lakehouse engine that searches data as soon as it is ingested. Cribl Search includes collaborative Notebooks and AI-assisted KQL query generation. Cribl Search is a standalone offering.
What Cribl Guard does
Cribl Guard spots data like credit cards or social security numbers. Human-in-the-loop review lets operators approve or override actions before data is masked or blocked.

What it sells: Splunk

What Splunk Cloud Platform does[12][22][23][24]
Splunk Cloud Platform is described as a way to collect, index, and visualize data in the cloud. Splunk says data can be brought in with agents, Splunk-supported integrations, and developer add-ons.
What Splunk Enterprise Security does[1][14][17][18]
Splunk names Splunk Enterprise Security among its solutions that use pre-written macros. Splunk describes AI Assistant in Security as available to cloud customers of Splunk Enterprise Security.
What Federated Search does[15][19]
Federated Search is described as the unifying search layer across the data estate. It covers Splunk-managed locations and supported customer-managed stores such as Amazon S3 and Snowflake.
What Splunk AI Assistant does[19]
Splunk AI Assistant provides a natural-language entry point to the search workflow. With Agent Mode enabled, an analyst can describe the investigation to perform instead of constructing each search.

Questions about Cribl and Splunk

What do Cribl and Splunk sell?
Cribl sells Cribl Search, Cribl Lake, Cribl Edge, Cribl Guard, Cribl Packs and 2 more. Splunk sells Splunk Cloud Platform, Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Federated Search, Splunk AI Assistant and 3 more.
Are Cribl and Splunk in the same category?
They share Security data lakes and pipelines and SIEM. Cribl's primary category is Security data lakes and pipelines and Splunk's is SIEM.
Where are Cribl and Splunk headquartered?
Cribl is headquartered in San Francisco, United States. Splunk is headquartered in San Jose, United States.
When were Cribl and Splunk founded?
Cribl was founded in 2018. Splunk was founded in 2003.
Who owns Cribl and Splunk?
Cribl is privately held. Splunk is owned by Cisco.
Which customers do Cribl and Splunk name?
Splunk publicly names Carrefour, Intel, FINRA, Alaska Airlines and Honda of Alabama.
Who are Cribl and Splunk sold to?
From its own pages, Cribl sells mainly to IT and security teams at many of the world's largest enterprises. From its own pages, Splunk sells mainly to organisations that want security, observability, and AI data on one platform.
What have Cribl and Splunk announced recently?
September 29, 2026: Cribl introduced Cribl Detect, a SIEM built on its open data platform, claimed to cost up to 50% less than other companies. September 15, 2026: Cisco released Cisco AI POD for Splunk, which brings Splunk AI features to on-premises customers on Cisco infrastructure with NVIDIA computing.

About Cribl

Cribl sells the AI Platform for Telemetry to IT and security teams. Cribl says it was founded to address a problem in which telemetry was exploding while the tools to manage and search it were rigid, expensive, and siloed. Cribl started by giving customers a way to route and shape telemetry, so they could keep more data and send it to the right places. Cribl describes its platform as vendor-agnostic, with a telemetry engine to automate investigations. Cribl says telemetry data continues to grow at 28% a year and logging systems are at capacity. Cribl says its platform turns telemetry into a shared, reusable foundation for IT, security, and AI-driven operations.[4][6][7][10][11]

Cribl Stream integrates with 80+ sources and destinations, and portable Packs move entire pipelines as reusable bundles. Cribl Packs are bundles that package data routes, pipelines, and configurations. Collectors are fully supported in Cribl Packs for managing and shipping data from cloud, databases, and APIs. Copilot Editor in Cribl Stream maps schemas, transforms data, and filters data from plain language prompts.[1][7]

Cribl Stream offers dynamic sampling to filter events or roll up logs into metrics. Cribl Stream can keep a full-fidelity copy in low-cost storage or a data lake and replay it later. Cribl Guard uses AI to spot sensitive data, like credit cards or social security numbers, as it flows through Cribl Stream. Cribl Guard includes human-in-the-loop review, so operators can approve or override actions before data is masked or blocked. Cribl as Code gives security, IT, and engineering teams programmatic control to automate, configure, and manage their Cribl environment.[7][11]

Cribl Edge is a vendor-neutral agent for endpoint data collection. Cribl Edge is an agent for file monitoring, upgrades, and configurations that are managed through a GUI. Cribl Lake receives data that is less likely to be frequently used. Cribl Lake and Cribl Search are used for lower-cost retention and in-place search. Cribl Search is powered by a federated engine that searches data at rest and a lakehouse engine that searches data as soon as it is ingested. Cribl Search is a standalone offering, so Cribl Stream is not required to use it.[8][9][10]

Cribl Search searches data in place and supports data lakes, object stores, analytics services, API endpoints, and more. Cribl Search includes AI-guided incident investigations, collaborative Notebooks, AI-assisted KQL query generation, reporting, and visualizations.

Cribl Detect is offered as a SIEM. Cribl describes its SIEM approach as decoupling analysis from storage. Cribl Copilot Editor helps create pipelines using natural language to accelerate migration to new SIEMs and storage locations. Cribl Stream adds context to security data sources, like GeoIP, indicators of compromise, and any other threat intelligence database. Cribl supports storing data in low-cost object storage and replaying it to any destination for incident response. Cribl says most organizations route all telemetry, logs, metrics, and traces, into a single costly tier. Cribl supports routing frequently used data to SIEMs and observability tools, less-used data to a lakehouse, and data to an archive tier for retention requirements. Cribl supports delivering log management as a governed, multi-tenant shared service.[4][9][10][11]

Cribl offers a consumption-based model on its cloud platform, where Cribl Credits let customers allocate spending as demands change. Cribl offers volume-based licensing for Stream and Edge for customers who run their own infrastructure. Cribl offers multiple editions of its product suite. Enterprise customers get up to 3 Workspaces included for free, and additional Workspaces cost 250 credits per Workspace per month. FinOps Center tracks changes in data usage over time and ties them to events such as onboarding new sources or infrastructure shifts. Cribl Consulting Services provides advisory, delivery, optimization, and enablement work across a customer's Cribl environment, purchased through Service Credits.[12][13]

Cribl was formed in San Francisco, California. Cribl completed a Series A with $7.4M in funding and a Series B with $35M raised, led by Sequoia Capital. Cribl announced a Series C with $200M led by Greylock and Redpoint Ventures. Cribl secured $150M in Series D funding led by Tiger Global Management. Cribl closed a $319 million Series E at a $3.5 billion valuation. Cribl acquired CardinalOps to expand its AI platform into security operations. Cribl achieved FedRAMP Authority to Operate for U.S. federal government agencies.[2][4][7][10][12]

Cribl on the record

Sources

Cribl full record

  1. [1]StreamCribl · cribl.io · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]cribl.ioCribl · cribl.io · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Cribl announces 319m series eCribl · cribl.io · published August 27, 2024 · Tier A
  4. [4]The AI Platform for Telemetry | CriblCribl · undated page, accessed October 27, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]About Cribl | CriblCribl · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Data Optimization Initiative | CriblCribl · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Cribl Stream - Simplify Data Collection, Control, & Routing | CriblCribl · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Consolidate Multiple Legacy Agents to Save Resources | CriblCribl · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Cribl data tiering solution: ​​boost telemetry value & speed | CriblCribl · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Cribl Search - Faster Log Investigations Without SIEM Costs or Complexity | CriblCribl · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]SIEM Migrations Made Easier with Cribl | CriblCribl · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Cribl Pricing Plans | CriblCribl · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Cribl Service Credits | CriblCribl · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Cribl Advances AI-Powered Security Operations with New AI SOC AcquisitionCribl · published August 19, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Introducing Cribl Detect, Delivering a New Way to SIEMCribl · published September 29, 2026 · Tier A

Splunk full record

  1. [1]ProductsSplunk · splunk.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Cisco completes acquisition of splunkCisco · newsroom.cisco.com · published March 18, 2024 · Tier A
  3. [3]Get the most out of splunk infrastructure monitoring and splunk itsiSplunk · splunk.com · published November 17, 2020 · Tier A
  4. [4]Contact usSplunk · splunk.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]CarrefourSplunk · splunk.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]IntelSplunk · splunk.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]FinraSplunk · splunk.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Alaska airlinesSplunk · splunk.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]HondaSplunk · splunk.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Cisco delivers trusted ai at scale through new splunk advancementsCisco · newsroom.cisco.com · published September 15, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Cisco buys galileo strengthen splunks agentic monitoring capabilitiesSiliconANGLE · siliconangle.com · published April 9, 2026 · Tier B
  12. [12]Get Data In | Platform (last updated lastModifiedISO)Splunk · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Analytics Story: Warzone RAT | Splunk Security ContentSplunk · published May 13, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Analytics Story: Trickbot | Splunk Security ContentSplunk · published May 13, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Splunk | Data Platform for Security, Observability & AISplunk · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]Splunk Enterprise Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & FeaturesG2 · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier C
  17. [17]Using advanced macros - Splunk LanternSplunk Lantern · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  18. [18]L’IA au service de la sécurité | SplunkSplunk · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  19. [19]Investigating and searching across your data estate with Cisco Data Fabric powered by the Splunk platform - Splunk LanternSplunk Lantern · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  20. [20]Preparing data for use with the Splunk AI Toolkit - Splunk LanternSplunk Lantern · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  21. [21]De-identifying PII consistently with hashing in Edge Processor - Splunk LanternSplunk Lantern · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  22. [22]Using Log Observer Connect with Cloud Platform - Splunk LanternSplunk Lantern · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  23. [23]Splunk Launches Hosted Generative AI Models: Native-AI Insights, Zero Setup, Maximum SecuritySplunk · published February 18, 2026 · Tier A
  24. [24]Announcing Splunk Enterprise 10.2 & Splunk Cloud Platform 10.2 – Next Generation Querying & AnalyticsSplunk · published January 16, 2026 · Tier A
  25. [25]Splunk Observability + Galileo: Bridging the AI Trust GapSplunk · published May 28, 2026 · Tier A

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