Is Splunk Synthetic free?

No, Splunk requires $25/host/month with 200-host minimum ($5,000+/month). PingZen is free forever with up to 55 monitors.

Does Splunk have video recordings?

Yes, filmstrip view with screenshots at 100ms-1s intervals. PingZen focuses on protocol-level monitoring without browser rendering.

How many protocols does Splunk support?

Splunk Synthetic supports HTTP, TCP, UDP, and API tests. PingZen monitors 23 protocols including DNS, WebSocket, gRPC, SMTP.

Can Splunk monitor DNS or email?

No. Splunk focuses on HTTP/browser/API. PingZen monitors DNS, SMTP, IMAP, POP3, and 18 more protocols.

PingZen vs Splunk Synthetic: Free 22-Protocol Monitoring vs Enterprise Browser Tests

Splunk Synthetic Monitoring (formerly Rigor, acquired 2020) offers uptime, browser, and API tests from 22 global locations with video filmstrip recordings. Part of Splunk Observability Cloud. Infrastructure Suite from $25/host/month (200-host minimum). No free plan or trial.

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Free forever · No credit card · 5-min setup

Quick Comparison

Best Value

PingZen

Price: Free forever
Intervals: 1 minute
Protocols: 23 protocols
Alerts: 3 channels

Splunk Synthetic

Price: $25/host/month (200-host min = $5,000+/month)
Intervals: 1 min (uptime) / configurable (browser)
Protocols: 4 (HTTP, TCP, UDP, API)
Alerts: Email, Slack, PagerDuty, Webhook, VictorOps

Feature Comparison

Feature Comparison
Feature	PingZen	Splunk Synthetic
HTTP/HTTPS monitoring
TCP monitoring
UDP monitoring
API multi-step tests
Browser synthetic tests
Video filmstrip recordings
Deployment impact detection
DNS monitoring
WebSocket monitoring
gRPC monitoring
SMTP monitoring
SSL certificate monitoring
FTP monitoring
Telegram alerts
Status pages
Incident management
Heartbeat/cron monitoring Monitor cron jobs — your service pings PingZen to confirm it ran

Why Choose PingZen

Free forever vs $5,000+/month minimum
23 protocols vs 4 — DNS, WebSocket, gRPC, SMTP, SSL, FTP, WHOIS
1-minute intervals on free plan
Status pages and incident management included
Telegram, Slack, Discord, Webhook alerts
No 200-host minimum commitment

When Splunk Synthetic is Better

Video filmstrip recordings of browser tests
Multi-step browser user journey simulation
Deployment impact detection
Part of Splunk Observability Cloud (logs + metrics + traces)
Business impact analysis
Private synthetic locations

Not sure about PingZen vs Splunk Synthetic?

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Migration Tip

Splunk Synthetic is for enterprises already in the Splunk ecosystem needing browser testing with video evidence. PingZen is for teams needing 22-protocol uptime monitoring without $5,000+/month commitment.