Filigran vs Splunk
Filigran is a European alternative to Splunk: same security & identity use case, headquartered in France and governed by EU GDPR, while Splunk (Cisco) is based in the United States.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- Primary privacy law
- EU GDPR
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- Yes
- Free tier
- No
Splunk's query language and app ecosystem run so deep in security operations that ripping them out feels like replacing the nervous system. The lock-in has a price: ingest licensing commonly lists at 100 to 180 dollars per gigabyte per day. Since March 2024 the company is owned by Cisco, which paid 28 billion dollars to fold it into its US portfolio.
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
Filigran vs Splunk at a glance
| Filigran | Splunk | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | France | United States |
| Data jurisdiction | EU / EEA | United States |
| Primary privacy law | EU GDPR | Requires DPA + transfer assessment |
| US CLOUD Act exposure | No | Yes |
| Best for | Teams that need security & identity built for European data-protection requirements | Teams already invested in the Cisco ecosystem |
Choose Filigran if…
- You want a provider governed by a European privacy regime
- GDPR or public-sector data-protection requirements apply to you
- Open-source code and self-hosting matter to you
- You'd rather back the European tech ecosystem
Stick with Splunk if…
- You depend on integrations only available in the Cisco ecosystem
- Your organisation has no EU data-residency constraints
- Migration costs outweigh the jurisdiction benefits for now
Why choose Filigran over Splunk?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. Splunk is headquartered in the United States, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes: the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
Filigran removes that overhead. As a France-based provider, it operates under EU GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors such as health, public administration, and finance, that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.