AlienVault OSSIM vs NetWitness Platform comparison

AT&T and NetWitness are both solutions in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category. AT&T is ranked #12 with an average rating of 7.2, while NetWitness is ranked #31 with an average rating of 8.3. AT&T holds a 1.9% mindshare in SIEM, compared to NetWitness’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of AT&T users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 75% of NetWitness users who would recommend it.

AlienVault OSSIM

Read 31 AlienVault OSSIM reviews

4,311 Views
4,225 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

NetWitness Platform

Read 36 NetWitness Platform reviews

1,929 Views
1,196 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

AlienVault OSSIM

NetWitness Platform

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

NetWitness Platform and AlienVault OSSIM are reputable cybersecurity solutions known for their advanced threat detection capabilities. While users prefer AlienVault OSSIM's support and pricing, NetWitness Platform's comprehensive features justify its cost.

Features: NetWitness Platform offers deep packet inspection, threat intelligence, and more advanced extensive features. AlienVault OSSIM is recognized for its simplicity and integration capabilities, making it user-friendly.

Room for Improvement: NetWitness needs better scalability and third-party tool integration. AlienVault OSSIM requires enhanced documentation and more frequent updates, focusing on support improvements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: NetWitness Platform's deployment is complex but supported by strong customer service. AlienVault OSSIM provides a straightforward deployment process with reliable customer support.

Pricing and ROI: NetWitness Platform has higher setup costs but offers significant ROI through its enhanced capabilities. AlienVault OSSIM offers competitive pricing and reasonable ROI, being more cost-effective upfront.

To learn more, read our detailed AlienVault OSSIM vs. NetWitness Platform Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

AlienVault OSSIM vs. NetWitness Platform

December 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

AlienVault OSSIM

Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

12th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NetWitness Platform

Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

31st

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Log Management (34th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of AlienVault OSSIM is 1.9%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetWitness Platform is 0.8%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
AlienVault OSSIM	1.9%
NetWitness Platform	0.8%
Other	97.3%

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

Featured Reviews

Brandon Pearce

Independent Contractor at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees

Enables cost-effective security management for small businesses

Scaling for USM is always challenging for any product unless it is purpose-built or overbuilt at the front end. They will use Palo Alto and its competitors, and LevelBlue will manage that implementation. The main area where the AlienVault product was lacking around the 2018 timeframe was in its ability to scale. By pushing it to a cloud-based system, they've largely alleviated scale issues. It's native in Amazon but will also run in Azure. They have worked with cloud service providers to offer enough throughput at a cost reasonable for a corporation. Scaling was their biggest problem, and they've largely conquered those issues.

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MOTASHIM Al Razi

CISO at One Bank Limited

It is a stable solution, but they should make the user interface easier to understand

The solution's initial setup takes work. We have to organize multiple paths and many features. The deployment process takes less than a week. But it takes a month to complete if we want to make the solution smarter by integrating it with various devices. I rate the process as a six out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Inbuilt IDS, inbuilt integration with threat intelligence platform and with vulnerability assessment modules."

"The threat alerts it gives me from time to time on harmful code within the network, or if they are generating any network traffic, are very useful."

"The product is majorly used for threat detection of the agents on servers and endpoints."

"I recommend it due to the experience of the people running it."

"Its user-friendliness is the most valuable. It is very easy to use and explore. The dashboard is very well packaged and integrated. You don't have to spend a lot of time in configuring it and checking out the RPM etc. It is also free and very powerful."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"AlienVault OSSIM's GUI is very user-friendly."

"There are a lot of people you will find using OSSIM since they are also offering OTX as a service"

More AlienVault OSSIM pros

"The most valuable features are its ingestion of logs and raising of alerts based on those logs."

"The most valuable feature is the hunting ability to work in a CERT."

"Setting up NetWitness is straightforward. There are multiple connectors, including standard and specialized connectors. One purpose of the connectors is the enhanced capability integrate the custom applications. NetWitness comes with E6 appliances and application images that we use for the initial configurations and for the OS stack information. From there, you can consider the correlation rules, integrate the different log sources, and easily create correlation rules and backlog reports."

"The most valuable features are the threat prediction and network forensics."

"It gives the capability for the incident response team to correlate logs to identify any kind of problem like malware and incidents in a general sense, both for logs and packets."

"NetWitness Platform is valuable for creating rules that the solution must detect."

"The most valuable feature of RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets are the alerts and correlations tools."

"Offers a good wireless feature."

More NetWitness Platform pros

Cons

"AlienVault OSSIM’s configuration and integration could be a little easier."

"AlienVault OSSIM on-premise version is more difficult to implement than the cloud version. Additionally, they should add integration between several different environments at once and improve their online knowledge base."

"AlienVault OSSIM could improve by having better integration with some of the newer tools."

"We need more dashboards and we need more customization for dashboards."

"Lacking in depth of reporting."

"The documentation could be improved."

"AlienVault OSSIM failed to provide our company a full insight, while also giving out a lot of false positives."

"The correlation engine needs to be improved."

More AlienVault OSSIM cons

"It should have a monitoring feature. It would help us analyze the current state of attacks faster from a single platform."

"Sometimes, it gives me static when integrating Windows-based systems. It should produce a precise log of sorts as to where the problem is. For example, a few days ago because of the McAfee application firewall, I couldn't get access to the particular Windows machine. So, my team and I had to figure out by ourselves that there was a virus responsible for the obstacle. This solution should trigger a meaningful log or message indicating the reason the user or implementer can't get into the machine."

"The system architecture is complex and sometimes it’s hard to troubleshoot potential problems."

"An area for improvement would be better automation and more inbuilt use cases."

"Log aggregation is an issue with this solution because there are a huge number of alerts in a single instance."

"The implementation needs assistance."

"The initial setup was complex because it takes a lot of time to complete the implementation."

"The product's licensing models are complex to understand. This particular area needs improvement."

More NetWitness Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of AlienVault OSSIM is too high sometimes for us to present to our customers. The price should be lower. We are on a three-year license to use the solution. We had to pay extra for the support."

"The tool's licensing costs are yearly."

"The licensing fees for the non-community edition are paid on an annual basis, and there are no costs in addition to this."

"When comparing AlienVault OSSIM to Microsoft Sentinel, AlienVault OSSIM incurs additional costs due to its licensing price structure. If you are using AlienVault for security purposes at a certain level it can have a higher price point than the current pricing of Microsoft Sentinel."

"OSSIM is open source, and USM is the paid license. So, if you want, you can switch to USM. There you will have to buy a license, and they have a support team that helps you out on issues you face."

"I used the paid version of the tool and found it to be expensive. It has been a while since I changed to Securonix. I will have to check whether AlienVault charges per device, user, or log."

"OSSIM is free."

"AlienVault pricing is the best. Whatever cost you are paying, you are getting a return on every penny... It's not like your IBM, your QRadar, or Splunk, where the cost is too high."

More AlienVault OSSIM pricing and cost advice

"The tool is very expensive, so I rate the pricing a ten out of ten. The solution has an annual subscription."

"Our license is for one year."

"It’s cheaper to run virtual machines in a VMware environment."

"RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets do not have a subscription model, it's a one-time purchase. There is only a perpetual license."

"It provides tools to assist in selecting the appropriate license and usage scenarios."

"There is a licensing fee and the customer can choose whether he wishes this to be subscription-based or perpetual."

"Compared to the competition, the is price is not that high."

"We are on an annual license for the use of the solution."

More NetWitness Platform pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions are best for your needs.

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Comparison Review

Vinod Shankar

Manager, Enterprise Risk Consulting at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Feb 26, 2015

HP ArcSight vs. IBM QRadar vs. McAfee Nitro vs. Splunk vs. RSA Security vs. LogRhythm

We at Infosecnirvana.com have done several posts on SIEM. After the Dummies Guide on SIEM, we are following it up with a SIEM Product Comparison – 101 deck. So, here it is for your viewing pleasure. Let me know what you think by posting your comments below. The key products compared here are…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Performing Arts

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	18
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	20

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AlienVault OSSIM?

Asset discovery is good.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AlienVault OSSIM?

It depends. I would need to review their cost models, but generally, they are on a scaled basis based on throughput usage. Because it's a software as a service solution for their core product for U...

See all answers

What needs improvement with AlienVault OSSIM?

See all answers

What do you like most about NetWitness Platform?

The product's initial setup phase was not at all difficult.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetWitness Platform?

The pricing is comparable to others, and I consider the cost to be intermediate. Specific cost details are unknown to me.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetWitness Platform?

There is currently no need for improvement in the SIEM ( /categories/security-information-and-event-management-siem ), though there could be potential enhancements by integrating with AI.

See all answers

Comparisons

Wazuh vs AlienVault OSSIM

Compared 53% of the time

Venusense USM vs AlienVault OSSIM

Compared 10% of the time

USM Anywhere vs AlienVault OSSIM

Compared 7% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs AlienVault OSSIM

Compared 7% of the time

Elastic Security vs AlienVault OSSIM

Compared 4% of the time

More AlienVault OSSIM Competitors

IBM Security QRadar vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 13% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 9% of the time

Elastic Security vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 7% of the time

Trellix Network Detection and Response vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Sentinel vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 6% of the time

More NetWitness Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

AlienVault OSSIM

January 2026

Download AlienVault OSSIM product report

Buyer's Guide

NetWitness Platform

December 2025

Download NetWitness Platform product report

Also Known As

OSSIM

RSA Security Analytics

Overview

AlienVault OSSIM, Open Source Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), provides you with a feature-rich open source SIEM complete with event collection, normalization and correlation. Launched by security engineers because of the lack of available open source products, AlienVault OSSIM was created specifically to address the reality many security professionals face: A SIEM, whether it is open source or commercial, is virtually useless without the basic security controls necessary for security visibility.

AT&T

NetWitness Platform is an evolved SIEM and threat detection and response solution that functions as a single, unified platform for ALL your security data. It features an advanced analyst workbench for triaging alerts and incidents, and it orchestrates security operations programs end to end. In short: NetWitness Platform is all you need to run an intelligent SOC.

NetWitness

Sample Customers

Council Rock School District

Los Angeles World Airports, Reply

Buyer's Guide

AlienVault OSSIM vs. NetWitness Platform

December 2025

Free Report: AlienVault OSSIM vs. NetWitness Platform

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