AlienVault OSSIM vs Sentinel comparison

AT&T and OpenText are both solutions in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category. AT&T is ranked #12 with an average rating of 7.4, while OpenText is ranked #17 with an average rating of 7.5. AT&T holds a 1.4% mindshare in SIEM, compared to OpenText’s 2.9% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of AT&T users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 82% of OpenText users who would recommend it.

AlienVault OSSIM

Read 31 AlienVault OSSIM reviews

4,551 Views
4,460 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Sentinel

Read 17 Sentinel reviews

5,367 Views
5,260 Comparison Views

82% willing to recommend

AlienVault OSSIM

Sentinel

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

Sentinel and AlienVault OSSIM compete in the cybersecurity sector. Sentinel has the upper hand in pricing and customer service, while AlienVault OSSIM is preferred for its robust features.

Features: Sentinel users like its real-time threat detection, comprehensive reporting tools, and user-friendly interface. AlienVault OSSIM users value its integration capabilities with various security tools, extensive threat intelligence, and advanced monitoring features.

Room for Improvement: Users suggest Sentinel improve scalability, alert management, and user interface intuitiveness. AlienVault OSSIM users highlight the need for a more intuitive interface, faster processing speeds, and better user documentation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Sentinel is praised for its straightforward deployment process and responsive customer service. AlienVault OSSIM users find the setup more complex but recognize the comprehensive support provided post-deployment.

Pricing and ROI: Sentinel is generally seen as cost-effective with a quicker ROI. Users find AlienVault OSSIM pricier with a longer ROI period, but its advanced capabilities justify the investment.

To learn more, read our detailed AlienVault OSSIM vs. Sentinel Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

AlienVault OSSIM vs. Sentinel

March 2026

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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

Sentinel

Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

17th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of AlienVault OSSIM is 1.4%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sentinel is 2.9%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
AlienVault OSSIM	1.4%
Sentinel	2.9%
Other	95.7%

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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Simon Johnston

Manager, Customer Success at Coltek Business Soltuions

Simple antivirus solution integrates well but could improve pricing and currency options

I don't really have experience working with these solutions. I promote them for our clients, but I don't work with them. I can't share my experience with these tools as I make assumptions about that. For both Adlumin and CrowdStrike, both confirm that they're scalable and enterprise-ready and all those kinds of things. We haven't had any specific problem with either of those. We just have a preference for which one we would prefer. If somebody says they want to use a different one from the one that we prefer, then we have to find reasons why they aren't. But scalability is not one of the reasons that one is better over the other. I don't really have advice for people that are looking into using Sentinel; just do your research across what is available. On a scale of one to ten, I rate Sentinel a seven.

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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

"The solution is free to use."

"I have worked with LogRhythm in the past, since 2015, and I find that AlienVault is a better product."

"The product is easy to use."

"Most of the SOC or SIEM enterprise class products are very expensive, whereas with OSSIM you can start out with a smaller setup and then expand as you wish."

"OSSIM is the only solution that includes the large number of modules that we need: a vulnerability scanner, a network IDS system, a host IDS system."

"This solution is very stable; it runs on a Linux box, you only interface with it through the GUI, it works behind the scenes, and it has never crashed in the time that I have used it."

"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."

More AlienVault OSSIM pros

"If Sentinel is integrated with Identity Manager and User Application Portal, the solution runs simply perfect!"

"The solution's Kusto Query Language (KQL) execution time is pretty good."

"It provides real time security event analytics."

"The correlation engine allows our clients to generate rules more efficiently."

"Transactional user information improves security, prevents fraud, and promotes best practices."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is that it provides a central locking system for many event sources."

"In my opinion, Sentinel's best features include that it's a very easy product to use, it's very simple, and the after-sale service is very good."

"The most valuable feature is the flexible log for identifying security threats inside an application. Sentinel is very good at this."

More Sentinel pros

Cons

"The main area where the AlienVault product was lacking around the 2018 timeframe was in its ability to scale."

"Sometimes it takes very long for your issue to get resolved."

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

"When comparing AlienVault OSSIM to other solutions it looks a bit outdated. Additionally, they need to improve their integration."

"I would like the solution to be able to integrate with my firewall, my IDS and my Honeypot solutions so that it can provide real-time reporting as things occur and then have alert sent to me on my phone when suspicious activity is happening."

"The log collection is okay, but tracing the logs or tracing the events is a bit difficult."

"The price of this solution is very high and it could be cheaper."

"There are somewhat more false positives with the user behavior analytics, which could benefit from an additional machine learning model to detect user patterns more rapidly."

More AlienVault OSSIM cons

"You need a lot of Unix scripting knowledge in order to manage the tool, which is one of the main issues that we faced."

"Creating a drag-and-drop dashboard or workbook in Sentinel is a little more complex compared to other tools like LogRhythm and IBM QRadar."

"I would like to see a better reporting work structure on the dashboard."

"There is a need for more flexibility in customization, especially when working with different vendors and platforms."

"I would prefer to extend dashboards part and their functions in Web GUI version, so the charts could be for configurable."

"Price is always a consideration, so the price would be nice if it were lower."

"There are still a few vendor-specific devices for which Sentinel needs to work on integration, such as Netskope devices."

"Some functions look great but, in practice, some key limitations turn the process into something opaque."

More Sentinel cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"AlienVault OSSIM is expensive compared to its competitors."

"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."

"We are using the community version, which can be used for free."

"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."

"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."

"AlienVault OSSIM is free."

"We are using a free version of the solution. If you purchase a license there are more features available but the price is a little high. The solution should be cheaper to allow more customers to be able to afford it."

More AlienVault OSSIM pricing and cost advice

"Sentinel is moderately priced."

"Sentinel is a subscription-based solution."

"We inquired about getting support from the vendor, Micro Focus, but the cost was very high."

"Sentinel's slightly on the expensive side."

"We receive a pricing discount because of our ongoing partnership with Micro Focus."

"The solution’s pricing is aligned with its competitors."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

13%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

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	9
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AlienVault OSSIM?

Asset discovery is good.

See all answers

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetIQ Sentinel?

I don't have too many comments overall about pricing as we're in South Africa, so it makes more sense if it's billed in rand. They nearly always bill it in dollars, so if it can be billed in our cu...

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetIQ Sentinel?

I'm not sure what the room for improvement is for Sentinel. It needs to stay current, and it does, so I suppose that's fine. I don't have a high demand for what it should do. Price is always a cons...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for NetIQ Sentinel?

It's our go-to choice for antivirus. I use Sentinel a lot.

See all answers

Comparisons

Wazuh vs AlienVault OSSIM

Compared 24% 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

Fortra's Event Manager vs AlienVault OSSIM

Compared 3% of the time

More AlienVault OSSIM Competitors

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Sentinel

Compared 19% of the time

IBM Security QRadar vs Sentinel

Compared 11% of the time

Wazuh vs Sentinel

Compared 6% of the time

Cortex XSIAM vs Sentinel

Compared 4% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Sentinel

Compared 4% of the time

More Sentinel Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

AlienVault OSSIM

April 2026

Download AlienVault OSSIM product report

Buyer's Guide

Sentinel

March 2026

Download Sentinel product report

Also Known As

OSSIM

NetIQ Sentinel, Novell SIEM

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

Sentinel is a full-featured Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution that simplifies the deployment, management and day-to-day use of SIEM, readily adapts to dynamic enterprise environments and delivers the true "actionable intelligence" security professionals need to quickly understand their threat posture and prioritize response.

OpenText

Sample Customers

Council Rock School District

Faysal Bank, GaVI, Handelsbanken, ISC Mªnster, Lambeth Council, Swisscard, The Municipality of Siena, Tukes, University of Dayton, University of the Sunshine Coast

Buyer's Guide

AlienVault OSSIM vs. Sentinel

March 2026

Free Report: AlienVault OSSIM vs. Sentinel

Find out what your peers are saying about AlienVault OSSIM vs. Sentinel and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

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