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AlienVault OSSIM vs USM Anywhere comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

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
31
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
USM Anywhere
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
30th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
115
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (37th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (44th), Compliance Management (13th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of AlienVault OSSIM is 1.6%, down from 4.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of USM Anywhere is 1.0%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
AlienVault OSSIM1.6%
USM Anywhere1.0%
Other97.4%
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

BP
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.
Kris Nawani - PeerSpot reviewer
Co-Founder/Director at Bangkok MSP Company Limited
Offers complete coverage without the need to install additional software
USM Anywhere is used for threat detection and investigation. It provides a solution with built-in threat intelligence and various other investigation tools The solution offers complete coverage without the need to install additional software, as it is maintained by the vendor. It helps in saving…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"The solution is free to use."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the data correlation and vulnerability assessment."
"The dashboard is the solution's most valuable aspect; it brings everything into one central point where I can actually look at it and go, "Okay, I understand what's going on," and the solution works well and allows me to have visibility into anomalous events."
"The product is majorly used for threat detection of the agents on servers and endpoints."
"The threat policies of the solution are always very advanced and the best in the market, and they are very persistent in terms of keeping up with security protocols."
"Better than other SIEM solutions because almost everything can be integrated."
"The solution is very stable. Compared to Qradar and Splunk, it's very stable."
"The asset discovery and inventory capabilities in USM Anywhere is quite good."
"I highly recommend AlienVault USM for anybody that is seeking a SIEM solution that is easy to implement and easy to manage."
"AlienVault has helped us in improving our visualization and incident response during cybersecurity situations."
"The pricing is amazing and really cheap."
"The product has been very stable."
"Allowed us to help our customers satisfy compliance needs around logging and monitoring."
"We are able to get alerts perfectly with FIM and VA features."
"OTX is a great module that lets staff maintain and monitor updates regarding events in the infrastructure and takes decision to improve the security perimeter."
 

Cons

"AlienVault OSSIM is costly."
"The documentation could be improved."
"They can add more compliance templates."
"The user interface could be improved."
"The price of this solution is very high and it could be cheaper."
"AlienVault OSSIM’s configuration and integration could be a little easier."
"It's under heavy traffic. If you have heavy traffic, the system is slow."
"GUI could be improved."
"The reporting is mediocre and is something that needs to be improved."
"We would love to be able to create custom rules based on a series of events, to create rule-sets where, for example, failed logins to the VPN Server are logged and then when a successful attempt follows soon after, it triggers an alarm for a Brute Force."
"The price of AT&T AlienVault USM could be reduced."
"Yet, a lot of the releases break things that are used."
"I'd like to see a dashboard that's a little more descriptive."
"Search performance can be slow. The Raw Logs feature is painfully slow."
"Some customizations with the integration between AlienVault components have room for improvement and enabling users with WebUI interfaces instead of having to edit configuration files on the system to achieve certain actions would be a good improvement."
"The support could absolutely be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"OSSIM is free."
"The tool's licensing costs are yearly."
"AlienVault OSSIM is expensive compared to its competitors."
"AlienVault OSSIM is an open-source solution."
"AlienVault OSSIM is free."
"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."
"The licensing fees for the non-community edition are paid on an annual basis, and there are no costs in addition to this."
"We are using the community version, which can be used for free."
"Its price is in the medium to upper range."
"We ran a few PoCs. The price and feature set were the best with AlienVault."
"I don't know exactly, but I know it is based on the number of logs and the retention duration, such as 30 days or something like that. So, the smallest package is about 500 a month for 30 days of logs. There is a virtual machine. You need resources for it. It is a log collecting VM. They provide the software, and you just have to load a virtual machine. So, you're going to incur some CPU RAM and storage for wherever this log collecting appliance is running, which typically is in our cloud and on our platform for the customer."
"Use the AlienVault team. They are helpful and the documentation that they provide is second to none."
"AlienVault is certainly not nearly as expensive as Splunk or QRadar. It's decently priced, but I don't have the exact figure."
"So far, I feel the product's pricing is a good value. The technology is decent. You get what you pay for. I think it's fair."
"Do the one month trial and try to work out the kinks during it, as it has free support and service hours."
"It's very reasonably priced. It was one of the lowest among the ones I looked at. Licensing is pretty flexible. They can do a two-year or a three-year, even a one-year, perhaps."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
University
8%
Construction Company
22%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business64
Midsize Enterprise29
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What needs improvement with AlienVault OSSIM?
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 implement...
What needs improvement with AT&T AlienVault USM?
There are scalability issues due to a 60 TB limit, which restricts its use for large customers like banks. It is also limited when used with bigger products and has complex password requirements.
What is your primary use case for AT&T AlienVault USM?
USM Anywhere is used for threat detection and investigation. It provides a solution with built-in threat intelligence and various other investigation tools.
 

Also Known As

OSSIM
AT&T AlienVault USM, AlienVault, AlienVault USM, Alienvault Cybersecurity
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Council Rock School District
Abel & Cole, Bank of Ireland, Bluegrass Cellular, CareerBuilder, Claire's, Hays Medical Center, Hope International, McCurrach, McKinsey & Company, Party Delights, Pepco Holdings, Richland School District, Ricoh, SaveMart, Shake Shack, Steelcase, TaxAct, Taylor Morrison, Vonage and Zoom
Find out what your peers are saying about AlienVault OSSIM vs. USM Anywhere and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,789 professionals have used our research since 2012.