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Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs Splunk User Behavior Analytics comparison

Cisco and Splunk are both solutions in the Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) category. Cisco is ranked #14 with an average rating of 7.7, while Splunk is ranked #11 with an average rating of 7.8. Cisco holds a 3.3% mindshare in ID, compared to Splunk’s 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Splunk users who would recommend it.
Cisco Sourcefire SNORT
Read 19 Cisco Sourcefire SNORT reviews
  • 1,188 Views
  • 855 Comparison Views
95% willing to recommend
Splunk User Behavior Analytics
Read 23 Splunk User Behavior Analytics reviews
  • 1,075 Views
  • 606 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT and Splunk User Behavior Analytics compete in the cybersecurity domain. Splunk holds the upper hand due to its advanced analytics capabilities offering superior insights.

Features: Cisco Sourcefire SNORT provides real-time network traffic monitoring, a comprehensive intrusion detection system, and an adaptable open-source rule-based alert system. Splunk User Behavior Analytics offers advanced threat detection, comprehensive log analysis, and detailed insights into user actions. It is desirable for situations requiring extended feature sets and sophisticated analytics.

Room for Improvement: Cisco Sourcefire SNORT could improve in areas such as providing more intuitive reporting tools, enhancing user-interface design, and integrating more automated threat intelligence updates. Splunk User Behavior Analytics might focus on reducing deployment complexity, offering more out-of-the-box integrations, and optimizing cost-effectiveness for small to medium-sized enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Sourcefire SNORT is known for its easy deployment model and strong community support, allowing quick implementation. Splunk User Behavior Analytics, while requiring more detailed setup due to its complexity, benefits from thorough documentation and professional support, appealing to organizations seeking extensive guidance.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Sourcefire SNORT has a low initial setup cost, offering ROI through proactive threat mitigation. Splunk User Behavior Analytics requires a higher initial investment but justifies this with significant ROI via enhanced security insights and improved operational efficiency, attracting businesses prioritizing long-term returns and deep analytics.

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To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs. Splunk User Behavior Analytics Report (Updated: April 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs. Splunk User Behavior Analytics
April 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

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
14th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Splunk User Behavior Analytics
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
11th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) category, the mindshare of Cisco Sourcefire SNORT is 3.3%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk User Behavior Analytics is 2.1%, down from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
 

Featured Reviews

Jack Poon - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers ease of setup and good documentation
When it comes to the product's deployment phase, we have a lot of vendor support. We have a lot of skills here in Hong Kong. Our company doesn't find any problem deploying Cisco solutions. The solution is deployed on an on-premises version. Speaking about the time required to deploy the solution, I would say that we have quite a lot of previous experience with deploying Cisco products. We have our company's standard design document, which we need to follow. We have a standard testing procedure for all those features. We just take out some appropriate parts and then compile them into one document for an individual project. It is actually quite easy for us to do the documentation, so it just takes one or two hours, and we can do the implementation because all the materials and testing procedures are already in our company standard documents, so it is not that difficult for us.
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Subhayu Chakraborty - PeerSpot reviewer
Automatic reports streamline tasks and offers easy report gathering
The dashboard part could be improved. While using it, I noticed two options: Classic, which is adequate yet only in black and white, and another one that is more advanced or smart, though I forgot the exact term. I encountered several issues while trying to create solutions for this advanced version, which seem unrelated to query or data issues.
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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

"It is quite an intelligent product."
"The most valuable features of Cisco Sourcefire SNORT are the dashboard for monitoring events."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to automatically learn the traffic in our environment, and change the merit recommendations based on that."
"Cisco Sourcefire SNORT is easy to configure and the reporting is great. It's also very user-friendly."
"It has a huge rate of protection. It's has a low level of positives and a huge rate of threat protection. It's easy to deploy and easy to implement. It has an incredible price rate compared to similar solutions."
"The product is inexpensive compared to leading brands such as Palo Alto or Fortinet."
"The URL filtering is very good and you can create a group for customized URLs."
"The whole solution is very good, and stable."
More Cisco Sourcefire SNORT pros
"It's straightforward in terms of configuration and troubleshooting and log management and monitoring as well. These are the edge points in addition to it being a modular solution where you can capitalize on your current licenses with extra licensing models, which can match the customer's business requirement and it can help the customer to design or to actually plan for their own roadmap."
"Splunk is highly valuable for query purposes."
"The product is at the forefront of auto-remediation networking. It's great."
"It is a solution that helps test and measure customer satisfaction."
"Splunk is more user-friendly than some competing solutions we tried."
"Because of some of the visualizations that we utilize, we are able to understand strange, unusual traffic on our networks."
"Features like alerts and auto report generation are valuable."
"The most valuable feature is being able to take data and put it into other systems so that we could see the output, and to see where we need to apply our focus."
More Splunk User Behavior Analytics pros
 

Cons

"There are problems setting up VPNs for some regions."
"Integration with other components — even Cisco's own products — can be enhanced to improve administrative experience."
"I did not experience any pain points that required improvement. Maybe a couple of false-positives, but that's about it."
"I don't think this solution is a time-based control system, because one cannot filter traffic based on time."
"If the price is brought down then everybody will be happy."
"The customization of the rules can be simplified."
"Performance needs improvement."
"The initial setup is a little difficult compared to other products in the market. It depends on the environment. If we are doing any migration, it might take months in a brown-field environment."
More Cisco Sourcefire SNORT cons
"The solution is much more expensive than relative competitors like ArcSight or LogRhythm. It makes it hard to sell to customers sometimes."
"There are occasional bugs."
"In the future I would like to see simplified statistics and analytical threats."
"I'm not aware of any lacking features."
"Currently, a lot of network operations need improvement. We still need people to handle incidents. Our vision is to leverage status and convert it directly from the network devices. It would be ideal if we could take action using APIs and API code and remove manual processes."
"The dashboard part could be improved. While using it, I noticed two options: Classic, which is adequate yet only in black and white, and another one that is more advanced or smart."
"It could be easier to scale the solution if you are using it on-premise, not in the cloud."
"Enhancing the storage model that they are using is necessary."
More Splunk User Behavior Analytics cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing for this solution is paid on a yearly basis."
"The cost is per port and can be expensive but it does include training and support for three years."
"I don't know the exact amount, but most of the time when I go to a company with a proposition, they will say, "This thing that you are selling is good, but it's expensive. Why don't you propose something like FortiGate, Check Point, or Palo Alto?" Cisco device are expensive compared to other devices."
"We have a three-year license for this solution."
"If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five."
"The licensing costs is around 10,000 dollars."
"Pricing varies based on the packages you choose and the volume of your usage."
"I hope we can increase the free license to be more than 5 gig a day. This would help people who want to introduce a POC or a demo license for the solution."
"I am not aware of the price, but it is expensive."
"My biggest complaint is the way they do pricing... You can never know the pricing for next year. Every single time you adjust to something new, the price goes up. It's impossible to truly budget for it. It goes up constantly."
"There are additional costs associated with the integrator."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
8%
University
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
The product is inexpensive compared to leading brands such as Palo Alto or Fortinet.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five. There are some other tools in the market that are more expensive than Cisco. There are no additional c...
See all answers
What needs improvement with Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
Cisco offers the Cisco DNA Center, which is a source that provides crucial information for us to monitor performance, and see whether there is any trouble. We are using Cisco DNA center, but again,...
See all answers
What do you like most about Splunk User Behavior Analytics?
The solution's most valuable feature is Splunk queries, which allow us to query the logs and analyze the attack vectors.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Splunk User Behavior Analytics?
The pricing is based on the amount of data processed, and it is considered a high-level investment for enterprises. Costs can be cut through efficient use and implementation.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Splunk User Behavior Analytics?
High data ingestion costs can be an issue, especially for large enterprises, as Splunk charges based on the amount of data processed. Complex dashboards may require additional scripting. Some integ...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT Logo
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT
Compared 20% of the time
Fortinet FortiGate IPS vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT Logo
Fortinet FortiGate IPS vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT
Compared 19% of the time
Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT Logo
Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT
Compared 15% of the time
Vectra AI vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT Logo
Vectra AI vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT
Compared 11% of the time
Darktrace vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT Logo
Darktrace vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT
Compared 8% of the time
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Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management vs Splunk User Behavior Analytics Logo
Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management vs Splunk User Behavior Analytics
Compared 44% of the time
Exabeam vs Splunk User Behavior Analytics Logo
Exabeam vs Splunk User Behavior Analytics
Compared 9% of the time
Darktrace vs Splunk User Behavior Analytics Logo
Darktrace vs Splunk User Behavior Analytics
Compared 8% of the time
Gurucul UEBA vs Splunk User Behavior Analytics Logo
Gurucul UEBA vs Splunk User Behavior Analytics
Compared 5% of the time
Varonis Platform vs Splunk User Behavior Analytics Logo
Varonis Platform vs Splunk User Behavior Analytics
Compared 5% of the time
More Splunk User Behavior Analytics Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Cisco Sourcefire SNORT
April 2025
Cisco Sourcefire SNORT reportDownload Cisco Sourcefire SNORT product report
Buyer's Guide
Splunk User Behavior Analytics
March 2025
Splunk User Behavior Analytics reportDownload Splunk User Behavior Analytics product report
 

Also Known As

Sourcefire SNORT
Caspida, Splunk UBA
 

Overview

Snort is an open-source, rule-based, intrusion detection and prevention system. It combines the benefits of signature-, protocol-, and anomaly-based inspection methods to deliver flexible protection from malware attacks. Snort gained notoriety for being able to accurately detect threats at high speeds.

Cisco

Splunk User Behavior Analytics is a behavior-based threat detection is based on machine learning methodologies that require no signatures or human analysis, enabling multi-entity behavior profiling and peer group analytics for users, devices, service accounts and applications. It detects insider threats and external attacks using out-of-the-box purpose-built that helps organizations find known, unknown and hidden threats, but extensible unsupervised machine learning (ML) algorithms, provides context around the threat via ML driven anomaly correlation and visual mapping of stitched anomalies over various phases of the attack lifecycle (Kill-Chain View). It uses a data science driven approach that produces actionable results with risk ratings and supporting evidence that increases SOC efficiency and supports bi-directional integration with Splunk Enterprise for data ingestion and correlation and with Splunk Enterprise Security for incident scoping, workflow management and automated response. The result is automated, accurate threat and anomaly detection.

Splunk
 

Sample Customers

CareCore, City of Biel, Dimension Data, LightEdge, Lone Star College System, National Rugby League, Port Aventura, Smart City Networks, Telecom Italia, The Department of Education in Western Australia
8 Securities, AAA Western, AdvancedMD, Amaya, Cerner Corporation, CJ O Shopping, CloudShare, Crossroads Foundation, 7-Eleven Indonesia
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs. Splunk User Behavior Analytics
April 2025
Free Report: Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs. Splunk User Behavior Analytics
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