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Elastic Stack vs Security Onion comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 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

Elastic Stack
Ranking in Log Management
23rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Security Onion
Ranking in Log Management
11th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Elastic Stack is 1.6%, down from 4.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Security Onion is 1.5%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Log Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Security Onion1.5%
Elastic Stack1.6%
Other96.9%
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

LB
Senior Consultant at Skillfield
Offers robust out-of-the-box integrations and streamlines logging processes effortlessly
There are improvements needed for Elastic Stack. It is mostly based on Lucene, and the heart of Elastic Stack is Lucene, which has some limitations. Anything built on top of Lucene often feels an add-on, and that includes vector databases. Elastic Stack can store vector embeddings as well and perform AI and machine learning tasks out of the box without excessive configuration. The main improvements involve increasing speed and compression capabilities; I have seen databases that claim to achieve significantly better compression. While Elastic Stack can manage vast amounts of data, if the mapping is not specified correctly, the indexing time can be slow, especially with many events per second. Improper mapping usually means that every document received gets indexed for all fields, which is not desired. Elastic consultants typically optimize this, but out of the box, as data volume increases, scaling becomes necessary. They are working on these improvements in new versions.
CO
Security Operation Center Analyst at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Improved threat detection and incident response has revealed training and usability gaps
What I would like to add is that if the interface or if there is less to work on technical knowledge. For example, people with no technical knowledge cannot use this, so they need to have at least a deep or substantial level of technical knowledge to be able to use these tools. If there is a way there can be an optimization to accommodate those with no technical knowledge in the process using tools compared to tools such as Sentinel and Splunk, which also doesn't require much technical knowledge to be able to use. That would also help. I think Security Onion could be improved by making the user interface more intuitive for new users and simplifying the initial setup and configuration process. Security Onion needs to be simplified so that those with less technical knowledge can be able to come in and use it. Guidance on prioritizing alerts will also be helpful, especially in an environment where security analysts deal with a high volume of security events. I also would like to mention that it needs to be more straightforward integration with other security tools. There needs to be a handshake between Security Onion and other same tools to help in endpoint detection and protection against threats. Another improvement that could also enhance is the reporting and visualization of the key metrics such as detection time, the incident, the overall interface of the analysis, and the false rate, which will also give Security Onion a better view for security analysts to be able to use and understand it. I would like to see the interface to be more simplified. I also would like to see the visualization to be more improved. I also would like to see the support features to be something that junior analysts or those coming in to start up their careers can be able to use without needing deep technical knowledge.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I have benefited from the security features provided by X-Pack in Elastic Stack, particularly the SIEM capability, which is very good for checking security issues."
"Elastic Stack has made a positive impact as we can now see our logs."
"The biggest strength of Elastic Stack is its brilliant archiving capabilities."
"It is a very scalable solution...I didn't face any problem with this scalability part of the solution since we only have a few pieces of equipment in our company."
"Prior to the latest updates, data lake management was a standout feature. The hybrid capability for on-premise and cloud integration was also crucial. Now, with Elastic Defense, the agent simplifies security monitoring, making it a key asset."
"The scripting model in Elastic Stack allows me to query logs and then put the data into Grafana."
"The machine learning capabilities are valuable."
"The only beneficial aspect of Elastic Stack is that it's open source."
"Security Onion is the most mature solution in the market."
"We use Security Onion for internal vulnerability assessment."
"Security Onion is reliable and is a good product, having no glitches or latency problems."
"Tools such as Suricata and Zeek help identify suspicious network activity and provide detailed information for investigating and analyzing the potential threat which is coming to any organization."
"Security Onion brings these tools together in one platform, making it easier to investigate security events and understand what's happening across the network."
"What I appreciate most about Security Onion is that it combines multiple security monitoring tools into one platform."
"Security Onion has positively impacted my organization by enabling students to analyze logs, understand network traffic, comprehend intrusion detection, and utilize threat hunting and incident response skills in a practical environment, which are best practices we have implemented with the students."
"The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports."
 

Cons

"Agent deployment is a little tough in the on-premise version."
"While Elastic Stack can manage vast amounts of data, if the mapping is not specified correctly, the indexing time can be slow, especially with many events per second."
"It should facilitate easier manual integration."
"Elastic Stack should be more simplified with ready-to-use widgets. Also, incorporating AI capabilities is essential as monitoring and observability tools are now adding AI features."
"The solution is expensive, particularly the training and certification. If customers want to increase their use of Elastic Stack, they should consider reducing the cost of certification and training."
"Improving integration capabilities, especially with authentication systems, firewalls, and security controls, is a crucial area for improvement in Elastic Stack. Additionally, enhancing functionality to handle large Yara queries more efficiently would be beneficial, as many EDR solutions can run such queries faster than Elastic Stack's current limitations."
"Elastic Stack should work on their dashboards and integration process."
"The main issue related to Elastic Stack is in the area of its licensing."
"The product is not easy to learn."
"Security Onion's user interface could be improved."
"The biggest challenges I have experienced with Security Onion are the learning curve and resource requirements, as it is not necessarily something you can install and immediately understand without networking and Linux knowledge."
"What I would like to add is that if the interface or if there is less to work on technical knowledge."
"One of the improvements for Security Onion could be to address the issue of many logs and false positive alerts by reducing the number of false positives, as storage management is very hard sometimes due to a lack of storage space for logs, and they could implement methods to expand storage."
"One way Security Onion could improve is by making the initial setup and configuration easier, especially for new users."
"The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult."
"Security Onion can be made easier to set up initially, as it is somewhat difficult at the start, but once configured, it becomes a great tool to use."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I used the open-source version of Elastic Stack, because of which I did not have to pay anything."
"It depends on the specifics, but generally, Elastic is economical for certain use cases."
"If I compare Elastic Stack to the other products in the market, I would say that the tool is available at a competitive price."
"Ultimately, the pricing depends upon the capacity planning that the enterprise architect does."
"The product is expensive."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten."
"We are using the open-source community version of the product."
"Security Onion is a free solution."
"Security Onion is an open-source solution."
"It is an open-source solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
12%
University
11%
Government
10%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Elastic Stack?
My experience with Elastic Stack pricing indicates that it is node-based. While I do not have complete pricing details, they are available online. If I choose Elastic Cloud, it includes licensing a...
What needs improvement with Elastic Stack?
I would like to improve Elastic Stack by addressing the current big problem we face with importing logs and log files, such as syslogs. To import these log files, we need to design the ingest pipel...
What is your primary use case for Elastic Stack?
Elastic Stack is primarily used for everything related to security, including security systems, checking the security system, and also servers and networks.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Security Onion?
I have not had a problem with pricing, setup cost, and licensing because my experience with Security Onion's pricing has been positive. Security Onion is open-source, so I was able to use its core ...
What needs improvement with Security Onion?
One way Security Onion could improve is by making the initial setup and configuration easier, especially for new users. When I first started working with it, I experienced challenges configuring ne...
What advice do you have for others considering Security Onion?
I would give Security Onion a rating of 10 out of 10. I have used other platforms, and I can tell that Security Onion provides powerful security monitoring and investigation tools in one platform, ...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Elastic Stack vs. Security Onion and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,336 professionals have used our research since 2012.