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Fortinet FortiAnalyzer vs Security Onion comparison

 

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

Fortinet FortiAnalyzer
Ranking in Log Management
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
93
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Security Onion
Ranking in Log Management
19th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
AWS Marketplace (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is 2.4%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Security Onion is 6.4%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

Boaz Katabazi - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables flexible and comprehensive reporting across all syslog-enabled devices
I mainly use it for reporting. It also integrates other security solutions around. It can report onto anything that has a syslog on the network. It doesn't have to be a Fortinet product. It integrates within FortiGate and you can find the reports there. It's a very flexible and rich tool, providing custom reports along with default reports.
Jörg Kippe - PeerSpot reviewer
A mature and affordable solution that is easy to install and easy to update
The product takes time to learn, it's not that easy. In the beginning we had a lot of questions. If you want to use such a tool in an real (industrial) environment, you have to ask how to get the network data. Can we do a full packet capture? Can we provide agents to our end systems? There are no simple solutions to these questions. It's a general problem when running such systems in an industrial environment.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The scalability is good. It is also good in the cluster nodes. You can make multiple FortiAnalyzer clusters groups, and you can distribute the logs between these FortiAnalyzer nodes. In other words, you can expand the scale."
"Support is helpful."
"The user interface is good and it is quite easy to use."
"The most valuable features of the solution are the reports and the playbooks."
"I would say that Fortinet's tech support is really good."
"The most valuable feature is the capability to create a customized dashboard."
"Separating sections or conditions on Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is quite clear."
"I have found incident management and also identifying new threats, analyzing the network traffic, and finding out the issues with the network traffic such as any security issues to be valuable. I also like the compliance reports."
"We use Security Onion for internal vulnerability assessment."
"The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports."
"Security Onion is the most mature solution in the market."
 

Cons

"We would like to do the reporting, logging, and administration of all the public devices and all the IoT devices. We wish to add the switches, and routers from different vendors, so it's not a vendor-specific diagnostic solution."
"Automated reports focusing on compliance issues would provide a clearer understanding of potential gaps and the need for remediation."
"In terms of what could be improved, sometimes it's lagging and it also has some graphical issues with the GUI."
"They could always improve the interface and the user experience."
"A possible improvement for FortiAnalyzer could be in threat intelligence."
"Pricing should be about 10-20% lower."
"Fortinet FortiAnalyzer can improve by introducing integration with other Fortinet solutions with automation with one interface would be helpful."
"The product's high price is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"Security Onion's user interface could be improved."
"The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult."
"The product is not easy to learn."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is quite an expensive tool."
"The solution is quite expensive"
"I rate the product's price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"​It depends upon the company.​"
"The enterprise version of this solution is costly. We have considered FortiAuthenticator for network control, but the pricing was focused on the larger companies and didn't suit our needs as a smaller business."
"The product's prices are a bit higher than the other solutions available in the market, but I would say that the tool's quality and support are areas that are good."
"FortiAnalyzer was in the product itself, but two years ago they split it from Fortinet. We paid the license two years ago."
"In the local market sometimes people are being charged more than other solutions. Although the market is competitive, legitimate suppliers do not receive a large enough discount to pass onto the customers."
"Security Onion is an open-source solution."
"It is an open-source solution."
"Security Onion is a free solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
12%
University
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Fortinet FortiAnalyzer?
The reporting features, which offer customization, real-time insights, and compliance support, are particularly noteworthy aspects.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiAnalyzer?
I am a technical engineer, so I am not privy to pricing details.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiAnalyzer?
Sometimes, there is a problem with CPU consumption, where one process consumes 100%, and I need to restart FortiAnalyzer to fix this. I am not familiar with the processes of scalability.
What do you like most about Security Onion?
The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Security Onion?
Security Onion is an open-source solution. On a scale from one to ten, where ten is expensive and one is cheap, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten.
What needs improvement with Security Onion?
The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

General Directorate of Information Technology
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiAnalyzer vs. Security Onion and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,997 professionals have used our research since 2012.