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Fortinet FortiSIEM vs NetWitness Platform 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

Fortinet FortiSIEM
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
7th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NetWitness Platform
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
30th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (34th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiSIEM is 3.2%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetWitness Platform is 0.6%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortinet FortiSIEM3.2%
NetWitness Platform0.6%
Other96.2%
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

Oliver Jackson - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems monitoring enhanced by firewall and intrusion detection features
My primary use case for Fortinet FortiSIEM is systems monitoring and alerting. I use it for standard functions like log monitoring, incident detection, and notification.  My customers are mostly medium-sized enterprises ranging from engineering companies, mining companies, independent schools, and…
MOTASHIM Al Razi - PeerSpot reviewer
It is a stable solution, but they should make the user interface easier to understand
The solution's initial setup takes work. We have to organize multiple paths and many features. The deployment process takes less than a week. But it takes a month to complete if we want to make the solution smarter by integrating it with various devices. I rate the process as a six out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Some of our customers who use this solution have seen improvement in their connection with load balancing on both connections."
"FortiSIEM sends an email or SMS notifications to admins when there are significant incidents. It's a highly efficient way of responding to incidents."
"We like the integration of all of these Fortinet platforms together. Everything is integrated well, and we are able to sell that as a service to our customers."
"It's very easy for anyone to work with."
"To add workers and even collectors is pretty easy."
"The most valuable feature is the anomaly-reporting alarms."
"The most valuable features of the solution is its integration with other technologies, especially its ability to collect logs from Cisco and Aruba devices along with Fortinet products."
"There are things like dashboards and reports (pre-configured and custom) that let me know that things are operating the way they should be, and when they are not."
"NetWitness Platform offers flexibility for deployment and robust integration capabilities."
"Offers a good wireless feature."
"NetWitness Platform is valuable for creating rules that the solution must detect."
"The most valuable feature is the correlation. It can report in real-time and monitor the management."
"The newer 11.5 version that my team is using has found it to have good mapping."
"The development of use cases on the SSA console is quite user friendly. This means that the security analyst or the researcher does not have to learn another language."
"It gives the capability for the incident response team to correlate logs to identify any kind of problem like malware and incidents in a general sense, both for logs and packets."
"Incident management is its most valuable feature."
 

Cons

"Improvements include making it easier for users to create their normalizers. Fortinet FortiSIEM uses XML for normalizing and parsing, which can be tedious and time-consuming. A simpler way of using regex could be helpful."
"Customer support service could be better."
"The UI could improve in Fortinet FortiSIEM. Humans view the UI frequently for data and if it was more visually pleasing it would be beneficial."
"Our team tried configuring MS SQL database logs with Fortinet FortiSIEM, but it did not work for some time."
"They could work on their documentation. If there's anything about the solution that needs improvement, it's that. For example, documentation already is on a very high level but specifically on the CLI there are tons of features which can be fine-tuned and thousands of commands are very difficult to document. If they could make this easier, it would improve the overall solution."
"When compared with some competitors, in terms of performance, the CPU and RAM requirements and the capability of coordination with development all need some improvement."
"FortiSIEM could be better integrated with other vendors."
"An improvement would be if FortiSIEM's licensing was based on the number of nodes rather than the EPS."
"We have encountered issues with unresolved crashes."
"There is no support for this product in this country, so problems have to be resolved through global technical teams."
"The product's licensing models are complex to understand. This particular area needs improvement."
"Its technical support could be better."
"It should have a monitoring feature. It would help us analyze the current state of attacks faster from a single platform."
"RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets can improve the threat level aspect, it is lacking compared to other solutions. Whenever any hacking activity or any other threat factor occurred they used to provide the coverages very fast when comparing RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets. I heard the other three solutions, from a discussion with my team members who had experience in other solutions, they used to say that. Whenever any issues happened across the globe RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets are a little bit slow improving those detection mechanisms."
"The solution should have more integration capabilities with different platforms."
"I believe that integrating the solution with other products such as Oracle would be beneficial."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is probably more on the lower cost end of the spectrum compared to competing products. Fortinet's license model is based on events per second, which makes sense, but that's not typical. It makes it very hard to calculate what your costs are going to be as you scale the platform because some log sources, such as firewall logs, are very noisy, and there are lots and lots of events per second, but some of them are not. So, it becomes a bit of a science experiment trying to guess what your costs are going to be as you scale the solution. This is where other competing products perhaps have a more straightforward license model."
"There is a need to make yearly payments towards the licensing charges attached to the product. The free version license of the product is available for two months."
"Manageable, however would be better as pay as you go versus CapEX."
"FortiSIEM's licensing is based on EPS, and its pricing is competitive in the market."
"If one is cheap and ten is expensive. I rate the tool's price as an eight out of ten. Compared with Splunk or Oracle, Fortinet is cheap."
"They have a yearly subscription."
"There are additional features that cost more than the standard licensing fees."
"We pay for a license for FortiSIEM. We pay for the license and renewal."
"It’s cheaper to run virtual machines in a VMware environment."
"It provides tools to assist in selecting the appropriate license and usage scenarios."
"This is a pricey solution; it's not cheap."
"RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets do not have a subscription model, it's a one-time purchase. There is only a perpetual license."
"The licenses are good but the cost is very expensive."
"The product is expensive."
"Our license is for one year."
"We have yearly licensing costs. The license fee can be based on the volume of EPS. Some organizations may have, as a gentlemanly gesture, 10,000 EPS and get a 3,000 EPS license but actually use 5,000 EPS."
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Comparison Review

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Feb 26, 2015
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We at Infosecnirvana.com have done several posts on SIEM. After the Dummies Guide on SIEM, we are following it up with a SIEM Product Comparison – 101 deck. So, here it is for your viewing pleasure. Let me know what you think by posting your comments below. The key products compared here are…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Performing Arts
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise23
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise20
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Fortinet FortiSIEM?
Fortinet FortiSIEM needs to provide better API integrations to users.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiSIEM?
I am not familiar with the price and cost of Fortinet FortiSIEM. I cannot tell you if it is high, expensive, or low. However, I can say that it is cost-effective as it provides everything needed.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiSIEM?
Regarding Fortinet FortiSIEM, I cannot identify any specific areas for improvement because I can find everything I need. For the time being, I cannot find a real point for improvement. Everything i...
What do you like most about NetWitness Platform?
The product's initial setup phase was not at all difficult.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetWitness Platform?
The pricing is comparable to others, and I consider the cost to be intermediate. Specific cost details are unknown to me.
What needs improvement with NetWitness Platform?
There is currently no need for improvement in the SIEM ( /categories/security-information-and-event-management-siem ), though there could be potential enhancements by integrating with AI.
 

Also Known As

FortiSIEM, AccelOps
RSA Security Analytics
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

FortiSIEM has hundreds of customers worldwide in markets including managed services, technology, financial services, healthcare, and government. Customers include Aruba Networks, Compushare, Port of San Diego, Cleveland Indians, Infoblox, Healthways, and Referentia.
Los Angeles World Airports, Reply
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