Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Graylog vs IBM Security QRadar comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025
 

Categories and Ranking

Graylog
Ranking in Log Management
18th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Security QRadar
Ranking in Log Management
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
207
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (4th), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (1st), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (18th), Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (4th), Managed Detection and Response (MDR) (10th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (13th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Graylog is 6.6%, up from 5.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Security QRadar is 4.5%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

Nicolae CIornii - PeerSpot reviewer
Stable solution with room for improvement in interactivity and user-friendliness
We have tested IBM QRadar and now use it. First of all, the key factor is the pricing. I saw that IBM QRadar has an interactive dashboard, providing valuable insights to people. Additionally, I've seen that IBM QRadar has an agent that simplifies installations across various platforms without requiring intricate configurations. Also, IBM QRadar has automatic reporting.
Maaz  Khalid - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides easy integration at low cost but lacks AI enhancement
The initial setup is user-friendly and straightforward, making deployment easy. However, compatibility issues with other security controls still need to be addressed. It provides a 35-day period for project enablement. This timeframe is too short and should be extended to 45 or 50 days. When deploying QRadar on-premises, we assess the organization's size to determine the required number of UPS units, application servers, and other necessary hardware. Once these requirements are identified, we proceed with the deployment. We face challenges in the deployment phase, especially when working with an MSSP license. The main issue is with QRadar's multi-tenancy, which often causes the system to crash. Their support services are not very helpful in addressing these problems. We allocate two working days for the deployment of QRadar for our customers. Our team includes a senior engineer who communicates with the client and a junior engineer responsible for deploying and installing other services. The deployment time can vary based on the size of the setup. Large deployments, such as those with 20,000 to 25,000 EPS for corporate clients, take longer due to the need for multiple hardware servers. In such cases, it can take several days. QRadar can be installed in about three to four hours for smaller setups.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Everything stands out as valuable, including the fact that I can quantify and qualify the logs, create pipelines and process the logs in any way I like, and create charts or data maps."
"UDP is a fast and lightweight protocol, perfect for sending large volumes of logs with minimal overhead."
"I like the correlation and the alerting."
"Real-time UDP/GELF logging and full text-based searching."
"One of the most valuable features is that you are able to do a very detailed search through the log messages in the overview."
"We're using the Community edition, but I know that it has really good dashboarding and alerts."
"This had increased productivity for the dev and support teams, because we are directly notifying them."
"Allowing us to set up alerts and integrate with platforms we already use, such as Slack and OpsGenie to alert users of these errors proactively, is also a very useful feature."
"The simplicity of the solution is the best feature."
"The features that I have found most valuable are that it is very stable, easy to get going, and easy to manage. It is also easy to review all incidents."
"The initial setup of QRadar is not complex because we have done it before and we are used to the development. It is getting easier all the time."
"Due to the skills shortage, we are able to use it from the standpoint of bringing in a lower level employee or a person who may not have security knowledge."
"Network-Based Anomaly Detection (NBAD): Using NetFlow, JFlow, SFlow, or QFlow (all 7 layers), offenses are detected as a response when a rule is triggered."
"The ability to transition from microscopic to macroscopic view, instantly, is very good."
"It's a state-of-the-art product for security information and event management (SIEM)."
"Technical support is good overall."
 

Cons

"With technical support, you are on your own without an enterprise license."
"I would like to see a default dashboard widget that shows the topology of the clusters defined for the graylog install."
"It would be great if Graylog could provide a better Python package in order to make it easier to use for the Python community."
"Lacks sufficient documentation."
"The biggest problem is the collector application, as we wanted to avoid using Graylog Collector Sidecar due to its architecture."
"Dashboards, stream alerts and parsing could be improved."
"Since container orchestration systems are popular and Graylog fits the niche well, perhaps they could officially support running in docker containers on Kubernetes as a StatefulSet as a use case. That way, the declarative nature of Kubernetes config files would document their best case deployment scenario-"
"I would like to see some kind of visualization included in Graylog."
"It's resource-intensive."
"There are a lot of things they are working on and a lot of technologies that are not yet there. They should probably work out a better reserve with their ecosystem of business partners and create wider and more in-depth qualities, third-party tools, and add-ons. These things really give immediate business value. For instance, there are many limitations in using SAP, EBS, or Micro-Dynamics. A lot of things that are happening in those platforms could also be monitored and allowed from the cybersecurity risks perspective. IBM might be leaving this gap or empty space for business partners. Some larger organizations might already be doing this. It would be very nice if IBM can make some artificial intelligence part free of charge for all current QRadar users. This would be a big advantage as compared to other competitors. There are companies that are going in different directions. Of course, you can't do everything inside QRadar. In general, it might be very good for all players to provide more use cases, especially regarding data protection and leakage prevention. There are some who are already doing some kind of file integrity or gathering some more information from all possible technologies for building anything related to the user and data analysis, content analysis, and management regarding the data protection."
"The pricing of the solution is a bit high. If they could lower it, that would be ideal."
"The implementation of the solution's technology needs to be simplified."
"I would like to see some artificial intelligence and alternative solutions."
"Ideally we would like a mobile version so that any alert that comes in will notify us in a mobile app, or by using SMS integration."
"The reporting system could use some upgrading."
"Maybe there should be more custom rules in the exchange. Basically, we are using a lot of threat rules, so maybe they'll develop something like that."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's open source and free. They have a paid version, but we never looked into that because we never needed the features of the paid version."
"It's an open-source solution that can be used free of charge."
"We are using the free version of the product. However, the paid version is expensive."
"Having paid official support is wise for projects."
"Consider Enterprise support if you have atypical needs or setup requirements.​"
"If you want something that works and do not have the money for Splunk or QRadar, take Graylog.​​"
"I use the free version of Graylog."
"We're using the Community edition."
"There are different types of subscriptions available. We were on an annual subscription, but our customers typically choose the two years subscription option."
"Only enterprise businesses can afford the tool."
"I feel that the price is reasonable but compared to other products that are on the market, such as an offering by Microsoft, it is more expensive."
"Pricing and licensing are competitive. Their new licensing options allow logs to bypass the correlation engine for a flat rate, which is also appealing for log data that is compliance-driven for a small amount of money."
"IBM Security QRadar is a very expensive tool."
"found other solutions, with more features at the same cost or less. You don’t have to leave the Gartner Magic Quadrant to beat their price."
"I think my company pays for the license yearly."
"Licensing is very expensive, IBM QRadar is a very expensive solution. If you want to minimize costs then IBM QRadar is not for you."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Log Management solutions are best for your needs.
825,661 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

VS
Jun 28, 2015
Qradar vs. ArcSight
Continuing with the SIEM posts we have done at Infosecnirvana, this post is a Head to head comparison of the two Industry leading SIEM products in the market – HP ArcSight and IBM QRadar Both the products have consistently been in the Gartner Leaders Quadrant. Both HP and IBM took over niche SIEM…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Educational Organization
23%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Graylog?
The product is scalable. The solution is stable.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Graylog?
We are using the free version of the product. However, the paid version is expensive.
What needs improvement with Graylog?
Since it's a free tool, I don't have much to say. Troubleshooting is important to me. The initial setup is complex. I hope to see improvements in Graylog for more interactivity, user-friendliness, ...
What are the biggest differences between Securonix UEBA, Exabeam, and IBM QRadar?
It mostly depends on your use-cases and environment. Exabeam and Securonix have a stronger UEBA feature set, friendlier GUI and are not licensed based on capacity (amount of logs and information in...
What SOC product do you recommend?
For tools I’d recommend: -SIEM- LogRhythm -SOAR- Palo Alto XSOAR Doing commercial w/o both (or at least an XDR) is asking to miss details that are critical, and ending up a statistic. Also, rememb...
What do you like most about IBM QRadar?
The event collector, flow collector, PCAP and SOAR are valuable.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Graylog2
IBM QRadar, QRadar SIEM, QRadar UBA, QRadar on Cloud, QRadar, IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics, IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Blue Cross Blue Shield, eBay, Cisco, LinkedIn, SAP, King.com, Twilio, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Clients across multiple industries, such as energy, financial, retail, healthcare, government, communications, and education use QRadar.
Find out what your peers are saying about Graylog vs. IBM Security QRadar and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
825,661 professionals have used our research since 2012.