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IBM Security QRadar vs Rapid7 InsightIDR comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 19, 2025

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

IBM Security QRadar
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
4th
Ranking in User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA)
1st
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
18th
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
11th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
212
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (7th), Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (4th), Managed Detection and Response (MDR) (8th)
Rapid7 InsightIDR
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
14th
Ranking in User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA)
5th
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
25th
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
17th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
Threat Deception Platforms (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of IBM Security QRadar is 7.0%, down from 9.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rapid7 InsightIDR is 2.4%, down from 2.6% 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 (%)
IBM Security QRadar7.0%
Rapid7 InsightIDR2.4%
Other90.6%
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Q&A Highlights

Navin Rehnius - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 10, 2021
 

Featured Reviews

Mahmoud Younes - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable installation and diverse use cases provide strong value
IBM Security QRadar has some areas for improvement. We have missed some DSM components. We need to customize logs where there is no DSM or connector for certain products. We can integrate but we have missed the DSM, which is the connector to pass logs coming from different applications. For example, with a university customer, we tried onboarding Canvas service. IBM Security QRadar does not support Canvas, so we had to create custom scripts and workarounds to pull logs from Canvas.
Asim Naeem - PeerSpot reviewer
Providing comprehensive insight into alerts while working towards AI enhancement
I definitely recommend Rapid7 InsightIDR. It is becoming better, with improvements being continuously made to the product. Right now, I do not have any advice about Rapid7 for other users because every organization or user has different criteria or multiple use cases, so I refrain from commenting on that. I rate the overall solution seven 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

"It is a very optimized engine."
"We are using the platform version, which I like."
"Vulnerability detection is the most valuable feature. It's the tool that finds the threats."
"The solution can scale."
"I think it's a very stable product that provides much more visibility than the other product."
"It is a scalable solution."
"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."
"I have found the most important features to be the flexibility, tech framework, and disk manager."
"Features for user behavior analytics and the rules for attack review are good."
"I have seen that Rapid7 InsightIDR provides security to the networks and endpoints in the company."
"The incident case management is the most valuable feature. Even though there's always something I find I would like to add to that feature, the ability to quickly sort through all the logs, network and endpoint data, etc., and add it to an incident case as part of the investigation, is nice. Having it automatically timeline that additional data into the original incident timeline, and correlate it to other notable events and activities on the network, results in a huge improvement in our overall confidence that we've quickly traced down the right source of an issue."
"The biggest reason why we chose Rapid7 was to gain value in a really quick time. Its deployment doesn't take months. It just takes a few days."
"InsightIDR has allowed us to find potential security issues that we did not know existed, and get remediation quickly."
"Rapid7's reporting is more robust than Tenable's."
"Very intuitive and easy to set up."
"Another very important part of insightIDR is the ability to collect data from endpoint devices via agent software. With a large remote workforce, this allows visibility into the endpoints that are connected to the internet, but not to the corporate network."
 

Cons

"The initial setup requires that you have somebody with the proper skill set, and it would help if the configuration were easier."
"I would like the rule creation interface to be much more user-friendly in the next release."
"IBM needs to invest more into the collaboration with other vendors."
"The product does not have a team for investigating malware."
"The dashboard is pathetic and it takes a long time to perform a search."
"They should provide more manual examples online so that I can learn it myself."
"Search capability and indexing still lag behind competitors. We also need to see improved rule based access controls and rule/event tuning."
"Communication between the silos sometimes becomes an issue, making it an area where improvements are required."
"The interface for doing investigation needs to be enhanced with minor improvements that would make it more useful."
"Sometimes, it is hard to get the right queries to use. Currently, the tool lacks a pre-made set of queries."
"The main problem lies in the processes within the client's operating systems."
"The integration capabilities of the solution have certain shortcomings where improvements are required."
"Rapid7 doesn't integrate well with all our security tools from various vendors, so we plan to switch. Many of our solutions work with Rapid7, but some do not. We are already searching for a replacement already."
"The dashboard is an area that could be simplified."
"The ability to tune the collector for custom logs would greatly help."
"Cloud risk assessment is one area where I think they need a lot of improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price is good in terms of efficiency and the number of people required for implementing various things. You might pay more in terms of money, but you might save on the number of people. For example, if you are using Kibana, you have to pay more for people or experts, which is not the case with IBM QRadar."
"The pricing needs to be such that they are more competitive with other vendors."
"IBM QRadar is a little bit expensive compared to other products."
"QRadar's price is reasonable compared to LogRhythm."
"Customers have to purchase a license based on the number of users, devices, and applications they want to protect. It allows you to take a license on a subscription basis for three years or five years."
"Our licensing costs for this solution is on a yearly basis."
"Licensing is very expensive, IBM QRadar is a very expensive solution. If you want to minimize costs then IBM QRadar is not for you."
"I think that the price is fair, but we can always say that the price could be cheaper."
"Rapid7 InsightIDR is a cheaply priced product. On a scale of one to ten, where one is very expensive, and ten is very cheap, I rate the product's price at seven or eight."
"Rapid7 InsightIDR's pricing is reasonable but we have challenges with the Minimum Order Quantity. It is not reasonable for customers who have less than one hundred devices. If they can reduce Minimum Order Quantity, it is good. You have to pay around 5000-6000 dollars per year for the product. The pricing includes maintenance and support costs."
"​Accurately predict your licensing counts as this is a subscription based product.​"
"The pricing is good, and it is not very expensive."
"Licensing is by endpoint and amount of retention time (at least ours is). Default retention was one year, but we are able to push the retention further if needed. There's also a provide-your-own-S3 option for longer retention if you don't want to pay for the additional retention years in your Rapid7 agreement."
"It is a reasonably priced solution."
"Rapid7 InsightIDR is priced very well and is cost-effective."
"The team is very willing to work with companies. My suggestion is to call the Rapid7 sales department and see how they can help.​"
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions are best for your needs.
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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…
 

Answers from the Community

Navin Rehnius - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 10, 2021
Aug 10, 2021
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, remember that any EDR/XDR should integrate to the SIEM/SOAR and a strong threat intel source. If you consider SOC outsourcing take your time and find one you can integrate like a virtual team member. They a...
2 out of 12 answers
KM
Jul 26, 2021
I haven't used these big-name ones like Splunk etc. but I feel they're overpriced. I think they charge an arm and a leg for each module. The ROI justification is not there. Why not try a cheaper and robust alternative like Elasticsearch?
KA
Jul 26, 2021
We are using LogRthythm SIEM complete case management and offer SIEM/SOC as service.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business90
Midsize Enterprise36
Large Enterprise102
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Security QRadar?
The pricing, setup cost, or licensing with IBM Security QRadar was costly. It was costly mainly for the things we used to use it for. The customers used to pay the price, but it was one of the prob...
What do you like most about Rapid7 InsightIDR?
During simulations or demonstrations, the tool generates alerts, providing details such as the specific application, its origin, and potential threats. For instance, it can identify if an applicati...
What needs improvement with Rapid7 InsightIDR?
There is a future in AI with Rapid7, however, it is not fully operated. There are certain limitations with Rapid7 that I am working on. I have already opened a list of features with Rapid7, and the...
 

Also Known As

IBM QRadar, QRadar SIEM, QRadar UBA, QRadar on Cloud, IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson
InsightIDR
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Clients across multiple industries, such as energy, financial, retail, healthcare, government, communications, and education use QRadar.
Liberty Wines, Pioneer Telephone, Visier
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Security QRadar vs. Rapid7 InsightIDR and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
871,469 professionals have used our research since 2012.