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Security Onion vs Wazuh comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 7, 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

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 (4th)
Wazuh
Ranking in Log Management
2nd
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (2nd), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Security Onion is 5.7%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Wazuh is 15.0%, up from 14.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Sandip_Patel - PeerSpot reviewer
Evaluating robust file monitoring with insights for community support improvements
Wazuh's most valuable features include file monitoring and compliance reporting, which do not require excessive costs. These aspects are vital as they provide alerts for changes and facilitate the monitoring of compliance. The platform is also relatively easy to set up and operate. Reports are straightforward to extract and prove useful for compliance requirements.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"We use Security Onion for internal vulnerability assessment."
"It's very easy to integrate Wazuh with other environments, cloud applications, and on-prem applications. So, the advantage is that it's easy to implement and integrate with other solutions."
"Wazuh's logging features integrate seamlessly with AWS cloud-native services. There are also Wazuh agent configurations for different use cases, like vulnerability scanning, host-based intrusion detection, and file integrity monitoring."
"It is a stable solution."
"The tool is stable."
"The solution is easy to maintain."
"Good for monitoring, active response, and for vulnerabilities."
"It offers built-in modules for file integrity and vulnerability management."
"The product is easy to customize."
 

Cons

"The product is not easy to learn."
"The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult."
"Security Onion's user interface could be improved."
"There could be a hardware monitoring tool for the solution."
"The technical support can be improved. Wazuh has some bugs that need to be fixed. It would be good if we can have automation with respect to incidence responses."
"The only challenge we faced with Wazuh was the lack of direct support."
"Wazuh doesn't cover sources of events as well as Splunk. You can integrate Splunk with many sources of events, but it's a painful process to take care of some sources of events with Wazuh."
"There's not much I like about Wazuh. Other products I've used were a lot more functional and user friendly. They came with reports and use cases out of the box. We need to configure Wazuh's alerts and monitoring capabilities manually. It'd be nice if we could select from templates and presets for use cases already built and coded."
"One area where Wazuh could use some improvement is in its reporting mechanism, especially for high-level management like CSOs and CEOs."
"Its user interface for sure can be improved. It is not so comfortable to use if you're looking for specific logs."
"A lack of certain features creates limitations."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Security Onion is a free solution."
"Security Onion is an open-source solution."
"It is an open-source solution."
"Wazuh is open-source, therefore it is free. You can purchase support for $1,000 a year."
"Wazuh is a good tool, but the open-source version has scalability limitations."
"It is an open-source product."
"Wazuh is an open-source tool, which means it is freely available for use."
"Wazuh is open-source, so I think it's an option for a small organization that cannot go for enterprise-grade solutions like Splunk."
"It is a free-of-cost solution."
"The product is cheaper compared to other tools."
"The product price is neither too high nor too low."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
11%
University
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
8%
University
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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.
What do you like most about Wazuh?
Integrates with various open-source and paid products, allowing for flexibility in customization based on use cases.
What needs improvement with Wazuh?
I am investigating more about the community support for Wazuh. I can't provide a definitive answer yet. An issue I noticed is with tag values in certain rules not functioning properly. It's unclear...
What is your primary use case for Wazuh?
I am currently evaluating and using Wazuh for file monitoring and compliance reporting. We are in the process of conducting a POC to understand how the rules work. I lead this effort to explore and...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Security Onion vs. Wazuh and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
839,255 professionals have used our research since 2012.