Graylog vs IBM Security QRadar comparison

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10,699 views|9,032 comparisons
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15,708 views|9,599 comparisons
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Jul 23, 2023

We compared Graylog and IBM Security QRadar based on our users' reviews in five categories. We reviewed all of the data, and you can find the conclusion below.

  • Features: Graylog stands out with its exceptional search functions, seamless integration with Elasticsearch, and real-time data access. QRadar users say the solution provides extensive information and helpful leads for locating pertinent data. Reviews praised QRadar for its comprehensive network visibility and strong SIEM capabilities. Graylog could benefit from additional customization options and an improved rule-creation process. QRadar could improve its rule deployment and lower its false positive rate. Users would also like expanded storage capacity, streamlined user management, and a more mature architecture.

  • Service and Support: Graylog's customer service is generally well-regarded, with reviewers noting effective solutions and satisfactory experiences. While response times may differ, Graylog's support is considered superior compared to that of other products. Some QRadar customers have had trouble connecting with knowledgeable support staff and experienced delayed responses.

  • Ease of Deployment: Some Graylog users said the setup was easy. Other reviewers faced challenges, but these were easily resolved with help from the vendor’s support staff. Graylog is easier to set up in smaller environments, but it could get complicated in large clusters. QRadar's initial setup can be complex for users without expertise, and the difficulty may vary depending on the size of the data set.

  • Pricing: Graylog offers an enterprise edition and an open-source option with a daily capacity restriction. Some users said that data costs can be expensive. QRadar can be costly because users need to buy new hardware to upgrade.

  • ROI: Graylog can offer some cost savings. The precise ROI may vary depending on the organization’s size and use case. QRadar delivers a high return on investment, improving security through its advanced user behavior analytics.

Conclusion: In comparing IBM Security QRadar to Graylog, it can be concluded that IBM Security QRadar is the preferred choice. It provides a more comprehensive view of the network, SIEM, network flows, and risk management, making it suitable for large companies with critical infrastructure. Users appreciate its robustness, high availability, and wide range of features. They find it user-friendly, customizable, and effective in identifying risks and anomalies. On the other hand, Graylog is commended for its detailed search capabilities and integration with Elasticsearch. However, it lacks the same level of robustness, scalability, and comprehensive features found in IBM Security QRadar.
To learn more, read our detailed Graylog vs. IBM Security QRadar Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Message forwarding through the in-built module.""The best feature of Graylog is the Elasticsearch integration. We can integrate and we can run filters, such as an event of interest, and those logs we can send to any SIEM tool or as an analytic. Additionally, there are clear and well-documented implementation instructions on their website to follow if needed.""The solution's most valuable feature is its new interface.""I am very proud of how very stable the solution is.""The ability to write custom alerts is key to information security and compliance.""The product is scalable. The solution is stable.""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.""One of the most valuable features is that you are able to do a very detailed search through the log messages in the overview."

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"We can easily monitor many things using this tool.""It integrates very easily with other solutions. The solution is flexible. We can add anything to it, as it is a good companion to other tools.""I have found IBM QRadar to be stable.""There are other third-party plugins that we can use.""The product has plenty of features and capabilities.""When it comes to QRadar, they can do the correlation and not only in networks but also endpoints. This is one of the good features that we have noticed.""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.""We get events and make the correlation, or rules. In IBM, we can implement our customer's rules. We can have very clear status threats and severity of antigens."

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Cons
"Elasticsearch recommendations for tuning could be better. Graylog doesn't have direct support for running the system inside of Kubernetes, so it can be challenging to fill in the gaps and set up containers in a way that is both performant and stable.""Dashboards, stream alerts and parsing could be improved.""Over six months, I had two similar issues where searches were performed on field "messages". It exhausted all the memory of the ES node causing an ES crash and a Graylog halt.""I would like to see a default dashboard widget that shows the topology of the clusters defined for the graylog install.""I would like to see a date and time in the Graylog Grok patterns so that I can save time when searching for a log. I like how the streams and the search query work, but adding a date and time will allow me to pull out a log in a milli-second.""More complex visualizations and the ability to execute custom Elasticsearch queries would be great.""With technical support, you are on your own without an enterprise license.""We ran into problems with Elasticsearch throwing a circuit-breaking exception due to field data size being too large. It turned out that the heap size directly impacted this size in a high-throughput environment, causing unexplained instability in Graylog. We were able to troubleshoot on the Elasticsearch size, but we should have been able to reference some minimum requirements for Graylog to know that our settings weren't sufficient."

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"The architecture could be improved. I got stuck for a long time trying to understand the architecture, as it is quite challenging.""I'm not sure about the stability just yet. We've observed a few issues and we raised a supporting ticket for it.""The tech support is not that good.""The features that could be improved include the licensing model and the dashboards and all those presentations. Overall, the user experience part can be improved.""A lot of information that we receive for the devices is IP-based, but it would help if we could have a default dashboard in which we can add more details about the assets for which we are receiving the information. For example, if it is a Windows or Linux device, we only get the IP for that particular device. We don't really get the name and other details of that particular device. For that, you have to drill down into your own asset management system. It would be good to have a place where we can probably add this information so that we don't have to look into other tools.""Do your research before implementing it, because it is tough to implement.""I would like the rule creation interface to be much more user-friendly in the next release.""In a future release, the solution could provide malware analysis."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Having paid official support is wise for projects."
  • "I am using a community edition. I have not looked at the enterprise offering from Graylog."
  • "If you want something that works and do not have the money for Splunk or QRadar, take Graylog.​​"
  • "​You get a lot out-of-the-box with the non-enterprise version, so give it a try first."
  • "Consider Enterprise support if you have atypical needs or setup requirements.​"
  • "I use the free version of Graylog."
  • "It's an open-source solution that can be used free of charge."
  • "We're using the Community edition."
  • More Graylog Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "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."
  • "Most of the time, it is easier and cheaper to buy a new product or the QRadar box."
  • "IBM's Qradar is not for small companie. Unfortunately, it would be 'overkill' to place it plainly. The pricing would be too much."
  • "IBM's Qradar is not for small companie. Unfortunately, it would be 'overkill' to place it plainly. The pricing would be too much."
  • "Go through a vulnerability assessment review for price breaks. A virtualized solution will also cut down on cost."
  • "It is expensive. It is not a product that I can provide for SMBs. It is a program that I can only provide for really large enterprises."
  • "The maintenance costs are high."
  • "Pricing (based on EPS) will be more accurate."
  • More IBM Security QRadar Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparison Review
    Vinod Shankar
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The product is scalable. The solution is stable.
    Top Answer:We are using the free version of the product. However, the paid version is expensive.
    Top Answer: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, and… more »
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer: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,… more »
    Top Answer:The event collector, flow collector, PCAP and SOAR are valuable.
    Ranking
    11th
    out of 94 in Log Management
    Views
    10,699
    Comparisons
    9,032
    Reviews
    6
    Average Words per Review
    802
    Rating
    7.3
    6th
    out of 94 in Log Management
    Views
    15,708
    Comparisons
    9,599
    Reviews
    33
    Average Words per Review
    481
    Rating
    7.6
    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

    Graylog is purpose-built to deliver the best log collection, storage, enrichment, and analysis. Graylog is:

    • Considerably faster analysis speeds.
    • More robust and easier-to-use analysis platform.
    • Simpler administration and infrastructure management.
    • Lower cost than alternatives.
    • Full-scale customer service.
    • No expensive training or tool experts required.

    IBM Security QRadar is a security and analytics platform designed to defend against threats and scale security operations. This is done through integrated visibility, investigation, detection, and response. QRadar empowers security groups with actionable insights into high-priority threats by providing visibility into enterprise security data. Through centralized visibility, security teams and analysts can determine their security stance, which areas pose a potential threat, and which areas are critical. This will help streamline workflows by eliminating the need to pivot between tools.

    IBM Security QRadar is built to address a wide range of security issues and can be easily scaled with minimal customization effort required. As data is ingested, QRadar administers automated, real-time security intelligence to swiftly and precisely discover and prioritize threats. The platform will issue alerts with actionable, rich context into developing threats. Security teams and analysts can then rapidly respond to minimize the attackers' strike. The solution will provide a complete view of activity in both cloud-based and on-premise environments as a large amount of data is ingested throughout the enterprise. Additionally, QRadar’s anomaly detection intelligence enables security teams to identify any user behavior changes that could be indicators of potential threats. 

    IBM QRadar Log Manager

    To better help organizations protect themselves against potential security threats, attacks, and breaches, IBM QRadar Log Manager gathers, analyzes, preserves, and reports on security log events using QRadar Sense Analytics. All operating systems and applications, servers, devices, and applications are converted into searchable and actionable intelligent data. QRadar Log Manager then helps organizations meet compliance reporting and monitoring requirements, which can be further upgraded to QRadar SIEM for a more superior level of threat protection.

    Some of QRadar Log Manager’s key features include:

    • Data processing and capture on any security event
    • Disaster recovery options and high availability 
    • Scalability for large enterprises
    • SoftLayer cloud installation capability
    • Advanced threat protection

    Reviews from Real Users

    IBM Security QRadar is a solution of choice among users because it provides a complete solution for security teams by integrating network analysis, log management, user behavior analytics, threat intelligence, and AI-powered investigations into a single solution. Users particularly like having a single window into their network and its ability to be used for larger enterprises.

    Simon T., a cyber security services operations manager at an aerospace/defense firm, notes, "The most valuable thing about QRadar is that you have a single window into your network, SIEM, network flows, and risk management of your assets. If you use Splunk, for instance, then you still need a full packet capture solution, whereas the full packet capture solution is integrated within QRadar. Its application ecosystem makes it very powerful in terms of doing analysis."

    A management executive at a security firm says, "What we like about QRadar and the models that IBM has, is it can go from a small-to-medium enterprise to a larger organization, and it gives you the same value."

    Offer
    Learn more about Graylog
    Want to Hear More?

    IBM Security QRadar is a security and analytics platform designed to defend against threats and scale security operations.

    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.
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Comms Service Provider11%
    Government8%
    Educational Organization7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm23%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Security Firm6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization18%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Government6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business50%
    Midsize Enterprise7%
    Large Enterprise43%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business32%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise50%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business39%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise45%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise29%
    Large Enterprise51%
    Buyer's Guide
    Graylog vs. IBM Security QRadar
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Graylog vs. IBM Security QRadar and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Graylog is ranked 11th in Log Management with 18 reviews while IBM Security QRadar is ranked 6th in Log Management with 197 reviews. Graylog is rated 8.0, while IBM Security QRadar is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Graylog writes "Great detailed search features and easy Java integration, but needs improvement in integration with Python". On the other hand, the top reviewer of IBM Security QRadar writes "A highly stable and scalable solution that provides good technical support". Graylog is most compared with Grafana Loki, Wazuh, syslog-ng, Splunk Enterprise Security and Datadog, whereas IBM Security QRadar is most compared with Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk Enterprise Security, Wazuh, LogRhythm SIEM and Elastic Security. See our Graylog vs. IBM Security QRadar report.

    See our list of best Log Management vendors.

    We monitor all Log Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.