IBM Security QRadar Pricing
IBM Security QRadar is about 50% less expensive than Splunk. SIEM solutions charge by the amount of data, whether EPS or gigabytes. They directly incentivize you not to put things in it, which doesn't make sense since the goal is to put everything in it. They'd make it where you can't afford to do it.
On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate IBM Security QRadar's pricing a five out of ten.
In India, the solution is expensive. Only enterprise businesses can afford the tool. We need more than 3000 people in the organization to use it. We might have to pay for technical support separately.
View full review »Overall, I'm satisfied with the value IBM QRadar provides for its price. However, there is room for improvement in terms of including more features with the base license instead of requiring additional licensing fees for each feature or application.
Buyer's Guide
IBM Security QRadar
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about IBM Security QRadar. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
KM
Kjell Morkeng
Head of Cyber security analysis at DNV Poland Sp. z o.o.
I have no idea what QRadar UBA costs as a standalone solution because it is bundled with the QRoC security operation center and several other modules that we pay for in a big lump sum. However, I don't think that part is too expensive. It's a plugin to the QRadar SIEM that feeds off the same data. We have X-Force Threat Exchange, so IBM is operating the SIEM for us. I say to them, "I want UBA," and there it is.
View full review »We pay approximately $40,000 to use the solution annually. This solution is a lot less expensive than Splunk.
View full review »EM
reviewer1886673
Director of Incident Response at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
I do not know the exact cost. It's a bit tricky as some of it is tied into pre-contracts that we have. Some parts of the company do prepaid funds for certain solutions. It's different. It varies.
View full review »YE
reviewer1974018
Technical Analyst at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The solution has a licensing model that is based on events per second so it scales to need and budget.
At the time of deployment, we were premium partners with IBM so received advantageous pricing.
The on-premises solution and its license are not impacted by the number of users so it is easy to add staff.
View full review »They can give us some scalability and flexibility on pricing. If its pricing can be reduced, it would help a lot of customers in bringing in a new SIEM environment and grow business in the market. If I start a license today and take around 10,000 EPS, and after a month, there is an increase in the number of clients on my platform, I can increase the number of licenses. I can add 5,000 EPS on a yearly basis.
It's very expensive but it fits our budget. Because it's very expensive, we had to come up with ways of filtering our logs before they get into QRadar because otherwise, we'd have to buy a much greater amount of events per second, and that would be very expensive.
Splunk is virtually the same price.
View full review »The pricing is higher but cheaper than others and there are no additional costs.
View full review »MG
Mejda Guizani
IT Security Administrator at Zitouna Bank
IBM Security QRadar is a very expensive tool.
The solution is costly and the price differs depending on the vendor you use.
View full review »I'm an architect. Normally costs and licensing are handled by senior management.
For UBA, they haven't asked for any extra charges or anything. It's included in the licensing.
View full review »BS
Berik Sultanbekov
CS engineer at AYACOM
You have a one-time payment, and you also can purchase it for one year as a subscription. We have it on-premise, and we have a permanent license for it. We have to pay for the support on a yearly basis.
If you compare its cost with Sentinel for one year, QRadar would seem more expensive, but if you compare its cost over five or ten years, Azure Sentinel will be more expensive than QRadar.
View full review »RR
reviewer1409433
Cyber Security Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Licensing is mostly dependent on the EPS, events per second. Depending upon the number of products that are integrated with the platform, we have to come to an optimal EPS value. I'm not very sure about the financials, however, the licensing cost cannot be as much as that for Sentinel, which is not very low. For customers who need medium EPS values, we advise QRadar.
The basic out the box cost covers, the EPS value that you have specified, and then some archiving maybe. It should include at least six months of archiving and other functionalities. Most of the customers will go for the standard package and we don't have to go for extra archival or enhanced DPS. 10% to 15% of DPS can always be increased. It will not completely shut down the system, however, it'll start sending us notifications that the DPS is getting increased and then we can go for a higher licensing.
View full review »ST
Simon Thornton
Cyber Security Services Operations Manager at a aerospace/defense firm with 501-1,000 employees
It is overly expensive and overly complex in terms of licensing. They have many different appliances, which makes it extremely difficult to choose the technology. It is very difficult to choose the technology or QRadar components that you should be deploying.
They have improved some of it in the last few years. They have made it slightly easy with the fact that you can now buy virtual versions of all the appliances, which is good, but it is still very fragmented. For instance, on some of the smaller appliances, there is no upgrade path. So, if you exceed the capacity of the appliance, you have to buy a bigger appliance, which is not helpful because it is quite a major cost. If you want to add more disks to the system, they'll say that you can't. If they ship a disk with 2 terabytes that the older appliances have, and you say to them that you can commercially get 10 terabyte disks, they will say this is not possible, even though there is no technical reason why it cannot be done. So, they're not very flexible from that point of view. For IBM, it is good because you basically have to buy new appliances, but from a customer's point of view, it is a very expensive investment.
It is costlier as compared to the other alternatives available in the market.
View full review »DL
reviewer2303580
Head of Cybersecurity at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
On a scale of one to ten, I rate the price a one, where one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is a cheap product. IBM Security QRadar is an expensive product. A customer gets discounts only when they ask for them from IBM.
The challenge is that if someone submits a request or proposal and finds that the prices of the products our company deals with are too high, we may not even be shortlisted for negotiations. If my company gets shortlisted for the next round, then we get questioned over the high prices.
KB
Karim Bondok
Senior Cyber Security Engineer at a logistics company with 10,001+ employees
QRadar is reasonable compared to LogRhythm.
View full review »The IBM QRadar Licensing for the core Events(EPS) and Flows(FPS) is per second based. The licensing is perpetual and surely expensive but the output of the Product makes it worth your money.
View full review »The tool's on-premise version is expensive. However, it is cheaper than Splunk. The hybrid model offers shared instances for customers, which is not expensive. Customers with a limited budget can opt for it. You can get premium support with licenses. However, if you need customized integration, you need to buy it.
View full review »It's worth the cost. There are a lot of other options out there that are way more expensive, and that may be better in certain areas, but in my opinion, the overall best solution is QRadar.
View full review »EG
Ephrem-Gezachew
Senior Information Technology Security Officer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
The product is expensive. We have purchased the perpetual license, but we pay for the support.
View full review »I rate the price a six out of ten, with ten being affordable and one being expensive. They recently changed their licensing model, and it's more complex.
View full review »MW
MUHAMMAD WAQAS
Relationship Manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
The pricing of the solution is quite reasonable.
View full review »SJ
reviewer993816
Senior Security Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
As compared to LogRhythm, IBM QRadar's pricing is moderate.
View full review »AK
reviewer1106787
Works
IBM Qradar has an interesting scheme for payments. They have annual payments for customers who use subscriptions for some services. I can't see any problem with the current financial scheme for this product generally. It's okay.
View full review »RU
reviewer1524594
Senior Solutions Architect at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees
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.
View full review »The pricing is reasonable. It's not expensive compared to other solutions. If you get the console and other licenses, you can easily use it with other QRadar solutions.
View full review »PK
reviewer1584831
Solution Architect Cybersecurity at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
The price of this solution is a little high.
View full review »YS
Yegor Skrynnyk
IT Specialist​ at IT Specialist LLC
I give the price of the solution a four out of ten. The solution comes with a high price tag, while some of the competitors provide identical functionality in their offerings at no extra cost.
View full review »I have no information about the licensing costs of IBM QRadar, and whether or not it requires a license.
View full review »IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics is an application framework and you can install many applications without any additional costs.
I rate the price of IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics a four out of five.
View full review »JM
Jentle Mathew
Sr.Network Engineer at NTT Security
The license is not subscription-based. We have been doing the same deployment for more than ten years.
The pricing is alright.
View full review »DS
reviewer1518060
SOC Team Lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The solution is priced fairly, there is a license for the solution, and we pay annually.
View full review »CM
ChrisMcAndrew
Security Operations Manager at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
The product is not a cheap solution. it's quite expensive.
We do also pay more in order to use Watson.
View full review »DS
Daniel Sichel
Works at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
This is not a trivial undertaking. You will need at least one experienced user and considerable infrastructure to support this if you use the on-prem version which we did. The cloud version has less overhead but there are some limitations so choose carefully.
View full review »AI
chieftec1015569
Chief Technology Officer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
We pay an annual license fee. On top of that, every model adds to the cost. It's not just the license; the sales people want you to think you're only paying for certain things but we know how it works.
AM
Attila Mate Kovacs
Senior Cyber Security Expert at a security firm with 11-50 employees
It could be cheaper, but the value itself is far more important for us than the price. Typically, our clients have yearly subscriptions.
View full review »HH
reviewer1609413
Senior IT Technical Support at a training & coaching company with 1,001-5,000 employees
IBM QRadar is pricey, and therefore, usually small enterprises are not able to afford it. Usually, probably most of the customers are usually large enterprises.
View full review »JN
reviewer1477878
Director of Information Security at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
I think that the price is fair, but we can always say that the price could be cheaper.
View full review »MM
Muhammad Moqeet
Senior Manager, Security Architecture & Operation, Corporate Security at Omantel
The price of this product is high.
View full review »VP
reviewer774660
Manager-Cloud Security Operations at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
The cost of this product is expensive.
View full review »Licensing was simplified two months ago. I don’t have insight into pricing. But as with any software, the price can probably change depending on your negotiation skills :)
View full review »This is a free solution which is one of the main reasons we chose it. It's just a matter of getting a license for the curator as a platform.
DD
reviewer1501230
Head of IT Security, Governance and Compliance at a consumer goods company with 10,001+ employees
We use QRadar as a managed service and we pay licensing fees to the partner.
View full review »Do your due diligence. I 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.
View full review »SS
Syed Hammad Shafiq
Information Security Manager at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
There is a license required for this solution and it is an annual payment. I have found all solutions in the category to be expensive, including Splunk.
View full review »Most of the time, it is easier and cheaper to buy a new product or the QRadar box. For example, with the QRadar Event Collector 1605, as and when you need to expand your EPS and the number of log sources; it’s much cheaper and the boxes usually ship with the default 1000 EPS and 750 log source limit. They have another advantage, i.e., the storage.
View full review »MI
reviewer1026825
Certified AIX I.T Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
I pay for licensing yearly.
View full review »Go through a vulnerability assessment review for price breaks. A virtualized solution will also cut down on cost.
View full review »JT
JohnTamakloe
Solution Architect at Ostec
It's a bit pricey as a product. I'd rate it a two out of five, with five being the most affordable. It depends on what you buy; the longer you use it, the better the cost. It's an all-inclusive license. You don't need to pay for extra features.
View full review »There is a license to use this solution, which is paid annually. However, there are subscription options available.
View full review »OS
Omar Sánchez (Mr.Tech)
Information Security Advisor, CISO & CIO, Docutek Services at Docutek Services
It is a pricey product. It is very expensive.
View full review »Put some efforts and evaluate what license (EPS) you need for which collector before making an order. It is worth hiring a professional to do it for you (somebody who has experience with QRadar sizing).
View full review »GR
Gian Michele Roletto
SOC Manager at Nais Srl
Pricing is good.
View full review »PP
reviewer1598412
Management Executive at a security firm with 11-50 employees
On-premises is pretty expensive as opposed to the cloud.
You do need to pay for a year subscription. You are charged at events per second as well.
View full review »RB
Rama Krishna Bhaskarayani
Founder at Halainfosec
When compared with other SIEM solutions, QRadar is considerably less expensive. I would like to compare it with Elasticsearch because they have different pricing strategies.
QRadar is events per second, EPS-based, whereas Elasticsearch is resource-based. You have to estimate based on how many resources will be used in the infrastructure, irrespective of log resources and log volumes.
They are charging based on the resources.
SP
reviewer1590123
Senior Security Engineer at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
There is a license required for this solution. There are some limitations depending on what license you purchase.
View full review »JB
reviewer1421823
Deputy General Manager at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees
When it comes to the initial pricing there can be a huge discount from there side and also I think they are open to competing with other products. Even though the price can be a little high sometimes there product is number one. They have a wide range of products.
View full review »FC
Francis Chapet
Ingénieur d'étude R&D at DOGA
The price can be expensive, however, it's all relative, as it helps speed up development, which can save money for the organization.
The payments for the product are made on a yearly basis.
View full review »JK
reviewer810204
Lead Security Infrastructure Engineer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
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.
View full review »WP
Vulnera08667
Vulnerability Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
IBM's Qradar is not for small companie. Unfortunately, it would be 'overkill' to place it plainly. The pricing would be too much.
View full review »QRadar is a very expensive application but it is a good product. My advice is to validate with other correlator solutions and validate which product is right for the organization.
View full review »JJ
reviewer1488321
Managed Security Product at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Our licensing is yearly. But it's based on Event Per Second, which is one of the models. Storage capacity for log management is also considered with the fees. Licensing is a bit complex in IBM, as well. Different aspects needs to be considered.
View full review »BK
BALA
Program Manager at a tech services company
The solution is a subscription-based model. It is a yearly subscription from my understanding.
In terms of additional costs, it depends on the subscription that you choose. There are plenty of options to choose from.
There is the EPS licensing cost (Event per second licensing), which is a parameter that you choose. By adding countries to our solution, we have to increase the EPS.
View full review »WP
Vulnera08667
Vulnerability Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
QRadar is quite expensive. It wouldn't be worth it for a small business unless, through a third-party company, they used it in a software-as-a-service type of arrangement, rather than buying the licenses outright.
There are additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees. For example, there are add-ons like the QRadar Vulnerability Manager.
View full review »The solution is expensive compared to other products, and I rate the pricing a five out of ten.
View full review »I think my company pays for the license yearly.
View full review »PD
ParveshDhurmea
Assistant Engineer at Harel Mallac Technologies Ltd
There are different types of subscriptions available. We were on an annual subscription, but our customers typically choose the two years subscription option.
View full review »JW
Johan Wibisono
Solution Security Architect at PT. Sinergy Informasi Pratama
SIEM is quite a pricey solution so we only offer it to enterprise companies that can pay the fees. For smaller companies, it's an extremely expensive product.
View full review »MD
Mathieu Dorckel
Cybersecurity Engineer Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Think what you will integrate into QRadar. It is a SIEM. You need to send it logs, but not everything.
Pricing (based on EPS) will be more accurate.
View full review »MH
MazenHindawi
Network and Security Technical Team Leader at a wholesaler/distributor with 201-500 employees
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.
Also, the maintenance costs are high.
View full review »SU
reviewer1136397
Team Lead - Information Security at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
I can't speak to the exact pricing. I've never looked at its commercial costs.
View full review »SW
SuhailWagle
Cyber Security Consultant at Gulf Business Machines
The NEMA licensing structure is very easy. It's far better than the previous licensing structure they had. They charge you based on the number of events per second and flows per second, and that's the beauty of it. The rest of the components are complimentary. That's it. It's not a complex process of licensing anymore. It's very simple and straightforward.
View full review »DP
Dmytro Petrashchuk
Chief Technical Officer at IT Specialist LLC
It's free of charge.
View full review »SO
reviewer1365630
Deputy General Manager - Network Security at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Regarding the price, it is a bit high for normal customers. It is better for enterprise-class customers where they get a licensing model for MSSP for enterprises.
View full review »NM
Md Nafiz Mahmood
Solution Manager at ZZTL
The price is very high. Some of our customers cannot afford it.
View full review »AF
Cyberspec67
Cyber Security Specialist at AEC
The licensing is every year.
There are additional costs, such as the cost associated with the different hardware required for implementation and deployment. Along with the add-on apps, these are all additional costs, and they require licensing as well.
SS
Srijan-Sivakumar
Director of Market Enabling Solutions at Raksha Technologies Pvt Ltd
I do not have control over pricing, though I do help customers with their sizing.
View full review »There is an annual license required for this solution.
View full review »It's too expensive. The licensing is also a little bit difficult to understand because you have to license it per event and per number of flows. So you have to understand the difference between a flow and an event, and then you have to forward that to the resellers, the distributors, and to IBM. That part took a long time for us. Now we're adjusted to the process.
View full review »TM
Dr Trust Tshepo Mapoka
Senior Cybersecurity Consultant at CIA Botswana
The licensing depends on the customer. The pricing is good.
View full review »You only need to worry about the number of events per second and the number of flows per minute. Storage size is not an issue with QRadar.
View full review »The pricing and licensing policies are really competitive. These solutions are not for a really small business, but having just one license variable is really good. You simple tell the partner or sales representative the number of EPS you want to receive in your appliance and that's it. Other solutions have a 'correlation' license, which is more like a trap than anything else.
View full review »RR
reviewer1665357
IT Security Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Implementation is over time and the maintenance price for QRadar is competitive.
View full review »OK
reviewer1388217
Analyst at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
The license is a yearly one.
View full review »DA
D.M.Hashim-Ul- Alom
Senior Server Security Engineer
Licensing is very expensive, IBM QRadar is a very expensive solution. If you want to minimize costs then IBM QRadar is not for you.
View full review »BT
reviewer594315
Assistant IT Manager at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The price could be better. I bought a subscription for three years.
View full review »HG
reviewer1610610
Network Security Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The price of this solution is reasonable.
View full review »LY
Luis Yndigoyen
Partner at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
IBM is a Ferrari if you are beginning with a concept. If it will be a pilot project, take a look at Red Hat Process Automation Manager or jBPM. Be realistic about the users' quantity. A good approach would be to begin with an On Cloud subscription, then later on do a more exact sizing.
View full review »OO
Olakanmi Oluwole
Cyber threat Intelligence Manager at CyberLab Africa
There is a license required for this solution.
View full review »MK
reviewer1348482
Practice Head at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
IBM QRadar is a little bit expensive compared to other products.
View full review »AB
Ambuj Bhalla
IT Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
The pricing policy is a bit on the higher side. IBM offers discounts when applicable.
View full review »MH
reviewer1022949
Team Lead & Principal Software Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Licensing can be costly depending on your architecture.
View full review »JM
Joao Manso
CEO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Licensing costs are reasonable.
AK
reviewer1623684
Security Analyst at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The pricing is always fine.
View full review »AC
AndyChan3
General manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
It would be great if this product were cheaper.
View full review »It is a bit more expensive than some others, SIEM, but it is more efficient.
View full review »OO
Oscar Orellana
Founder at a university with 11-50 employees
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.
View full review »VB
reviewer1342335
Principal Security Architect at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
There are more costs in addition to standard licensing; support, building.
View full review »DS
Dameer Siddiqui
Works at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
We do licensing on a yearly basis. It's for deployment. If the client wants more services, we support the license. There are no other costs for the product.
View full review »IBM has subscriptions plans that run for one year.
View full review »The pricing will definitely vary according to your EPS, but it is worth spending money on this product.
View full review »YC
Yong Chen
Security Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It's too expensive.
View full review »OO
Oscar Orellana
Founder at a university with 11-50 employees
This price is a little high, so it's an expensive product. It is a good solution but not a cheap one.
KJ
Kashif-Jamil
CEO at Xcelliti
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.
View full review »GC
reviewer1385793
Queretaro at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
The pricing is okay, it's comparable to other vendors.
It's not expensive for the resources that it gives you.
View full review »We do licenses once a year.
View full review »The pricing policy is good.
View full review »Our licensing costs for this solution is on a yearly basis.
View full review »AS
reviewer841053
Cyber Security Team Leader at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
It is cheaper than ArcSight.
View full review »Buyer's Guide
IBM Security QRadar
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about IBM Security QRadar. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.