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Security Onion vs Wazuh comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 30, 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

Security Onion
Ranking in Log Management
20th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Wazuh
Ranking in Log Management
1st
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
50
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (2nd), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Security Onion is 3.7%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Wazuh is 9.4%, down from 15.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Log Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Wazuh9.4%
Security Onion3.7%
Other86.9%
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

Anish Bajracharya - PeerSpot reviewer
Postgraduate at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Provides good threat hunting by finding infected ports, but its initial setup is difficult
The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports. I have used the Squert tool within Security Onion the most for threat hunting The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult. I have been using Security Onion for one year.…
RS
Engineer - Information Security at N-Able (Pvt) Ltd
Has faced limitations in AI capabilities and pricing flexibility
Pricing-wise, Wazuh stands out, along with deployment flexibility and its documentation which is extremely good in comparison to Forti. The community support is also incredible. They have helped quite a bit because previously, we had a separate tool and management dashboard to do our compliance. With Wazuh, we receive that information without having to do anything extra. We just set up the SIEM and all of that information was automatically populated. The dashboards are very easy to understand and very quick with no lag or delay. I have experienced delays on Forti's dashboards, but not with Wazuh. Wazuh is quite good. In comparison to Forti, they are quite similar. They are very good at detection.

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."
"The product’s interface is intuitive."
"The main thing I like about it is that it has an EDR."
"The most valuable features are the modules and metrics."
"Wazuh's most valuable features include file monitoring and compliance reporting, which do not require excessive costs."
"The configuration assessment and Pile integrity monitoring features are decent."
"Regarding Wazuh, I find the SCA (Security Configuration Assessment) features most valuable. It's crucial for asset management and inventory, allowing us to monitorendpoints and servers' changes easily. This is particularly important for my customers, who aren't heavily focused on incident response but rely on asset management and inventories. Wazuh's compliance management features are very supportive, especially in regions like the Americas and Europe. However, it's less effective in the ANZ (Australia and New Zealand) region since Wazuh doesn't cater to the specific compliance standards there, such as those required in Australia. I appreciate that Wazuh fully complies with PCI DSS and GDPR standards, allowing us to generate necessary reports."
"I like the features we use, including malware detection, inventory, detection of hidden processes, and activity logs. Inventory is probably the most important feature. It tells us when processes and packages were installed and what they are, which is helpful."
"When we talk about functionality, the most valuable feature or function I have found in Wazuh is Wazuh EDR agent with EDR capabilities."
 

Cons

"Security Onion's user interface could be improved."
"The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult."
"The product is not easy to learn."
"Wazuh is missing many things that a typical SIEM should have."
"Some features, like alerting, are complex with Wazuh."
"I want more support for regional compliance standards to serve my ANZ region customers better."
"The product's configuration part and lack of AI capabilities are some of the major concerns associated with Wazuh."
"I have yet to find the same capability in Wazuh to get logs from different sources into the system"
"The tool does not provide CTI to monitor darknet."
"Wazuh doesn't have native support for some enterprise solutions."
"The deployment is a bit complex."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an open-source solution."
"Security Onion is an open-source solution."
"Security Onion is a free solution."
"Wazuh is an open-source tool, which means it is freely available for use."
"It is a cost-effective solution."
"When I contacted customer care, they mentioned bundling options, that I found to be overall affordable."
"The product is cheaper compared to other tools."
"Wazuh is a cheaply priced product."
"Wazuh is open-source, so I think it's an option for a small organization that cannot go for enterprise-grade solutions like Splunk."
"My client uses the open-source version of Wazuh."
"There is not a license required for Wazuh."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
12%
Government
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
11%
University
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise8
 

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?
Wazuh is its flexibility and open-source nature, which allows us to tailor threat detection and response across diverse client environments. Its integration capabilities with SOAR, cloud platforms,...
What needs improvement with Wazuh?
Regarding compliance, I find it not stable. I do not recommend it for that purpose. It can comply with Wazuh NCA, which we have here in Saudi Arabia. Wazuh NCA has many frameworks starting with ECC...
What is your primary use case for Wazuh?
I have been working with Wazuh for two years, and I can explain how I use Wazuh. I did not use Wazuh as a SIEM solution. I use Wazuh as a tool for services we provide. This service is called compro...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Wazuh All-In-One Deployment
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Security Onion vs. Wazuh and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
880,901 professionals have used our research since 2012.