AlienVault OSSIM vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager comparison

AT&T and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category. AT&T is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.4, while SolarWinds is ranked #36 with an average rating of 7.7. AT&T holds a 1.4% mindshare in SIEM, compared to SolarWinds’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of AT&T users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 82% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

AlienVault OSSIM

Read 31 AlienVault OSSIM reviews

4,551 Views
4,460 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Security Event M...

Read 27 SolarWinds Security Event Manager reviews

2,192 Views
2,104 Comparison Views

82% willing to recommend

AlienVault OSSIM

SolarWinds Security Event M...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

SolarWinds Security Event Manager and AlienVault OSSIM are leading products in the security event management category. SolarWinds has an edge in support and pricing, while AlienVault is preferred for its robust features.

Features: SolarWinds Security Event Manager is praised for its log management, automated threat detection, and compliance reporting. AlienVault OSSIM integrates with other security tools, offering comprehensive asset discovery, vulnerability assessment, and behavior monitoring.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds could benefit from a more streamlined configuration process and enhanced scalability options. AlienVault needs better documentation and improved performance handling larger data sets.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds Security Event Manager is noted for its straightforward deployment and exceptional customer service. AlienVault OSSIM, while more complex to deploy, offers extensive integrations but has mixed reviews on customer service responsiveness.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds Security Event Manager is favored for its transparent pricing and good return on investment. AlienVault OSSIM, considered more costly, justifies its price through its rich feature set and comprehensive security functionalities.

To learn more, read our detailed AlienVault OSSIM vs. SolarWinds Security Event Manager Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

AlienVault OSSIM vs. SolarWinds Security Event Manager

March 2026

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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

AlienVault OSSIM

Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

13th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SolarWinds Security Event M...

Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

36th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

5.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of AlienVault OSSIM is 1.4%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Security Event Manager is 1.0%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
AlienVault OSSIM	1.4%
SolarWinds Security Event Manager	1.0%
Other	97.6%

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

Featured Reviews

Brandon Pearce

Independent Contractor at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees

Enables cost-effective security management for small businesses

Scaling for USM is always challenging for any product unless it is purpose-built or overbuilt at the front end. They will use Palo Alto and its competitors, and LevelBlue will manage that implementation. The main area where the AlienVault product was lacking around the 2018 timeframe was in its ability to scale. By pushing it to a cloud-based system, they've largely alleviated scale issues. It's native in Amazon but will also run in Azure. They have worked with cloud service providers to offer enough throughput at a cost reasonable for a corporation. Scaling was their biggest problem, and they've largely conquered those issues.

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Yashokanth Partkunan

Managed Services Engineer at Loop1 Systems

Has supported client needs efficiently but requires deeper analysis features and faster support

The log analyzing capability of SolarWinds Security Event Manager should go into more depth than the current environment. More modification and enhancements are required on the dashboard side in order to make it closer to optimal performance. From observation and feedback from users, they need more functionality related to monitoring, and in-depth analyzing needs to be improved.

Read full review

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 features of AlienVault OSSIM are case management, ease of configuration, and investigation."

"I have deployed it widely because I find that it gives value for money."

"The threat alerts it gives me from time to time on harmful code within the network, or if they are generating any network traffic, are very useful."

"A very good feature of AlienVault OSSIM is that it has many domains that can be integrated from different solutions."

"Its user-friendliness is the most valuable. It is very easy to use and explore. The dashboard is very well packaged and integrated. You don't have to spend a lot of time in configuring it and checking out the RPM etc. It is also free and very powerful."

"The solution is free to use."

"OSSIM is the only solution that includes the large number of modules that we need: a vulnerability scanner, a network IDS system, a host IDS system."

"You pay monthly for the solution. I think it's one of the best products. If you compare with other companies, like LogRhythm, etc., the top 8 or 10 CMs, I think Alien Vault has the best price-performance ratio."

More AlienVault OSSIM pros

"We did previously use a different solution, but SolarWinds is much better. It's easy to interact with SolarWinds. It's easy to operate, easy to configure and is generally easier compared to what we were working with before."

"SolarWinds' stability is fine; I don't think we've had any software issues."

"The most valuable feature is the ease of use for the end user."

"The scalability of SolarWinds Security Event Manager is good."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the visibility into both attempted and failed logins."

"SolarWinds is effective for server, network, and log monitoring. It's also good for IP address management. We also have a patch manager, but we're still working on getting that operational."

"Some of the rules are most valuable because you can be notified about various things, such as spyware or things that are going on in the internal network."

"SolarWinds Security Event Manager has been generally working well."

More SolarWinds Security Event Manager pros

Cons

"The incidence reporting could be better."

"AlienVault OSSIM could improve by having better integration with some of the newer tools."

"It's so hard to configure and explore something new on it."

"The log collection is okay, but tracing the logs or tracing the events is a bit difficult."

"Sometimes technical issues take very long to get resolved."

"From a management console perspective and the maturity of the dashboards, I would probably put it slightly behind some of the other players that have been in the market for ages."

"They can add more compliance templates."

"AlienVault OSSIM on-premise version is more difficult to implement than the cloud version. Additionally, they should add integration between several different environments at once and improve their online knowledge base."

More AlienVault OSSIM cons

"Under the new system, it is not upgradable the way they say. When you try to do an upgrade, it doesn't really work unless you dump everything and start from scratch. You lose a lot of your nodes. Whenever you set your nodes up and everything else, they don't want to bring those nodes back in, so you have to really go back and restructure all your nodes. I went from version 6.5 to version 6.6 and then to version 6.7. I then went to version 2019, and now it is version 2020. It would be good if we can upgrade without having to delete everything and start from scratch. They can maybe build more KPIs and other things for the dashboard. Some of the other systems already have built-in KPIs. SolarWinds is starting to catch up, but it is not there yet. They can include some of the business or industry standards for tracking the time, that is, the meantime to detect (MTTD) and the meantime to resolve (MTTR). They can also find a way to build a KPI that measures the number of instances of port scans experienced in a week or a month."

"It takes a long time to perform a root cause analysis."

"The company had to use a third party for the implementation of the solution."

"I would like to have a more customizable dashboard."

"We used the support from SolarWinds Security Event Manager and they are knowledgeable but challenging to get in contact with them."

"The company had to use a third party for the implementation of the solution."

"I don't think SolarWinds is scalable enough. It is somewhat limited when I need to deploy it across multiple environments in a distributed architecture."

"We have automated threat detection in the Alliance Security, Antoinette. However, if these features could be further enhanced, it would simplify my work, potentially allowing me to allocate more time to address complex issues."

More SolarWinds Security Event Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing fees for the non-community edition are paid on an annual basis, and there are no costs in addition to this."

"OSSIM is free."

"When comparing AlienVault OSSIM to Microsoft Sentinel, AlienVault OSSIM incurs additional costs due to its licensing price structure. If you are using AlienVault for security purposes at a certain level it can have a higher price point than the current pricing of Microsoft Sentinel."

"AlienVault OSSIM is free."

"AlienVault pricing is the best. Whatever cost you are paying, you are getting a return on every penny... It's not like your IBM, your QRadar, or Splunk, where the cost is too high."

"AlienVault OSSIM is expensive compared to its competitors."

"We are using a free version of the solution. If you purchase a license there are more features available but the price is a little high. The solution should be cheaper to allow more customers to be able to afford it."

"The solution is open source, so it's free to use."

More AlienVault OSSIM pricing and cost advice

"Licenses can only be purchased in blocks of fifty at a time."

"It is in the appropriate mid-range. It is not as expensive as some of the other solutions. It is also not cheap."

"The price of SolarWinds Security Event Manager is reasonable."

"Licensing is on devices, so if you have many, then this may be high."

"The pricing model would benefit from having package deals with other SolarWinds products."

"We do a yearly license renewal. For a year, the solution costs roughly $500,000 USD. There are no costs beyond this yearly fee."

"The tool is available at a good price for customers compared to other solutions in the market. I rate the product's price as an eight out of ten."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

13%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Construction Company

10%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	18
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AlienVault OSSIM?

Asset discovery is good.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AlienVault OSSIM?

It depends. I would need to review their cost models, but generally, they are on a scaled basis based on throughput usage. Because it's a software as a service solution for their core product for U...

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What needs improvement with AlienVault OSSIM?

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Security Event Manager ?

The tool is available at a good price for customers compared to other solutions in the market. I rate the product's price as an eight out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Security Event Manager ?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Security Event Manager ?

I work with all SolarWinds products mostly, including Network Configuration Manager and NPM. I am a reseller. I usually recommend SolarWinds products for Loop1. It's for the bigger ones; we are the...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

AlienVault OSSIM

April 2026

Download AlienVault OSSIM product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Security Event Manager

March 2026

SolarWinds Security Event Manager report

Download SolarWinds Security Event Manager product report

Also Known As

OSSIM

SolarWinds LEM, Solarwinds SIEM, TriGeo, Log and Event Manager

Overview

AlienVault OSSIM, Open Source Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), provides you with a feature-rich open source SIEM complete with event collection, normalization and correlation. Launched by security engineers because of the lack of available open source products, AlienVault OSSIM was created specifically to address the reality many security professionals face: A SIEM, whether it is open source or commercial, is virtually useless without the basic security controls necessary for security visibility.

AT&T

When TriGeo was acquired by SolarWinds, TriGeo SIM became known as SolarWinds Log & Event Manager. This product is a leading Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) product and log management solution, which provides log collection, analysis, and real-time correlation.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Council Rock School District

NetSuite, EasyStreet, Legacy Texas Bank, and Energy Federal Credit Union, to name a few.

Buyer's Guide

AlienVault OSSIM vs. SolarWinds Security Event Manager

March 2026

Free Report: AlienVault OSSIM vs. SolarWinds Security Event Manager

Find out what your peers are saying about AlienVault OSSIM vs. SolarWinds Security Event Manager and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

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