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IBM Security QRadar vs OpenText Enterprise Security Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 19, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.5
IBM Security QRadar is praised for efficient monitoring, low costs, valuable analytics, and beneficial long-term security investments.
Sentiment score
4.9
ROI from OpenText Enterprise Security Manager varies widely, influenced by threat detection, compliance benefits, and prevention of incidents.
With SOAR, the workflow takes one minute or less to complete the analysis.
Investing this amount was very much worth it for my organization.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.1
IBM Security QRadar's customer service is praised overall, though technical support quality varies, with notable regional differences.
Sentiment score
5.4
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager support receives mixed reviews, with common complaints about slow resolution and inadequate expertise in complex issues.
Support needs to understand the issue first, then escalate it to the engineering team.
The support is really good; for instance, if a critical ticket is submitted, you will get paged right away as it gets logged, and their analyst will look into it, letting you know as soon as possible so you can work on it.
They assist with advanced issues, such as hardware or other problems, that are not part of standard operations.
The answers received are not always satisfactory, requiring follow-up discussions.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
IBM Security QRadar is scalable and flexible, accommodating thousands of users and devices, though some express pricing concerns.
Sentiment score
5.9
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager is scalable for large deployments but faces cost challenges at the logger level.
For EPS license, if you increase or exceed the EPS license, you cannot receive events.
It lacks some capabilities compared to other tools available in the market.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
IBM Security QRadar is generally stable, though some users face challenges with updates, configurations, scalability, and high log volumes.
Sentiment score
5.1
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager is stable and reliable, though performance varies with challenges in virtualization and specific components.
The product has been stable so far.
I think QRadar is stable and currently satisfies my needs.
The stability of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is not very robust.
 

Room For Improvement

IBM Security QRadar users seek improvements in interface design, integration, automation, cost-efficiency, and advanced analytics for better usability.
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager needs user interface upgrades, better integration, improved documentation, and enhancements in analytics and scalability.
IBM Security QRadar does not support Canvas, so we had to create custom scripts and workarounds to pull logs from Canvas.
If AI-related support can suggest rules and integrate with existing security devices like MD, IPS, this SIM can create more relevant rules.
This would help identify critical or high-priority alarms in QRadar.
The integration aspect of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) needs improvement.
 

Setup Cost

IBM Security QRadar is costly yet efficient, priced on Events Per Second, and offers negotiable, simplified annual licensing.
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager is costly but offers robust features and scalability, with possible discounts and cost management strategies.
Splunk is more expensive than IBM Security QRadar.
ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is very cheap compared to other tools.
 

Valuable Features

IBM Security QRadar is a scalable, user-friendly platform praised for rapid insights, advanced machine learning, and integration capabilities.
ArcSight offers advanced threat detection, robust integration, customizable dashboards, and automates event correlation for efficient security operations.
Recently, I faced an incident, a cyber incident, and it was detected in real time.
I would assess IBM Security QRadar's AI and machine learning capabilities as very helpful for threat detection and response.
We have FortiSOAR and IBM Resilient for IBM Security QRadar orchestration.
The ability to interpret data is highly valued.
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Security QRadar
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
210
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (6th), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (1st), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (17th), Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (4th), Managed Detection and Response (MDR) (8th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (11th)
OpenText Enterprise Securit...
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
22nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
98
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of IBM Security QRadar is 7.2%, down from 9.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Enterprise Security Manager is 1.5%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Security QRadar7.2%
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager1.5%
Other91.3%
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

Mahmoud Younes - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable installation and diverse use cases provide strong value
IBM Security QRadar has some areas for improvement. We have missed some DSM components. We need to customize logs where there is no DSM or connector for certain products. We can integrate but we have missed the DSM, which is the connector to pass logs coming from different applications. For example, with a university customer, we tried onboarding Canvas service. IBM Security QRadar does not support Canvas, so we had to create custom scripts and workarounds to pull logs from Canvas.
Gaurav Ranade - PeerSpot reviewer
Excels at performing regression and correlation on the data
ArcSight is a legacy technology, and many customers want AI-powered technologies integrated with it. That hasn't been done yet, but ArcSight needs to catch up with the newer solutions and technologies available in the market. It can't just rely on the legacy technology from 2010 or 2012. You can't run that in 2024. It's a legacy technology with its own limitations. Customers often face issues that other software or newer solutions can resolve easily. That's the main challenge we face from customers right now. So, the only concerns are that AI needs to be integrated and scalability improved. Those are the main areas to be improved.
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Comparison Review

VS
Jun 28, 2015
Qradar vs. ArcSight
Continuing with the SIEM posts we have done at Infosecnirvana, this post is a Head to head comparison of the two Industry leading SIEM products in the market – HP ArcSight and IBM QRadar Both the products have consistently been in the Gartner Leaders Quadrant. Both HP and IBM took over niche SIEM…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business88
Midsize Enterprise36
Large Enterprise102
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business37
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise57
 

Questions from the Community

What are the biggest differences between Securonix UEBA, Exabeam, and IBM QRadar?
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 in...
What SOC product do you recommend?
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, rememb...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Security QRadar?
When comparing with Splunk, IBM Security QRadar's cost is reasonable. Splunk is more expensive than IBM Security QRadar.
Which is the best SIEM tool for a mid-sized financial services firm: Arcsight or Securonix?
In my market, a lot of financial companies had or have an ArcSight installation. Just because in former times it was pretty good. Now a lot of them are looking for a more effective solution due to ...
What do you like most about ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM)?
We utilize ArcSight ESM for real-time threat detection in our organization. We have custom rules that we've developed on top of the WAN services, along with scheduled licensing activities.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM)?
ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is very cheap compared to other tools. It is worth the investment if you are considering the cost.
 

Also Known As

IBM QRadar, QRadar SIEM, QRadar UBA, QRadar on Cloud, IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson
Micro Focus ArcSight, HPE ArcSight, ArcSight
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Clients across multiple industries, such as energy, financial, retail, healthcare, government, communications, and education use QRadar.
Lake Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Bank AlJazira, Banca Intesa, and Obrela.
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Security QRadar vs. OpenText Enterprise Security Manager and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,445 professionals have used our research since 2012.