Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs Splunk User Behavior Analytics comparison

Cisco and Splunk are both solutions in the Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) category. Cisco is ranked #16 with an average rating of 7.7, while Splunk is ranked #15 with an average rating of 7.8. Cisco holds a 3.5% mindshare in ID, compared to Splunk’s 2.4% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT

Read 19 Cisco Sourcefire SNORT reviews

1,131 Views
950 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Splunk User Behavior Analytics

Read 24 Splunk User Behavior Analytics reviews

3,300 Views
792 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT

Splunk User Behavior Analytics

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT and Splunk User Behavior Analytics compete in the cybersecurity domain. Splunk holds the upper hand due to its advanced analytics capabilities offering superior insights.

Features: Cisco Sourcefire SNORT provides real-time network traffic monitoring, a comprehensive intrusion detection system, and an adaptable open-source rule-based alert system. Splunk User Behavior Analytics offers advanced threat detection, comprehensive log analysis, and detailed insights into user actions. It is desirable for situations requiring extended feature sets and sophisticated analytics.

Room for Improvement: Cisco Sourcefire SNORT could improve in areas such as providing more intuitive reporting tools, enhancing user-interface design, and integrating more automated threat intelligence updates. Splunk User Behavior Analytics might focus on reducing deployment complexity, offering more out-of-the-box integrations, and optimizing cost-effectiveness for small to medium-sized enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Sourcefire SNORT is known for its easy deployment model and strong community support, allowing quick implementation. Splunk User Behavior Analytics, while requiring more detailed setup due to its complexity, benefits from thorough documentation and professional support, appealing to organizations seeking extensive guidance.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Sourcefire SNORT has a low initial setup cost, offering ROI through proactive threat mitigation. Splunk User Behavior Analytics requires a higher initial investment but justifies this with significant ROI via enhanced security insights and improved operational efficiency, attracting businesses prioritizing long-term returns and deep analytics.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs. Splunk User Behavior Analytics Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs. Splunk User Behavior Analytics

July 2025

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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

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT

Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)

16th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Splunk User Behavior Analytics

Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)

15th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) category, the mindshare of Cisco Sourcefire SNORT is 3.5%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk User Behavior Analytics is 2.4%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Splunk User Behavior Analytics	2.4%
Cisco Sourcefire SNORT	3.5%
Other	94.1%

Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)

Featured Reviews

Jack Poon

Treasury Specialist at Dah Sing Bank

Offers ease of setup and good documentation

When it comes to the product's deployment phase, we have a lot of vendor support. We have a lot of skills here in Hong Kong. Our company doesn't find any problem deploying Cisco solutions. The solution is deployed on an on-premises version. Speaking about the time required to deploy the solution, I would say that we have quite a lot of previous experience with deploying Cisco products. We have our company's standard design document, which we need to follow. We have a standard testing procedure for all those features. We just take out some appropriate parts and then compile them into one document for an individual project. It is actually quite easy for us to do the documentation, so it just takes one or two hours, and we can do the implementation because all the materials and testing procedures are already in our company standard documents, so it is not that difficult for us.

Read full review

Subhayu Chakraborty

System Engineer at Infosys

Automatic reports streamline tasks and offers easy report gathering

The dashboard part could be improved. While using it, I noticed two options: Classic, which is adequate yet only in black and white, and another one that is more advanced or smart, though I forgot the exact term. I encountered several issues while trying to create solutions for this advanced version, which seem unrelated to query or data issues.

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 Cisco Sourcefire SNORT are the dashboard for monitoring events."

"I like most of Cisco's features, like malware detection and URL filtering."

"Cisco Sourcefire SNORT is easy to configure and the reporting is great. It's also very user-friendly."

"The solution is rather easy to use."

"It simplifies the configuration process by offering pre-defined base configurations, including security and connectivity settings."

"The URL filtering is very good and you can create a group for customized URLs."

"The whole solution is very good, and stable."

"The tool's most valuable feature is threat detection, which is important because we have multiple layers not only in Cisco."

More Cisco Sourcefire SNORT pros

"This intelligent user behavior analytics package is easy to configure and use while remaining feature filled."

"Because of some of the visualizations that we utilize, we are able to understand strange, unusual traffic on our networks."

"Splunk User Behavior Analytics is a one hundred percent stable solution."

"The best features in Splunk User Behavior Analytics include anomaly detection, behavioral profiling, and risk scoring and prioritization functionality."

"The most valuable feature is being able to take data and put it into other systems so that we could see the output, and to see where we need to apply our focus."

"It's easily scalable."

"We are really pleased with Splunk and its features. It would be practically impossible to function without it. To provide a general overview of the system, it's important to note that the standard log files are currently around 250 gigabytes per day. It would be impossible to manually walk through these logs by hand, which is why automation is essential."

"Splunk is highly valuable for query purposes."

More Splunk User Behavior Analytics pros

Cons

"Integration with other components — even Cisco's own products — can be enhanced to improve administrative experience."

"The initial setup is a little difficult compared to other products in the market. It depends on the environment. If we are doing any migration, it might take months in a brown-field environment."

"The solution's approach to managing traffic blocking is confusing and impractical."

"I did not experience any pain points that required improvement. Maybe a couple of false-positives, but that's about it."

"We are unhappy with technical support for this solution, and it is not as professional as what we typically expect from Cisco."

"While the alerts they offer are good, it could improve it in the sense that they should be more detailed to make the alerts more useful to us in general. Sometimes the solution will offer up false positives. Due to the fact that the alerts aren't detailed, we have to go dig around to see why is it being blocked. The solution would be infinitely better if there was just a bit more detail in the alert information and logging we receive."

"There are problems setting up VPNs for some regions."

"The pricing needs to be improved. We have lots of low-budget clients around us. Budget constraints are always a deterrent in our market."

More Cisco Sourcefire SNORT cons

"In the future I would like to see simplified statistics and analytical threats."

"I would like to see an enhancement in the automation of creating the rules."

"They should work to add more built-in correlation searches and more use cases based on worldwide customer experiences. They need more ready-made use cases."

"In terms of improvements, advanced reporting could see enhancements as there are some issues with latency."

"The solution is much more expensive than relative competitors like ArcSight or LogRhythm. It makes it hard to sell to customers sometimes."

"The dashboard part could be improved."

"If the price was lowered and the setup process was less complex, I would consider rating it higher."

"We want to have an automated system for bot hunting that enables us to detect anomalies predictively based on historical data. It would be helpful if Splunk included process mining as an alternative option. We have a threat workflow, but it would be useful if we could supplement that with some process mining capabilities over time."

More Splunk User Behavior Analytics cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a three-year license for this solution."

"If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five."

"Licensing for this solution is paid on a yearly basis."

"The cost is per port and can be expensive but it does include training and support for three years."

"I don't know the exact amount, but most of the time when I go to a company with a proposition, they will say, "This thing that you are selling is good, but it's expensive. Why don't you propose something like FortiGate, Check Point, or Palo Alto?" Cisco device are expensive compared to other devices."

"The licensing costs is around 10,000 dollars."

"I am not aware of the price, but it is expensive."

"I hope we can increase the free license to be more than 5 gig a day. This would help people who want to introduce a POC or a demo license for the solution."

"Pricing varies based on the packages you choose and the volume of your usage."

"My biggest complaint is the way they do pricing... You can never know the pricing for next year. Every single time you adjust to something new, the price goes up. It's impossible to truly budget for it. It goes up constantly."

"There are additional costs associated with the integrator."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

University

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	12

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?

The product is inexpensive compared to leading brands such as Palo Alto or Fortinet.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?

If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five. There are some other tools in the market that are more expensive than Cisco. There are no additional c...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?

Cisco offers the Cisco DNA Center, which is a source that provides crucial information for us to monitor performance, and see whether there is any trouble. We are using Cisco DNA center, but again,...

See all answers

What do you like most about Splunk User Behavior Analytics?

The solution's most valuable feature is Splunk queries, which allow us to query the logs and analyze the attack vectors.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Splunk User Behavior Analytics?

In terms of setup cost, pricing, and licensing, Splunk User Behavior Analytics is not an inexpensive product. The setup requires numerous components including storage, networking, identity access, ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Splunk User Behavior Analytics?

There are improvements that could be made to Splunk User Behavior Analytics as any product will have advantages and disadvantages. Scalability is one consideration. For example, the advantages incl...

See all answers

Comparisons

Fortinet FortiGate IPS vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT

Compared 20% of the time

Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT

Compared 20% of the time

Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT

Compared 18% of the time

Zscaler Cloud IPS vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT

Compared 10% of the time

Trend Micro TippingPoint Threat Protection System vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT

Compared 10% of the time

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Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management vs Splunk User Behavior Analytics

Compared 50% of the time

Exabeam vs Splunk User Behavior Analytics

Compared 8% of the time

Darktrace vs Splunk User Behavior Analytics

Compared 7% of the time

Gurucul UEBA vs Splunk User Behavior Analytics

Compared 4% of the time

Varonis Platform vs Splunk User Behavior Analytics

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT

August 2025

Download Cisco Sourcefire SNORT product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk User Behavior Analytics

August 2025

Download Splunk User Behavior Analytics product report

Also Known As

Sourcefire SNORT

Caspida, Splunk UBA

Overview

Snort is an open-source, rule-based, intrusion detection and prevention system. It combines the benefits of signature-, protocol-, and anomaly-based inspection methods to deliver flexible protection from malware attacks. Snort gained notoriety for being able to accurately detect threats at high speeds.

Cisco

Splunk User Behavior Analytics is a behavior-based threat detection is based on machine learning methodologies that require no signatures or human analysis, enabling multi-entity behavior profiling and peer group analytics for users, devices, service accounts and applications. It detects insider threats and external attacks using out-of-the-box purpose-built that helps organizations find known, unknown and hidden threats, but extensible unsupervised machine learning (ML) algorithms, provides context around the threat via ML driven anomaly correlation and visual mapping of stitched anomalies over various phases of the attack lifecycle (Kill-Chain View). It uses a data science driven approach that produces actionable results with risk ratings and supporting evidence that increases SOC efficiency and supports bi-directional integration with Splunk Enterprise for data ingestion and correlation and with Splunk Enterprise Security for incident scoping, workflow management and automated response. The result is automated, accurate threat and anomaly detection.

Splunk

Sample Customers

CareCore, City of Biel, Dimension Data, LightEdge, Lone Star College System, National Rugby League, Port Aventura, Smart City Networks, Telecom Italia, The Department of Education in Western Australia

8 Securities, AAA Western, AdvancedMD, Amaya, Cerner Corporation, CJ O Shopping, CloudShare, Crossroads Foundation, 7-Eleven Indonesia

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs. Splunk User Behavior Analytics

July 2025

Free Report: Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs. Splunk User Behavior Analytics

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs. Splunk User Behavior Analytics and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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