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Cribl vs OpenText Enterprise Security Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

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
5.1
Cribl reduces log ingestion costs by 30%-60%, optimizing efficiency and ROI through competitive pricing and streamlined processes.
Sentiment score
4.9
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager aids compliance and threat detection, though ROI clarity varies due to costs and licensing model.
What we've seen is really an overall reduction of just shy of 40% in our ingest into our SIM platform versus prior to having Cribl.
Senior Security Engineer at a university with 10,001+ employees
The second thing is that data aggregation, sampling, and reduction that we're able to do of the data, lowering our overall data volume, both traversing the network as well as what's being stored inside of our final solutions.
Director, Performance Engineering at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
In terms of reduction, we were able to save almost ~40% of our total cost.
Sr. Lead Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I find that using ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) provides a valuable return on investment as it serves as a single point of glass for logs and data analysis.
Cloud Security Archirect at IBM
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Cribl's technical support is praised for its expertise and accessibility, though some users note issues with complex problem handling.
Sentiment score
5.4
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager receives mixed reviews, with inconsistent technical support and reliance on self-resolution despite improvements.
They had extensive expertise with the product and were able to facilitate everything we needed.
Security Consultant at Integrity360
Usually, within an hour, we get a response, and we are able to work with them back and forth until we resolve the issues.
Engineering Fellow at Pegasystems
Sometimes by hearing the problem itself, they will know what the solution is, and they will let us know how to resolve it, and we do it immediately.
Senior Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
If I raise a P1 or P0 ticket, the response time is often delayed by four to eight hours.
Senior Security Engineer at Valuepoint Systems
I would rate the technical support of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) a nine as they are always available and responsive whenever we open a case.
Cloud Security Archirect at IBM
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
Cribl is highly scalable and efficiently handles large log volumes, making it suitable for various business needs.
Sentiment score
5.9
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager is adaptable but costly, with licensing concerns affecting budget forecasting despite user satisfaction.
The infrastructure behind Cribl Search is also scalable as it uses a CPU and just spawns horizontally more instances as it demands and requires.
Engineering Fellow at Pegasystems
Compared to other SIEM tools I use, any slight change on the operating system end impacts a lot on our SIEM tools and other things, but Cribl performs well in that regard.
Senior Software Engineer at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Cribl performs effectively across both market segments.
Principal at a hospitality company with 10,001+ employees
It lacks some capabilities compared to other tools available in the market.
Senior Security Engineer at Valuepoint Systems
It is easy to scale, and I have not encountered any issues when we require more storage or deployment.
Cloud Security Archirect at IBM
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Cribl is highly stable with minimal issues; reliable performance often cited, with support mitigating occasional downtime and bug-related challenges.
Sentiment score
5.1
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager's stability varies by environment, requiring proper setup; recent patches improve performance but challenges persist.
Migrating from those SC4S servers to Cribl worker nodes has truly been a game-changer.
Sr. Lead Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Regarding scalability, we started with zero servers and have around 285 servers now.
Senior Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Cribl is designed to deal with certain kinds of loads and is not designed to handle any scenario in the market.
Security Delivery Senior Analyst at Accenture
I would rate the stability of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) a nine because I have not encountered significant issues, unlike other solutions that sometimes have database errors.
Cloud Security Archirect at IBM
The stability of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is not very robust.
Senior Security Engineer at Valuepoint Systems
 

Room For Improvement

Cribl faces performance, documentation, UI complexity, cost concerns, and scalability issues with desired enhancements in integrations, templates, and automation.
Users seek better reporting, UX, licensing, enhanced performance, integration, automation, AI advancements, and improved support and training.
A more stringent role-based access control feature would enhance security and allow granular control over what users can see and access.
Manager for Monitoring and Logging at Velera
When passing query logs or DNS logs, if certain malicious query patterns need to be identified or if fast-flux attacks are happening, Cribl can report that and those would definitely be a plus for them.
Product Manager at UnDisclosed
I would advise others looking to implement Cribl that if they are evolving Cribl Search, it would be very interesting to see more capability, more flexibility, and more ways to share the data similar to Splunk.
Senior Manager at Deloitte
I would like to see the detection and response features included in the next release of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM), as security orchestration and automation are increasingly important.
Cloud Security Archirect at IBM
The integration aspect of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) needs improvement.
Senior Security Engineer at Valuepoint Systems
 

Setup Cost

Cribl is seen as cost-effective, with competitive pricing providing value, especially for data-intensive enterprises amid evolving costs.
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager is considered costly, with varied licensing options, and negotiation advised for potential discounts.
Over time, the licensing cost has increased.
SIEM Engineer at National Australia Bank (NAB)
It was cheaper than the Splunk license.
Security Engineering Programme Manager at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Splunk is more expensive, and Cribl appears to be more affordable.
Principal at a hospitality company with 10,001+ employees
ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is very cheap compared to other tools.
Senior Security Engineer at Valuepoint Systems
I would rate the pricing of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) around seven, as it varies based on features and demand, making it more affordable for larger organizations, while smaller ones might find it expensive.
Cloud Security Archirect at IBM
 

Valuable Features

Cribl offers an intuitive UI, data efficiency, and flexible integration, improving log processing and cost management for all users.
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager offers versatility, strong vendor support, effective event correlation, and user-friendly integration for enhanced security analysis.
The data reduction and preprocessing capabilities make Cribl really unique.
Security Consultant at Integrity360
Cribl has a feature called JSON Unroll or Unroll function that allows you to differentiate the events; each event will come ingested as a single log instead of piling it up with multiple events.
Security Engineer at Tecplix
The Cribl UI is very simple and easy to use, particularly when working with data from various sources; it makes it very easy to create pipelines, add complex logic to those pipelines, and then gives you a preview of what your data looks like before applying that pipeline and what you get after.
Senior Security Engineer at a university with 10,001+ employees
The ability to interpret data is highly valued.
Senior Security Engineer at Valuepoint Systems
The log analysis feature is particularly valuable as it allows analysts to interpret intrusion-related logs efficiently.
Cloud Security Archirect at IBM
 

Categories and Ranking

Cribl
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (6th), Log Management (3rd), Observability Pipeline Software (1st)
OpenText Enterprise Securit...
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
23rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of Cribl is 1.3%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Enterprise Security Manager is 1.6%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cribl1.3%
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager1.6%
Other97.1%
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

Aman Verma - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Has helped reduce daily log volume significantly and streamline data routing across multiple destinations
Regarding complexity, as I mentioned before, Cribl is very simple to use. When I started 2.5 years ago, it was very easy to learn. I learned Cribl within a week, and even though I was a fresher at the time, it was easy to understand and not complex enough that someone would need to spend money on labs. It's not that complex to learn. Regarding cost efficiency, it's very good because nowadays the SIEM tools we use are too expensive on license, and SIEM tools base their license on how many logs get ingested. The unwanted logs, particularly firewall logs, represent a significant portion of unnecessary ingestion. Cribl saves our license by filtering out half of the firewall logs that are unwanted. Our main purpose for using Cribl is to save our license and save money. Currently, everyone is moving toward AI agents. We currently use regex, and AI agents could help us create those regex patterns to drop events or add raw data to events. Currently, we sit down, review the logs, and create regex patterns manually, which can be time-consuming. An AI agent could reduce this time. I read some articles indicating that Cribl Cloud has started using AI and considering MCPs and model context, but I'm not certain how far along they are. If Cribl asked me what they could improve, that would be my suggestion. The support is very good, and I had a few issues with Cribl where I raised support cases and received good responses, which is better than the quick response I didn't get from other SIEM tools and vendor tools I use. Compared to other SIEM tools, Cribl is cheaper than Splunk and DataDogs. However, it's still a bit expensive from my point of view, though I won't call it expensive. Overall, I think 99% of companies use Cribl before their SIEM tools, and compared to SIEM tools, Cribl is cheaper. Companies can use any SIEM tool such as Google, Splunk, or Cisco, and Cribl is cheaper than those SIEM tools. They might have a slight chance to reduce costs further, but I'm not the correct person to evaluate that since I'm more focused on the operational side. Regarding training, it was quite easy to grasp. It took me almost a week to understand the basic functionalities and what Cribl does. Getting more expertise took additional time, but basic functionalities and understanding what Cribl does took around four to five days. One point I want to mention is that Cribl could improve their labs or training materials in their Cribl Cloud or whatever portal they have.
SM
Cloud Security Archirect at IBM
Unified log analysis has strengthened incident detection and supports continuous attack simulation
I do not have any areas for improvement in ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) as I have not delved deeply into it; overall, it is a good package. I would like to see the detection and response features included in the next release of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM), as security orchestration and automation are increasingly important.
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Comparison Review

VS
Manager, Enterprise Risk Consulting at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
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
Financial Services Firm
19%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Healthcare Company
6%
Government
5%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
12%
Marketing Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise34
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business37
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise59
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cribl?
I find the pricing of Cribl to be cost-efficient because it has helped us save costs for data storage by removing unwanted logs.
What needs improvement with Cribl?
One improvement Cribl could work on is Cribl's Git integration. If I want to integrate my private repository, I can do this, but there is a specific format required in Git. If I commit something to...
What is your primary use case for Cribl?
We started using Cribl one year ago for data optimization. Currently, we are using Cribl for its one terabyte ingestion that is free, which is one significant advantage. We are using it for that pu...
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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM)?
I would rate the pricing of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) around seven, as it varies based on features and demand, making it more affordable for larger organizations, while smaller one...
What needs improvement with ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM)?
I do not have any areas for improvement in ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) as I have not delved deeply into it; overall, it is a good package. I would like to see the detection and respo...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Micro Focus ArcSight, HPE ArcSight, ArcSight
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Lake Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Bank AlJazira, Banca Intesa, and Obrela.
Find out what your peers are saying about Cribl vs. OpenText Enterprise Security Manager and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.