Elastic Observability vs NetWitness Platform comparison

Elastic and NetWitness are both solutions in the Log Management category. Elastic is ranked #14 with an average rating of 8.7, while NetWitness is ranked #34 with an average rating of 8.3. Elastic holds a 1.2% mindshare in Log Management, compared to NetWitness’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Elastic users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 75% of NetWitness users who would recommend it.

Elastic Observability

Read 29 Elastic Observability reviews

8,436 Views
2,025 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

NetWitness Platform

Read 36 NetWitness Platform reviews

1,929 Views
945 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

Elastic Observability

NetWitness Platform

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

NetWitness Platform and Elastic Observability compete in cybersecurity and data monitoring. Based on feature comparison, NetWitness Platform seems more robust in threat detection, whereas Elastic Observability is favored for integration and flexibility.

Features: NetWitness Platform provides comprehensive threat detection, in-depth threat analytics, and network forensics. Elastic Observability stands out with seamless integration across systems, real-time processing capabilities, and flexible monitoring solutions.

Room for Improvement: NetWitness Platform requires enhancements in UI navigation, customization options, and deployment complexity. Elastic Observability needs improvements in alert functionalities, reporting accuracy, and user interface intuitiveness.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Elastic Observability offers smoother deployment processes with detailed documentation. NetWitness Platform features responsive customer support, but deployment may be complex and time-consuming.

Pricing and ROI: NetWitness Platform involves higher setup costs with unclear ROI feedback. Elastic Observability is more cost-effective and has positive evaluations on ROI due to its scalable pricing structure.

To learn more, read our detailed Elastic Observability vs. NetWitness Platform Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Observability vs. NetWitness Platform

December 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

Elastic Observability

Ranking in Log Management

14th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (6th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (9th), Container Monitoring (4th), Cloud Monitoring Software (7th)

NetWitness Platform

Ranking in Log Management

34th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (31st)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Elastic Observability is 1.2%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetWitness Platform is 0.6%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Log Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Elastic Observability	1.2%
NetWitness Platform	0.6%
Other	98.2%

Log Management

Featured Reviews

Mohammed-Abdelalim

Assistant Vice President at QualityKiosk Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Has provided powerful customization for unique monitoring needs but needs more out-of-the-box capabilities

In my opinion, the best features of Elastic Observability are their flexibility to integrate with other existing systems and the ability to build a unified monitoring tool that can integrate with existing ones and end-to-end user journeys which require a lot of customizations. The greatest feature in Elastic is the ability to customize. This is similar to my comments about customizable dashboards in Elastic because it's visible to the analyst. However, it's very great. Customizing these dashboards can meet the customer's specific use cases and specific stories that they have in their environment, their special environment that doesn't look like other environments. The dashboarding in Elastic is highly customizable to the level of logos. If the customer wants his company logo in the dashboard, it can be done.

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MOTASHIM Al Razi

CISO at One Bank Limited

It is a stable solution, but they should make the user interface easier to understand

The solution's initial setup takes work. We have to organize multiple paths and many features. The deployment process takes less than a week. But it takes a month to complete if we want to make the solution smarter by integrating it with various devices. I rate the process as a six out of ten.

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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 Elastic Observability is the text search."

"I have built a mini business intelligence system based on Elastic Observability."

"Elastic provides built-in features for queries and report generation. It's a very good tool for monitoring integration capabilities."

"It is a powerful tool that allows users to collect and transform logs as needed, enabling flexible visualization and analysis."

"The product has connectors to many services."

"Machine learning is the most valuable feature of this solution."

"The solution is open-source and helps with back-end logging. It is also easy to handle."

"I think Elastic Observability is already in very good shape."

More Elastic Observability pros

"The development of use cases on the SSA console is quite user friendly. This means that the security analyst or the researcher does not have to learn another language."

"The product's initial setup phase was not at all difficult."

"Alerting Module: It provides real-time event processing language on all the logs/packets stream for advanced alerting, i.e., using SQL LIKE statements."

"NetWitness Platform is valuable for creating rules that the solution must detect."

"The most valuable features are the packet inspection and the automated incident response."

"Offers a good wireless feature."

"The software is scalable to whatever is required, and you can also put a lot of resources in the cloud."

"NetWitness Platform offers flexibility for deployment and robust integration capabilities."

More NetWitness Platform pros

Cons

"Elastic Observability’s price could be improved."

"The tool's scalability involves a more complex implementation process. It requires careful calculations to determine the number of nodes needed, the specifications of each node, and the configuration of hot, warm, and cold zones for data storage. Additionally, managing log retention policies adds further complexity. The solution's pricing also needs to be cheaper."

"When opening tickets, we cannot use our team mailbox."

"They need more skills in the market. There are not enough skills in the market. It is not pervasive enough on the market, in my opinion. In other words, there isn't a big enough user base."

"The solution needs to use more AI. Once the product onboards AI, users would more effectively be able to track endpoints for specific messages."

"There's a steep learning curve if you've never used this solution before."

"Elastic Observability is reactive rather than proactive. It should act as an ITSM tool and be able to create tickets and alerts on Jira."

"The cost must be made more transparent."

More Elastic Observability cons

"I'd like to see improvement in its ease of use. It's basically unusable. It's overly complex."

"The initial setup is very complex and should be simplified."

"Sometimes, it gives me static when integrating Windows-based systems. It should produce a precise log of sorts as to where the problem is. For example, a few days ago because of the McAfee application firewall, I couldn't get access to the particular Windows machine. So, my team and I had to figure out by ourselves that there was a virus responsible for the obstacle. This solution should trigger a meaningful log or message indicating the reason the user or implementer can't get into the machine."

"RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets can improve the threat level aspect, it is lacking compared to other solutions. Whenever any hacking activity or any other threat factor occurred they used to provide the coverages very fast when comparing RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets. I heard the other three solutions, from a discussion with my team members who had experience in other solutions, they used to say that. Whenever any issues happened across the globe RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets are a little bit slow improving those detection mechanisms."

"The threat detection capability and centralizing and upgrading capability need to be improved. The threat alert capability needs to be improved as well because there is some lag time at present. They need to work on their database search too."

"The tool's integration capability isn't so great."

"More customizability is required, which is something that they need to improve on."

"Security needs improvement."

More NetWitness Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"One needs to pay for the licenses, and it is an annual subscription model right now."

"The product is not that cheap."

"Since we are a huge company, Elastic Observability is an affordable solution for us."

"Pricing is one of those situations where the more you use it, the more you pay."

"Users have to pay for some features, like the alerts on different channels, because they are unavailable in different source versions."

"The price of Elastic Observability is expensive."

"There are two types: cloud and SaaS. They charge based on data ingestion, ingest rate, hard retention, and warm retention. I believe it costs around $25,000 annually to ingest 30GB of data daily. That is the SaaS version. There is also a self-managed license where the customer manages their own infrastructure on-prem. In such cases, there are three license tiers that respectively cost $5,000 annually per node, $7,000 per node, and $12,500 per node."

"We will buy a premium license after POC."

More Elastic Observability pricing and cost advice

"We are on an annual license for the use of the solution."

"The product is expensive."

"The licenses are good but the cost is very expensive."

"The NetWitness Platform may be affordable only for enterprise-level customers, as it may not be within the budget of small and medium-sized businesses."

"The product price was reasonable for my region and the market."

"Our license is for one year."

"This is a pricey solution; it's not cheap."

"Many clients are not able to purchase the packet capability because there is a huge amount of data, and the cost depends on the number of EPS (Events per second), as well as the number of gigabytes of data per day."

More NetWitness Platform pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

Vinod Shankar

Manager, Enterprise Risk Consulting at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Feb 26, 2015

HP ArcSight vs. IBM QRadar vs. McAfee Nitro vs. Splunk vs. RSA Security vs. LogRhythm

We at Infosecnirvana.com have done several posts on SIEM. After the Dummies Guide on SIEM, we are following it up with a SIEM Product Comparison – 101 deck. So, here it is for your viewing pleasure. Let me know what you think by posting your comments below. The key products compared here are…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

14%

Performing Arts

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	16

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	20

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Elastic Observability?

Elastic Observability significantly improves incident response time by providing quick access to logs and data across various sources. For instance, searching for specific keywords in logs spanning...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Elastic Observability?

The problem is their licensing model, which is a bit confusing. Many customers struggle to understand their total cost of ownership because Elastic licensing is not dependent on easy, quantifiable ...

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What needs improvement with Elastic Observability?

After careful consideration about areas for improvement in Elastic Observability, aspects such as pricing, customization, implementation, and scalability could be improved. As a user of the system,...

See all answers

What do you like most about NetWitness Platform?

The product's initial setup phase was not at all difficult.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetWitness Platform?

The pricing is comparable to others, and I consider the cost to be intermediate. Specific cost details are unknown to me.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetWitness Platform?

There is currently no need for improvement in the SIEM ( /categories/security-information-and-event-management-siem ), though there could be potential enhancements by integrating with AI.

See all answers

Comparisons

Sentry vs Elastic Observability

Compared 8% of the time

Dynatrace vs Elastic Observability

Compared 7% of the time

New Relic vs Elastic Observability

Compared 7% of the time

Grafana vs Elastic Observability

Compared 7% of the time

Zabbix vs Elastic Observability

Compared 6% of the time

More Elastic Observability Competitors

IBM Security QRadar vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 13% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 10% of the time

Elastic Security vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Sentinel vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 5% of the time

Trellix Network Detection and Response vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 5% of the time

More NetWitness Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Observability

January 2026

Download Elastic Observability product report

Buyer's Guide

NetWitness Platform

January 2026

Download NetWitness Platform product report

Also Known As

No data available

RSA Security Analytics

Overview

Elastic Observability offers a comprehensive suite for log analytics, application performance monitoring, and machine learning. It integrates seamlessly with platforms like Teams and Slack, enhancing data visualization and scalability for real-time insights.

Elastic Observability is designed to support production environments with features like logging, data collection, and infrastructure tracking. Centralized logging and powerful search functionalities make incident response and performance tracking efficient. Elastic APM and Kibana facilitate detailed data visualization, promoting rapid troubleshooting and effective system performance analysis. Integrated services and extensive connectivity options enhance its role in business and technical decision-making by providing actionable data insights.

What are the most important features of Elastic Observability?

Centralized Logging: Streamlines the collection, analysis, and storage of log data.
Powerful Search: Provides robust search capabilities for quick access to relevant information.
Scalability: Supports growing data needs across diverse environments.
Real-time Telemetry: Ensures up-to-date insights and monitoring.
Platform Integration: Seamlessly connects with services like Teams and Slack.
Data Visualization: Enhances visibility with Elastic APM and Kibana.

What benefits and ROI should users explore in reviews?

Cost-effectiveness: Offers significant savings through efficient data management.
Rapid Incident Response: Minimizes downtime with quick troubleshooting tools.
Comprehensive Insights: Supports better business decisions with detailed data analysis.
Performance Tracking: Enables assessment of system effectiveness and improvements.

Elastic Observability is employed across industries for critical operations, such as in finance for transaction monitoring, in healthcare for secure data management, and in technology for optimizing application performance. Its data-driven approach aids efficient event tracing, supporting diverse industry requirements.

Elastic

NetWitness Platform is an evolved SIEM and threat detection and response solution that functions as a single, unified platform for ALL your security data. It features an advanced analyst workbench for triaging alerts and incidents, and it orchestrates security operations programs end to end. In short: NetWitness Platform is all you need to run an intelligent SOC.

NetWitness

Sample Customers

PSCU, Entel, VITAS, Mimecast, Barrett Steel, Butterfield Bank

Los Angeles World Airports, Reply

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Observability vs. NetWitness Platform

December 2025

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