Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Fortinet FortiSIEM vs IBM Security QRadar comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

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

Fortinet FortiSIEM
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
7th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
74
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Security QRadar
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
209
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (5th), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (1st), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (15th), Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (4th), Managed Detection and Response (MDR) (9th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (13th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiSIEM is 3.3%, up from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Security QRadar is 7.7%, down from 9.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

Oliver Jackson - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems monitoring enhanced by firewall and intrusion detection features
My primary use case for Fortinet FortiSIEM is systems monitoring and alerting. I use it for standard functions like log monitoring, incident detection, and notification.  My customers are mostly medium-sized enterprises ranging from engineering companies, mining companies, independent schools, and…
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.

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 for us are the built-in reports and alerts, along with the extreme flexibility in reporting and rule generation."
"The stability is very reliable. It offers very good performance."
"We're able to get real-timec as well as our customer networks that we're monitoring at all times."
"Fortinet FortiSIEM's most valuable feature is the simplicity in handling multi-tenancy and the ability to switch between different clients at the same time. That was handled flawlessly."
"One of the most valuable features is that we can combine SOC and NOC operations in the same tool. We can provide NOC and SOC services in the same tool for two separate teams. There are plenty of third-party solutions that integrate with FortiSIEM. All these solutions already have a ready integration, and we have the possibility to create a custom connector for these solutions. Its reports are also very good."
"To add workers and even collectors is pretty easy."
"The most valuable feature is the anomaly-reporting alarms."
"The primary valuable feature is that it has replaced a whole lot of other products with one platform."
"The support is very good. We get support whenever we need it. Sometimes they respond immediately and sometimes it will be within 24 hours. We can ask them to please do it right away and they can get a request done within an hour or two."
"This is a distributed application, meaning that a customer can stack small and then scale it so that they can expand pretty effectively. You can use, basically, the same product in an SMB or a large enterprise."
"The tool's most valuable feature is log source management. It enables us to connect to various log sources, including content, authentications, or other customized integrations. These integrations can be tailored for use with other platforms that don’t already have built-in IBM add-ons."
"Network-Based Anomaly Detection (NBAD): Using NetFlow, JFlow, SFlow, or QFlow (all 7 layers), offenses are detected as a response when a rule is triggered."
"The scalability is awesome, because QRadar includes other solutions in the same console."
"The UBA feature is the most valuable because you can see everything about users' activities."
"The detection rate is good and the false positive rate is low."
"The initial setup of QRadar is not complex because we have done it before and we are used to the development. It is getting easier all the time."
 

Cons

"I would like to see more integration with other platforms."
"FortiSIEM is not a market leader in the SIEM space."
"With FortiSIEM, the issue has to do with the ways we can generate a report. It's not as flexible compared to that with other SIEM tools, like Splunk."
"Fortinet FortiSIEM is a little out of sight and needs more marketing efforts to be popular in the market."
"Network detection and response is a separate product."
"The tool's technical team's response time is too high, and they are not available even when they know that there are many pending issues."
"Their technical support is horrible. By horrible, I mean a train wreck of a disaster that has fallen off a bridge and caught fire."
"They need to integrate better with Cisco and Palo Alto."
"There is a shortage of skilled individuals with knowledge about the solution. There is training required."
"Communication between the silos sometimes becomes an issue, making it an area where improvements are required."
"They should introduce some automation into the product."
"They should provide more manual examples online so that I can learn it myself."
"The tech support is not that good."
"The initial setup requires that you have somebody with the proper skill set, and it would help if the configuration were easier."
"The solution lacks some maturity."
"I would like to see more integration in place after the security lock."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are additional features that cost more than the standard licensing fees."
"If one is cheap and ten is expensive. I rate the tool's price as an eight out of ten. Compared with Splunk or Oracle, Fortinet is cheap."
"Fortinet FortiSIEM is not an expensive solution."
"We pay for a license for FortiSIEM. We pay for the license and renewal."
"The price is competitive."
"Pricing is acceptable for more than 90% of our customers, as they normally get discounts."
"There is a need to make yearly payments towards the licensing charges attached to the product. The free version license of the product is available for two months."
"Its price can be better. We are Fortinet partners, so we can get discounts, but its price can be an issue at the beginning for others. There is a licensing scheme for every case. There are three licensing schemes that we can choose from."
"QRadar's price is reasonable compared to LogRhythm."
"Licensing can be costly depending on your architecture."
"think the pricing is quite flexible."
"I feel that the price is reasonable but compared to other products that are on the market, such as an offering by Microsoft, it is more expensive."
"Licensing is very expensive, IBM QRadar is a very expensive solution. If you want to minimize costs then IBM QRadar is not for you."
"QRadar UBA's price is a little more than street price and could be reduced."
"It's very expensive but it fits our budget."
"The pricing is higher but cheaper than others and there are no additional costs."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions are best for your needs.
862,499 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

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
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Fortinet FortiSIEM?
Fortinet FortiSIEM needs to provide better API integrations to users.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiSIEM?
The pricing is reasonable, which is why it is preferred by government customers. Windows agent licenses cost around 3,000 Rupees per device per year.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiSIEM?
Fortinet FortiSIEM should broaden its remediation part to include more features for incident management. Currently, to manage repetitive incidents or for remediation, I need to use a separate softw...
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.
 

Also Known As

FortiSIEM, AccelOps
IBM QRadar, QRadar SIEM, QRadar UBA, QRadar on Cloud, IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

FortiSIEM has hundreds of customers worldwide in markets including managed services, technology, financial services, healthcare, and government. Customers include Aruba Networks, Compushare, Port of San Diego, Cleveland Indians, Infoblox, Healthways, and Referentia.
Clients across multiple industries, such as energy, financial, retail, healthcare, government, communications, and education use QRadar.
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiSIEM vs. IBM Security QRadar and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
862,499 professionals have used our research since 2012.