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Fortinet FortiSIEM vs Observer GigaStor comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (10th), AI Observability (14th)
Observer GigaStor
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (84th), Network Troubleshooting (13th), Network Packet Broker (NPB) (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Fortinet FortiSIEM and Observer GigaStor aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Fortinet FortiSIEM is designed for Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and holds a mindshare of 2.3%, down 3.3% compared to last year.
Observer GigaStor, on the other hand, focuses on Network Monitoring Software, holds 0.5% mindshare, up 0.2% since last year.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiSIEM2.3%
Splunk Enterprise Security7.3%
IBM Security QRadar5.3%
Other85.1%
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Observer GigaStor0.5%
Zabbix3.9%
SolarWinds NPM3.6%
Other92.0%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

SY
Network Engineer at Ogma Consulting
Comprehensive monitoring boosts security, yet incident management features need expansion
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 software called FortiSOAR. Additionally, the search functionality in FortiAI should be improved to provide more precise results, making it easier for me to understand what actions need to be taken.
Jeroen-Dubbelman - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at Bitrate
Aids significantly in the threat-hunting process and provides a score-based evaluation of user experience
There are many valuable features, but understanding end-user response times stands out. It provides a score-based evaluation of user experience, helping customers quickly pinpoint whether issues originate from the network, server, client, or application. Additionally, it facilitates in-depth analysis of application dependencies. The retrospective network analysis capability of Observer GigaStor has been beneficial. It's a pivotal feature for network performance solutions. However, I prefer to consider the entire solution suite - GigaStor, along with GigaFlow and Apex - for comprehensive network visibility and monitoring. So, I prefer to integrate all three solutions to provide the best visibility. They complement each other well, with Apex aggregating and correlating data from both GigaStor and GigaFlow to enhance environmental understanding and troubleshooting efficiency.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It detects new technologies, vulnerabilities, and emerging threats on the internet."
"The ability to write my own parsers for the devices that are not supported by Fortinet is the most valuable feature."
"FortiSIEM provides a single PIN to monitor SOC and NOC. It's a nice tool for integration and monitoring. It provides multiple categories for monitoring based on security designations like low, medium, and high."
"AccelOps gives us a greater visibility into potential data/network breach attempts with the monitoring and alerting capabilities."
"It's easy to manage. There's a web interface and a command line, depending on what the user is comfortable with. There's a large knowledge base available, and the support is timely."
"The product's initial setup phase was easy."
"The most valuable feature is auto-discovery. When you send logs from any device to port 514, it helps register those devices automatically."
"FortiSIEM's log correlation is good."
"I have no regrets using this product, I am very satisfied for what I paid for it and for the things I am able to do with the product."
"I also have the ability to see an application's performance, to see what's going on, why a network is slow, why this program for this user is experiencing a delay or some network issue"
"There are many valuable features, but understanding end-user response times stands out. It provides a score-based evaluation of user experience, helping customers quickly pinpoint whether issues originate from the network, server, client, or application. Additionally, it facilitates in-depth analysis of application dependencies."
"The ability to capture packets. It is not only for monitoring. That is very important for a company that wants to keep an eye on the packets, the transactions, the flows..."
"If you have the opportunity, I would strongly encourage you to get it, because it makes the IT experience easier and more flexible, by providing the ability to see things in your networks like the directory packet label."
"It's able to capture packets and, after a long time, you can come and use that information; to check, to analyze - everything you would want to do. So it's very good and helpful if you want to protect your data. It is stored in a certain place where you can access it every time you want to analyze it."
"Industry-leading line rates, packet-capture technology and data-mining capabilities are the most valuable features."
"Go take a look at it. It's a great product and has great capabilities."
 

Cons

"The log collection and configuration management are not great."
"As we're an SMB, I would like to see different licensing options and the solution is priced out of the reach of some small businesses."
"The initial setup is complex. They need to make it easier in terms of implementation."
"The initial setup with Fortinet FortiSIEM Accelops was not easy. We had faced a few problems, but I think Fortinet should give more training courses for their resellers."
"Their technical support is horrible. By horrible, I mean a train wreck of a disaster that has fallen off a bridge and caught fire."
"The interface needs some improvements because it's a bit cumbersome when you're trying to view items. It takes some time to get used to. Additionally, sometimes the scrolling does not work."
"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 software called FortiSOAR."
"Fortinet FortiSIEM needs to provide better API integrations to users."
"There are some issues, in our environment that puts processing restraints on the Gigastor when turning on trending data to be sent to APEX."
"I would like to have more than 4TB of storage available in the portable version of this solution."
"The Observer Console UI is consistent and stable, but could use some updating to be more modern."
"Graphics need improvement. Because a lot of the information there you have to input first in some case to have full potential. It could be more automated."
"Maybe the graphical user interface could be simplified to allow people to use it more easily. It's already good, but they can work more on it to make it even easier."
"The interface is pretty complex, so for the average user, it takes a while to get up to speed with it. I would like it to be more user-friendly."
"GigaStor feeds into Apex. So, the area where there could be improvement would be in artificial intelligence. For example, the incorporation of more advanced machine learning or AI capabilities could enhance its functionality."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is competitive."
"This is probably more on the lower cost end of the spectrum compared to competing products. Fortinet's license model is based on events per second, which makes sense, but that's not typical. It makes it very hard to calculate what your costs are going to be as you scale the platform because some log sources, such as firewall logs, are very noisy, and there are lots and lots of events per second, but some of them are not. So, it becomes a bit of a science experiment trying to guess what your costs are going to be as you scale the solution. This is where other competing products perhaps have a more straightforward license model."
"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."
"The price of the solution is expensive. The license is scalable. If there are 10 devices it is simple to license."
"There are additional features that cost more than the standard licensing fees."
"Fortinet FortiSIEM is cheaper compared to other products."
"They have a yearly subscription."
"It depends on the requirements you have. There are three types of license. There's the updates license, the work group license, and the workstation license."
"It's quite expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiSIEM?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Fortinet FortiSIEM is wonderful, as it offers an excellent license compared to other vendors.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiSIEM?
Fortinet FortiSIEM is great overall. Performance could be enhanced, but I do not wish to elaborate on needed improvements.
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiSIEM?
My main use case for Fortinet FortiSIEM is building a SOC and serving as an event management platform for correlating events in my work. I use Fortinet FortiSIEM for event correlation by building a...
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Also Known As

FortiSIEM, AccelOps
No data available
 

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.
Cisco Systems, Hawaiian Telecom, Renown Health, State of Nevada, U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Allstate Insurance, Jack Henry & Associates, United States Airforce, US Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Chicago Board Options Exchange
Find out what your peers are saying about Splunk, IBM, Wazuh and others in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM). Updated: May 2026.
902,417 professionals have used our research since 2012.