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Graylog vs LogRhythm SIEM vs Splunk Enterprise Security 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Graylog is 6.7%, up from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of LogRhythm SIEM is 2.1%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk Enterprise Security is 7.3%, down from 10.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

Ivan Kokalovic - PeerSpot reviewer
Facilitates backend service monitoring with efficient log retrieval and API flexibility
Graylog is valuable because it bridges technical knowledge to non-technical teams, presenting complex backend processes in a simple timeline. It boosts the knowledge of sales and customer support teams by allowing them to see the backend operations without needing to read the code. Its API is flexible for visualization, and its powerful search engine efficiently handles large volumes of log data. Moreover, its stability, fast search capabilities, and compatibility with languages like ANSI SQL enhance its utility in IT infrastructure.
Mokhammad Rakhman - PeerSpot reviewer
User-friendly dashboard and machine learning capabilities improve threat hunting efficiency
LogRhythm SIEM has strong machine-learning capabilities with behavioral rules and analysis. The seamless integration for case management, along with a user-friendly dashboard user interface, makes tasks like threat hunting more efficient. Analytics and behavioral analysis help me save time with rule creation. Its scalability allows me to add components as needed. Overall, LogRhythm SIEM offers end-to-end visibility with a reasonable price.
ROBERT-CHRISTIAN - PeerSpot reviewer
Has many predefined correlation rules and is brilliant for investigation and log analysis
It is very complicated to write your own correlation rules without the help of Splunk support. What Splunk could do better is to create an API to the standard SIEM tools, such as Microsoft Sentinel. The idea would be to make it less painful. In ELK Stack, Kibana is the query language with which you can search log files. I believe Splunk has also a query language in which they search their log files, but once you have identified the log file that you want to use for further security correlation, you want to very quickly transport that into your SIEM tool, such as Microsoft Sentinel. That is something that Splunk could make a little bit less painful because it is a lot of effort to find that log file and forward it. An API with Microsoft Sentinel or a similar SIEM tool would be a good idea.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Message forwarding through the in-built module."
"Everything stands out as valuable, including the fact that I can quantify and qualify the logs, create pipelines and process the logs in any way I like, and create charts or data maps."
"Real-time UDP/GELF logging and full text-based searching."
"The ability to write custom alerts is key to information security and compliance."
"The Graylog features that have proven to be most beneficial for our data analysis in particular are that we tend to use it as a big data store, so we have the correlation rules that, if something matches under certain conditions, it raises an alarm."
"The solution's most valuable feature is its new interface."
"The best feature of Graylog is the Elasticsearch integration. We can integrate and we can run filters, such as an event of interest, and those logs we can send to any SIEM tool or as an analytic. Additionally, there are clear and well-documented implementation instructions on their website to follow if needed."
"We have scaled from a single machine installation (a VM with a Graylog + ES + MongoDB) to (2 Graylog + 2 ES + 3 MongoDB). This was done smoothly with a minimal impact on logging."
"LogRhythm SIEM offers advanced features such as AI engine modules, machine learning, and threat intelligence integration, which help reduce false positives. Advanced analytics streamlines incident response processes, enabling incident responders to prioritize and automate alerts."
"In terms of security, LogRhythm NextGen SIEM is great."
"LogRhythm's GUI is easy to explore. We also like other features, such as its integration with other security solutions, log correlation, and the deployment of use cases."
"It allows us to automate a lot of things with a smaller team."
"The most valuable features of the solution are network monitoring, user behavior analytics, and log collection."
"Overall, my rating for LogRhythm SIEM is nine out of ten."
"The correlation engine is extremely valuable because it uses machine learning to process information from the central manager and identifies issues in the network."
"The initial setup is pretty easy."
"I like Splunk's data aggregation and search capabilities."
"I haven't had the chance to properly sink my teeth into Enterprise Security but so far I like that they added the MITRE ATT&CK features."
"The correlation searches (properly configured) populate the Incident Management dashboard and provide me a quick birds-eye view of my most important concerns."
"Splunk is user-friendly. We can easily customize the monitoring script."
"It definitely does help with both auditing and as well as regular monitoring. SOC does more monitoring, but ES also gives you other features that are auditing-related. The dashboards are also beneficial."
"It provides a risk score for each object, device, or user. We can then take action if they are at a higher risk."
"The most valuable feature of Splunk is the management and built-in workflows."
"They are a good partner for Google Cloud. It provides great visibility, threat detection, and proactive mitigation of risks for our mutual consumers."
 

Cons

"Lacks sufficient documentation."
"There should be some user groups and an auto sign-in feature.​"
"The biggest problem is the collector application, as we wanted to avoid using Graylog Collector Sidecar due to its architecture."
"Dashboards, stream alerts and parsing could be improved."
"When it comes to configuring the processing pipeline, writing the rules can be very tedious, especially since the documentation isn't extensive on how the functions provided for these rules work."
"More customization is always useful."
"I would like to see a default dashboard widget that shows the topology of the clusters defined for the graylog install."
"Since container orchestration systems are popular and Graylog fits the niche well, perhaps they could officially support running in docker containers on Kubernetes as a StatefulSet as a use case. That way, the declarative nature of Kubernetes config files would document their best case deployment scenario-"
"I would probably look for more things to go into the web console that is currently on the fat client."
"For our market, the solution is quite expensive. It would be ideal if they could work on and improve their existing pricing plans to help make it more affordable in our country."
"In the next release, I would certainly like to see more HIPAA compliance. I would also like to see more integration with Palo Alto Networks, particularly their Traps, which is their endpoint solution."
"I would like to see APIs well-documented and public facing, so we can get to them all."
"Sometimes the error-logging is not altogether helpful. For example, on an upgrade, a systems data processor, a Windows box, was throwing an error code like 1083. Then it just stopped and it died right out of the installer and nobody looked. We searched through Google and what it means is the Windows Firewall wasn't turned on so that it could create a rule for the product. Why wouldn't they bubble up that description so that I wouldn't have to call support and I could just know, "Okay, the firewall wasn't turned on. Turn it back on. Re-run the installer and keep going.""
"I think they probably need to, because a lot of companies are having this cloud-first strategy, where anything that's new has to go into the cloud for some reason."
"I would like to see our vulnerabilities counter. We will be using Tenable to fill that void right now."
"We've had issues with scaling and local support."
"The product was designed for security and IT with business intelligence needs, such as PDF exporting, but this has not been the highest priority. While the functionality is there, it could be developed more."
"The solution could improve by increasing the performance. We have run into problems when large amounts of data are processed."
"Although the technical support is adequate, there is still room for improvement."
"Stability is there, but every release has some bugs."
"Splunk could improve its default machine-learning models. Also, Splunk Enterprise's native threat intelligence isn't that good. I prefer a custom threat intelligence model."
"The monitoring aspect of Splunk could be improved. We have to do some queries to get as much information as CrowdStrike or other solutions provide. If you run a big query, you will see a delay. That is the only concern we have because it will take some time if you query large data sets."
"It's missing some features that other solutions have, such as the ability to upgrade the endpoint and perform endpoint universal forwarders from a deployment server instead of using a third-party solution, such as Puppet or Ansible."
"It would be great if I could have a certain dialogue box in Splunk that uses innovative AI tools like ChatGPT, which are available now in the tech department."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"​You get a lot out-of-the-box with the non-enterprise version, so give it a try first."
"Having paid official support is wise for projects."
"If you want something that works and do not have the money for Splunk or QRadar, take Graylog.​​"
"We are using the free version of the product. However, the paid version is expensive."
"Graylog is a free open-source solution. The free version has a capacity limitation of 2 GB daily, if you want to go above this you have to purchase a license."
"I am using a community edition. I have not looked at the enterprise offering from Graylog."
"It's open source and free. They have a paid version, but we never looked into that because we never needed the features of the paid version."
"We're using the Community edition."
"It is a very cost-effective solution."
"It costs a great amount, but its pricing is competitive with some of the other vendors. For licensing and support, we pay about 20,000. There are no additional costs or anything like that."
"The pricing is very reasonable and accessible compared to other products in the market but I am not very sure about the exact licensing cost per year for our company."
"LogRhythm's pricing and licensing is extremely competitive and it's one of the top three reasons we continue to invest in the platform."
"In comparison to the competition, they are more affordable. This allows us to do more with less."
"NextGen SIEM's pricing is moderate."
"The setup and licensing for small and medium size businesses is straightforward, though when it comes to the enterprise it pays to keep in mind the possibility for complications given all the extras and add-ons that may be required."
"The nice thing about LogRhythm is you can either use the agents, getting a certain number of agents with your license depending on how you want to go, and those agents do a lot of cool things, or you can use CIS Log host, then you have like an unlimited number of them."
"The variables and the flexibility that Splunk provides are helpful, especially in a hybrid and multi-cloud environment."
"The price can always be lower, but it is fair at the moment. The cost efficiencies depend on the licensing and how much data we are bringing in. We have a fairly large footprint, so it is cost-effective."
"While licensing can be a concern, there are ways to reduce the licensing costs including filtering some events."
"Luckily, we come under a large federal agency, and before the pandemic, they signed a large enterprise license agreement. It worked out great and to our advantage because we are a small organization. We got a 300 gig license, and we just did not have the buying power to be able to get products cheaply. Because we all partnered together under the agency umbrella, we were able to get Splunk Enterprise Security, UBA, and ITSI for cheap. This was good considering the fact that some of these premium apps require a minimum number of users, and we do not have the number of people needed to even justify buying it."
"ROI is estimated at saving my team roughly 10 to 12 man hours per week in troubleshooting for our company as well as what our profits had been from our services of installing, configuring, and supporting other clients with the product."
"The price of Splunk is reasonable."
"My customers have found the price of the solution to be high."
"The cost is on the high end, which makes it difficult for some organizations to use."
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Comparison Review

VS
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Educational Organization
7%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
9%
Educational Organization
9%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Graylog?
The product is scalable. The solution is stable.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Graylog?
I am not familiar with the pricing details of Graylog, as I was not responsible for that aspect. It was determined th...
What needs improvement with Graylog?
An improvement I would suggest is in Graylog's user interface, such as allowing for font size adjustments. A potentia...
What is the difference between log management and SIEM?
Rony, Daniel's answer is right on the money. There are many solutions for each in the market, a lot depends upon you...
What needs improvement with LogRhythm NextGen SIEM?
The SOAR capabilities need improvements as they currently require programming knowledge. A more user-friendly user in...
What do you like most about LogRhythm SIEM?
I find LogRhythm's log management capabilities to be beneficial.
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 a...
What is a better choice, Splunk or Azure Sentinel?
It would really depend on (1) which logs you need to ingest and (2) what are your use cases Splunk is easy for ingest...
How does Splunk compare with Azure Monitor?
Splunk handles a high amount of data very well. We use Splunk to capture information and as an aggregator for monitor...
 

Also Known As

Graylog2
LogRhythm NextGen SIEM, LogRhythm, LogRhythm Threat Lifecycle Management, LogRhythm TLM
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Blue Cross Blue Shield, eBay, Cisco, LinkedIn, SAP, King.com, Twilio, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Macy's, NASA, Fujitsu, US Air Force, EY, Abbott, HD Supply, SAB Miller, UCLA, Raytheon, Amtrak, Cargill
Splunk has more than 7,000 customers spread across over 90 countries. These customers include Telenor, UniCredit, ideeli, McKenney's, Tesco, and SurveyMonkey.
Find out what your peers are saying about Wazuh, Splunk, Datadog and others in Log Management. Updated: April 2025.
851,823 professionals have used our research since 2012.